A Little Winter Colour

I know it is not really winter  by the calendar yet but it feels like it on a daily basis to me and the sky looks wintry and we are all rugging up. It has come early, so for all intents and purposes it is winter already and now, in my book. Time for soup and puddings and big heating bills and hopping into bed early. And I am already needing cheering  up because it is going to be a horrible long haul till spring. So my neighbours mauve flowers  give me a lift every time I head out to the car. I think it is a tree dahlia. It has grown enormous as they do and these flowers are high in the air and lovely to see.