The north goes tropical

My friend's birthday lunch in town today where a few of us met her incredibly sporty sister for the first time. They sound so alike it's ridiculous. First the I've ever ordered a salad because it looked so good rather than because I felt I should and it was great. I snapped this on the way over just because of the novelty of what looks very like a palm in a city famed for drizzly grey. Just goes to show that you never know where the exotic might find you. My extra blip is due to bafflement on how vine tomatoes came to be abandoned under a bench in the city centre and a funny sign.