Result!

I felt so blue yesterday and demanded a favour, in an unintendedly peremptory way, of another blogger - and he responded so sweetly, and even roped in his wife too - and another blogger chipped in, pretty soon I had a good few images to cheer me up. Thanks, guys, I needed that.

I made the effort and walked out into the frosty morning and stared into the rusty heart of a chrysanthemum. It sits beside the variegated leaves of my mystery plant, looking dazzlingly out of place on such a cold day. I'm glad to see it fending for itself, because there's not much I can do for it. I found the mystery plant in the middle of a huge pot of black bamboo; I didn't expect it to survive being ripped out last month and stuck unceremoniously into the flower bed, but it seems unperturbed. It may be a lavatera, or some kind of Mallow, but its soft variegated leaves are lovely right now; I hope it doesn't get frosted over what we have been told will be a cold winter.