Old Mother Hubbard

Mothering Sunday and I certainly felt like Old Mother Hubbard as a result, although neither a dog nor bone were involved. 

Statistics published in the media suggested that as many as 40% of people were intending to flaunt the current Stay at Home Rules and risk a fine by visiting their mothers outside of the circumstances currently permitted by law. There was no problem on my part, as we are very much in a bubble and I visit 3 times a week in any event.

My downfall was in dismissing those statistics as poppycock and assuming that I could pick up a bouquet of flowers on my way to visit.  I wasn't proposing daffodils in cellophane from a garage and deliberately steered clear of the garden centre where I imagined those looking for somewhere to take their mothers might be congregating, take-away coffee in one hand and a pot of dahlias in the other.

Obviously I know florists have been operating behind closed doors but the idea of arranging a delivery and then turning up in person and empty-handed seemed a trifle off tangent. Instead, I, therefore, headed for the local upmarket foodstore, conscious that it always has an array of potted plants and ready made bouquets.

On this occasion, I entered the premises to a stark, stripped-out reality. Where flowers and plants ought to have been, there were simply rows and rows of empty shelves. A little like the missing toilet rolls at the beginning of lockdown, the aisles had been subjected to an onslaught of manic buying. Clearly the media had called those statistics correctly, but had omitted to point out that the 40% involved all live in my local area. 

When she got there the display stands were bare and so her poor Mum got none, or so the nursery rhyme goes. Occasionally, my mental capacity still has the ability to think laterally which is how Mum ended up with pots, compost and seeds instead; a DIY floral display for the months to come.

Returning home, the florist had paid a visit, courtesy of my own daughter in London. Thank goodness there's still one person in the family who can get these things right.