Wordless Wednesday ~ A Little Gem

In A Vase On Monday ~ Not Quite What The Box Said

Try as I might I could not bring myself to snip the head of this hippeastrum for this week's 'In A Vase On Monday' so I hope that I'm forgiven. It's in a pot residing on the kitchen windowsill. The box it came in promised a white flower. It seems that I've been watching it for weeks in a state of animated suspension - the hippeastrum not me in case you wonder. I was delighted to see the first flower finally unfurling but when the first colour I could detect was red it was a bit of a let down. I thought that it might turn out to be all red but instead I've ended up with a rather stripy creation A note has been made to self to purchase from a reputable nursery this year rather from that German supermarket the name of which begins with an L. Having said that I bought a rather gorgeous double white hellebore from the aforesaid supermarket last week for the grand price of £4.99. You win some, you lose some.

I see that our hostess Cathy is celebrating some of the forty shades of green in her vase this week over at 'Rambling In The Garden' - do take a peek if you haven't already done so.

P.S. I limited myself to one hellebore purchase but there were some rather nice pale pink spotty- dotty doubles as well. I thought that I would return to buy a second but when we popped in this morning there were only the white flowering ones left.

Wordless Wednesday ~ 'Eye Catcher'

In A Vase On Monday ~ A Few Drops

Special visitors in the shape of a niece and her partner merited picking a few snowdrops to adorn the dining table yesterday lunchtime. This small vase was therefore a ready made choice for this week's 'In A Vase on Monday'. The snowdrops were a mixture of galanthus nivalis which are only just beginning to fully open, the lovely dainty double galanthus 'Lady Beatrix Stanley' and the mystery which is in a pot labelled 'Photo 3'. I remember taking photos of a few pots of snowdrops which had lost their labels in an effort to help me identify them. This was some time ago and 'Photo 3' is still unknown. The markings are not all identical making the challenge more difficult. For now the name 'Photo 3' remains until I can if ever come up with the real and hopefully more attractive one.

I see that our hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' is also showcasing the indomitable snowdrop in her post this week. Looking forward as always to peeking at other vases.

January Musing ~ The Year is Hatched

"They seemed to have come from nowhere, the little clutch of pale shapes, half hidden beneath the tangle of tired brown stems and flat, damp last-year's leaves. A white so bright that porcelain would seem dull by their side. I like to imagine that one of those westward-slipping, clapping, whistling lapwings that whisk up the greyest skies had broken briefly from its whirling companions to drop off a secret new year gift. But it is not the season for nesting and, in any case these six white eggs are worryingly small, oddly elongated and rather perilously suspended. Had I been keeping a closer watch, I would have seen this quiet patch pierced by tips of green, spreading and whitening as the mornings passed. Today's thin cluster will be taller and fatter tomorrow, cracking open within days into perfectly balanced broken shells. The year is hatched in the unlikely undergrowth of January, despite grey skies, despite the puddles, mud and sodden fields, despite hard frosts and harder ponds, despite the snow, despite the falling snow."

Words from 'The Brief Life Of Flowers' by Fiona Stafford.

Not as much as a single flake of snow so far here this winter. I am wondering if and when we might have a snowfall. The book is a treat!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Promise

Galanthus elwesii - Rosemary Burnham'

Wordless Wednesday ~ Snowdrops For A New Year

In A Vase On Monday ~ Plastered Again!

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak at the moment. No I haven't imbibed too many glasses of festive sherry or Baileys but I have my right hand in plaster again. The X-rays I had back in September which revealed a broken metacarpal failed to pick up on another fracture. I went back into plaster the week before Christmas and return to the fracture clinic in the middle of January. I have a feeling though that I may be plastered beyond then but I'm trying not to think too much about that prospect.

I have therefore slightly cheated this week and am sharing a thoughtful gift of a miniature pink rose sent by a family member when she heard about my misfortune. As always thanks to our lovely hostess Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden' for hosting not only today but constantly throughout 2019. Here's to a new decade of Monday vases!

December Musing ~ 'Today's Single Promise'

"I climb back to the village sliding on frozen puddles. They are like holes of sky in the road. A sudden blackbird alarmed skids out of a bush chipping chains of short cries behind him. A true note of winter, like an axe on a tree, a barking dog or a daylight owl, each pure and solitary in the pause of silence from which the past and future hang.

It has now turned noon and the day slides slowly from the roofs of the sloping village. It freezes harder than ivory; one can almost see it in the air as though the light was being stretched on nails. A clear cold radiance hangs over the landscape and a crow crosses it on creaking wings. The rich earth, with all its seeds and humming fields and courtships, is now closed and bound in white vellum. Only one colour remains, today's single promise, pricked in red over the ashen world - seen in a flitting robin, some rosehips on a bush, the sun hanging low by the wood, and through the flushed cottage windows the berries of the holly and the russet faces of the feasting children."

Words from 'Village Christmas And Other Notes on the English Year' by Laurie Lee.

Illustration - Inga Moore.

In A Vase On Monday ~ Golden Brown

Golden brown? Well perhaps slightly dusty and faded frippery would be a more accurate description of the contents of this week's 'In A Vase On Monday'. The star of the show is a small bunch of scabious stellata 'Sternkugel' which was grown at the allotment in the summer of 2016. They featured in a vase in February 2017 after which I had intended to throw them into the green bin but somehow or the other they have lingered on the windowsill of our utility room. They have become rather fragile in the meantime so I will be ruthless very soon. Time to grow them again next year perhaps. When in flower I was not particularly keen on the flowers which were an insipid pale blue but I was struck by the attractive seed heads. Keeping them company and rescued from the greenhouse are heads of papaver 'Lauren's Grape' and a sprig of lunaria annua. Thanks as always to Cathy over at 'Rambling In The Garden'. I wonder what other folk have come up with in their mid - December vases this week - it's certainly a challenging time of year to bring outside in.