Dr Phillip

I worked a little today, Sunday. This because a customer, my best customer, asked could he have 20 bunches of purple wattle to pick up Monday morning, meaning it would need to be picked Sunday.

Yes I did it. I also picked 10 bunches of Mexican Sage at Keith's, and a little extra for Elvie to use in her mixed posies. This to make the exercise of driving to Emerald a little more worth while. It rained on and off for most of the day. I have to go the specialist tomorrow so rather than say no (they would have to wait until Monday afternoon pick up) it suited me to work today and get it out of the way, leaving tomorrow comfortable for my 2.00pm appt.

Purple wattle you may know is a type of Cootamundra wattle. I planted a row at the farm some twenty years ago and several trees at home. I used to sell quite a lot, then for whatever reason no one asked for it and the trees deteriorated. These things are better if you cut them regularly so they put on new good growth. If not cut they deteriorate.

So for now there's a renewed interest, albeit by only one customer that buys from our wholesaler, and probably fleeting. While I was picking I thought of Phillip, who, a couple of years ago bought good quantities of wattle foliage and blossom. He was a good customer who paid on the nose and bought a lot of stuff we would otherwise have not sold.

He was a nuisance in that he wanted stuff outside my normal routine but the benefits outweighed the negatives so I did my best to get what he wanted. He was a likeable guy. He was a doctor, working in emergency at Dandenong Hospital, and studying to be a surgeon. But he loved floristry and plants and gardens and flowers, and worked in his time off for a florist. He always had a camera at hand and was always taking pictures of flowers and trees.

He was a big bloke, half Asian looking but dark skinned. Very handsome, and well spoken and extremely polite. He said his mother was Vietnamese, and his father a black American serviceman.

This went on for a year or so. He was a little unreliable, not turning up when he said he would, but with the good excuse that he was unable to get away from his work at the hospital and had to work long shifts. Sometimes he'd turn up with an unusual vehicle, saying the florist's van was unavailable so he had to hire one.

Then he just stopped coming. He owed us a small amount of money but the weeks and months passed and we assumed he wouldn't return. In the meantime we picked up another customer a lady from Monbulk, who fills the Phillip Gap. In conversation one day she told us that she knew Phillip and he was a total fraud, he was not a doctor at all. We have not seen him since.

To the footy. Keith was happy his Saints had such a good win. He reckons ruckman Hickey set it up by nullifying the influence of Max Gawn. Maybe too, but I just think the Saints were better all over the paddock. Keith is eighty years old +. He recently had an operation to have a pig's valve inserted in his heart where his own was failing. Now on the other side of his heart, the valve is leaking, top and bottom. He thinks they can't give him another pig's valve. maybe due to age. He is out of breath very quickly. But in his eighties he keeps his business selling camellias going and still drives all over Victoria delivering to nurseries.

A great thing about my lifestyle is the people along the way. Keith is a great favourite and his wife Jenny is a beautiful lady with the the most lovely nature I have ever come across. They recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Fantastic.