Today's Flowers #122 In the conservatory

Thanks go to the Today's Flowers team who patiently organise and host this lovely weekly meme. To see more, and perhaps join in, please click here.

Winston’s December blog 2010

Winston here . . . p’rrrrr, p’rrrrr . . .

It’s been really busy here again. Mrs H hasn’t even had much time to blog!

The Humans have been behaving very strangely, don’tcha know. I mean, Mrs H is always washing stuff – I think she’s got ODC (that’s Overly Dangerous Cleaning) but it spread to something called ‘delittering’ – no, that’s not right, ‘decluttering’ is what it is. I think it’s a competition between my Humans to see how many black bags they can fill. Thing is, Mr H flings things out and Mrs H takes it all out again so she can ‘rebicycle’ it, then Mrs H throws stuff out and Mr H goes through it and says things like, ‘I want to keep that’ and ‘I wondered where that had gone’ and ‘It might come in useful’ and then there’s quite a lot of huffing and puffing and slamming of doors.

I’m a laid-back sort of cat so I didn’t take no notice but Gus got really worried. He was afraid he’d be thrown out with the black bags, seeing as he’s the same colour and all.

 So, everything got washed and lots of things got dusted and polished and it smelt quite nice actually . . . well, different, anyway. Me and the dogs had to go and put our scent all over everything again. It’s all right, we was very careful about it, just rubbed our heads on the chairs, don’tcha know. It was really good ‘cos there was lots more room for us to rush about in until the house started to fill up.

When she’d finished washing everything what wasn’t nailed down Mrs H started cooking. Me and the dogs was very interested then ‘cos there was loads of food and it smelt tasty but she said it was not for us – it was for ‘Bortee’ and ‘Cornah’.

The next day Gillian and Paul and their family come. Gus and Jenna and Frodo was excited ‘cos Tia and Foxy come too so they all charged around the garden and made the floor ever so muddy when they come back in. Then the day after that Gareth and Nina and their family come and all the children was happy ‘cos they hadn’t seen each other for a long time. After that, Bethan and her friend come and the house was nearly full up.

Everyone was in the kitchen, what’s quite big but not really big enough for fourteen people (I’m a cat; I can count, not like the dogs!) The only ones missing was Susannah and Nick but they was going to India that day and it was Gareth’s birthday too. Mrs H said that his birthday is eggsactly four weeks before Christmas Day every year.

Then everyone went in the dining room and all us animals was shut out. I don’t know why they always do that – we only want to join in and of course we’d be good don’tcha know!

There was lots of noise and everyone talking at once and when they all went home the next day we was really tired. When Frodo got up the morning after that he went along to the bedrooms to see if the children was there.

There was supposed to be more people coming last night but the Humans all thought it wouldn’t be a good idea ‘cos it’s going to be ever so cold again. I don’t mind though – the log fire keeps me nice and warm. When I wake up and want something to do I go and watch the birds – there’s ever so many of them in the garden. I went outside today – Mr H left the door open – but it wasn’t very nice and my paws got cold and wet so I was glad to go in again.

That’s all I’ve got for today. Be good!

TTFN

The legend of the Poinsettia

The Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) also known as the Ataturk flower, is a small tree or shrub native to Mexico and Central America. It typically grows to a height of between 2’ and 16’ (0’6m to 4m)  It was named for Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first US Minister to Mexico, who introduced the plant to the USA in 1828.

The legend of the poinsettia has its roots in 16^th century Mexico. It was traditional for people going to Mass on Christmas Eve to take gifts to the baby Jesus in the church Nativity scene. One poor young girl was very sad because she had nothing to give and then an angel appeared and told her to pick some roadside weeds. As she walked into the church the rest of the congregation laughed at her and scorned her offering. She was humiliated but as she walked down the aisle the weeds sprouted beautiful scarlet blossoms to become poinsettias.

Since then poinsettias have traditionally been associated with Christmas. They come in a variety of colours from white through pink to the more usual scarlet. For many years they were believed to be poisonous and parents and pet owners were warned to be wary. Some books still state that they are toxic, like most of the Euphorbia family, but research has proved this not to be the case.

The ‘flowers’ are actually leaves. The real flowers, in the centres of each star-shaped set of bright leaves are quite insignificant. 

Last Sunday we had a family gathering and I was delighted when Nina gave me this poinsettia.