View from our boat

This is the view from our boat as per yesterday's posting. Note the whereabouts of my scope.

In case you think I've given up on everyday life at home, I found and photographed some suitable garden  pots today. My unusual garden centre behaviour didn't go unnoticed, but led to a very pleasant chat with my interrogator - about many subjects not concerning gardening. 

Coloured pots at last - just what I've been looking for!

Pots and crops

I popped out to a garden centre to check out pots in which to plant and grow flowers to adorn my new front porch. I'll show you a picture when the aforementioned flowers, not yet purchased/planted, are in bloom. I wasn't inspired but took photos, which was much easier (and cheaper) than making a purchase.

The flower and plant arrangements at the garden centre were very impressive and I nearly took pictures but felt that by then my behaviour could have been construed as suspicious. You'll therefore have to make do with the gardencentre-esque line up at the front of the Hotel Marshyangdi, Kathmadu http://www.hotelmarshyangdi.com/ , photographed because there were no other subjects/objects at the time, during the recent visit. If you want good Nepalise food (not plants!), this is the place to go.

Crops growing in a rural Nepali garden.

Garden centres and hardware stores

Yes, I know we (in this country) don't generally call shops stores, except for British Home Stores, which is in a category all of its own. However, in Australia shops are generally labelled stores, and believe me, I have plenty of photos to prove it. I'll save a superior selection for another day.

As you may notice from the labels attached to the above flowers, these are not from my garden, or any garden for that matter. I was reminded recently by one of my daughters that "I remember being dragged around these (garden centres) all the time when I was little". What a cheek! As far as I was concerned, it was a privilege. Nowadays, they are convenient places to meet up with people such as sisters. It's definitely not all about plants. A sandwich and coffee is important, accompanied by plenty of catching up, and then a saunter amongst the garden/pet furniture, ridiculously inappropriate stuff and clothes that could only be worn unseen at the bottom of the garden.

I can't say that garden centres have the same effect on me as hardware stores, which I have always had a natural affinity with. The time of year is unimportant where nuts and bolts are concerned, whereas the urge to plant isn't strong in a February gale and torrential rain (today). Instead, I behaved slightly out of character for a garden centre visitor today, photographing flowers in bloom as a substitute for not being able to plant them. Unfortunately I still haven't worked out a way to capture the strong fragrances, but I'm working on it.