I've a taken a few months leave from my blog, the summer had been good for me but I felt a need to retreat into silence and solitude for a while, and then that while turned into a longer while and so three months have passed. I have doodled a little, but mainly been in deep thought, resting and recharging my creative spirit and doing practical things like painting and decorating and gardening. Sometimes I blog about my garden but even that felt secret this autumn. 
However, here to kick off the new year is a photo of a winter heliotrope which is in bloom at the moment. It's a slightly strange plant, not really pretty but it has a sweet scent and is one of only a few plants currently in flower. I would say that if I moved I would keep it contained in a new garden as it is  invasive, and not quite lovely enough to get away with it's spreading habit. All the same a flower is a flower and it's hard not like a plant that is brave enough to bloom in winter.