a rose by any other name would smell as sweet

You will be relieved to hear I am much cheerier than yesterday. Part relief that the takeaway induced food poisoning I was expecting did not develop. Part joy at the luxury that is working from home - I do much prefer it, there is a dog curled up by your feet, flowers on the table, lunch in the fridge, comfy jeans to wear and it just feels more productive all round. No time lost getting to and from work and the ability to put the washing on/load the dishwasher during your lunch break. Hurrah for home working.

I also discovered a fascinating fact today. I suspect it may not be fascinating to many other people, especially as I fear that actually most people already know this, so you will just have to humour me. Whilst making my grandad a cup of tea I lifted out the sugar bag and spotted this on the back:

Does anything jump out at you? Tea, yep. Coffee, yep. Baking, yep. Sprinkling, a bit vague but fair enough. Cereals, I would think that was covered under sprinkling but I shall allow it. Flowers......?

I wondered if it meant crystallised flowers but thought that seemed a weird thing to suggest. I told grandad and he immediately announced that adding sugar to your flowers helps them live longer, as does, he informed me, aspirin. Sure enough there on the side of the packet:

Well who knew? Except grandad obviously. And Whitworths. And apparently all of the internet. I suspect, and I can completely understand this, that they had the first five and didn't want to have an asymmetrical list. I still think it's a bizarre thing to have chose to put on though. I can't imagine anyone going shopping and picking up a packet of sugar specifically to keep their flowers alive. Or a packet of aspirin either.

Through the magic of the internet I discovered that everything helps flowers to live longer. Fizzy drinks, vinegar, aspiring, copper coins, even bleach. I'll never need to buy another bunch of flowers again. Not because they'll be so well preserved, just because there'll be no room in the vase by the time I've put all of that in.