Serendipity
A quote I stumbled upon in seeking’s diary in an entry made many months ago:
A quote I stumbled upon in seeking’s diary in an entry made many months ago:
Oh, I had plans for last night. Water the seeds, check the gardens for weeds, pay the bills, pull together a real meal for myself, comb the cats (one of whom left two rather spectacular hairballs for me to clean up in the middle of the carpet yesterday). But no, these didn’t happen. I got…
I got an email yesterday afternoon announcing that Dar Williams was giving a concert in the area on December 4th (Saturday) at 8:00. I immediately bought two tickets by email. I guess I should have told the Socialist about that, too.
I mentioned a few episodes ago that the Little Grey Shit has been diagnosed with feline triad syndrome (pancreatitis, cholehepatitis, colitis). We caught it early, and it’s been pretty responsive to steroids, Flagyl and Ursodiol (which thins the bile, helping the bile empty from the liver and gallbladder to prevent inflammation). Steroids tend to give…
Blame it on “Deep Space Nine”. The Prof and I have been watching it through from the beginning. We’re on season seven, the last season, about halfway through. In several episodes, props have included fresh exotic fruit. Sometimes the fruit has been altered in some way; in the episode we watched last night the fruit…
I don’t come back here much anymore. I miss what my diary used to mean to me, like I miss so many things that got left behind that you can’t return to. Yeah, I know … that’s life and all that. Still, time as a one-way arrow sucks. I’m doing OK, liver-wise. The past few…
It has been a trying day in the office. I swear that both The Mouth and Minion are on time-release formulas. Just when their effects begin to wear off they suddenly release a whole new dose of themselves. For anyone who thinks badly of me, this entry should pretty much ice their cake for them….
We have neighborhood hoodlums like this too. I can tell those interested of the Great Mushroom Scare of 2003, courtesy of unsupervised youth. Poor AudreyII, Poor Salamander. I am now in complete awe of Yarngirl.
Ah ha, incognito kitty.
The children should have been taught to respect your garden. Someone failed somewhere in that lesson.
Their parents would be wise in buying some plants for the girls own garden so they too could learn the joy of raising something beautiful.
The kids should not be playing in the parking lot, period!
When I was four years old, I helped myself to some irises in the yard of the next-door-neighbor-lady. My Dad, connecting the dots between headless stalks he’d noticed as he was coming up the driveway and the bouquet he saw me give my mom, marched me RIGHT away over to next-door-neighbor-lady to make an apology. It was a lesson I have NEVER forgotten.
Quite a few of us on the Net are cross with these kids, too. We were ALL getting kind of fond of the Mystery Plant.
Poor AudreyII 🙁
What a sad commentary on our times that children are not taught proper respect for the property and privacy of others.
I’d be tempted to put up a small electric fence and zap the little buggers. I learned to respect those mighty quick when I was a kid. ouch! 🙂
And so are the joys of living in an apartment. Your description and picture brought back memories that make me shudder…. Unsupervised kids… walkways lined with cigarette butts… looking for a parking place…
Perhaps it’s time to concentrate on your patio… a place of your own…not in the path of the devil’s spawn….
~QE
Have you ever thought about being a detective? Seriously, I would be very mad about whoever pinched the flower off.
Your flowers are beautiful, I planted all mine this morning. 🙂
Those purples are just brilliant. You might consider putting a sign up that says "anyone caught picking flowers will have their fingers gnawed off by The Gray Menace". I think most children should be locked up until they are at least 18 and barring that, be kept on a leash.
Sounds to me like those kids are related to the ones on our street who throw rocks at our neighbor’s dogs. The dogs are fenced in their yard, but that doesn’t stop these kids from throwing rocks at them.
I’m so sorry to see your poor Canterbury Bells… What a disappointment to come home and discover.
Julie
Johnny Jump Ups and Petunias make good companions for anything. Dwarf Sweet Peas are another good choice.
Alli
*sigh* I miss kitties hiding behind flowers. TX has been making noises about getting a cat, but we probably wouldn’t unless and until we moved.
my parent’s neighbors used to cut Mom’s roses (they were in the front yard), that is until i raised holy hell. i’d keep guard on the porch and they finally got tired of trying to dodge me. i also managed to harrass them into giving up the puppy they liked to neglect/abuse.
I’m so sorry for your loss.
Seriously, you’re a PEARL Salamander! I couldn’t stop laughing while reading your entry – just because you use language so well trust me, not because of your flower getting murdered.
I can’t wait for the entry after you’ve caught those little girls in action. like decorating each other’s hair with your beautiful buds ;).
oh, the humanity!!! i’d forgotten how evil children can be.
hmmm, how about a pox on her house? favorite toy, perhaps?
You could make an attempt at approaching the parents. Say something along the lines of "Those plants cost me a small fortune (don’t mention that it was a fortune of time trying to figure out what they were), and your children have damaged them. If it happens again I expect to be reimbursed".
That type of approach to parents I thought would not care has worked for me in the past. Amazing how much more attentive parents can be if the possibility of them having to pay out money comes into play.
Alli
You could make an attempt at approaching the parents. Say something along the lines of "Those plants cost me a small fortune (don’t mention that it was a fortune of time trying to figure out what they were), and your children have damaged them. If it happens again I expect to be reimbursed".
That type of approach to parents I thought would not care has worked for me in the past. Amazing how much more attentive parents can be if the possibility of them having to pay out money comes into play.
Alli
That was hilarious!
I thought I recognised the quote, then I realised it came from my diary! Tsk, such a memory.
Your sleuthing is remarkable. Those girls definitely LOOK guilty, but did you rule out the Socialist? Perhaps you’ve done something to upset him?
I’ve thought of a few remedies to protect the dear brethren of poor Audrey II:
* a series of mirrors from said plants reflecting one upon the other all the way to your apartment so you don’t have to be out on your balcony watching at all times;
* security cameras;
* pretend security cameras;
* a sign telling of hidden security cameras;
* a sign telling that the plants belong to known murderers (I didn’t make this one up… on the tiniest little garden in inner city Sydney, a sign said "You wouldn’t steal flowers from a gangster, would you?" I walked passed that every day for a while and the sign seemed to be working)
* barb-wire the perimeter
* a sign saying the plants may be poisonous
* a prickly cactus perimeter
It reminds me of a lovely bloom I had been nurturing, a white agapanthus. My three year old carried it into the kitchen and presented me with its broken off head. I blew up like fireworks in the poor kid’s face. He literally shook with fright. I apologised to him later. That was 13 years ago. Give it a few more years and I guess that story, or the scars caused by it, will be subject for psycho-analysis.
‘Why am I afraid of flowers?’
btw, Cattitude looked sooo sweet!