Something in a vase

Most of my flower arranging is born of necessity

when thinning out heavy plants,

or pruning flopping ones.

These day lilies I brought inside because they were out of sight,

and as their name implies over so quickly.

Moon daisies continue to behave thuggishly in their over-rich soil

and instead of waving decorously in a delicate meadow, crash about

and lean heavily on anything else that struggles to show its face.

Such as this cornflower.

Although admittedly this was more a victim of my clumsiness.

I was weeding, when I simultaneously discovered it and crushed it.

I'm hoping it revives in water.

Ikebana it is not.

Unintended Kondoing

Well it needed doing admittedly,

but the matter was accelerated at the weekend while my back was turned.

My daughter-in-law, calling by to fetch a car seat in our absence

heard an alarm beeping and traced it to the freezer.

She wisely did not alert us to this 

as there was nothing that could be done about it until our return.

We ate the lamb curry with melted mango chunks lassi and binned the rest.

Luckily there wasn't any raw meat in it 

and I hadn't just batch cooked a month's worth

of delicious meals so I'm thinking of this as a fresh start.

Could have done with some ice cubes today though.

Poppylation explosion

I shook a pepper pot of poppy seeds

into an empty bed last autumn

and forgot about it.

Shout out for shingle

This unpromising, nay bleak coastal terrain bursts into life in summer.

The yellow horned poppy.

Valerian.

Wild roses.

Just the other side of this hedge, people are working with nature

to make beautiful gardens.

They shared their efforts with us to raise money for the local hospice.

When I contemplate the sorry apology for a lawn at home,

I wonder if the way forward isn't just to scalp it

and ship in the shingle.

(My only caveat is that pebbles are

 so darned noisy and not barefoot friendly.)

Reminded me of this

and Freda's two gates.