This afternoon I discovered three neighbours - women - hanging in the lime tree in front of the house I live in ...

At first I wasn't sure how to react. I racked my brain to find any special dates that my mobile phone hadn't reminded me of - nothing.
I considered going back inside and consulting the Farmer's Calendar hanging in my kitchen, but I'd checked that at breakfast and wondered about the entry:
'Pharisee and Customs officer', it said. 'Sunrise 06:24. Sunset 20:15.'
I wasn't so good in Bible classes, so I have no idea, what the hypocrites had to do with with customs and excise ...
... but the scene in 'my' tree was something entirely different.

Then I noticed that my neighbours were armed to the teeth!
Two of them were waving knives at me, the third was wielding sécateurs.
It was the garden scissors that got me thinking along the right lines ...
... colds and influensa.

Dried Lime flowers, when infused in boiling water and sipped slowly, will make you sweat - supposedly a cure for a cold.
I learned that it takes a cold three days to build up, it will stay with you for three days and it takes a further three days for it to leave.
Over the years I have found this piece of wisdom to be true and no amount of pills, sprays or infusions will alter the fact.
While it is true that Linden 'tea' will make you sweat, I have never found a medicine that really alleviates the symptoms of a cold.

My neighbours, however are all farmers and believe in the old remedies (some of which are really effective - try a cushion filled with warmed cherry stones to alleviate back ache - nothing better.) they are convinced that lime flowers will cure a cold and so, there they are hanging in my tree!

When they are finished here, they will move on to the next tree just up the hill.

I suppose I wasn't quick enough - if I should decide, at some time in the year, that I need lime flowers, I shall have to visit the chemists ...