My streptocarpus flowers

It is Friday evening, there have been loud thunder claps rolling across the valleys and now the rain is falling, In case there is a Flower Friday challenge I've grabbed a picture of some of my streptocarpus plants'  flowers (the ones on the lower level) in low natural light.

I bought an unusual new streptocarpus plant, with enormous leaves, which I found in a nursery earlier this week which has very vivid reddish mauve flowers. I'm hoping that once again they will all cross pollinate and produce different coloured flowers. They are very interesting plants and very giving of colour once you provide them with the right conditions. I think they can flower for most of the year.


Dr John – RIP
I was sad to hear the news this morning that 'Dr John' (or Mac Rebennack) had died in his late 70s. I vividly remember hearing  'Dr John – the night tripper' his 1968 debut album, combining voodoo rhythms and chants from the New Orleans music tradition. It was ranked 143rd on Rolling Stone magazine′s 'The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time' list. Try a taste of it by listening to one of the tracks, 'Walk on gilded splinters'.

Richard Williams wrote an appreciation of him this morning on his wonderful blog 'the blue moment'. He added a link to a live radio performance by Dr John singing 'Such a night'. 

I saw him play live a couple of times in London many years later, and fell under his spell once again.