June 23, 2013 -- chard leaves

This isn't from today--I actually dropped these Swiss chard leaves into bottles day before yesterday--but here they are in a photograph. Two interesting things here: these were the "bad" leaves--the ones that didn't make it into a stir fry, but look how pretty they are! And I didn't notice until I saw the photo that the two bottles on the right still had some fat, green yucca stems in them (stems I'd cut off then just sort of warehoused in these bottles). For this photo, I should have added a yucca stem to the bottle on the left, too, but who knew, it would matter?! Goes to show you that what's under the water matters as much as what's above it in an arrangement like this.

June 21, 2013 -- black-eyed Susan, etc.

This arrangement (sitting on a Flower Camp windowsill) is in a little pitcher a friend made. The leaves are from river oats and sedum; the flowers are a black-eyed Susan and butterfly weed.

June 20, 2013 -- green & white/yucca & bssil

This basil had been sitting in a juice glass on the windowsill for a long time. In fact, if you look closely, you can see it has rooted! But this morning it got a special addition--yucca flowers. The big stalk I displayed on the windowsill yesterday morning was falling apart, and dropping florets all over the place, by this morning, so I picked some of the intact flowers (those on short side stems) off and added them to the basil. The greens and whites are so pretty together. And I've loved having a chance to get to know yucca flowers better. They're almost like orchids in color and texture.

June 18, 2013 -- listing yucca

I love this, because it represents what's going on outside. We've had so many storms and so much rain that yucca all over the state is listing or has fallen totally over and is lying on the ground. This is the only one I had that was blooming, and it was lying on the ground.

I enjoyed so much about doing this. Enjoyed handling the heavy, heavy flower stem, enjoyed looking for a vase heavy enough to support it horizontally, and enjoyed the result, because this flower scape looks absolutely luminous lit from behind.

June 17, 2013 -- larkspur, snaps, hydrangea

These colors are so pretty together: blue larkspur, pale yellow snapdragons, bluish and greenish hydrangeas. The arrangement is actually too big to qualify as a windowsill arrangement, but I pulled it together to take to a friend in the hospital and figured it could to double-duty on the windowsill.

This photo would be so much prettier if my ancient storm window frames were't so dark. But I like seeing my yellow pot out the window. It's filled with Sum & Substance hostas.

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.