May 29,2013 --conga line of Swiss chard

These are Swiss chard stems that needed to be cut down because they were going to seed. But they were too pretty to throw away, so I lined them up in these glass vases. The stems remind me of legs in a conga line--a little out of sync!

May 23, 2013 -- iris and comfrey foliage

This iris, which is iridescent shades of peach and lavender, was a gift from a friend, and it never blooms that I don't think of her. I picked just this one blossom today (most of the irises are beginning to fade) and added some comfrey foliage (with small purple flowers) as I held the iris in my hand. So simple, so beautiful.

May 21, 2013 -- delicate flowers

I actually did this arrangement yesterday but forgot to post it. It started with the delicate blue forget-me-nots, which I wanted to arrange in an elegant little cut glass container, but I couldn't find one (!), so I used this wine glass instead. Then I started adding other diminutive things: tiny red poppies, hawkweed flowers, Chinese temple bells. After I took this photo, I also added some buttercups. 

The most stunning thing in this arrangement is the little red poppies, which are so delicate many of them had lost their petals by the time I got them in the house. If you look carefully, though, you can see that one is still in bud and it opened later in the day. 

May 19, 2013 -- tall snapdragon

Everything in my garden is unusually tall (including the weeds), because we have had so very, very much rain. The ground is so wet, I shouldn't have set foot in my Buckingham County garden, because its red clay soil compacts so badly. Still, I had to get after those weeds, and while weeding, I broke off this snapdragon stem. Had to display it in a way that shows how tall it is, because my snapdragons have never before been this tall.

May 17, 2013 -- three clovers

There are three different wild clovers in this little bottle (two red clovers and a white clover), and they are all so pretty.

May 16, 2013 -- confession

I didn't take this photo today (May 16). I took it yesterday, which seems like a lifetime ago. That was the day I left Ashland for Hot Springs, Va. On May 16 I arranged, in this vinegar cruet, two white single peonies, some wild mustard seed pods, a sprig of  (? a Vietnamese herb that begins with H),  and a couple of deep purple heuchera leaves. The amazing thing about this arrangement (to me) is not what's in it but that I'm alive to post a photo of it today, because, this afternoon I traveled through two hail storms (one in Charlottesville, one in Shannon Hill) and what seemed like a tornado (near Rockville) to get back to Ashland. The confluence of events it takes to have the privilege of creating something as "optional" a flower arrangement never ceases to amaze me.

May 15, 2013 -- leftovers in pretty colors

These are snippets of materials left over from larger arrangements I was working on this morning. As they fell into my hands, I tucked them into this little inkwell. Included are American wisteria, wild mustard seed structures, a heuchera leaf, some pea foliage, and a pink rose.