Weekly photo challenge: ephemeral

This week’s photo challenge is ephemeral: a wonderful word for short-lived, fleeting. Things we might easily overlook, although our lives are made richer by noticing them.

Buttonholes are ephemeral – small posies of flowers and foliage, their stems out of water. We know they’ll stay fresh for only a day or so, but we wear them as a small token of celebration to mark special occasions.

Buttonholes of tiny, blue forget-me-nots, pink columbines and cow parsley were presented by some fellow exhibitors in the Great Pavilion to visitors one year at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. I never learned which company had the idea, but I saw several pinned to celebrities during Press Day and was attracted by the delicacy of the design.

The one I’m sharing here was worn by Stephen Jones, the milliner. His inventive, creatively engineered haute couture hats and headpieces have a reputation for being radical: the man himself has always seemed gentle and kind during the brief times I’ve met him.

I loved the contrast of the stylized jewels on his decorative tie pin, the printed design on the tie itself, and the dainty, fresh buttonhole.

All three are artistic renderings of flowers, in blues, pinks and greens, in a similar scale. I would not have thought to combine them, but noted how well they seemed to work together.

The florist’s posy may be ephemeral, but a photograph captures and celebrates the moment in the effortless way that characterises this magpie art.

And let’s imagine that the designs on the tie and the tie pin celebrate similar moments, seen through the artists’ eyes.