Winter Aconite...Eranthis Hyemalis

I took this on February 21. Eleanor's Winter Aconite has been blooming since early in the month. There were  below freezing days and also  snow after it began blooming. You can see by this photo that the plants were not stopped by a little cold and snowy weather. This is one of those flowers that closes on dull days and opens on sunny days. Tom took the rest of the pictures on February 22 with his Canon, a much more sophisticated camera than my little Fuji Z300.
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Here is how her flowers look from the road.

And here is how they look up close. You can see that the flowers are beginning to fade. The petals are completely bright yellow when they are fresh. Winter Aconite is garden flower which naturalizes easily if the conditions are right. It likes early morning sun. It is native to southern Europe and east across Asia to Japan.  Its name comes from the Greek  "akone" meaning "whetstone", probably because it grows in stony areas.