Flowery Bicycles seen while tandem touring

When we started to collect bicycle postcards while touring by bicycle we noticed that quite a few were pictures of bicycles decorated with flowers or standing amongst flowers. As a result we started to notice real flowery bicycles in gardens or parked beside houses as we cycled past and it was only a short step from there to stopping and taking a photograph. Inevitably the time came when we also thought that we should make our own contribution to the world of flowery bicycles, although ours lives most of the time in our back garden rather than on the front drive for all to see. It has travelled to a friend's house, however, to be watered and cared for while we were away on a summer tandem tour.

Below are a selection of flowery bicycles "collected" on our travels. Some are elaborately arranged  and others just a token few flowers. We are still not sure whether artificial flowers count.

Click on photo to enlarge and scroll through gallery

FLOWERY BICYCLES

BICYCLES IN FLOWERS

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OUR OWN FLOWERY BICYCLE

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'Would you believe that there is a
great increase in bicycle crime
in this locality?'

The Third Policeman written by Flann O'Brien in 1939 and and published after his death in 1967
Even with Ullysses and Finnegan's Wake behind him, James Joyce might have been envious
More cycling quotes on other pages - Find out about bicycles and the atomic theory and who is the 3rd policeman?

.....MORE (and less)

'Last year we had sixty-nine cases of no lights and four stolen. This year we have eighty-two cases of no lights, thirteen cases of riding on the footpath and four stolen. There was one case of wanton damage to a three-speed gear, there is sure to be a claim at the next Court and the area of charge will be the parish. Before the year is out there is certain to be a pump stolen, a very depraved and despicable manifestation of criminality and a blot on the county.'
' Indeed,' I said.
' Five years ago we had a case of loose handlebars. Now there is a rarity for you. It took the three of us a week to frame the charge.'
' Loose handlebars,' I muttered. I could not clearly see the reason for such talk about bicycles.
' And then there is the question of bad brakes. The country is honeycombed with bad brakes, half of the accidents are due to it, it runs in families.'
I thought it would be better to try to change the conversation from bicycles. ' You told me what the first rule of wisdom is,' I said. ' What is the second rule?'
' That can be answered,' he said. ' There are five in all.
1 Always ask any questions that are to be asked and never answer any.
2 Turn everything you hear to your own advantage.
3 Always carry a repair outfit.
4 Take left turns as much as possible.
5 Never apply your front brake first.'
' These are interesting rules,' I said dryly.
' If you follow them,' said the Sergeant, ' you will save your soul and you will never get a fall on a slippy road.'
' I came here to inform you officially about the theft of my American gold watch,' I said
He looked at me through an atmosphere of great surprise and incredulity and raised his eyebrows almost to his hair.
' That is an astonishing statement,' he said at last.
'Why?'
' Why should anybody steal a watch when they can steal a bicycle?'
' Search me,' I said.
' Who ever heard of a man riding a watch down the road or bringing a sack of turf up to his house on the crossbar of a watch?'
' I did not say the thief wanted my watch to ride it,' I expostulated. ' Very likely he had a bicycle of his own and that is how he got away quietly in the middle of the night.'
' Never in my puff did I hear of any man stealing anything but a bicycle when he was in his sane senses,' said the Sergeant, 'except pumps and clips and lamps and the like of that. Surely you are not going to tell me at my time of life that the world is changing?'
' If we ever find the watch,' he smiled, ' I have a feeling that there will be a bell and a pump on it.'
I considered my position with some misgiving. It seemed to be impossible to make the Sergeant take cognisance of anything in the world except bicycles. I thought I would make a last effort.
' You appear to be under the impression,' I said coldly and courteously, ' that I have lost a golden bicycle of American manufacture with fifteen jewels. I have lost a watch and there is no bell on it. Bells are only on alarm clocks and I have never in my life seen a watch with a pump attached to it'
The Sergeant smiled at me again.' There was a man in this room a fortnight ago,' he said, ' telling me that he was at the loss of his mother, a lady of eighty-two. When I asked him for a description — just to fill up the blanks in the official form we get for half-nothing from the Stationery Office — he said she had rust on her rims and that her back brakes were subject to the jerks.'
This speech made my position quite clear to me. When I was about to say something else, a man put his face in and looked at us and then came in completely and shut the door. I discovered afterwards that his name was Michael Gilhaney.
The Sergeant gave me another wrinkled cigarette from his pocket and jerked his thumb in the direction of the back room. As I went in with the cigarette I heard the Sergeant opening an enormous ledger and putting questions to the red-faced visitor.
' What was the make,' he was saying,
'and the number of the frame and
'was there a lamp and a pump on it?' he asked.