There's a Rumi quote: "And don't think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It's quiet but the roots are down there riotous."
Two or three walks at local parks show trees not always quiet - ready with catkins and buds. And often, the beauty of stark silhouetted branches against an often steely sky. Plus muted shades of low-light winter.
Perhaps not the greatest images individually, but the gallery as a whole gives a picture of how some deciduous trees (and one conifer) in the Pacific Northwest relate to January.
cornelian cherry
a tiny red flower
sequoia
giant sequoia
catkins and seed cones
many branches of a winter tree
26 winter twigs buds
25 madrona through the woods
24 more witch hazel
23 one leaf left
22 catkins and cones
21 winter on the water
20 purplish shoots
19 woodland drips
18 what the trees let go
17 birch
16 twigs lichen shoots
15 branches of two trees
14 and some leaves decided to stay to add their color