Ok, so it's a pot plant on a window sill. It's (more or less) how the camera coped with the exposure at the time having spot metered on the pot. Consequently the scene outside the window is, of course, very over exposed. Is this a case for using an HDR technique? I decided not, because I felt too much background detail would detract from the plant which is the subject of the photo.

By the way, this was taken at Lacock Abbey, arguably the home of photography.