Ok so how many of you send flowers these days to new mothers in hospital? I was having this discussion recently with a local grower who was lamenting the fact that what was traditionally a strong area of floristry - sending flowers to new mummies (or anyone in hospital for that matter) is almost old fashioned now and sadly a declining side of the floral industry. Do you love to get flowers when in hospital or do you no longer bother or think about sending flowers? Our conversation went along the lines of the decline of sending flowers to people you know and/or love and the increase in buying flowers for people you have never even met and leaving them on pavements or wherever as memorial to the loss of someone who has passed away due to an unexpected act of violence or accident - did this public outpouring start with Princess Diana we wondered? Do you have a view on this change or even think about it? Interesting how time changes many traditions!

Its been a while! I haven't been active on my blog for quite a long time but tonight I had some time to go back to beginnings of blogging and realise that its time to update! So I decided that although there has been so much happening in my flower world over the last few months that perhaps I would work backwards and start with the last first! I love to forage - as you may well know and this was a mix of a wander around my garden early this week and a few flowers bought from the local flower market. This was a pleasure to put together and as I worked I was thinking of the pleasure it would hopefully bring to the recipient of the flowers - someone who was in hospital in the rehab section - somewhere I hope I do not have to go to! So my hope as I fiddled and played with the flowers was that it would bring her joy, encouragement and be food for her soul in this time of recovery.

Inspired Moments of Quiet Reading

Inspired Moments of Quiet Reading:

I have today opened the pages of the latest Country Style magazine which arrived in the mailbox this morning - such a lovely read in which to immerse oneself.

One of the articles by Annabelle Hickson struck a chord for me - she quotes the wonderful words of Constance Spry, the renowned British society florist in the 1930's and 49's on working with flowers....

"How much richer your everyday life becomes.  It becomes richer because every hedgerow and field, every garden, little or big, every street barrow, flower-shop window, holds the material for your art or hobby or whatever name you choose to give it, and your imagination is fired and feeds on things that perhaps before you never even noticed".

This is so true for me and it reminds me of why I always have my seceteurs in the car with me, and, as I have mentioned in a previous post, how I drive always with an eye on the road and an eye constantly roving looking at shrubs, bushes, weeds and flowers on the side of the road or in gardens to store in the back of my brain for future reference and picking!  

I have even been known to knock on people's doors and leave notes tucked in their mailbox to ask if I could come and cut some greenery from the garden - I haven't yet been told that I cannot do it or perhaps they are So surprised that they have no opportunity to say no!   Mostly though the gardens are overgrown with shrubbery tumbling over fences and they are more than happy that someone actually wants to cut it back for them.

Even this morning I have stopped on the side of the road and snipped a few branches of a tree - just to see how it would keep in a vase or go as a hanging piece of greenery - the jury is still out as to whether it is a goody worth keeping or to continue the hunt.

As Annabelle writes, "the greatest gift of all this is the way all this picking and arranging helps me to notice what is around me, the changing of the seasons, the colour of the gum leaves" and brings a delight to me to be playing with what Mother Nature provided to create beauty inside and bring joy to the soul and others.

Next time you are out and about, notice the tiny things and the changes in the seasons in the foliage and the colour of the sky as Autumn creeps towards winter.  Oh and maybe keep a pair of seceteurs in your car!

As the summer season edges its way to Autumn how lovely are the blowsy blooms of the hydrangeas?  Gone are the colours of the blues, pinks and whites and quietly along comes the subtleties of spotted blooms, ageing pinks and smudgy greens.  I love that they can stay in the vase till the water runs dry, the blossoms are like fine paper and yet they still hold their shape until a decision has to be made - to keep till they gradually are taken over by dust and tiny spider cobwebs or ditch and just have a memory of their gorgeousness.  Right now mine are still giving me joy in their vase - although many would say their beauty has gone I beg to differ.   What is your penchant for the faded bloom to have and to hold or to ditch?!!

A fresh start to blogging after a long pause....

Well it has been quite some time since I put up a blog and today is the day I just felt it was time to come back to the social media circle/circus - not that I am expecting anyone to take notice of any of my musings but rather a place to just think out loud - after all isn't that what a lot of bloggers do?

So I will just potter about adding bits along the way that take my fancy - a kind of log of 2016 which has had a busy start already and I cannot believe how quickly January has moved on and the days of February are slipping by and with it the summer season.

Just a hint of Autumn coming in the garden - some of the trees around are beginning to colour as the days start to shorten.  I am always on the lookout as I drive around for good foraged foliage for any of my floral arrangements - have to be careful to watch the road - my kids think I am a terrible driver because of it!  So far I haven't hit anything - fingers crossed.

Excitement ahead with a wedding in the family in March so I have constant plans going around in my brain - mostly about flowers - are other people as obsessed as I seem to be about how to put flowers together.   I have had a lovely time today with my daughter checking out local flower growers and working out what types of flowers we might like to play with. So far we have a kind of white and green theme.... Roses, freesias, hydrangeas if they are still around, dahlias, lilies, alstroemerias, lisianthus, magnolia greenery, jasmine, viburnums, may, gladioli  and on and on it goes. So many gorgeous blooms to choose from.  Decisions to be made but oh how lovely to be playing with flowers again for a wedding.

Next post, once I can work out again how to add photos, I will revisit some weddings where I have done the flowers. Till then to you and to self, take care and have fun xx

 

I was in my garden early today and the morning light was catching this old chandelier which came out of the house when we renovated - it looked so pretty hanging in the tree and adds a bit of whimsy to the corner of the garden!  I love the spider's web attached to it!  Do you have something re-used in your garden that you love?

The first of the jasmine blooms are out - gracefully wandering their way all over the garden fence - the tiny drops of rain on the blossoms a reminder of the little bit of rain we had overnight - freshening everything up.

 

If I were a tiny fairy

 With nothing else to do

But to wriggle into flowers

 All the long day through,

 

I'd dance among the roses,

 I'd take a stately walk,

Balancing precisely

 On an Easter-lily stalk.

 

For play I'd choose the jonquils,

 

 For swimming, poppy cups,

For jokes and tricks and tiny naps,

 The Johnny-jump-ups!

 

But on some quiet evening,

 I'd leave my fairy band,

And on a star-flower through the sky

 I'd sail to fairyland.

 

John Chipman Farrer

 

 

And finally, I think Winnie the Pooh - my long time favourite bear and his best friend  Piglet really do have the right attitude!  Make every day your favourite day, find something to love about it and think about it, recall it, photograph it, journal it, draw it - whatever takes your fancy.  ENJOY

 



 

 

 

 

Spring is coming early - Snow Peas out in bloom already!