Monday, March 7, 2022

Monday Bouquets: The Return

First, happy birthday to my dad! Here, have some dead plants.

I bet you forgot about these weekly updates of what's in the middle of my table!  It has definitely been awhile since the last time I had any sort of plant arrangement on my table, and the reason for that is that for most of the winter, I elected to go with light rather than plants.

Our dining area is just a tiny bit dark, and with the early sunset that meant we were eating dinner after dark, I decided to get candles for the middle of the table. I didn't think the dried plants that were my only option for an arrangement would be a good combination with live flame, so my table for the past few months has just had a tray with five low candles on it.

But! It is now light when we eat dinner, so I thought I could survey the roadside on my walk this morning and see what options I might have for a pleasing arrangement.

I found some.


Ta da!


The colors are so subtle, it's hard to see them even in a close-up.

That's sunflower seed heads, the yellow berries of the silver nightshade that has those lovely purple flowers in the summer, some kind of grass that is now tipped with red, and the buffalo gourds that line the roadsides here.

It makes me very happy to have an arrangement on my table again. Even though none of it is green or notably colorful, it's beautiful in its own muted way, and it carries with it the promise of new life to come. 

Life is beginning again for the plants, be it ever so slowly. I'm ready.
at

5 comments:

  1. Gemma's personMarch 7, 2022 at 11:18 AM

    Some of my favorite colors are the different shades of brown you have there.
    Can you expand on the 'buffalo gourds that line the road"?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tu mereMarch 7, 2022 at 12:09 PM

    You’re becoming quite the adept table beautification arranger. I really like the subtlety of your current product. However, I do live in the desert where my vision of beauty has broadened. Love the picture and the changes to come.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kristin @ Going CountryMarch 7, 2022 at 3:47 PM

    G.P.: It's a squash plant that grows wild here. It has a long history with the tribes around here. You can Google it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous JMarch 7, 2022 at 11:59 PM

    I love this! The arrangement is pretty and just right for now, and as organic as you can get, and certainly one-of-a-kind! Someday, maybe you'll plant perennials that provide desert winter beauty, either in your yard or by scattering stuff on roadsides or fields where you walk. I don't know what that would be in your area. But I like that I can go out (Illinois) any day of the year and gather a pretty dried vaseful, or even just evergreens of various kinds. Now is the time for clipping flowering branches to force- forsythia, pussywillows, stuff like that. And bulbs will be coming up. This year I forced a few hyacinths inside in water and in a pot. Thanks for the buffalo gourd info and the inspiration.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kristin @ Going CountryMarch 8, 2022 at 8:09 PM

    Thank you for the kind comment, Anonymous J. I was telling A. last year that we need to plant some evergreen perennials, although they're sort of hard to get going here.

    ReplyDelete