In my dotage I often find strange prompts remind me of my childhood. Vidi Proust Madeleine. The most recent was a watering can. I had the choice of buying a much cheaper plastic version but I simply could not resist the galvanized
steel can because a documentary of my boyhood played before my eyes. We had two big steel watering cans that were essential accomplices in so many adventures. The 8th Army is in real trouble until miraculously a tsunami washes away the Afrika Korps from the mud patch behind the house.


Why does your watering can say “Thank You” on a Dutch flag ? Maybe you’re only supposed to use it on carrots (originally purple apparently, until the patriotic Low Landers bred the national colour into them).