Despite the absurdities of the weather, fierce rain interrupting intense sunshine, the roof garden continued to flourish. Less than a week after I had denuded it so that Christmas lunch would be with flowers from up there on each table, the place was again in fine fettle. On the last day of last year the variegated bush had several blossoms, and there were blossoms in various shades of pink on beds to the east and the south and a pot too.

Less than a week later the other pot with the lovely mottled rose, though it is on its own there, had also put forth in profusion, while the deep orange flowers I had got from the same source in Ingiriya were out again, though as earlier their colour was now very light.

There were more pink flowers in the pot on the eastern edge, before the bougainvillea plant and, though that had no flowers, its counterpart on the northwest corner was full of them, and they looked fabulous against the tiles of the roof with the September Dawn of the new building in the background – from where, I should add, I can see these flowers when I walk, with the leaves of the three tall trees in the garden beyond them.

Finally I show a long shot of the variegated rose bush, with blossoms on two of the three plants in the long bed between that and the stairway – though it is possible the last two pictures may not appear.