Despite the storms, it hardly feels like winter so far. Some incredibly mild weather this month has spurred on grass to grow, flowers to bloom, and even butterflies have been reported flying around. White deadnettle flowers are easy to find, and so too is its close cousin the red deadnettle. Both these deadnettles are unrelated to stinging nettles but get their name from similar looking leaves, although their flowers are much more attractive, with hoods and attractive lobed lower lips.
Snowdrops and early daffodils have also been flowering, even in Scotland where temperatures nearly reached record highs for December. And other signs of springtime are cropping up in new vegetation, with big green leaves of cow parsley on roadsides and heart-shaped leaves of ground ivy sprouting.
But this doesn't necessarily mean the rest of winter or even spring will stay mild, as an old saying goes, "A green Christmas, a white Easter". All it will take is a sharp frost to kill off the flowers, and even if they bloom again in another mild spell they will not flower so well.
As for the last signs of autumn, wind and rain have stripped most leaves from the trees. There were lots of berries, with a great crop of crimson-coloured haws, the berries of hawthorns, which made a great harvest for birds. A rich crop of berries is supposed to predict a severe winter, but the berries and fruits benefited from the cold last winter and early spring.
