Stuff. Family stuff.

If I posted this without comment, a certain segment of my family would be saying WHERE DID YOU GET THAT? as though I'd violated some treaty or will or something. I haven't. It's from my PATERNAL grandmother.

The fact that I know I'd be questioned, though, is why I avoid most of my cousins.

I have almost nothing of my maternal grandmother's. When she left her home, shortly after my mother's death, my aunt and uncles treated her things as, well, things. People and memories weren't considered.

I felt like I was kicked out of my own family. Just lost my mother, remember. I had no voice in the arguments.

Anyway, that was then. Grandma's stuff is long gone. Other grandma's stuff? Is really fun, and I enjoy wearing it and remembering her.

And no one is pissed off that I have it.

Opinions please: let's pick the flowers?

Ok, here's the thing. What you see to the left is the Yellow Ladyslipper Orchid (Cypripedium sp depending on which book you consult these days dammit). It's a wildflower week here at the garden at work. First philosophical problem (Oh, didn't I warn you about that?) is a wildflower still a wildflower if we actively cultivate it?

Next chapter. The Yellow Ladyslipper stood a real chance of becoming endangered. A dedicated group of plant enthusiasts transplanted a LOT of the orchids from threatened spaces a a couple of decades ago. It's doing well.

Dilemma. It's doing well. And now we find that people are picking it for bouquets &c. For future reference, it dies pretty quickly in bouquets, and picking the flower really hurts the whole plant.

Sooo here we go. Do we get mad at the idiots who will always pull things from a public garden?

Do we show pictures of wilting flowers/plants to humiliate the stupid?

Do we educate and hope that stupid people notice?

Our choice these days was to put it on social media, gently correct those that have incorrect or incomplete information ( Yellow Ladyslippers are NOT endangered), and hope that people and their more-educated friends might be right

Were we right? I hope so. If we weren't, please tell me.