Tulip time

I love tulip season. I bought a bunch of these parrot tulips earlier in the week, and though they're quite fragile - I've already lost two to collapsed stems, even though I spotted the possibility and wired them - I'm happy that I did, because they've really brightened up the house on this dark and stormy day. To misquote A.A. Milne, "Nobody can be uncheered with a tulip."

For the record: this was the day on which Storm Ciara brought widespread flooding, structural damage, and travel disruption to the UK. Here in our little trench we've been lucky, though the noise of the roof shifting on its anchors woke me in a fright this morning. I hope that all friends and family have been as fortunate, and continue to stay safe.

Being a nervous flyer - in my opinion, if nature had intended us to fly we'd have evolved with wings - I'm especially happy that I wasn't on any of the three transatlantic flights which arrived at Heathrow last night two hours ahead of schedule, beating the previous subsonic flight time record by over quarter of an hour. Shudder.