Sufficient unto itself

The snow has gone, mostly; a few dull scraps here and there and saucepan lids of stubborn ice like stranded jelly fish. But mostly now, gone.

When the 'flower boxes' in the street outside here were smothered by the Council with 2011's chipped re-cycled Christmas trees for a mulch – it's too soon yet for 2012's crop, – there was something in the mixture. Amazingly, during the cold weather leading up to New Year this happened:

A fungi associated with pines or firs sprang up in some profusion in two adjacent brick built boxes. Few mushrooms are deadly, but evenso, one doesn't like to risk it. Besides, they look so good just as they are, a sign of resistance to conformity, a small spontaneous gesture that not everything is done by committee or the result of an 'initiative' foisted on an indifferent populace.