Chris Hogg writes

Yes, me. For some peculiar and no-doubt Freudian reason, they make me
think of those very large waitresses in mop hats that you see at
places like the Munich beer festival, carrying five huge glasses of
foaming lager in each hand supported on their ample bosoms............

Its a very efficient way of carrying several 'masses' of bier :-) Added
to which the head on each acts as a damper and stops it sloshing about.
I shall never forget standing on the benches with another 5,000 people
and drinking 'ein prosit' in time with the umpah band... amazing. And so
civilised. Where else could you get 150,000 people drinking for 10 hours
a day for 16 days in a row, with a huge travelling circus? And
'bouncers' collecting those who can't take any more and laying them out
on the sloping banks of the lawn until they have recovered, and can go
back and carry on drinking...

Oh yes; hydrangeas. Dug out about a dozen big ones from our garden
over the last two years. One bit of root that I missed still keeps
putting up suckers. I didn't know they did that! That particular plant
had huge off-white heads, many over 15 inches across. Very
Bier-Keller!

But why are these not good in the East but OK in the West?? Having taken
over nothing but a large vacant grassy patch as my main garden, I was
very pleased this weekend to be offered nine pink hydrangeas which were
unwanted and suffering in chalky soil. 5 are now replanted on the edge
of the main garden over some iron horseshoes which will hopefully make
them go blue, and the other four are usefully filling gaps in vegetation
elsewhere on the boundary.


--
David