Perserverance.

I waited patiently all summer for my Cape Daisy to flower (well, I tried very hard to be patient but often failed). Many times, as I eagerly inspected the growing plant, a few delicate buds offered promise but then failed to deliver - the bushy foliage busily filling an over-sized pot to no flowery avail. Then all of a sudden this week in late November, as I was diving down the garden to break the ice on the birds' water and pick a few late salad leaves, I discovered a treasure... the Daisy, in its own time, without a gardener rushing it along, had produced two small but perfect flowers.

It is not only the Cape Daisy persevering against the Winter odds - peering out of the fallen leaves this week were a few Nasturtium, the last Feverfew flowers and a few brushes of Heather. Spending the few daylight hours we are left with at a laptop is perhaps a little waste of this brave world outside.

These melancholic musings didn't gather dust for long, as we were granted a visit by the newest resident of our neighbourhood and the new star of this blog...

... meet Whisky the (second) Wonder Cat.



He sadly doesn't belong to us, but lives in such close proximity that on occasion we might pretend he does. He is a mini Maine Coon, a cappuccino replica of Basil (the King of the Garden) who left us a little while ago.

p.s. Yes, in his first portrait he is perched on the top of a Leylandii. Judging by his mews and his subsequent rescue with a plank of wood, it was not at all comfortable and the Great Tit he was chasing at the time was not at all worth the effort.