Samuel Taylor Coleridge Lines on Observing a Blossom February, 1796

The garden is starting to show signs of life again and we have snowdrops, as well as primroses, in flower.

Sweet flower that peeping from thy russet stem
Unfoldest timidly, (for in strange sort
This dark, frieze coated, hoarse, teeth chattering month
Hath borrowed Zephyr's voice, and gazed upon thee
With blue voluptuous eye) alas poor flower! 

What a wonderful description of February and quite appropriate at the moment as we await the "beast from the East"! 

Like everyone else, I'm longing for lighter evenings and milder days. Somehow even COVID-19 doesn't seem so dreadful then. 

But for now, we have to soldier on through this "teeth chattering month" and hope that better days are on their way with the Spring.