The State of Berkshire Spring

A succession of sunny days and cold nights has stimulated pussy willow and skunk cabbage as well as domestic early bloomers such as daffodil and primrose in our south gardens. This showy weeping pussy willow has turned yellow with pollen-laden anthers.
The skunk cabbage leaves thrust up more than a foot from the earth, unfurling into a broad leaf. The eastern skunk cabbage is one of a few wetlands plants that produces heat in order to melt its way up through ground frost. The ability is known as thermogenesis, and the name becomes obvious should one bruise its leaf.