February 1, 2013 -- sycamore leaves/winter arranging

These are sycamore leaves that have been sitting around in my utility room, leftover from some earlier arrangement. It's funny the way something discarded earlier sometimes looks good to you again later in the season!

I was reading Valerie Easton's book Petal & Twig the other day, and here's what she said about winter arrangements: "Winter arrangements are like vegetarian cooking--just as there's  no slab of meat to plunk down in the middle of the plate as the centerpiece of the meal, there aren't any bravado lilies, or roses, or delphiniums to build an arrangement around. Winter bouquets are bits and pieces of what remains during the darkest, coldest days, often picked close to the ground, foraged from alleys, or traded with friends and neighbors." 

BYW: I did make soup from yesterday's Jerusalem artichokes, and it was delicious! Used a Knorr leek soup mix as the base and built from there.