Flora

Flora arrived one birthday onto my allotment - smuggled in overnight by friends I discovered her on my morning chicken run, gleefully greeting me with balloons. From arriving dressed to party, and may I say looking as if she was trying too hard with her little black dress, long black gloves, earrings and bangles and flaming red hair (so obviously a wig), she adapted to her surroundings and became more "Edwardian Diary of a Country Lady" than " Good Time Girl"! She has always been a well endowed lady, and originally was quite hard headed, however she lost her head and thereafter acquired a softer demeanor.
For a little over a year there appeared a suitor on the far side of the allotment - Flora gazed upon him all day, unbending but giving "come hither" movements of her skirt in the wind. Unfortunately he did not stand the test of time, and slowly lost definition. Well his allotment was choked with weeds and there was no sustenance other than dregs in cans strewn around him.
So now she stands, a rather shabby figure clutching her flowers during the day but as the light of the day fades she comes into her own, standing strong and cutting an impressive silhouette against the night sky, guarding her plot and the chickens - she often startles me as I potter around in the growing dark and suddenly catch sight of her figure out the corner of my eye, the silent sentinel of the plot.