Drawing of seedhead

Maybe it’s to do with getting older, but more and more I see beauty in decay. This cow-parsley seed head now has a brittle stem. The flowers, long gone, have given way to oval seed cases, the seeds just visible within. The flower stalks end in delicate stems twisting this way and that in star patterns. So different from the white profusion of little flowers and green stems – but to my mature eyes at least, just as beautiful.

And the seed cases, some already starting to split open, remind us that the cycle will continue. The seeds will fall to the ground and germinate; the green stalks and white flowers will be back next year. We can’t have the spring without the winter – as the tale of Persephone tells us (she who spent the winter months of each year in Hades according to Greek mythology, returning to bring in the Spring).