Sneaking Around

A few months ago, when I was looking for greens to make my lei for hula, I realized that my apartments had three bushes that were the correct plant. I was so excited!!! But then remembered the high standard we are all kept too in living here and wondered if I really should pick and use them. Considering we get in trouble for using our railing to hang our wet towels from the pool, get yelled at for jumping in the pool and making a big splash, get told not to chip the grass with our golf clubs, and have "quiet"hours. I was a bit skeptical about how I was going to pull this off. I ended up having a great debate with myself and after three days of not finding any other green leaf plant that would work, I went to work on the bushes.

They are out of sight of all the apartments, so all I really needed to do is go back there and pick a little at a time, so that I wouldn't get caught and the bushes wouldn't become bare all of a sudden. That's exactly what I did. Just as night was falling, I made my way out to the bushes. A little here, a little there, pick, pick, pick and into my bag the greens went. When I was done, I ran under the cover of darkness back to my apartment and began making my lei. I didn't have enough, so the next night I was back out there picking. I completed all my lei and no one was the wiser...

Although I think they might have been on to me, because last week when I went back to dump my garbage, one of the bushes was cut down and is completely gone...all that is left is a stump! I wonder if they are telling me if you use my bushes, we will cut them down so you can't use them again! Although it really could have been just diseased or dying, so they cut it down. Who knows?

These are flowers we actually have permission to cut, but I decided to take pictures of them instead.