
I’m just popping in to share a few pictures for May Squares. Continue reading “Month of Squares: Renew and Burgeoning”

Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life

I’m just popping in to share a few pictures for May Squares. Continue reading “Month of Squares: Renew and Burgeoning”

Each year, just as the new season’s roses are appearing, I set out to take pictures of rose buds for the readers who love them (you know who you are). I never do as well as I hope.
It isn’t good to be too critical of your own photography, so I’m offering these up as part of my latest series of posts on roses. Continue reading “The Magic of Rose Buds”

I’m setting a little challenge today: how many of these buds can you identify? My selection contains hairy buds, arching, clustered, leafy, capped and felted ones. (I’m having to write more text than I want to here so that WordPress doesn’t ‘helpfully’ include the answers in the preview in The Reader. I think that should do it!) Continue reading “Seven Flower Buds (A Quiz)”

I do try to keep my promises, but some are harder than others. If I promised not to eat smoked salmon, for example, that would seem easy. Smoked salmon is pretty much the worst food you could offer me. There may well be things I like less, but I have not so far been invited to partake of them. [Though dim memories of my friend Paul inducing me to eat wasabi peas do float to mind, and feeling the urge to roll around, pawing my face afterwards, like a dog might if it tried something it didn’t like. He meant it as a kindness.] Continue reading “Square In September: Rosebuds”

Variegated geranium leaves, yellow pompons, wool swizzles and twigs make up one of my favourite designs I’ve seen at a flower show. Yes, it’s tiny and the florist hasn’t spent a fortune on flowers, but it wows me with its colours, poise and confidence.
The judges’ card noted some fault or other – from memory, it lacked flowers or content. I could quote a poem that is equally brief and perfect, but I’ll forbear. The brief might have been ‘Pack ‘Em In’, for all I know, in which case, this would have been highly commended:

Ivory, pink and hints of green lift a white floral centrepiece that would be perfect for a traditional summer wedding. Orchids, rosebuds, peony buds, chrysanthemums and lisianthus feature, with tiny sprigs of gypsophila and hebe, at a guess. I think the clusters of flowers and tiny green buds are Kalanchoe ‘Calandiva White’. Silver-grey mohair yarn trails delicately over. I enjoy the expertise shown here: the ability to create such an even height and the tapestry effect that prevents open ‘black holes’ that can appear when floral designs are photographed. Continue reading “Four Floral Designs From Flower Shows”