December 14, 2011---this hat is not yellow

Yesterday, as I was walking, I collected gumballs in my hand. It was a day for doing that, because many gumballs seem to have released their latches and fallen to the ground. Then I realized I had too many gumballs to carry in my hand, so I took off my hat and put them in my hat. This morning they were still stashed in my hat, and tonight, when I felt too tired to do a windowsill arrangement, they were still sitting in my hat, so I just moved my hat to the windowsill. These "gumballs in hat' represent as good a time marker/recorder-of-things-going-on-outside as any arrangement I could have done. Only problem was that I couldn't get color right (my hat is off white--not yellow), but you get the picture.

December 13, 2011

Two fun things today. #1: Early this morning, I thought I'd go out and pick something green. The greenest thing I saw was privet with its leaves still on. Cut a stem off a big shrub, then spotted a tiny seedling with prettier, smaller leaves. I pulled it straight out of the ground, which shows you how wet the soil is. It came up with every inch of its root intact. I'm hoping, hoping you can see the root in the photo below, because that's the most interesting part of this conglomeration. Also in the bottle are a couple of Virginia pine cones and pyracantha berries.

Fun thing #2: I went to the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond today, and on my way up those very imposing steps in front, I spotted a ragged shrub with pomegranates on it! There is a hardy pomegranate that grows well in Richmond, and but it was sort of an odd shrub to find growing in front of the Virginia Historical Society. It had almost completely lost its leaves, but a few tiny pomegranates (this ornamental shrub has only tiny pomegranates) were hanging on the bare branches; others were rotting on the ground. I picked one from the shrub, others from the ground and brought them home. Here they are in vanilla bottles.

December 12, 2011--pine and rose hips

On my walk today I picked these multiflora rose hips. Then, later in the walk, I came across some loblolly pine twigs lying on the path. Combined them in my hand, then, when I got home, started thinking about a vase to put them in. I liked them horizontal, and was considering putting them in my hibiscus holder, which allows things to lie horizontally, when I realized they didn't need to be in water at all. So: I just tied them up with a piece of ribbon and laid them in the windowsill.

It was fun to look at the clusters of pine tags up close. Three per bundle, every single bundle. Still startles me that each pine species has its distinctive number of needles per bundle.

December 11, 2011--Johnny jump-ups

These little Johnny jump-ups were stiff with frost when I picked them this morning. They obviously thawed, and I used them to garnish a salad. No one ate them, so I washed them off and stuck them in a vase.

                                                     

December 10, 2011---greenbrier and daisy

This one greenbrier leaf was the natural material I wanted to showcase today. It had almost no stem, so, to hold it upright in the vase, I threaded a daisy stem through a hole in the leaf.  (I pulled the petals off the daisy, which was one of two I picked on Dec. 7. The petals of this one had wilted; the other one still looks pretty good.)

Here's how the daisy stem goes through the leaf.  And what a leaf it is! It should really be in a museum somewhere!

December 9, 2011--back to bling

This is my Dec. 3 arrangement with two shiny Christmas ornaments added.

The kichen seemed to be calling for more bling, because the arrangement below was sitting on a nearby counter (waiting to go to my sister's on Sunday).

The windowsill itself now looks like this.  

December 8, 2011--rabbit apples

I'm posting yesterday's arrangement a day late, becasuse of a problem with Internet connection.  Rosanne Shalf created this windowsill arrangement yesterday in about 5 minutes. It includes several stems of coralberry, also known as rabbit apples (Symphoricarpus orbiculatus).  This wild, wonderful, shrubby plant is in fruit every December at Flower Camp, but some years it's fuller-of fruit than others. This year each stem is loaded with magenta berries. Here, Rosie has combined it with some epimedium foliage (reddish leaves near the lip of the container) and a snippet of Baggsen's Gold honeysuckle (the chartreuse green leaves). Very pretty!

Taking the photo above took longer that doing the arrangement, because of challenging light, cars in the background outside the window, etc.!  The berries don't really show up as well as they should, so here's closeup to show you their color.