BUYING FLOWERS

 

 

Bird of Paradise flower, Australia

 

I have bought flowers from the same stall in a south London street market for more than ten years.

A typical exchange took place today with the expressionless blonde who stands beside her plants like the moron waiting outside Superdrug.
In all this time I’ve been buying flowers from her, she has never raised a smile.
‘Good morning? Nice day?’ Forget it!
Today she has an attractive bunch of violet and orange flowers, but I don’t know their name.
‘I’d like a bunch of those flowers please. What are they called?’ I said, pointing to the bunches in her black plastic bucket.
‘No idea,’ she replied.
‘I’ll have a bunch of no idea then,’ I said.
But I’d got to her this time as beginning low down her neck, a scarlet blush spread up beyond her ears.

 
c.Christine Osborne: Bird of Paradise flower Strelitzia reginae

www.copix.co.uk

About Travels with My Hat

Australian photojournalist and author. Used London as a base for nearly forty years while freelancing in the Middle East, Arabian peninsular, Africa and South Asia. Have written and illustrated more than a dozen books and travel guides. Operates a well regarded religious images stock photo library: www.worldreligions.co.uk. Live in Leura in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney.
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