Thursday, February 01, 2007

February butterfly, shadow, Sarcococca

Again, a brown butterly flutters above me at first floor level, this time in Mount Sion. Like the last butterfly I saw a few days ago, it seems to be in a hurry.

My long shadow goes ahead of me on a path in the Grove.

There is a shrub, about four feet high, which I pass every day. It has small white flowers in loose clusters and dark pointed leaves. I note it because of its extraordinary perfume, which greets you long before you spot where it comes from. I have tracked down its name. It is called Sarcococca and though it is, like the English Box a member of the Buxaceae family, it is a native of the Himalayas. As I type, I can smell the tiny sprig, which I picked for identification purposes, and which consists of only one cluster of flowers just a centimetre across.

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