December garden

It was a busy day: I joined J's online Art Talk, supporting her to talk about the paintings of Christmas and Solstice celebrations she had chosen, and also supported her online chat with a friend who also uses AAC, signing what he said to her and facilitating the conversation a bit, as well as joining in at times - I've known G, as J has, for over twenty years, so although J's PA supports most of their chats, I quite like to be there from time to time. In between there was a big supermarket delivery to receive and sort out, and J's daily session on her specialist exercise cycle, which has been one of the most positive developments of the past year. There was also the pleasure of a pile of post, with envelopes to peruse for handwriting and postmarks before opening them for confirmation of who sent the cards, and the calendars of J's artwork which we finally ordered late on Friday evening, and which have arrived more quickly than I expected. They look really nice, with good colour reproduction and printing, and another late night saw them packed with cards and notes, postage paid online and Royal Mail collection booked (at no extra charge) for the next morning. This service is extremely useful for us, as we don't live near a post office, try to avoid shops especially when they are crowded, and are usually at home when the postman arrives. I was not confident that the 24 hour tracked service would be a fast as promised, but was reasonably hopeful that if the calendars did not reach J's aunts and uncles on Friday they would at least be there on Saturday.

I didn't fit in a walk, but had a little wander round the garden before lunch to see what I could find. I photographed teasels, the tiny cones on conifers, bracket fungus and my pansies, still waiting to be planted in tubs above tulip bulbs, but I can never resist seed heads, even as old and tatty as this one. I rather like the low contrast, unsaturated colours, but have also played with it a bit and am adding a much higher contrast black and white version as an extra.