Two Halves

Mid afternoon I drove to Shrewsbury and picked Jamie up from hospital.  He's only coughing sporadically now and looks a lot better than when I last saw him on Friday when he was still in A&E.   His discharge includes a request that local GPs refer him on to specialists in our area.  A nice day for a drive, lots of holiday traffic out this afternoon, the evening return less busy.  

This morning I did manage some time in the greenhouse, continuing the great re-pot.  When popping some repotted narcissus back into the cold frame I spotted this pot of Colchicum parnassicum in flower.   This species is always one of the first to appear, triggered to flower by a drop in night-time temperatures and the change in day length.  It's done this before I repotted it, the old compost bone dry.   Roots and leaves will come later when it's watered but here is a plant that has evolved to flower when plenty of pollinators are about, even if there's no rain to bring it into full growth.  I raised these from seed sown quite a few years ago, they take quite a long time to get to flowering size.

Tired tonight.  Work tomorrow but thankfully a late morning start