What are you doing in there?

Millie has a nasty habit of eating sticks & mud when out on walks, which I was aware of, so  although I managed to stop her many times yesterday she obviously eat enough to make her throw up .... twice, once at home. I was cleaning up in the utility room after the first incident when I spotted this beauty. 2 flowering stems poking out from a potted Xmas cactus. Well  the dead blooms of the cactus were on the windowsill so after investigating I recognised the foliage as that of Ludisia discolor - Jewel orchid. My introduction to this plant was when I was Planteria manager in a garden centre back in the 90's. In my wisdom I bought a tray of 15 plants for the houseplant section believing that "planty" customers would be interested .. I was wrong. They all wanted the showy Cymbidium & Phalaenopsis types. The next time I came across this species was on one of my early morning explorations of the mountainside in Thailand. The plant was growing on a rock face during the dry season, inaccessible in rainy season as it would have been in the middle of the cascading waterfall. I was so excited to come across it living in it's natural habitat.  It was a bit tricky getting a decent pic of the tiny blooms yesterday afternoon when I first came across it,  but managed it last night against the darkness of outside. I've added the foliage as well as it's interesting. I have a thing about foliage. When I first started making a garden in Thailand, did I go out and purchase some big hot coloured hibiscus, or bouganvillea, no, I bought an ornamental grass. I did buy hibiscus plus other exotics later. Every Flower Friday I'm spoiled for choice. Today I've photographed floral photographs, a Blip contender, beautiful Hellebores, another contender, then a very pretty winter flowering Clematis cirrhosa 'Freckles', lastly a montage of the plants flowering here in Millie's garden.

Millie & I did a shortish walk this morning, no mud or sticks. I was meeting Jos & Sandy for coffee & a mooch around the present exhibition at Torre Abbey museum - Royal Photographic Society South West Region Members Exhibition. Sandy had'nt checked her diary, so when I messaged her she was still at home. Jos & I had coffee then "did" the exhibition. Rather critical the pair of us. Which would we take home .. I chose an image of dead tulip petals, Jos chose an image titled Seed Ballet. We'd built up quite an appetite so headed to Ella's Cafe Lounge for a nibble. I had a really tasty Special - beetroot falafel, humus, coleslaw, & veggie cous cous, really tasty, a real plateful for £5. I saved my £1.50 car parking fee by finding a free space so ended up giving that to Rowcroft for another book. It was'nt there yesterday, annoyingly. I did however resist buying a very nice Gap dress just being put out for sale. 4 of us are doing the Memory Walk for the Alzheimer's Society, so Jos and I were discussing whether we should accessorize our bright blue and pink walk tee shirts, so had a quick search for face/hair paints. The local Superdrug store is now on my list of places to visit, possibly this Sunday.

This afternoon I made some phone calls I'd been putting off to do with pensions. I knew it would'nt be straightforward. Similar to yesterdays car insurance episode. At least I was able to make the calls without hubby getting stressed in the background. Have'nt made much progress though.  Next exercise, checking out & completing stuff on-line. That ticked off, Millie and I went out for our afternoon bimble. We walked another part of the John Musgrave Trail. Out for just over an hour, the air was chilly but it was pleasant walking.
Jos texted me to say the train tickets were booked. GWR have a January sale that ends on the 26th Jan. Travel  up to the 3rd April. Worth checking out if you live down this way. We're going down to Truro for the day paying £12 return. We went to St Ives for the day last year.

Time to make dinner .. courgette and hazelnut burger in a brioche bap .. Easy peasy!

Thanks to BikerBear/Anni for continuing to host Flower Friday