Erin, my godchild, says the air yesterday was like "hot chicken broth." Ditto for today. Still...I gardened almost all day. I'd go out for 30 minutes to an hour, come in dripping wet, and reward myself with a chapter in The Good Priest's Son (Reynolds Price), then repeat. Plant material that interested me most today was 1) new apples on apple trees and 2) pink catchfly that bloomed in ragged area where I'd thrown out some leftover seed. I added an apple twig to yesterday's windowsill arrangement and like it much better now. If I were more particular, I'd edit a some leaves out of this arrangement and cluster the poppy pods, but until I saw the photo, I hadn't realized that would help. I'm also learning that I really need to overexpose lots of my photos to make them look the way I want them to. For some reason, I love having learned that.
The next conglomeration (a better word than "arrangement" for what I do) includes the catchfly I picked, plus a castor bean stem from a previous "arrangement" and two bold red stems of celosia that deer had almost but not quite completely defoliated. I'm amazed at how well castor bean leaves hold up after being cut---even in hot weather. Most such fleshy leaves would wilt after being cut on a "hot chicken broth" day. I also love the fact that many of the leaves in these conglomerations are already ridden with insect damage. That's a time and conditions marker, for sure. Everything is harder in weather like this--even just reaching for a jar/vase in the barn I have to screw up my courage, because the wasps are so active and snakes waiting to get me.
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