Overgrown

S had a very important rendezvous in Toulouse today, and I was going to tag along. But at 7:30 this morning the weather was so biblically bad that I didn't even want to get out of bed, let alone drive to Carcassonne to catch the train.

So I stayed at home. And I was so disinclined to go out in the pouring rain and driving wind that I took this photo from the window. I've actually had my eye on my neighbour's garden as a possible blip subject for some time. Since her husband died some years ago, she doesn't live there any more, and the magnificent maison de maître is shuttered and neglected.

I think the colours here are rather splendid, although it has to be said that the mimosa tree isn't supposed to be that bright red colour. This is what it looked like in the sunny days of January, before it was blasted by frost in February. I don't know whether it's going to recover. But I'm pretty sure the fruit-laden lemon tree by the front door that I used to gaze at longingly as I passed won't. This is a very sheltered garden, but the long period of cold has got the better of much of it.