The roses on the balcony also did well at the turn of the year. I showed some of them in December, so here I will confine myself to what was there after Christmas, and in the first couple of weeks of this year.

This included a new plant, which I brought back on December 27th after two nights at the cottage. It had a flower that reminded me of the red flowers of the first plant I had on the balcony, which died away last year, though perhaps this was a shade darker. There was another blossom on the tree, of a lighter colour, and the first picture here shows the contrast. But that had been bend in transit, and though that picture does not reveal this, the last picture today shows me holding it up.

It was placed in the bed I created in the south east corner, which was followed by the little pond against the south wall. As I have mentioned, what I planted there produced some lovely yellow and orange blossoms, but then the first plant died and its successor too, swiftly, and Kavi pointed out that I had not created an outlet so that water was retained there.

So a few months ago a hole was bored, and then the dead branches we had placed there were covered with the first fruits as it were of the compost bin I have downstairs. The soil was very rich, and I feel anything planted there will do well. Despite losing its mate, the red rose shone for some days, and then as it faded little red shoots appeared, so I hope for the best.

That was not a good day for travel, for for the first time en route home I lost one of the fish I had bought, a red tetra. I buried it in the long bed on the east, under an orange blossom. This was dark as the first blossom on this tree had been, unlike the succeeding blossoms on its counterpart on the roof.

Similar in colour was the blossom on the first bed, where the red roses had been replaced by little pink ones, which are constantly in bloom, plus a taller orange plant. And so too the plant at the northern end of the eastern bed also has orange blossoms, though as you can see in the fourth picture it produces ones of lighter colour too.