A blue flower

Periwinkle is one of the earliest to bloom in the garden only because it follows a different calendar. A native of southern Europe it nevertheless sprawls wantonly over northerly gardens and opens its blue propeller eyes before the old year has clicked over into the new.

It's unusual for me not to make even a modest ascent or to visit the sea on the first day of the year but as it happened I didn't  manage either. I have at least  seen the blue flower which, in Penelope Lively's renowned novel of the same name, remains mysterious and unattainable, always to be sought, never to be found.

Wishing a safe and secure 2019 to everyone who reads this; and may you find whatever it is you seek.