Hellebore

Back in the north. It was an easy drive up, with little traffic and no weather hazards. We stopped at the Gateway Cafe south of Inverness for coffee and a tasty bacon based snack, and watched the red squirrels for a while, although they were mainly not playing ball. I got a bit of rather rubbish video, not least because I'm pretty rubbish at videoing things. I admire those who manage.

We were here by lunchtime, and able to settle in to warming up the place. It's another cold snap, but not so cold that there is a risk of freezing up. But it will certainly mean that my new window vac, excellent for dealing with condensation, which is quite an issue here, will come into its own. I already tried it out.

Things I observed were that the Christmas cactus is still doing nicely, that the garden is looking generally fine but it contains an epic quantity of weeds that I will have to deal with in due course, that there are quite a few leaves on the patio, which will also need attention.

I was supposed to take the day off, but I got dragged (i.e. I let myself get dragged) into finishing off a reading and reviewing task. That meant that I did have a gentle day, physically, but not necessarily mentally. However, I didn't have a lot of "stuff" to deal with as I was protected by my out of office.

Looking forward to a weekend up here.

This is my favourite hellebore. Just a couple of flowers so far, but more to come.