Short Takes, with Weeds and Michael Moore

-- Dave and I bought a pair of big, bright sunflowers for the garden. We haven't planted them yet, but they're already soaking up whatever British sun is available on our patio table.

-- Our bank has recently informed us that they're going to begin charging us £20 a month in order to store our money. This has to do with the type of account we have, which is not really the account we need. (We set it up by telephone during a period of relative confusion while we were preparing to move from the states.) So now we're trying to open a more appropriate account. Nothing is simple, however. First we had a terrible time getting an appointment with a bank representative, and now we're having to present documentation that proves we live where we say we do. Apparently our lease is not sufficient, nor is a statement for Dave's student loan or my life insurance. They're demanding utility or council tax bills. But we pay all that online; we don't get bills by mail, and computer printouts of online statements are not allowed. AAAAAARGH!!!

-- We recently learned the identity of our back garden mystery plant. Dave sent a photo of it to an online gardening forum, where gardeners unceremoniously identified it as ragwort and advised us to get rid of it. "It's a weed," one said. But I looked it up, and while it is a weed, it is also the only food source for the cinnabar moth caterpillar, which I remembered seeing a few years ago on ragwort near the Grand Union Canal. So we're keeping it, in the hopes that a starving cinnabar moth will find it.

-- Along those lines, I weeded our front garden, and removed numerous wild thistles. I hated to kill them all outright, so I transplanted one to the "wilderness corner" of our back garden, where we have borage, campion, rosebay willow and a patch of unmown grass. It seems to have survived the transplant and the bees are looking forward to some thistle!

-- Also in our front garden, I found what I believe are opium poppies. I don't remember ever seeing them before. I wonder if they were previously concealed by the heavy brush (which you may remember we had cleared in January)? Perhaps they never bloomed because they were so heavily shaded. Anyway, this year, they're setting buds and we're looking forward to flowers.

-- On Thursday night Dave and I went to see Michael Moore's newest movie, "Where to Invade Next." In it, Moore travels the world to find countries that have more humane prisons, offer benefits like free higher education and elect more women, and then "steals" those ideas (among others) for the United States. We generally agree with Moore's world view, and we liked the movie a lot.

-- I moved our avocado tree outdoors on Thursday and hosed it down, and then brought it back inside. I found this cranefly lying on the floor in the corner nearby, and when I tried to catch it it flew immediately to the avocado. I don't know whether flies drink, but that's what it appeared to be doing from left-over water droplets on the avocado's leaves. The poor thing was probably dehydrated, being trapped in our house! It sat on that leaf for about an hour before disappearing, flying out the nearby open door.

-- And lastly, Dave planted some lupines in our garden, where they're unfortunately very popular with the snails and slugs. Getting them to bloom has been a challenge, but we finally coaxed one to produce a flower. Then yesterday morning I discovered that a snail had gnawed three quarters of the way through its stem during the night, leaving the flower slumped over with a broken neck. I rigged up a splint with a stick and some twine, and now at least it's upright again and seems to be surviving. Floral first aid!