Happy Mother's Day, 2012

When I got home from work yesterday, there was a box on the front steps waiting for me. It's rather distinctive and it's quite tall. I wondered who would send me flowers but then nixed that idea. I don't get flowers. Someone must have received flowers and then reused this box to send me something tall. Now, never you mind the obvious that it's Mother's Day weekend and that I am a mother. Occam's Razor applies here, too, and this box did not bear signs of having been used before. But I still didn't really think it was flowers.

Open it up and, it's flowers! Roses to be exact. Yeah, yeah. Shake your head at me. I can be a little dense. "Happy Mother's Day from Carole and David". Awwwww.

This is quite an ingenious box. The flowers are carefully double wrapped in plastic surrounded by green tissue paper and then the usual plastic sleeve such as you'd get at the florist. The ends are stuffed into the bottom where the "vase" is located. In my case, the vase is a small silver pail. All are anchored with a fat zip tie. Even if this were accidentally dropped on the top, the flowers wouldn't be crushed. They weren't going anywhere. Care instructions and flower saver were in a plastic sleeve rubber cemented to the plastic bag surrounding the pail. Both girls had to check this out but I only got Mija on camera. Pilchard left when it proved to not be interesting.

Aren't they lovely?

Off to the kitchen I went. I carefully removed the wrapping, mixed one flower saver packet into water inside the pail and set about snipping off an inch of stem. Roses are very thirsty flowers so they needed to be in water as soon as possible. I believe the other flowers are Peruvian Lilies. I've seen these in a lot of bouquets.

As I snipped and stuck the flowers into the pail, I began to notice my counter getting wet. It seemed there was a leak in the pail. Fortunately, I have vases from other bouquets in the basement. I got the right size and moved the flowers. There's a plastic sleeve inside the pail. In looking it over, there is a small crack at the bottom of the sleeve. I had to hold it in the light just so to see it. It's enough to let the water into the pail where there is a very small gap between the side seam and the bottom. Probably some hot glue on the inside will fix that. I'm actually thinking potting soil and flower seeds for the pail.

Once finished, I looked for the perfect place to display the flowers. Naturally, the table in the living room  sprang to mind. There is a problem with that. Actually, make that 2 problems.

"Whacha got?" "Can I smell it?" "It doesn't smell like cat. I need to rub up against it." "Oooh, it's green stuff. I can chew on the leaves."

Yeah. When Pilchard tried to rub up against the bouquet and then Mija attempted to sample a leaf I knew the table, however perfect for the arrangement, was not the right place. I would hear a crash followed by the sound of running water. I moved them to the top of the organ. Of course Mija would want to know what's going on and follow me, but she doesn't camp the organ top and gets down when I tell her to.

Here is the arrangement. They are beautiful.

The last time I received flowers was when Betsy went over the Rainbow Bridge. That's a good 2 1/2 years ago and was a sad time in my life. I'm happy these flowers are for celebration.

Thank you Carole and David, for brightening my evening and for brightening the next two weeks. How can I not be happy when I see this every time I walk into the living room?

Beverage:  Orange Juice

Deb