June 11, 2013 -- papayas, astilbe added

This is yesterday's arrangement with a couple of additions. The papayas wound up in the windowsill because, in a reversal of the way things usually work, they were too ripe when I bought them. I have a recipe for green papaya cole slaw that requires really green papayas, which I thought these (and others I'd bought) were until I started trying to grate them. They were too ripe, so now I'll just let them ripen completely (and look pretty in the windowsill as they do). To the right of the bottles of butterfly weed is a collection of astilbe leaves. I pulled them off the lower portion of some longer astilbe stems I was using in a much larger arrangement. Love their shape and color--especially with the greenish papayas and butterfly weed!

June 10, 2013 -- butterfly weed revisited, at night

This arrangement was so pretty in the windowsill last night--the flowers are orange butterfly weed and white feverfew. You can't really see it in the photo, but the deep, dark, mottled colors outdoors were gorgeous, too.

June 7, 2013 -- butterfly weed

I'm looking forward to playing with these tomorrow, but here's where this handful of butterfly weed flowers  landed tonight. What with all the rain, I've got butterfly weed plants that look like large azaleas (in size), but some of the stems were so long they were lying on the ground, so I cut them. These are a few that broke off as I was transferring them from one bucket to another. Notice how lush everything looks in the background--thanks to tropical storm Andrea.

If you look really carefully into the background out the window, you'll see a tall elderberry blooming. I didn't know it was there until I saw it out the window a few minutes ago--which will tell you something about how tall and out-of-control my weeds are!

June 6, 2013 -- couldn't resist

I couldn't resist posting something prettier than anything I could create on the windowsill this afternoon--the unadulterated view out the window. I'm particularly sensitive to the beauty of this tree, because one of its friends (a tree of about the same age) is now dying, due to a lightning strike, nearby

June 5, 2013 -- commemorative branch

I groaned--seriously groaned--when I inadvertently snapped this sweet bay magnolia twig off today. I was pulling bindweed out of a border, and one vine was twisted around the top of a happy, young sweet bay magnolia. I pulled too hard, and the soft new growth in the top of the tree snapped off. I was sick. The tree was doing so well, and I shouldn't have been so heedless as to pull too hard on the bindweed! The tree won't die, but it has lost its leader and will never be the tree it would have been if I hadn't snapped it off. Groan.

In the vase with the sweet bay twig is a stem of borage (leftover from snapdragon lineup of a few days ago) and, alas, some of the bindweed still clinging to the twig.

June 4, 2013 -- ribs of leafy greens

I indulged myself for lunch today and fried up some leafy greens with garlic. (That's not all I ate, but it was the healthy part!) As I stripped the ribs from some Swiss chard (I think it was Swiss chard; this leafy green in  a seed mix had a white central rib), I saw how beautiful the ribs were, gathered them in my hand sort of like feathers, then dropped them into this black pin holder. Might add a flower tomorrow; might not!

June 3, 2013 -- snapdragon line-up

I picked these short-stemmed snaps just to keep the plants blooming (and to relieve them of the stress of supporting these almost-spent blooms). But what looked weary in the garden now looks snappy (!) on the windowsill. And these colors are SO gorgeous.

 These are a variety of Butterfly Snapdragon called 'Chantilly' from Renee's Garden Seeds.