This glorious amaryllis was in a dustbin two days ago! Our reception desk has a floral display that's changed every Monday. Heather (our erstwhile colleague and current friend) used to go down to the reception desk each week, pick out of the bin the previous week's flowers and bring them into our office to cheer the place up.

This week, Chris happened to be walking through reception, saw them being chucked out and brought them upstairs where they have provided much pleasure for the handful of us who have been working this week. I am finally finished my work for the month - I'm not in the office again until 5th January so hopefully will have my batteries fully-charged by then.

With no tripod and appalling light in this week of long dark nights, it was all my camera could do to get this shot....and I had to stay as still as a statue to get the shot with no camera shake.

Amaryllis' make me think of Jill who planted some in my honour a few weeks ago (we've seen their progress in her galleries, including a really lush shot of their papery, fragile petals a few days ago). I thought this was a nice way to show how much it meant to me that my photos had made her want more plants in her life. Thanks Jill!