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!