Savouring Aphrodite's delicious honey for breakfast & marvelling at nature's ability to create a canvas beyond imagination, we were drawn to the vivid yellow flower jarring our senses from the heart of the L'Heure Bleu planting. Screaming for attention this plant was not to be ignored. A close inspection, carried out mid-mouthful, identified the interloper: Common Ragwort; Senecio jacobaea. This familiar plant can often be seen in large numbers on railway cuttings and motorway embankments. He is deceptively handsome, the national flower of the Isle of Man, but beware he is poisonous to horses, cattle & wild animals including hare & deer. Ragwort poisoning destroys the liver leading to slow, painful death so illimination from the garden is essntial to prevent the seeds spores travelling on the air. The fact that the tiny daisy-like flower-heads were in full bloom suggests that this stealthy predator had been present for two years finally drawing our attention with his defiant flash of colour amongst a reflective, blue-red planting. We are grateful for his defiant exhibitionism, a true pantomime villain, he alerted us to his presence & we celebrated his demise on a funeral pyre! Well at least for now---
