Gifts of Nature

I found a four-inch piece of baguette buried in a flower-pot this morning -- presumably a gift from the squirrels (whom I had almost forgotten about). Fortunately it was a pot which I had already removed the plants from; I have been trying to clear them gradually, since most things have now died back and I need the space. Probably the squirrels actively went for the bare earth...

Sadly this particular gift is not edible even by my standards, and will have to take up space in my rather small food recycling caddy :-(

I still have one calendula and a pot of corn-marigolds (probably self-sown late plants) in flower from the autumn, and was astonished to discover that my sole surviving pansy had put out a new flower on December 31st -- presumably having been tricked into thinking that spring was come by the rise in temperatures!

(click to see all three images)