A friend kindly sent me some money to buy flowers. The local florist offered me three amaryllis heads, and what pleasure I am getting from them.

I had thought of amaryllis as being uniform pillar box red, but these are a riot of dots and stripes, deep pink-almost-red on a white background.

I love the way the heads on each stem nestle against each other; the curves of the petals; the big pollen heads like old fashioned microphones; the curves of the stamens. 

Apparently the name Amaryllis comes from the Greek for ‘to sparkle’. These are certainly lighting up my room.