In a week of more greyness and rain, the colour purple took my fancy this week. How pretty is my purple flower lay? I was surprised how many purple flowers I found in the rain and the first blast of winter cold. I included some pastel lavender flowers; had I extended into the pinker lilac hues, I could have doubled the number of different flowers.

It was not the coronation of King Charles that made me think of purple. It is the traditional colour of emperors, reserved for them because it was so difficult, tedious and expensive to extract the purple pigment to use as dye from snail mucus. Charles 111 may have many titles but emperor is not one of them, I think.

I saw very little of the coronation but it seemed, as the king changed his cloaks of many colours, that the colours of the British crown are more about red, white and royal blue with liberal lashings of gold.

No, it was the arrival of Mark’s Veitch Memorial Medal accoutrements. These were despatched by rather slow mail from London, on account of us not being able to travel to the official ceremony. Some of us remember when airmail was the expensive Fast Post option and the cheap alternative was slow boat. These days, airmail is a great deal more expensive but without the speed of delivery. Indeed, it can take as long as the old slow boat option. The certificate is impressive – a full A3 size. Oddly, because we are not given to public displays of such things, Mark felt it warranted hanging so it is destined to join the rogue’s gallery of family photos and pictures that adorn the private area of the spacious upstairs landing.

The purple boxes were discreetly impressive. One holds the medal while the other holds a golden and enamel lapel pin. They can go in the sideboard that holds his father Felix’s matching Veitch medal.

Mark is a reserved man but his delight was palpable.