Cyclamen

This morning we decided to go to Scotsdales Garden Centre to get some plants and to have breakfast. Scotsdale’s service was not up to the usual standard and I filled in a complaint’s card as well as complaining in the café.

They appear to have a lot of new staff, probably just for Christmas, but there are other changes too. We waited in a long queue and when we got to the front of the queue the man serving, who I have never seen before, preferred to chat to other staff rather than serve customers. The man in front of me in the queue had already got quite cross as the girl serving him was very slow. We waited at the front of the queue for five minutes while he fetched plates and then counted how many slices of bacon and how many hash browns were in the trays. The hash browns looked different to me today so I asked if they were still gluten-free. He looked at me as though I was daft and clearly had no idea what gluten-free meant; eventually he went and asked. No, they are not gluten-free. I have been told in the past that they were gluten-free and have eaten them without problems, so suspect that they have changed their supplier. I then asked for a gluten-free roll, off he went again and came back saying they did not have any. Halfway through eating my breakfast he appeared, it seems they did have some gluten-free rolls; he brought me one free of charge. The breakfast today was not to the usual standard and food was put onto very cold plates, the only thing hot was my tomato.

We purchased quite a few plants for the borders and the tubs, which I have redone as I was not happy with the Polyanthus that I planted a few weeks ago; they have been removed to another border. We also bought some Alpine Cyclamen as well as some bigger ones. We got the usual cat food for Dougal and Florence and then visited the café for coffee before coming home. The GOG had some flapjack, the fruitcake he usually has looked as though it had been sitting there for a week. I did not like the look of the gluten-free cake so I gave it a miss.

This afternoon I have planted most of the plants, but decided to finish them in the morning. Today’s picture shows some of the larger Cyclamen still in the wheel barrow ready for planting tomorrow. I said yesterday that I would blip Florence with the pumpkins; she declined to pose for me.