A lesson learnt

This is not a profound tail, but it does end in a death so pay attention. Do you know those little water saver crystals ? No, well they are a little iddy bitty grain of stuff that looks like the silica gel you get in the box with your new electronics or leather goods (think shoes Jen) which when wet expand to huge proportions seemingly stuffing away whole dams worth of water just in a few crystals. With the rain fall in Sydney somewhat less than the Gobi we are all being advised to save water, shower under a drip, wash our veggies in sand and forget about washing our cars. So, after recently planting a few hardy natives in the back yard I had a few crystals left over which I threw into the bromeliads (almost certainly Aechmea gamosepala or Aechmea gamosepala var. nivea) that cling to a tree fern outside our door.

Well and good..
.. well no, see, it rained and rained and drizzled and rained and the little iddy bitty crystals swelled up and got heavy and ripped the bromeliads from their moorings. Oh well Something will grow back into the hole.
This has been a public service announcement.