Reblogged from Jim Webster, aka Tallis Steelyard:

Flower arranging is one of the fine arts. Wise ladies who are sagacious enough to number themselves among my patrons insist on this fact and who am I to gainsay them? And of course the fine arts are important and standards must be maintained. Indeed under almost no pressure I will agree that it is important that these things are done ‘correctly’. To be sure, in the past I have judged flower arranging, so I could claim some expertise in the matter, especially as I have survived comparatively unscarred.

So when ladies give time to doing the arrangements which grace the Shrine of Aea in her Aspect as the Personification of Tempered Enthusiasm, I join the generally muted chorus of appreciation. I make no suggestions and offer no unsolicited advice. Thus and so I am considered ‘sound’ in these matters and life proceeds in a placid, indeed genteel manner.

Then a problem arose. For reasons I cannot even pretend to understand, Madam Silvany and Madam Postulin fell out. Whether they first argued over a flower arrangement, or whether they argued over something else and the argument spread to the flower arranging I cannot now say, (if indeed I ever knew) but the breakdown in relations was serious.

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