BIRTHDAY GREETINGS

Spent the best part of the morning on the internet trying to find a good book to post to my grand daughter who is 11 years old and has recently relocated to Germany. (No book shops in Prince Albert)
I am not a Walt Disney fan and otherwise there seemed to be endless horror stories that I felt were inappropriate. Eventually I phoned my favourite bookshop in Noord Hoek and not only was I assisted with the choice of a book but it was posted to her with a card from me.
I was able to relax for the rest of the morning and do what I love best, paint her a card featuring her birthday flower for the year, the Plumbago.
My mother started the tradition of birthday flowers for me by telling me that the original brick red Gladiolii was flowering profusely when I was born. Years later when she was old and frail she always gave me a bunch of these lovely flowers on my birthday.
I used to have them in my garden but somehow they seem to have disappeared. A hungry porcupine?