Who would have thought...

You take great pains to pick out your little plants, just the right color, size, whether they like sun..or not, and how much cash I'll have to dish out.  You bring them carefully home.  Husband and I picked out just the right kind of plant hangers to be bolted onto the iron balcony railing.  I have watered them every morning and fertilized them each week, brought them into the apartment every night there has been a frost warning and back out on their little hangers when the warning was ended.  I have sat in front of them and taken their pictures, and admired their beauty and their doubling in circumference.  In short, they are the only living things I own these days and I have babied them considerably.

So you can imagine my consternation upon gazing out the sliding glass door to find one of my hanging pots is no longer hanging....the beautiful, cascading fuchsia-colored petunia basket has left the balcony.

First my eyes got very wide.  I checked to see if I was indeed wearing my spectacles.  I was.

I then took notice of the trees around to see if it was windy and the plant had fallen off in the wind.  No wind.

I then checked out the dining room window to see if it was on the grass below.  Not there.

I was getting pretty ticked by then.

But I readied myself for church and when we went out to the car, husband checked around the building, I checked the garbage cans and the lawn area on the other side of the wall.  No plant.

On my way back to the car, walking up the parking lot, there, on the asphalt, sat one lonely little fuchsia-colored petunia looking as if she was attempting to leave her body on the ground as a point of direction for me to find her poor mother.

We traveled a ways by car to the west to see if someone had thrown her onto the Rotary Trail.  Nothing.

I then began to think about this.

Who would do this type of daring piece of thievery?  Certainly not anyone on drugs or drunk.  They wouldn't have made it.  We're talking about a second storey balcony here!  I did hear quite a few people yelling outside though in the night but they sounded like they were on the street and I wasn't up to checking on their condition!

They didn't bother with the geranium...just that huge, lovely petunia with cascading Lobelia.

My next thought was "If they got up high enough to pick that hanging basket, could they get over the balcony railing and in through the sliding door?"  Although we always keep that door locked...but that thought was there nonetheless.

Vandalism?  Covetousness?  Mischief?

Whatever the reason, I hope that whoever has my hanging plant gets to really enjoy it...although, it may just be in some dumpster....

So, now I have a purple petunia in it's place!  Perhaps I should wire it up a bit with a few volts...heh heh heh

 Farewell, dear plant.  Parting is such sweet sorrow......