I took a bus to get to one of the smaller suburban craft shops today, because I would just die if I did not make it through those doors at least once.

Anyway.

I walked home from there with an eye on my expanding waistline and the naughty thought of deflowering a few lavender bushes along the way.

I wanted to grab a few lavender sprigs to use as bookmarks. They would serve the dual purpose of scenting the pages and marking where I last left off. Rosemary sprigs just do not cut it. They dry up and start shedding in agony because of their dehydrated state.

So yes. I saw a few miserable straggling bushes but they were protected by high iron fences, and that detered me from casually wandering over and lopping off a few heads of lavender. Some other lavender bushes were on the verge of death and not worth my trouble.

And then I saw this whole line of gorgeous leafy verdant bush with the biggest heads of lavender I had seen for a while, kept in a well manicured garden, yet retaining a riotous growth that hinted of wildness.

I stood outside the fence and gazed at the bush. After all, some of it was growing outside the fence, so it wouldn't hurt if I pulled a few stalks right?

I wish I could say that it was because of my highly evolved moral system that I spared the plant who might be screaming in agony at such torture, the vandalisation of a well-loved garden or the sheer fear of getting caught that.

Bleah. It's not fair!!!!! I lost to a bloody plant!!!!!

I came away without getting any spoils of war.

So yes.

And I have seen the recent DVD of LOTR. It's admirable, but I guess it lost the magic of the big screen.

Sigh.