Today my first Papaver somniferum of the season bloomed - a breath-taking red. when I got home this afternoon from my son's lacrosse game, some jerk helped themselves to the bloom. The stem was nice and cleanly cut. There will soon be more, but the first bloom of anything is special. It wasn't right by the road, they had to walk half the distance from the street to the house to take it.

A few years ago I was home during the week, ill with something. I heard a noise out in the yard. When I looked, a late-model car was pulled over on the street, and a well-dressed woman was in the yard digging up the blooming tulips, bulbs and all. She cursed me for being unfriendly when I confronted her.

I've had two laughing buddha statues stolen.

But it is the people walking dogs that irritate me most of all. A few of them are acquaintances. (I have a dog also - but I try to respect other people's yards and plantings when I walk her.)
My house sits about 40' back from the street.    The entire front is in large flower beds with grass paths running between them. I am often out in the garden in the evening and on weekends, and even if I weren't, it is clear that it represents an extensive labor of love.

Even without sidewalks, there is a lot of pedestrian traffic in the evenings. Many people walking by have stopped to say they walk this way in order to see what is blooming in my garden. Most people walking dogs rein them to keep them out of the garden when they walk by, but a significant minority don't think twice about their dog urinating on the plants or defecating in the flowerbeds that are nearest the street. The one's that get me the most are the people holding retractable leashes who let them out another 4 feet so the dog can be sure to get up into the pansies or the yarrow. Once or twice, as I have walked out onto the porch to ask people to curb their dog, they have actually complimented the garden while letting the dog urinate on the plantings.

Arrrrrrrgh!

I'm having a sign made that will read "I didn't plant this here so your dog would have a place to pee."

OK. Got that off my chest.

Janie