Every morning we sit by the big french windows in the hall. If my grandfather always favored having palatial bathrooms, the french windows are my father’s corner stone. We had them in our old house and even with the limited space in our new apartment my father managed to build one in. They sacrificed one balcony but it was well worth it.
So, when we sit there at dawn sipping our tea I became familiar with a daily spectacle my parents are privy to. We have the view of a square patch of land that is a garden/park in the making. There is still some construction for parking going on around there so it isn’t as well kept at this point. But, it’s still a lovely patch of green bordered by varied bushes with flowers of different colors. Now, as with most any public property belonging to a community this space and it’s flowers are meant purely for the pleasure of it’s residents.
These flowers are not to be plucked, only seen and enjoyed.
But, there’s a motley group of residents ranging from the mid 30s to a larger section in their 60s who think otherwise. You can spot them with tiny little plastic bags. I’ve seen different formations. They congregate or they come in pairs. At times they come with their husbands. All this to defy the guard whose weak admonitions don’t do much to deter them. They wait for him to leave and come back. Unsuspecting gentlemen quietly going about their morning walk are reluctantly dragged into their scuffle to defend them. Once the guards came down on them heavily and the ladies said they were just there to pick up the flowers that fell on the ground. Surely there’s no harm in that? But, as soon as the guard dropped his guard they were back at it again.
I initially thought that there should be a sign up there but after observing them for a while I doubt anything would keep them from stealing the flowers from the gardens. Most likely they use it to adorn the Gods during their prayers. But, they could easily get a few from the street vendors for a very cheap price or even grow a small pot of flowers.
I think the next best option would be to offer them a small section to grow flowering plants solely for this purpose. The rest of the gardens shouldn’t be touched. But, then again, they’d come for the others as soon as they fall short. So, honestly there’s no way around it unless they realize they are wrong. But, to be frank, I think this uncensored view of the daily cat and mouse games with my morning cup of tea is much too entertaining for me to wish it away 🙂
