Monday, 20 April 2009

Recycling

Recycling is a big thing here in France, and we don't get to throw our rubbish out without having separated out all the glass, plastic, metal and newspapers. For more serious stuff, like car batteries, used oil, old fridges etc, there is the déchèterie up the road at Chammes.

Now I like the déchèterie, because you can find all sorts of useful stuff there. If you have something to throw away that might just be useful to someone else, you don't put it in the skip, you put it alongside. If someone likes it, they take it.

I got myself a nice sledgehammer that way, and a shovel. But to my dismay one day, I saw an abandoned planter of cacti, all snuggled up together. Mammillaria, I think. I like cacti, they remind me of my cat's personality :)

So I brought it home. I don't pay it much attention, it sits on the window sill in the conservatory, and I water it occasionally in Summer.

This spring it has rewarded me by bursting into flower.

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1 comment:

  1. Jonathan25 April 2009 at 13:50

    I remember, when I was about six, my class nature table had some very cuddly looking cacti that we just couldn't resist stroking. It must have taken each of us two or three days of needles in our fingers before we finally got the message.

    Later, maybe I was eight, I was given one of my own with rather more obvious spines. I loved it very much and carefully avoided watering it because I had been told it was bad for cacti. It took a fair while but it dried out and imploded. I was racked with guilt. I have avoided cacti ever since but now have some success with succulents.

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