I’ve racked my brain to think of something I regard as a treasure but apart from books there is nothing I really treasure.  I’m not into possessions too much, although I seem to be surrounded with souvenirs, pictures and odd things I wouldn’t want to lose.

However, none of these would I class as a treasure, but I do treasure the flowers in my garden and feel upset when things go wrong there.  Last night, for instance, like most of the UK, the storm we had in my area (winds of apparently 106 mph), wrecked havoc in my garden.  I won’t mention the fence that’s down, bags of rubbish upended, the missing furniture, etc.

I’d just invested in eight new rose trees from David Austin and these were still in pots but blew over, losing half their soil and damaging the tips.  I hope they will survive but who knows.  The daffodils were flattened, the camellia is now a mess of brown-tipped blossom and will need to be dead-headed when I can summon up the energy, and my new pansies will take a long time to recover.

But I’m cheered when I look at some of my photographs and remember how earlier pansies looked.  At least I have a photograph!