Magnolia, Jim ...

...but not as we know it! I think I've previously posted a photo of this particular tree: I remember the precarious sliding down the steep slope to read its label - Magnolia wilsonii - as it looked like nothing I was familiar with. It flowered later than the other magnolias, and looked nothing like them to my untutored eye; today said eye was caught by these wonderful red whatever-they-ares. With a couple of leaves just turning gold, it was quite a sight.

I can't resist another seed-head photo, from what looked like a garden of promise beside the ornamental pond down in the flat bit of Benmore. They're much more interesting than their flowers, which succumbed very rapidly to the rain that greeted their opening; they are tall and structurally pleasing.

And then we saw a scamper of young red squirrels chasing each other through the garden, rustling and squeaking as they went. A joy!