TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ A New Discovery

Too tired to go on, we went off the beaten track into the backwoods

of the Ottway ranges following a sign to a remote B&B.

The sky was threateningly overcast, evening was drawing nigh

although it was only mid-afternoon.

Way up a dirt track we found it. The erstwhile garden overgrown

with rampant blackberries . . . the owners were as far removed from

gardeners as you could get, yet here and there was historical

evidence of another hand.Some late dahlia heads sought the light

through blackberry tangles and this, to me totally new creeper

shone lanterns of pink into the gathering gloom.

At first, and from a distance, it had the look of a passionfruit ,

yet when I had braved an overgrown ditch where someone had

attempted to cut up a fallen branch with a chainsaw but had

given up and left the logs in the tall grass to trip up strange

wanderers, I came near enough to snap a flower through a

gap in the general disarray.

Is it a relative of the Clematis? I have no books at hand to

investigate . . . does anyone know it more personally than I

who have stumbled on it per chance? It is quite large, approx.

4" across and 6" dangling.

My computer desperately needs a drink and it's lifeline is in

the car, it is also 3 o'clock in the morning and cold outside.

So farewell from your foreign correspondent for now . . .