Dumber Than The Police Permit (2)

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I consider myself a practical person. I don't renovate our flat or build garden sheds but I assemble IKEA furniture on my own. I usually have a good idea if something has to be done. Yet the other day I lost it. We've got a calamondin bush (aka golden lime, Philippine lime, Panama orange, Chinese orange or acid orange). It’s an indoor plant in our part of the world. We've had it for many years. It has always given us much pleasure. Small white, wonderfully smelling blossoms, small green fruit and ripe orange fruit used to be there at the same time. Recently, though, there haven't been any blossoms or new fruit any more. Some of the leaves have become round and crumpled and, above all, are sticky to the touch. Research on the net has revealed that the calamondin has caught spider mites. From further research I've learnt that soft soap helps to eliminate them. One can also buy hard chemical spray stuff, but why should one? The soft soap must be mixed with water and the liquid must be applied to the surface and the underside of the leaves with a sponge. While I was doing it, I was thinking how irregularly the bush had grown. Some twigs were so long that I couldn't reach the leaves near the stem. I thought to myself that it would be a good idea to cut off the ends and give the whole bush a proper shape again. The cleaning of the leaves took me over an hour. When I had finished or rather cleaned all the leaves I could reach, I stepped back and looked at the bush. Really, it needed pruning. I got a pair of scissors and became active. When I had finished, I suddenly realised that I had cut off most of the leaves I'd just cleaned so diligently. Wouldn't it have been wiser to prune the bush before cleaning the leaves? In this way I'd also have been able to clean the ones near the stem right away. I was gobsmacked and dumbfounded. Me! So stupid! In fact stupider than the police permit which is a well-known German saying. Have you ever done anything so stupid that you can't believe it afterwards? ------ You can find the other instalment when you click on the green bar at the top of the site. ----- Photo from the net.