Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

[Sparkle]

A couple of weeks back I noticed that all of the flower boxes and tubs that hang on the fence around the church in our village had disappeared. I thought nothing of it until Saturday whilst sitting at the bar in our larger village square. I thought something's different here it looks like autumn and no wasps whisping their way around my glass of wine. Then the penny dropped all the lovely flower baskets that hang from the lamps and the flower boxes in the square had disappeared - water restriction - so sad but necessary

[L Austin France]

Here they're adopting a more pragmatic approach & just leaving 'em to die.
The strange thing is that there are lots of flower boxes around the town's main lake with flowers dying for lack of a bucket of water two arm's length away.

[Sparkle]

@L Austin France in our villages the flowers are usually watered daily by the local council water lorry. The water is taken from the lake in the main village. The lake is reasonably full but the overflow isn't overflowing. The lake gets topped up with fish for the fishing season so guess they need to keep what water they have.

[Polly]

A couple of weeks back I noticed that all of the flower boxes and tubs that hang on the fence around the church in our village had disappeared. I thought nothing of it until Saturday whilst sitting at the bar in our larger village square. I thought something's different here it looks like autumn and no wasps whisping their way around my glass of wine. Then the penny dropped all the lovely flower baskets that hang from the lamps and the flower boxes in the square had disappeared - water restriction - so sad but necessary

What a pity the flower boxes etc have been removed.

We drove to Henley on Saturday and admired the lovely hanging basket and tub arrangements everywhere - they were really cheerful. I don’t know which water company supplies the water to Henley, but ours is from Thames Water, the shareholders of which should hang their heads in shame, as the amount lost because of leaks us appalling!

[Sparkle]

@Polly Our UK visitors went back to the UK last Thursday. They live in Oxford (Thames water also) apparently there was a water ban in place in that area from the day before. Not that they would care as they knew the situation here. 3 of them took showers but she had her daily bath but said it was OK as she was only having 1/2 the bath filled with water than her usual to the top - I did have to reign myself in and walk away hearing that

[Polly]

Silly woman!

[suein56]

3 of them took showers but she had her daily bath but said it was OK as she was only having 1/2 the bath filled with water than her usual to the top - I did have to reign myself in and walk away hearing that

My daughter and I were competing to see which one of us could be quickest in the shower whilst she was here .. I don't think I would have countenanced her having a bath.

[Sparkle]

@suein56 I forgot to say that they are our holiday home neighbours - no way would she have been taking a bath in my house and the showers wouldn't be daily either. We've limited our showers and have a daily wash down - nowt like a bit of soap, flannel and a bit of water - funnily enough I feel quite invigorated after using a rough flannel on my skin but I have needed to wash my hair once a week during the heat wave cos my scalp feels yucky!

[Blaze]

We have no bath here, and are quick showerers. It's easy to turn off the tap when soaping and we have a bucket to catch the drips which then get poured into a watering can and either onto the garden or to flush the loo (I get the feeling I've already written this somewhere .... )
We rarely wash the cars which are in a barn and we're well used to being economic with water. We've kept our plants and veg well-watered despite the drought, all with water which would otherwise have gone down the plug 'ole.

[Sparkle]

@blaze We have a shower over the bath - we've never used the bath In fact I can't remember the last time I had a bath certainly not since 1992 (dirty girl ) but I've realised over the last few weeks how valuable the bath is cos we've been putting the plug in when we shower then scooping out the water into a bucket for flushing the loo. The garden is coping as last year we bought numerous dustbins inserted a tap and positioned them behind bushes which we then filled with well water cos the well frequently runs dry. Fortunately, we filled them to the top months ago and had no need to use them so the garden shrubs mostly the hydrangeas get a water as and when the leaves droop. Some years back we put bark on all the bare soil borders which helps water retention. We also have one of those 1000L rain collectors. The water in the bins is going down and some rain would be lovely and very much appreciated.