Vivid

I rarely post flower photos, perhaps because we don't really have many chez nous that merit having their picture taken, but I loved this blue flower - is it a convolvulus? - in the hothouses in the Edinburgh Botanics today. Yesterday the girls really wanted to visit the steaming jungle when all their grandparents wanted was to walk among the trees in the golden light of late afternoon, so this morning, when it was still dull and damp, we suggested a return visit. For an hour we pushed our way under palms and hanging creepers, gazed in fascination at the fish in two ponds, found the dry desert positively chilly after the jungle climate of the previous house.

Accompanied children are allowed into the glasshouses free of charge; as Friends of the gardens we get in free, as we do in Benmore and the other two Scottish gardens. Good deal, huh?