Hello Blossom, I would like to show you my "entry" to May's Le Challenge.
Not quite storm in a teacup, but tranquillity in a teacup. Clematis and spiraea from my garden.
As soon as I saw the Challenge this month was Blossom I immediately knew I wanted to do a flower arrangement and that I would use cherry blossom. As it turned out I used clematis, but more about that later. We were in Philadelphia and Ritten House Square, the park in the shopping district had some beautiful magnolia and cherry trees in bloom. There were banners in the streets proclaiming it was blossom time in Philadelphia. There was lots of blossom in New York too when we moved on to there. I had a gorgeous photo but it seems to have disappeared the depths of my phone.
Nearer to home, Merville Garden Village is a 1940s development with flat roofed low rise white painted apartments set in cherry blossom lined avenues. Our own apple tree should be in blossom now but is a little late this year.
Somewhere I would love to visit is Japan which is of course renowned for its blossom. In Portsmouth I bought to read "An Artist of the Floating Islands" by Kazuo Ishiguro. The front cover had blossom on it.
So, that was the plan. I just had to fathom out the social etiquette of stealing some cherry blossom. Is it socially acceptable to steal some blossom from a public park in these days of social responsibility? Did I just pull a bit off in passing or dare to produce some secateurs? What if somebody I knew spotted me?
As it turned out, my husband unwittingly became the solver of my life problems and anxieties. He cut a stem of clematis from the garden last Sunday. The clematis itself became a point of interest. We just laid it along our white oval table. (what I refer to as the Boardroom table). It looked beautiful just as it was. Less really is more sometimes.
By Monday it was beginning to wilt, so after a good drink, the clematis, not me, we were set to go.
I love the simplicity of my Alessi cups and saucers, and they were the perfect foil for the clematis. Not bad for just two different blossoms. I quite like the dying arrangement too. Just a different stage of the process.
I enjoyed it so much I repeated the arrangement when we had friends over for dinner on Friday night. At the last minute, I added a couple of magnolia blossoms, snaffled from the back of the plant. No photo I'm afraid.
Wee funny story to finish. When I was what we could call a "young wife" I used to get nervous when I had to go to the husband's work functions. He told me his new boss's wife was called Blossom. So I Blossom'd this and Blossom'd that being ultra friendly. After the third meeting it turned out she was called "Willow". I took the bull by the horns and apologised. She was lovely and had thought Blossom was a term of endearment. So, do your homework before you meet the boss.
Helen x
linking up with Le Challenge
Not quite storm in a teacup, but tranquillity in a teacup. Clematis and spiraea from my garden.
As soon as I saw the Challenge this month was Blossom I immediately knew I wanted to do a flower arrangement and that I would use cherry blossom. As it turned out I used clematis, but more about that later. We were in Philadelphia and Ritten House Square, the park in the shopping district had some beautiful magnolia and cherry trees in bloom. There were banners in the streets proclaiming it was blossom time in Philadelphia. There was lots of blossom in New York too when we moved on to there. I had a gorgeous photo but it seems to have disappeared the depths of my phone.
Nearer to home, Merville Garden Village is a 1940s development with flat roofed low rise white painted apartments set in cherry blossom lined avenues. Our own apple tree should be in blossom now but is a little late this year.
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| photo from google images |
Somewhere I would love to visit is Japan which is of course renowned for its blossom. In Portsmouth I bought to read "An Artist of the Floating Islands" by Kazuo Ishiguro. The front cover had blossom on it.
So, that was the plan. I just had to fathom out the social etiquette of stealing some cherry blossom. Is it socially acceptable to steal some blossom from a public park in these days of social responsibility? Did I just pull a bit off in passing or dare to produce some secateurs? What if somebody I knew spotted me?
As it turned out, my husband unwittingly became the solver of my life problems and anxieties. He cut a stem of clematis from the garden last Sunday. The clematis itself became a point of interest. We just laid it along our white oval table. (what I refer to as the Boardroom table). It looked beautiful just as it was. Less really is more sometimes.
By Monday it was beginning to wilt, so after a good drink, the clematis, not me, we were set to go.
I love the simplicity of my Alessi cups and saucers, and they were the perfect foil for the clematis. Not bad for just two different blossoms. I quite like the dying arrangement too. Just a different stage of the process.
I enjoyed it so much I repeated the arrangement when we had friends over for dinner on Friday night. At the last minute, I added a couple of magnolia blossoms, snaffled from the back of the plant. No photo I'm afraid.
Wee funny story to finish. When I was what we could call a "young wife" I used to get nervous when I had to go to the husband's work functions. He told me his new boss's wife was called Blossom. So I Blossom'd this and Blossom'd that being ultra friendly. After the third meeting it turned out she was called "Willow". I took the bull by the horns and apologised. She was lovely and had thought Blossom was a term of endearment. So, do your homework before you meet the boss.
Helen x
linking up with Le Challenge
You better stay in Japan a good while or be prepared to move long distance too see any flower in full bloom because they last only a week at most. But since the country is very long from south to north, you may find something if you keep looking. Is that a pine tree on the cover? I think I have read it but can't remember....
ReplyDeleteI love beautiful flowers and really hate it when people cut them, we have complete strangers (tourist) walk by our house and cut flowers or blooms even one time some unripe olives on our olive tree, I was like what the fuck, seriously they need something for their hotel room and for them to throw away the next day. grrr.... So glad you found a solution, beautiful flowers.
ReplyDeleteI love fresh flowers, well done on your Le Challenge entry.
ReplyDeleteHelen this is a wonderful post! Spring and all its blossom trees/bushes just fills me with such wonder and happiness. I love how it all ties together (you know me, I'm into segueing, not the segway dorky thing, the literature witty one). I loved that clematis reclining so gracefully on the Boardroom table when I first saw it in an earlier post...Thanks for the reminder of this author; must get one out of our library. Which one did you recommend? Not sure I put it on "My List".
ReplyDelete