Gladiator Flower

I bought another bunch of Gladiolus this week; they are a soft, pale, lilac color and nestled in their vase on a small table with the diaphanous sea foam green curtains behind them are very lovely. The two colors accented by the darker greens and delicate yellows of the stems and buds are beautiful.  The buds, those are what attract me about Gladiolus, everyday there are more blossoms on the stems. It is like receiving a new bouquet each morning. They come in a variety of colors and even though you know the unopened buds will blossom into the same color of flower that is on the stem you just can’t be certain until they open. I think they are magical, part orchid, part lily, and very exotic.

The word gladiolus comes from the Latin gladius which means sword (ahhh now I am seeing the attraction for me). It has been called the Sword Lily. It is commonly found growing on every continent except for North and South America and the frozen ones. There are about 260 varieties,  250  of which can be found in the sub-Saharan area of South Africa; which explains why you cannot find them in Antarctica.

I had an Artz Council meeting last evening at a little coffee shop not far from my house.

Inside they serve coffees, teas, Italian sodas, a few pastries, food items and they offer hookah pipes and a plethora of shisha that covers 3 sides of a huge menu. In the afternoon you can find exotic young college kids with laptops smoking and enjoying a coffee.

Then you also get the group of youngsters wanting, yearning, and attempting to discover their own personal form of cool.  Those are the ones that amused while I waited for the rest of the Board. There were two girls and one young man. He hit the stem of the pipe like a pro. One of the girls pulled a drag off of it 3 times in the 30 minutes I waited and the other girl would smoke and then cough and smoke and then cough. Maybe it was her first time. But what amused me the most was that I made them uncomfortable. They squirmed; they would start a sentence “I can’t believe she…..” and “when do you think she will leave…” and my favorite ‘is she looking at us?”  So of course I made it a point to ignore them but kept a constant grin on my face and every time they spoke I would write in my journal, occasionally allowing my gaze to alight on them and linger, write more words in my journal causing more discomfort. Eventually my comrades started showing up and I forgot about the kids much to their relief I am sure.

 And, yes, after the meeting a few of us lingered and enjoyed the alluring smoke of Tiger’s Blood. Friday night they are having a Belly Dance competition and I have been invited to attend and even to dance.

I believe we will partake of the Vanilla Chai that night.

One of my favorite, romantic authors put her novel Shipwrecked out for her fans free on Kindle. Well since I have a nook this was not Ok with me and I sent her a reply email crying noooooooo!!!! I was not expecting a reply back. Monday morning as I was perusing my email guess what I opened; a note from her telling me to stop whining and providing me a link to a free download on nook. I laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my cheeks. I just adore random surprises. Don’t you?

Still no new teapot but I might not get one. There is something about drinking tea from antique silver that enhances the wearing of my Gucci sunglasses later in the afternoon. But then things like finding one of my cats has yaked up on my white sofa and where is the staff to clean that up? Brings me back to…I am the bloody staff.

I have a meeting in an hour.

Ciao