Introducing – Flora

It was the photo opportunity of a life time and I missed it. It involved a new friend. Her name is Flora, she is a Cavalier spaniel and I work in her garden. She is adorable. When I first met her she made such a fuss of me, I thought I must be something special. “She greets everyone like that” her owner told me. Oh well, for a moment I believed I was a superstar. It is a good talent to have, making people feel special.

Yesterday I was working on a raised bed, weeding and digging out an apocalyptic amount of bindweed. Flora’s Mum came out to mow the lawn and bought with her a delicious new chew to distract Her Ladyship. As soon as she had the treat safely in her jaws Flora dashed across the carefully weeded soil and started to dig a hole in which to bury it. At FM’s request I intervened, extracted the chew from its hiding place and handed it over to Mum. Flora was not impressed. In fact she came as close that a dog of her kindly nature could come to being ever so slightly miffed. Up and down the edge of the border she scurried, desperately searching for the missing chew, the likes of which had never been tasted before and would surely never materialise again.

I returned to wrestling with the deceptive bindweed. Suddenly there was a crash. I turned to find Flora in my trug, along with one of the large stones that edge this bed. She must have slipped and knocked the stone and fallen. To add insult to injury, both myself and FM burst out laughing. It would have been a fabulous photograph. Unfortunately, I was not armed at the time. Flora was not hurt by her misadventure, I lifted her out and all was well.

However, she was still not convinced that I hadn’t secreted her bounty. She set up a vigil with a “I’m very disappointed in you” look on her face. She also had a fair amount of valerian seed stuck to her ears which, in gentle revenge, I am sure she will distribute about the garden.