SOMEBODY (it might have been Tom Farmer) once advised me to take time out from the rigours of a sometimes frenetic life to smell the flowers.

So many things get right up my nose in a society that too often seems to be falling apart, that I can’t find the time.

On Valentine’s Day, though, I couldn’t help but remember Sir Tom’s advice, so many red roses littered my desk (you’re laughing already), prompting a call to my friendly neighbourhood florist in Castle Street, Thomas Maxwell.

Tell me, Thomas, how did you cope on the 14th when supermarkets were flogging roses at two quid a dozen? Don’t say you got embroiled in a price war with the big operators?

“I didn’t. I could never afford to at the rates we pay for Castle Street. In fact, our price for a hand-tied bouquet of a dozen roses with a mix of interesting green and grey foliage last Wednesday was £60. Business was brisk from our royal customers.

“They are genuinely very fond of their sweethearts and they knew, of course, our roses hadn’t been grown in Kenya, apparently the source for Asda. Maxwells are not in competition.”

Asda reportedly were able to do the “cheapo” because they ordered 80,000 roses a year ago in a discount deal. African wages had a lot do with it.

Maxwells have been blooming in Castle Street for all of 38 years. If you were lumbered with their rates bill, possibly you, too, would find the bottle to ask for 60 quid a dozen. Something to ponder. Are you genuinely fond of your sweetheart?
The daddy of them all

Here is a late football result: Daddy Long Legs 0 Hibernian 0. Dundee United’s near-bare pitch is infested by the insects, feeding on what’s left of the grass. The infestation apparently had much to do with the hellish-to-watch goalless draw on Sunday.

The daddies, alas, couldn’t prevent Hibs from collecting another two yellow cards. Resolutely defending his players’ disciplinary record at the start of the season, manager John Collins assured me he’d be a stickler for discipline.

So how come so many yellows and the occasional red? If you’re a Hibby you’ll be seeing a cardiologist before long.

Finally . .

. . . Hank Marvin confessing: “While I’m a great believer in God, I don’t agree that somebody up there has liked the Shadows. A lot of it is luck.”

source : news.scotsman.com by JOHN GIBSON