Christmas flowers

and my alternative to a Christmas tree, in a black glazed pot in the kitchen.

A close up of this orchid, with its exquisitely delicate flowers.

A smaller "tree", in a yellow-glazed pot, in the drawing room.

Again the flowers are an unusually delicate species.

We decided rather than cut flowers this year, we'd buy potted orchids to decorate the two rooms that will be used most over the Christmas period - the kitchen, when we're either cooking, making drinks or drinking drinks, and the sitting room, where we shall entertain our guests on Christmas Eve, whilst we sip cocktails and nibble on fois gras that a couple have brought from the south of France, from whence they travelled earlier this week without encountering the chaos being experienced by their countrymen in the north, and indeed those in northern Europe generally.

I am immensely grateful that I am not caught up in that, and consider my own little inconvenience of a fire drill on the 25th insignificant, with its alarm, which I'm now considering a Thai version of Christmas bells, or as one of our neighbours said: Fire drill on Christmas Day...what are they afraid of...that Santa has set the chimney on fire? Or the power cut by the Metropolitan Electricity Authority of Bangkok on Boxing Day, from 08.30 till 15.30.

As you an see, we have flower power instead.

Christmas Greetings to you all.