January 1, 2013 -- roses and apple peels

I was peeling apples this morning and couldn't throw away the peels, because they were so twirly and colorful. Dropped them into stemmed glasses where they looked sort of interesting. But I couldn't leave well enough alone, especially since I had roses sitting in a bucket on the back porch. (The roses, leftover from an event I helped with, have actually experienced two frosts while outside, but they still look pretty good.) Here's the result. The colors are great, the execution not so great. And I usually don't like fruit under water (where to my eye it looks like rot waiting to happen) but in this case I decided my peels could be submerged a while without offending anyone.

Here's the color up close--gorgeous! And there's the smell of apple cake baking in the oven surrounding all this. Almost too rich to bear!