Saturday 9 February 2008

Cupid's Carnations

The house is full of bright red carnations

Each with Cupid's message;

funny, suggestive or mysterious.


A little bird tells me

that the person who tied the messages

onto the carnations for MasterM complained...

Because there were so many.

*****
The school has a tradition of raising money for charity
by selling carnations for Valentines Day.
Slips of paper are sold for romantic messages to be written
which are then carefully censored by the teacher in charge.
Attempts to circumvent the censor by writing in
French, Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, Latin or Greek
are foolish because experts are drafted in
from the Languages Department.
The messages are transferred to beautifully printed paper
and tied to thousands of carnations.
Everyone in the school gets at least one - even the Security Guard.
Last year they raised over £3,000.

8 comments:

tess said...

what a wonderfully delightful tradition, and a fantastic way to raise money for charity.
Master M must be very popular if the house is so full of carnations, either they are all from Miss E, or she may have cause to be very jealous.....

blackbird said...

I
AM
strangely attracted to you.

dottycookie said...

£3000? That's a lot of carnations!

Mr Dottycookie would not buy me carnations - I banned them from my wedding bouquet because in my mind they will be forever associated with exams. Though I suppose red ones were worn for the last exams so not quite so scary. Did you do that in Cambridge too, or is it an Oxford ting like the wearing of sub fusc to write your answers?

Florence Knapp (Flossie Teacakes) said...

You must be so proud!!! Well done Master M!!! And what a wonderful idea.

Alice, you do take the most deliciously lovely photos! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend. x

Ali said...

It's a long time since I had the opportunity to play cupid - what fun to help with!

Mary said...

I am not a great fan of carnations. You have however managed to make them "strangely attractive" in your photos.

And the tradition is eminently stealable - such a great idea.

Anonymous said...

I'd be researching naughty words in heiroglyphics just before carnations day. Let's see the school hurredly sending teachers from the hisory department to censor that!!

Fairlie - www.feetonforeignlands.com said...

What a fabulous idea!