Pearls and Bells

I have, among others, a strange preoccupation with foxgloves.

Flowers with bells.

I grew up on a diet of imported storybooks (Enid Blyton, Beatrix Potter, Reader's Digest editions), which caused a major disconnect between what I read and what I actually saw in real life.


The food was the worst. Imagine drooling over odes to crumpets, treacle pudding, fried kippers, gingerbeer, Irish stew, trifle...and never getting to taste them!

And Western hemisphere flowers - snowdrops, daffodils, crocuses, dogroses. I've never seen them for real, but even now when I think of 'flower gardens', I think of carpets of yellow marigolds, golden buttercups, fluffy dandelions, sweet bluebells. Not the usual boring tropical flowers like bougainvillea, orchids, what-have-you.

And according to the Adventures of Pip by Enid Blyton, I know that:

1. Mature foxgloves are just big enough to fit the body of a big bumble bee.

2. Have a trail of coloured spots that lead the bee to the honey at the top of the bell.

3. Have a hairy mat that keep out other wrongly-sized insects.

I just haven't seen one alive. A small point, I suspect.


Anyway, I came across some findings that looked like bells, and my mind went, "Bells!"

And immediately after, "Foxgloves!"


So this is what I was busy with yesterday. I realise foxgloves don't have tendrils, and generally come in pagoda-like bunches, though. Click on the picture to get to the listing.

On a separate note, I'm quite happy with my shop...it looks decently full-ish now :)