Urban Waste...not !

There's nothing that can stop me in my tracks as quickly as a kerbside collection of green 'waste', waiting to be picked up by the local council ! I can spot a sawn-up silver birch, bundled-up bamboo or trussed-up twigs a mile off, and if I can lift them and/or squeeze them into the back of the mighty little Peugot, in they go ! Nature's bounty !

Recently in my neighbourhood, I found a tangle of branches from an unidentifiable tree, each of which branch, on its own, was worthy of rescue, being of a fantastic wind-blown shape. They were all rather large though, and would have needed to be displayed in a warehouse-sized room.

I have broken these branches down into smaller pieces and used them in several ways, and I've still got heaps left !

One became a sort of nest above branches of silver birch (from another street collection), which had been screwed upright on to a wooden plank for stability. Originally these branches had candles on them, and were used to decorate a table at Christmas. This time, I affixed water tubes to them and put stunning violet Vanda orchid blooms in each one.

I was also able to make little hand-tied bundles of twiglets, which I could then jam in to a favourite rectangular ceramic vase, and use to support these beautiful deep-sea-blue anemones. This tricky technique also works really well to support tulips in a wide-mouthed vase.

Then, finally, I tied little twiglets on to 2 metal candle holders which have been waiting for years to be used in an interesting way.

Just another example of what is one person's trash, is another's treasure.

Iris - The Messenger

A customer ordered a bunch of blue iris last week, and when I asked if he would like them gift-wrapped, he told me that he would be putting them first in to a vase, and that then they would be wrapped and taken home by the receiver.

When he came to pick the flowers up, he told me of a social worker with whom he had once worked whose work involved reuniting families. She made a point of always having flowers in the room when important information was being given, because she wanted to create a memorable setting for a very memorable event, and she hoped that people would always make the connection between the event and the flowers (my type of thinking, that !)

The customer said that he was going to be giving a woman special information about her mother.

I didn't ask at the time why he had chosen the IRIS for this occasion, and it was only later that I realised that in the Language of Flowers, Iris was the messenger of the Gods, sent to earth to bring good news to mortals. She was the goddess of the rainbow, because of the number of colours that the blooms could have.

He must have known that ... couldn't just be co-incidence.
Could it ?

More pictures from Tasmania...

Don't know why I couldn't add these...

Peppermint, persimmons & pizza

We spent the Queen's Birthday long weekend with friends in Hobart, Tasmania. Our hostess is a fantastic cook who used to run , with her then husband, a Middle Eastern restaurant.

Outside her dining room window was a truly wonderful persimmon tree. We sampled one of the fruit, but it was not yet ripe. I love looking at them, and frequently use branches of them in autumn flower arrangements, but I'm afraid I find the taste most unappealing - it's like taking a mouthful of cat fur. I'm told it's the tannin in the fruit.

On the Sunday, we drove to the beautiful Peppermint Bay, about 45 mins south of Hobart, for lunch. It was a truly beautiful day - warm enough for short sleeves if you were sitting in the sun, and freezing if you weren't ! Much to the chagrin of the waitstaff, we moved table 3 times in a (futile) effort to chase the sun, which seemed to be moving faster than us.

With eight mouths to be fed on Sunday night, our hostess made a huge amount of pizza dough, and we each, in turn, put on our own topping. This was a great idea, as new, hot pizzas came out of the oven every 20 minutes or so, and everyone was involved with the preparation of the meal.

This time we mangaged to get to the airport in time to make the plane home. A lovely long weekend !

Transport of delight !

With the crisp, autumn mornings come these identifiable flying objects. Somewhere, deep down in a pile of old National Geographic magazines, I have a photo of a whole barrage of them flying over Paris: from memory they were all old original designs.

I've never actually been in a hot air balloon, but I will one day soon ... maybe next time I'm in Paris !

Autumn ... liquid amber

Autumn is very, very nearly here. Some of the liquidamber trees near the shop are just starting to turn red, and the nights are definitely longer, and cooler.

Yesterday, I made bouquets for a bride who had 6 bridesmaids, all of whom were wearing creamy-yellow long gowns. The bride had seen the orange posy which features on the Calypso Flowers website, but wanted to incorporate more of the yellowy orange tones. The posies feature 4 different coloured roses, together with red freesias (with a yellow throat), and beautiful hypericum berries. I can't wait to see some photos from the wedding itself !

The bride carried creamy white roses, with white freesias, green privet berries, and 'Jade' floating Singapore orchids. It was sooo pretty !

First, choose your shoes !

When we first discussed this bride's flowers, she told me that the brides- maids would all be wearing black dresses, but that they would wear shoes of various colours ... red, yellow, lilac and blue... and that she would like the posies to be very colourful.

I think I fulfilled the brief !

We didn't have lilac roses, because they diluted the other colours, or blue, because I don't think that you can get them, apart from dyeing them, which I just wouldn't do - it's just not natural! We did have red, fuschia, oranges and yellows, which looked great, and the ribbon on the stems of the hand-tied posies matched their shoes, so there were no arguments !

(The bride wore fuschia shoes).