Is it Christmas?

As I write this there are still 50 days, 11 hours, 39 minutes and 13 seconds before Christmas arrives.

Despite this, the annual shopping panic has already set in, Christmas tunes are being played in the shops, gargantuan frozen turkeys are appearing in the supermarkets, the advertisements promising to deliver your new sofa by Christmas day are appearing on the TV.

I am reconciled to the inevitability of all of this, but now our Christmas cactus has joined the frenzy! For the last 20 years it has faithfully flowered just in time for Christmas day. But this year it is already in full flower. The world has gone quite barking mad! The cactus looks its very best when seen through the looking glass.