this week at pensive weeds

as yesterday was the first day of spring, marked by snow in the night and a white dusty garden in the morning, i used cooler tones for this weekend's arrangements. soft lavender roses and deep blue irises, seeded eucaliptus from california and bear grass....

i am an advocate of experimenting with containers, so here is a little beermug-vase (i delievered an arrangement in such rush and excitement yesterday and completely forgot to take a picture). so the beer mug will have to do for the moment. bear grass is rolled in the water to help ancor the stems. no matter how small an arrangement, simple flowers always gladden up surroundings.

irises and roses - a timeless garden combo - impossible to go wrong. two different ways to put the two together. love clusters of three almost indiscriminately, but here particularly. seeded eucaliptus and iris stalks are accents in the 7" footed classic bowl - give it a few days and watch roses fill in and irises open up to their new home. this vase is in memory of dear friend Vania Ivanchik who died yesterday. it was soooo good to see him in the summer, i'll remember his always ironic always warm smile and his very clever laughing eyes.

the butterflies

There are many glorious art projects around princeton. Many of them are outside in nature for any to see. Johnson park has recently added a beautiful garden with benches, stone paths and a raised bed with a metal butterfly tree that is a simple and joyous presence. I had to take a few pictures. It adds this artistic element for which one is glad to make a special trip 'just to visit the butterflies' - which we did today.

the flower show

what a treat it is to be within such proximity to both new york and philadelphia and have access to these inspirational vibrant cities. that said, 'bella italia' of this year was a little tame, but none the less wonderful to visit. these floral fashion displays are from the runways of Milan exhibit.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tgindilis/TheFlowerShowPhilly2009# - more pictures of the show

spring is in the vase

These two recent arrangements had to be rather large because of were they were displayed, but whether the vase is large or small... curly willow, roses, delphinium, Dutch tulips and dendrobium orchids - all in peach, lavender hues - one cannot go wrong.

the cooking fairy

recycling has been very important to me personally and a significant part of daily life. i believe in re-using things, finding purpose for things useless at first glance... because ultimately those things take place of potential new arrivals. i like to eliminate the need to acquire. the cooking fairy now occupies a nail in the kitchen which would otherwise call out for a painting, photo frame or some such thing currently on a shelf in some store. the fairy plum is a tutti frutti, a holiday ornament from Gramercy Park flower shop from many years ago. he holds a bowl, stirring batter. a glass dragonfly covers a missing foot and a glued back together ceramic half-plate serves as backdrop. the cooking fairy now oversees the kitchen and watches over the stove and all its pots. i love to see the glue in the broken edges - it emphasizes the second/third generation of purpose for the same thing. i don't want to let go and discard these witnesses of years past who have been intimate participants of our everyday.

the crown

ever since the concept of the crest for the rooster costume manifested itself in a crocheted pattern which i would not be able to reproduce, i have been thinking about other ways to use up some of the yarn for play clothes which i in turn would also not be able to repeat....

snowmen family

it's all in the pictures. the snow was excellent in quebec that day.