Tucked away on one of the raised flower beds

was this little beauty. A pretty, frilly petaled cyclamen. Nicky has some lovely plants in her garden, quite a few unusual, as she buys some of them at her local horticultural society meetings. There's  still plenty of interest in the garden here, some of the fuchsias are hanging on with 2 or 3 blooms per plant, the triphylla , probably 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt' standing in a large pot beside the door is still covered in blooms. The Coronilla glauca, & Mahonia add a splash of yellow, the lavender/ white Nemesia 'Confetti' seems to flower all year round down here on the coast, added to that, the striking foliage of the Phormium,  the fluffy seed heads of the ornamental grasses, and the various varieties of Heuchera, plenty of choice for today's flower Friday blip. I was going to try my hand at Ikebana, there is a glass vase ideal for that kind of arrangement, there's Corylus contorta in the garden as well, but then I ran out of suitable material so frilly cyclamen it is. I was going to blip my completed linocut, it has a succulent in a pot as part of the Still Life, but on further inspection I realised it's actual plastic, & did you want to see a black & white linocut on a fresh, damp, wintery day, no probably not.

 I carried on cutting, & tidying the edges of the linocut once Ella & I returned from our morning walk. She slept through after a 4am comfort dash, that was a first since I arrived. Then once awake she wanted to be off. It was a horrid drizzly damp walk, but we did the Armada Park loop, I let her off once inside the gate at home then she started racing around like a puppy. I thought she was going to do herself a mischief, but fortunately not. Even the neighbour commented on her antics as he was passing the garden.

Had some sad news later, I returned  a call to cassiesmum only to hear that Cassie, her elderly Boxer had been put to sleep.

Back to the linocut, completed and ready for inking I decided to do a quick linocut of the rolling countryside across from where I'm staying. It really is a beautiful view, changing with the seasons. The land is farmed, the hedges very neat. A view you would never tire of. Well I made the same mistake as before, I drew it directly onto the lino, which of course meant that it would be in reverse when printed, fortunately I realised in time so traced the drawing off then transferred back on, back to front. I printed it but it's a bit messy. A WIP as they say.

My next challenge was to talk my husband through preparing and cooking braised pigs cheeks over the telephone. Don't ask! Suffice it to say I asked him to send me a pic after he'd cooked it, and I have to say I was impressed. I think he might have even surprised himself considering he's only just mastered cooking oven chips. Long may it continue. :- )

I made sausage, chard, & chickpea pasta for my dinner.

Thanks to BikerBear/Annie for hosting Flower Friday