I was given some flowers

last week. Youngest Nephew's girlfriend gave them to me.
She gave the Senior Cat some chocolates at the same time. 
And of course we have both shared both those things. It has been even nicer to share than usual because there was no particular reason to give either of us those things. She just did it "because...." and shrugged and smiled.
The flowers are still there. They were very fresh when she gave them to me. The two roses are now looking a little tired but the daisies and the lilies that went into the little pot still look lovely.
I have to confess I am not "cut flowers" sort of person. I much prefer to leave them in the garden and stare out the window at them. They last longer that way and it always bothers me to cut them off from their source of nutrients.
When my parents first moved into this house there was a very elderly man living in the house over the rear fence. Every summer his backyard would look a bit like an impressionist painting - Monet comes to mind. 
There would be hundreds and hundreds, perhaps a thousand more, gladioli planted there. He belonged to "the Gladioli society" - something we had never heard of but he was passionate about. The gladioli he grew ranged from stark white through palest cream, pink, lavender, mauve and apricot to brilliant fire engine red, deep purple, shocking pink and sunset yellow. There were others with stripes and borders. They were plain and frilled too. 
He knew the name of each variety. He would bring my mother great swathes of the ones that were not good enough to show. The two of them would stand in the kitchen and go through the merits of each one. 
The old man's wife always had more in their house, along with the roses he grew in the front garden. She would take my mother in and show her and quietly tell her she had no idea what they were called.
It didn't really matter.
I have no idea at all. We have jonquils out in the garden now. They will stay there. There are daffodils coming up. There are hyacinths looking as if they might flower despite having been left too long last year. The Senior Cat might get a tulip or two.
We will leave them all in the garden. Most of them are at the side of the house. The Senior Cat can look out his bedroom window and enjoy them there. He will pass them on the way to his beloved shed if he is still able to use it at all in the spring.
And, to me, that's the way it ought to be. If we cut them and brought them inside neither of us would really see them much at all because we don't work in the places where the flowers would need to be.
And they will last longer outside.