Flying Scotsman and a Wonderful Garden

Regular followers may be bored stiff with postings about trains but I simply cannot resist reporting  that Flying Scotsman has flown through Settle twice today hauling The Waverley, York - Carlisle-York.   When (inevitably) somebody posts a picture on FaceTwitterGram I shall re-post it below.

(5 minutes later)  No sooner said . . .

and a bit later this morning here she is again at Selside, battling the rather changeable elements and the gradient:   sound on!

Flying Scotsman northbound at Selside

Each puff of black smoke is the fireman adding another shovelful of coal.

And homeward bound this evening at horton n Ribblesdale, just north of Settle:

picture Mike Farrington

Meantime, for normal (non-train) people I can report some spectacular plants in the big oak tubs either side of our front steps, responding to recent rain   Thanks to our darling daughter Lorna for these:

These cauliflower - like heads are sprouting from succulents below.   What are they?

I do hope they're not illegal.