Jos Biggs asks, " does this happen to you ?? "

Is it just me, or does this happen to you as well?

As I was in Vera I decided to sample the many-splendoured Nursery that is Hortiflor.

I was after a concrete stork or heron, a pig, a duck and a dove to join my chickens, my cockerel and my sheep in my concrete farmyard.

I was dubious about my chances of finding a stork or heron, they don’t seem to do them in concrete, so I was prepared to settle for an owl instead.

Hortiflor has ornaments a-plenty, but not cement ones suitable for outside living in Limaria.

I wandered the aisles, where my attention was captured by a garden rake. I need a rake, I thought, and pounced upon it. Never mind, I thought, you haven’t got you stork, heron etc, but at least you’ve got a rake!

Unwisely I succumbed to temptation and allowed myself to be drawn into the plant section. Whereupon 3 blue conifers forced themselves on to my attention. ‘Pick us, we’re pretty,’ they chorused. ‘And the yellow ones have died. We won’t die, promise.’

So 3 blue conifers joined the rake in my trolley. Before I could fall prey to blandishments by any other plants, blue or otherwise, I headed for the exit. 

It was just by the exit into safety and the till that the small green succulent struck. ‘I’m very pretty, and I’m only small, you can fit me in, I know you can.’

I put the small green succulent in the trolley with the rake and the conifers. So I now have 4 plants to put in the ground - I need compost. And while I’m at it, I might as well get some fertiliser for if it ever gets cooler or if it ever rains again. Or both.

Now my trolley contains: 4 blue conifers, a small green succulent, a bag of compost and a bottle of fertiliser, not forgetting the rake.

Yet no storks, herons, pigs, ducks, doves and even owls were to be seen anywhere! 

What happened? Why couldn’t I just turn round and walk out?

Does this ever happen to you, or is it just me?