August 31, 2012 -- hosta flowers, etc.

Too bad this doesn't show up very well, because it's really quite pretty, and I love the way it evolved. I wouldn't have even seen these blue/lavender hosta flowers if I hadn't been outside watering this afternoon. There's also a piece of greenery from Farewell Summer, an aster that hasn't bloomed yet, in this arrangment, and I wouldn't have noticed it in my own yard if my daughter hadn't asked me to identify it recently in hers. And the drooping green amaranth I'd have never thought about including if I hadn't been at my son's house this afternoon and seen the way my brilliant granchildren had draped the red version of this plant (love-lies-bleeding) over a fence. Then there's the puny yellowish eggplant I tucked in at the last minute  just because I had it in a nearby bucket. An arrangement like this really is like a diary--a record of an entire day.

Oh, and there's a little piece of yellowish Japanese Solomon's seal foliage in this, too. I noticed  it on my way back from picking the hosta flowers.

August 30, 2012 -- quacking gourd

Oh, my. This is the most wonderful gourd. Came from the same vine that produced the gourd I put in the windowsill on August 13. This one is so twisted and winged it looks like a bird. I should probably have displayed it in a bird's nest!

August 29, 2012 -- hot pepper

This is just a pretty hot pepper sitting on top of a tobasco bottle.  It can sit there without falling off because I jammed a wooden skewer into the bottom of the pepper and then threaded it through the very narrow opening of the tobasco bottle. I think I stuck a pepper on this same bottle last year around this time!

August 28, 2012 -- candles, obedient plant, celosia

This evolved from some leftover birthday candles I loved. They are way longer and thinner than most birthday candles (about 6 inches tall)  and in an array of  great colors. Got them at the grocery store, used them in cupcakes for a family birthday party Sunday night, then washed the icing off of them so I could use them again. They sat around the kitchen until today when I couldn't resist them any more. Jammed them into this rectangular vase with some floral foam in it. Then I added some lavender  obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana) flowers and a few sprigs of magenta celosia. It was sort of fun using the obedient plant flowers low like this, because I usually use them in tall arrangements (taking advantage of their long, stiff stems).

This is way more complidated than most things I do for the windowsill, but when you've got birthday candles this pretty, you've gotta use them!

August 27, 2012 -- okra leaf

This is a small okra leaf I trimmed off stem I was using in a larger arranement. I liked the little leaf so much, I gave it its own vase.  Because it was small, I expected it to hold up well in water, but it's shriveling. Okra leaves seem to be really  unpredictable about whether they'll hold up after cutting or not. (I usually trim all but the tip-top ones on a long stem.) Anyway, this one was a beautiful olive green with red undertones before it started to shrivel, and even now it's mighty pretty.

P.S. Okra makes vase water slimy--just as it does stews!

August 27, 2012 -- sumac and okra

Mea culpa! I missed a day! I actually rmembered I hadn't done an arrangement around 10 p.m., intended to do one (or at least photograph what was already in the windowsill), but then I sat down to watch a movie (Cinema Paradiso--so good!) and completely forgot.  I'll post twice today as "penance." The arrangement below wasn't created for the windowsill, I created it for a table elsewhere, but, with some balancing (and the window open), it can sit there. I love these materials together--shining sumac and red okra.

August 25, 2012 -- sumac again

Since yesterday morning, when I did my last sumac post, and tonight, when I'm doing this sumac post, I've been to the Irvine Native Plant Center in Maryland and back. There I was reminded of the name of this sumac: shining sumac, Rhus copillina.  Yes!  It's now in a tall bottle instead of the dark vase I had it in yesterday, and I think it looks better.