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So while I was out today . . .
Two guys come to the door and ask Emma if they can have "some" of the blooming branches of the quince bush out front.
I need to say that the flowering quince was at its most beautiful. Every visible branch was long and covered in brilliant, well-formed blossoms.
It's thirty-some years old and huge so you could take a lot of branches and still leave a beautiful bush.
Of course, you know from this lead-in what they did.
There's not a single blooming branch left on it, and the remaining branches are cut every which way, leaving ungainly, unsightly, and unhealthy nubs pointing in all directions. And the rain started up again, which means all those ragged cut surfaces are vulnerable to fungus infection. And as soon as there's a dryish day I have to do emergency surgery on what's left to restore some form and order to my bush. Fortunately quinces are strong and it will most likely return beautifully next year. But its display for this year is pretty much over now, whereas if they had left anything behind it would have bloomed steadily into May, straddling spring and summer.
There are words for this kind of behavior, but none of them are seemly.
Hey, local folks: if you see anybody selling quince branches on the street, give them a piece of my mind, okay? And if you see them in restaurants or wherever, let the people know how the branches they bought were gotten. I want this anger to filter back to the miscreants somehow.
What a fucked up way to celebrate the lunar New Year (no, these guys were Mexicans, not Asians, but my guess is that they know who buys the most quince branches in early February).
Two guys come to the door and ask Emma if they can have "some" of the blooming branches of the quince bush out front.
I need to say that the flowering quince was at its most beautiful. Every visible branch was long and covered in brilliant, well-formed blossoms.
It's thirty-some years old and huge so you could take a lot of branches and still leave a beautiful bush.
Of course, you know from this lead-in what they did.
There's not a single blooming branch left on it, and the remaining branches are cut every which way, leaving ungainly, unsightly, and unhealthy nubs pointing in all directions. And the rain started up again, which means all those ragged cut surfaces are vulnerable to fungus infection. And as soon as there's a dryish day I have to do emergency surgery on what's left to restore some form and order to my bush. Fortunately quinces are strong and it will most likely return beautifully next year. But its display for this year is pretty much over now, whereas if they had left anything behind it would have bloomed steadily into May, straddling spring and summer.
There are words for this kind of behavior, but none of them are seemly.
Hey, local folks: if you see anybody selling quince branches on the street, give them a piece of my mind, okay? And if you see them in restaurants or wherever, let the people know how the branches they bought were gotten. I want this anger to filter back to the miscreants somehow.
What a fucked up way to celebrate the lunar New Year (no, these guys were Mexicans, not Asians, but my guess is that they know who buys the most quince branches in early February).