Up bright and early today. I would whizz through the chores, I thought, and get to B&Q before the Bank Holiday crowds.
Not many chores to whizz through - house still spotless and tidy after yesterday's viewing*. Dogs seen to, and I was off.
*Viewers: young couple with 5-week-old baby who was hungry and bawled loudly throughout their whistlestop tour. They had just sold their flat, and understood how much preparation goes into a viewing - young mum remarked on house being lovely and... wait for it... immaculate. Immaculate!! IMMACULATE!!! I have to keep saying it. Me with an immaculate house! Laugh, ye who know me well. But maybe she was still suffering from post-natal pottiness...
And then they rushed off to view another 4 houses in the vicinity, declining my offer of an immaculate room in which to feed bawling baby - they would feed and change him in the car - and I suspect that everything they view will merge retrospectively into one hideously-confusing mass with a sound track of grizzling/crying/howling small boy wanting his lunch.
Somehow, the house had remained immaculate for the rest of the day. Perhaps I have been taken over by an alien entity from Planet Housework.
Anyway, to B&Q - the nearest place that sells plants - for an Easter gift for a friend with an insatiable garden. I saw that my red oriental poppy beside the front path was bent on world domination, and now had six enormous blooms. Very attention-seeking plant, that one, spreads in a lively manner.
The Bank Holiday crowds had obviously had the same sensible idea as me, all arriving nice and early to avoid themselves. I bought a pink oriental poppy, reckoning that it would be such a thug that half my friend's yawning border would be filled up within weeks.
And then I came home, and saw that sometime after 9 a.m. all my poppies, plus a handful of the palest pink tulips, had been roughly snapped off and stolen.
Someone's mum is going to be disappointed when her surprise Easter bouquet from her ASBO Boy canny lad has dropped most of its petals on the way. The tulips had been in flower for some time, and poppies don't like to be picked.
Still, the plant itself isn't deterred, but marches on....
My neighbour commiserated, and told me that she had overheard workers in the newly-refurbished park yesterday saying that they now had to compile a list of all the plants that have been stolen.
I suppose a few blooms from my tiny patch aren't too great a loss.
19 comments:
Oh, that shocked me to read of your flowers being stolen! I hope your Poppy will put out more buds. Mine is being reticent this year but my pink one is putting out a fair few buds. Good luck with selling your immaculate house.
My heart was happy for you when I read about "immaculate"; then it fell when I learned about your stolen flowers. Who would do such a thing? I think it's absolutely heartless, and I hope it didn't bring your mood down too much.
Happy Easter to you, dear Rachel.
That's outrageous. What's the point, anyway? Stupid mindset, some people have.
I hope the thief is in the throes of a violent bout of hay fever - that would be a fitting punishment for the crime!! I once caught a woman with her arm through our fence, picking our daffodils - she didn't think she was doing anything wrong! Perhaps in an attic somewhere, there is a miniature house that is getting more and more untidy, while yours stays immaculate ........
Well, I think you are very lovely not to more miffed. A very happy Easter to you.x
That's outrageous!! Nicking flowers from your garden! Grrrrr I thought the tulips were reserved for the cats!!
Still, it isn't a nice feeling to have the flowers you've looked forward to all winter stolen away from you. That sucks. Why can't people just stay out of other people's stuff?
What a horrible thing to have happen. There are some really rotten toe-rags about aren't there? Would you like me to make a doll and stick pins in it?
You are taking this very philosophically. I felt like weeping.
Re young couple - they will remember your house as the haven of immaculate peace.
My first thought was 'how very Newcastle' but maybe that isn't entirely fair. Thankfully the plant itself isn't harmed and maybe still has time to throw up even more flowers with it's illicit *pruning*.
Your commenters felt more outrage on your behalf than you seem to have felt yourself. Perhaps you are not that surprised, and that in itself is cause to move away! (And nobody has EVER described my house as immaculate, and I doubt they ever will!)
Veg, you are both wrong and right: I was upset; I was not surprised, and I was convinced yet again that I MUST get out of this place. I have these feelings about once a week. But patience is needed; patience and remaining optimistic.....
I have a horrible feeling that gardens are considered fair game . Apparently there even people who comb neighbourhoods in vans , all the better to cart away big plant pots and the contents of garden sheds .
But I think we're safe .... The minute flower bed in front of our house has three lavender bushes and four dandelions at the moment . I should buy a couple of poppies .
It's still theft, whether of a bag of gold or a single flower.
I admire your fortitude, girl!
Is being patient and optimistic easier in an IMMACULATE home? I hope so!
xo
Oh, how horrible. Gah.
I hope your viewers buy your house. That would be some consolation.
What total scumbags! You wait all year for your flowers. I am with mountainear: dolls, pins, CCTV, vigilante groups. Just call me and I will be there with my stun gun. Well maybe not. You however are an angel of resigned patience, and with an immaculate house! The rest of us can only watch and learn. x
Gawd, I was a flower thief when I was seven. I didn't know until I was a gardener how really dismaying it was to lose my blossoms to thieves.
An immaculate house? Someday I'd love that.
That sort of thing leaves a very nasty feeling in the pit of the stomach. So thoughtless, to vandalise something pretty that gives pleasure to passers-by.
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