Sorbus

 After a muddly, bitty sort of morning I had a trip out this afternoon to Ness Botanic Gardens.  I was to give a talk to the AGS group who meet there.  I'd planned to arrive with an hour or so to look round the gardens but circumstances and the weather curtailed it to 15 minutes.  Autumnal was definitely the feel in the garden.   The last of the summer flowering plants holding a few late or bedraggled flowers and everything dripping after the day's deluge although I arrived to some late sunshine.   Sorbus pseudohupehensis caught my eye from a distance, the prolific fruits making it look like a tree in full blossom from afar.   As I admired it close up I was accosted by a friendly couple, one of whom turned out to be 'the man who wrote the monograph' .... a leading expert on Sorbus.   We parted cheerfully after I had been gifted a handful of fallen berries, the seeds from which might one day yield a tree for my garden!

I was taken for a delicious meal - who knew there was such a thing as Coq Au Vin Pie? - and the talk was very well received.  The outing a great antidote to life's stresses and strains, I drove home in good spirits.