Sub-tropical decay

After the excitement of Saturday's wedding plus a win for the Jacksonville Jaguars yesterday -- I am not going to say a word about the torrid performance of the Dallas Cowboys -- it was back to the moribund milieu that is Riverside.

I was under a bit of pressure today. As many of you know by now, Monday is yard day. Ordinarily that is no big deal but this afternoon my football club -- soccer club for American readers -- Stoke City were playing Aston Villa and the game was covered live on ESPN3. So chores, photographs and whatever else had to be completed by 3:00 pm.

I had an idea for today's blip in mind but on my walk to that location saw this decaying palmetto. The texture, colouring and lines were much more to my taste and hopefully yours.

Unusually for me, I was seated in front of my computer screen on the dot of three o'clock and was rewarded by a fine second-half comeback by Stoke City. They left it late, scoring the equalizer in the 80th minute and the winner with the last kick of the game during the three minutes added on after 90 minutes. So after four games, thanks to this 2-1 victory, Stoke finally have points on the board.