PYO

Saw the funniest/loveliest thing on the way to an O event at Bad Fischer – we were passing a quarter acre or so of gladioli, all in various stages from bud to full blooms just planted as a big block in a field and were admiring the colours etc when I noticed a sign (in German) saying  selfservice!! Basically a florist shop but with a cash desk in the corner of the patch!  A big red KASSE (cash) sign with an honesty box underneath. You choose the blooms, the colours, the size and you pays your cash!

What amazed me quietly was that they had not been trashed as they were in full view of a main road with no protection whatsoever – so no local vandals in this area I thought? We did have a quiet walk around the local cemetery the other day and the place was a riot of colour, so perhaps they are grown with the graves in mind and are respected because of that.

Was tempted to pick and pay as I love big, showy, blousey gladiolii but in a caravan ????  Have never had huge luck with them in my gardens, especially after the first year of flowering.  Tony suggested it was too many mice wandering around looking for their winter suppers maybe ?!!!!

Talking about mice reminds me of strange creatures that live in the local leisure centre compound!!  I’d had my swim and went outside to read and dry off on the loungers (most comfortable I’ve ever used, soft and stretchy under the body), got engrossed in my reading and all of a sudden there was a squealing fighting sound – and I looked and saw what I thought was a couple of stoats fighting!!! That stopped and they ran off to a burrow and disappeared !

Then, I waited and all of a sudden noticed that there was about a dozen of these little furry creatures scattered all over the lawns scampering about….. so cute and mostly totally unafraid of humans. When I sat up to look they just seemed to lie down and freeze for a second or two and then get up and carry on whizzing about. They were about 6/8 inches long and a pale brownish colour – not like the red stoats I’d seen in our garden at Forest View. Too small to be weasels but not quite the stoats’ colouring that I knew from before.  They seemed to sit up now and then, and scamper pretty smartly about the place and foraged in the grass for nibbles….. the children loved watching them seemingly at play.  Fun and fast-actioned!! I didn’t have my camera with me sadly to record them. Ah well…..

Later.

Couple of weeks actually but never mind. In Switzerland at the moment and we noticed a small field full of blossoming sunflowers and again that sign for self service!!

Was very tempted to stop and  pyo sunshine blooms but again, even in the awning, the flowers would have swamped us!! There is also the little problem of what I would put them in? The largest suitable (?) item we have is a saucepan – how elegant would that look ?! I always always had a big patch of sunflowers growing in the veg garden interspersed with squashes, lettuces (they love shade) and mini pumpkins.  We hardly ever harvested the flowers for display but left them to seed and for the greenfinches that eventually arrived and feasted – a beautiful sight – they sort of cling on upside down and crack open the hulls with their enormously powerful looking beaks. Could always tell when they’d been by the scattering of husks on the ground!!  I did manage to save a good few seeds each year ready for the next year’s sowing tho.