The last Bloom of Neglect

At last the fourth and final neglected house plant has opened one of its two flowers. It's probably going to look even better in a day or two, but who knows what might happen between now and them, and dare I risk it? So I've blipped it now. I took it outside, with a background of the contorted willow, which until a few days ago we thought was a contorted hazel.

I've very proud of this amaryllis, which makes my neglect of it even more shameful, because I grew it from seed that a friend gave me in a pub some fifteen or more years ago. It's very faithful, and flowers when I remember to water it, which is very very rarely, and puts up with my maltreatment with glorious blooms. "Sometimes nature's nice and sweet, like a little pansy. And sometimes it ain't!" wrote the composer Charles Ives in his song "An Election".