My second favourite flower

When I had FHB, Toot gave me a lovely red glass vase, full of sweet Williams.
The vase now lives on a high shelf, safe from marauding bears. The flowers hold a special place in my heart, signifying as they do, the imminent birthday of my oldest, skinniest bear. Whenever I see them I buy a few bunches- they look best crammed together in a riot of deep green and bright pink, purple and white.
W bought me three bunches the other day, so I have some in the lounge and some in the kitchen, reminding me that on Thursday I have to make a cake the shape of a sonic screwdriver.
'Not the 11th Doctors though. The tenf. That's David Tennant's, Mummy'.
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Garage Flowers

Me: You haven't bought me flowers for years. Not since I had Miss T.

W: Yes I have.

Me: No you  haven't. At least, not without me telling you to.

W: What about the daffodils I bought you last month?

Me (foiled): Hmph. Apart from those.

W: And the Amarylis I bought you at Christmas?

Me (feeling daft): Well, and those too. But it had been a while before then. (Thinks) And I had to tell you to buy me flowers when I had Mouse and Custard. (Plumbing great depths here. Five and four years is too long to hold a grudge).

W: That is just not true.

Long pause.

Me: I think it is true. (I don't)

Next day, W arrives home from a morning out with the boys, bearing a bunch of flowers:

Me (thrilled): They're lovely. Garage flowers! (Laughing)

W (mock outraged): Not garage flowers...I stopped on the roadside for those. They're from the back of a van in a lay-by.

I am very pleased with my flowers, not least because my husband has braved a lay-by on a dual carriage way in Essex to buy them. Flowers with a whiff of danger! And I do love a gerbera...x

Sunshiney flowers

After our few days away, Miss T and I returned bearing these:

A thank you gift from my lovely sister-in-law, after I pointed out that we have never made it to their house during sunflower season. (This is a great tragedy because my brother-in-law is a champion sunflower grower. Last year they had a tunnel of them!) And indeed, they are just my favourite flowers ever! They are looking very fine on my dining room table, shoved in a two pint beer stein (Goodness knows where all the vases have gone).

These come close to sunflowers for sheer happiness value:

Two bunches from Toot and two from W, plonked in the blue jug from Toot's loft. They are making me feel extremely pleased.

And I didn't miss the magnolia flowering! It is It was so pretty! I would show you how pretty, but Somebody small and male, who likes sticks, has bashed all the petals off. Hopefully the rest will come out soon and I'll get a snap for posterity.

Oh well. It is just not worth getting upset about, is it? And I'll tell you what- it's a lot easier not to get upset when the sun is shining, even if a small-boy-who-is-big-enough-to-know-better did wake us up at five this morning by sitting in the middle of our bed staring at us intently like a weirdo. Happy happy!

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