Merry Christmas

To all my friends, Blippers and those who drop in from elsewhere.  I hope the sun has shone on your day as it has on ours.

Out walking Meg we passed a young family unloading as they arrived for perhaps lunch with Grandparents.  Little children, big bags of presents. As a parent I've noticed that as you get older, the presents get smaller ... but no less valued.   There was laughter at home when my present from Chris was a fluorescent yellow beanie with a light sewn in.  A hat that will be much easier to find than my trademark grey one!   It's often the little things in life that give the most pleasure, this tiny Crous danfordiae for example.   Seen in bud a few days back, the open flower is just over a centimetre across.  This one's in a pot under glass but out in the garden the last of the autumn species, Crocus laevigatus is still in flower - extra pic.  The big freeze wiped out the flowers at that time but new buds have pushed up in the mild weather and today's sunshine opened them ... almost.

A gentle kind of Christmas day.   I mostly cooked apart from walking Meg.  Jamie joined Tilda and a few Railway folk for a couple of hours outdoors in the sunshine before coming to mine for Turkey dinner.  A far cry from the Christmas mayhem when the children were little but a nice day nonetheless.