[Some of these photos are not suitable for sensitive adults.
Children are usually okay with them.]
Children are usually okay with them.]
Deidre, our beloved handicapped pink plastic flamingo…
R.I.P.
R.I.P.
Dear Ones…
It is a sad, sad day here at Dragonfly Cottage. Deidre, our beloved legless pink flamingo has passed away after only 2 summers here in our blistering coastal heat. Some of the others are looking a little the worse for the wear, but Deidre is our first to actually pass away and it is a terrible blow. Summer is hard on all of us here with temps in excess of 100 degrees with the heat index, as it was yesterday, 110 degrees, and humidity so bad your glasses fog up as soon as you step out the door causing you, very likely, to walk into a tree or a wall of the house, or perhaps dead into your car whose windows will fog so badly you will have to wait until winter when things cool a bit to drive it, but if you are plastic (clucking and shaking head) summers are especially hard on you. Most of the flamingos have been here hundreds of years and live back in The Wild Flamingo Wood. I daren’t get close enough to even take a photo but here is one that was taken in the 1800’s. You can tell by the fence.
Nobody messes with them and they don’t bother us as long as we don’t get too close to the fence line. Their beaks are so long a pug almost lost his near non-existent nose when he got about a foot away and one of the females, rather fierce as she was protecting a brood of pink plastic babies at the time, reached through the fence and went for the nose. If the poor pug had had any nose to speak of he would have lost it.
We are trying to figure out how best to dispose of Deidre and while we would like to bury her in the pug cemetery with it’s charming pink picket fence, she’s plastic and we are, after all, environmentally concerned. Go ahead and laugh. I bet you’ve never had to put a beloved companion in the recycling bin. (Shaking head sadly…)
Poor Deidre can’t be buried here…
Of course the roosters couldn’t care less. They have never deigned to associate with the flamingos and as far as they are concerned (… roosters are more hard-hearted than one might imagine, shocking really…) a few melted flamingos would suit them just fine. Do you see, they show no sadness or remorse at all, not even the youngsters, which I find shocking, to say the least…
One must expect losses in this heat I suppose and the only one who doesn’t mind is Alfred, the flying fish, because the humidity is so thick he can swim in it…
Alfred, shockingly unsympathetic, but he’s a cold-blooded
creature, after all (though one might imagine luke-warm in
these southern climes…)…
I myself am worn out by it all. It has been a tragic loss and quite a depressing day. I shall now go wrap poor Deidre lovingly in plastic grocery bags and put her in the recycling bin. I won’t even try to imagine what will happen to her once they pick her up. I just won’t let my mind go there.
I hope it’s cooler where you are. Keep your flamingos safe. They are with us such a short time…
…in mourning.
Awww, I’m so sorry for the loss of your pink flamingo.. she’s in a better place Maitri but unfortunately, we are left behind to deal with this incredible heat wave we’ve been having lately.. UGH! It’s hot. Stay safe Maitri and try to stay cool somehow. The temperature inside my house right now is 82 degrees with the air running full blast! I know you must be miserable. I hope the weather eases up soon. We need rain! Lots of it!
Dear Crystal, (Dabbing eyes with hankie, sniff…)
Yes it has been a terribly tragic loss, sigh, and the heat is just not to be believed. It is cool in here but the thermometer is set higher than usual, cooler because it’s so hot out and I have a big old 1950’s fan that was built like a steam engine! The pugs and I are about to take a mid-afternoon nap because this time of day we are good for nothing at all. I creep about around 7 at night to water what I must. I try to conserve water every way I can but in this weather if you don’t water the tender sproutlings and newly planted things they will die before your eyes.
Stay cool, thanks for stopping in, and DO keep an eye on any flamingos in your neighborhood. I’d hate for anyone else to have to sustain such heartbreaking tragedy.
Fondly,
Maitri
My heart is heavy with sadness…but let Deidre be the beautiful Phoenix, she will rise into something amazing and mystical…you have my word on it.
Please do not stay in mourning too long and stay cool.
Hugs
Denim, thank you so much for your kind condolences, you are truly a sensitive and caring soul, (Sniff, dabbing away tears…)
How wise of you to comment on what a magical and amazing soul she was. She had no legs and the pugs used to pull her around in her very own little pink wagon and sometimes, when they didn’t know I was looking, late at night, I could see them flying high in the sky, so Peter-Panesque with his little crew, or in this case hers. Ah, I shall miss those midnight rendezvous, when I acted none the wiser as the wee little teddy bear dogs came in with windswept hair…
Maitri, balancing ice cubes on head to stay cool…
I haven’t seen any plastic Flamingos in a long time. Maybe they are becoming an endangered species. For once the West is cooler then the east. It is uaually near 100 here in California but its a cool 89. i always enjoy your blog.
Judy
The last group of plastic flamingos I saw was from a fund raiser. They’d cover the yard with flamingos then remove them to where ever you want to send them for a fee. It was very successful.
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
Poor, poor Deirdre! To pass away so cruelly… On the other hand, as she must’ve been a broken-hearted, sorrowful birdie (her name alone indicates as much), she’s surely better off where she’s dwelling now, roaming those eternal plastic prairies of the pink plastic flamingo Heaven! I do condole you though. It’s always harder on those of us who stay behind! Keep good care of her siblings though! And console yourself by repeating that you’ve done all you could and that keeping a plastic flamingo alive for so long is certainly a perfectly positive input for your Karma! Best from the half-assed Parisian summer (20°C, would you believe it?), xoxoxo Dieter
Dear Papel, Joyce and Dieter…
So sorry to be so late answering your delightful comments but the AC went out here for 2 days and I went with it. I thought I was going the way of dear Deidre and I was fanning pugs like mad and dumping ice water on them because the pugs can’t take the heat!
Deiter, what a sensitive man you are. I had to dab my eyes with my hankie at your kind and consoling words. It’s hard to lose a plastic flamingo, and the worst part is that people just don’t take your grief seriously. And you may be half-assed but I am HALF French myself and wish I could be over there having a coffee with you in a cafe and talking about writing instead of attending funerals and limping through the raging heat. As it is I raise a cup of espresso to you and think thoughts of Hemingway and that group in the 20’s. Of course I would love to have met Marguerite Duras but I don’t think she was accepting visitors when I was there. Sigh. Cruel, cruel world…
Blessings to one and all, I’m waving my hankie at you!
Maitri, fanning self with palm fronds…
That is really funny! Sorry for your loss 😉
Thank you so much… sniff … I can barely stand it when people say, “She was nothing but a plastic YARD ORNAMENT!” (sob) Some people are SO cruel…. sniff…
Maitri