We’re having such a great season for roses in Hobart and one of my favourites is the sweet Cécile Brünner.
I love to pick petite posies of them whilst still in bud and their size is perfect for creating my miniature flower couture!
There has been a distinct chill in the air this week in Hobart so there is no mistaking winter is almost here. I’ve delayed walking the dog until late morning hoping for a little sunshine – but I’ve needed to be quick to catch it. A coat is now de rigueur and its time to bring out the gloves too!
Walking back from the post office today I picked a small piece of Hedera helix – also known as common ivy, English ivy, European ivy, or just ivy!
I do have ivy growing in my garden but not with the dark purple-black fruit and I’d been thinking it would be striking in a flower arrangement, so today I’m sneaking it into my In A Vase On Monday arrangement with flowers and foliage from my garden.
You may remember my peony tree ‘pink sticks’ from a few weeks back – I’m pleased to report they kept their colour once dried – so I’ve added a few of those and some blackened plum sticks (the water shoots that grow nice and straight up from the base of the tree).
I’ve used 3 cobra head lilies, one pink rose and some bergenia flowers that after a few days of good rain and a little sunshine are providing a lovely splash of colour in the garden.
I’m not sure the sticks work so in the morning I may have a fiddle and try it without them but I am pleased with my choice of vase – an old tarnished silver sugar bowl, which I’ve used with a ceramic flower frog to help hold the arrangement in place and my miniature wire bird cages from Faff & Rambling seemed the perfect little props to sit along side.
Cathy from Rambling In The Garden started In A Vase On Monday to inspire people to bring something from their garden inside to enjoy – what ever the season. Pop over to her blog to see what she and others have gathered this week and if you feel like joining in one Monday put a link to your vase in the comments on her post.
I’ve been enjoying looking through the instagram hashtag #booksandbotanicals and occasionally creating a tableau of my own.
These minature shoes have teamed up with a few volumes of the New Hamsworth Self-Educator before on the petal & pins blog, notably in my post Minarets & Lion’s Tail – take a look to find out more about these facinating books and just what a minaret and a lion’s tail have to do with each other!
Yesterday I spent a productive afternoon bottling apples from my tree, it was a team effort with my friend Amanda and has started to be an Autumn tradition. Last year we had two vintage vacola units on the go, but this year the apples are early and not quite as plentiful.
We had a small branch of apples left over after filling the bottles which I decided to put to decorative use today for In A Vase On Monday.
My vacola preserver – passed down from my parents – is a wonderful shade of green and having it out made me think of my vintage ‘acorn’ vase. So the apples and vase were my starting point, along with some peony ‘sticks’ which last week I stripped of leaves to show off the lovely pinkness of them.
This morning I gathered other foliage and flowers from the garden including hydrangeas, agapanthus seed heads, oak leaf hydrangea leaves, snowberries and a branch of chestnut leaves – I love how they look like they’ve been cut with pinking shears!
In the end I created two arrangements as the acorn vase didn’t seem to need the agapanthus or snowberries. I like how you can see the pink peony stems through the cut glass vase, and I couldn’t help but show off some of yesterdays effort!
In A Vase On Monday is hosted by Cathy – her garden is in the north east rural fringe of the West Midlands, UK – why not see what Spring delights she is starting to find and share something from your garden.
I had planned to write about something all together different – I’ve had a post half written and something new from my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe to share for well over a week… best laid plans and all that.
So it is just going to be short and sweet – a bit like this dress I created this morning on the miniature dressmaker’s stand that usually sits on my workroom mantle piece.
At the top of the hill there is a roundabout that peels off in several directions past which my street becomes a dead-end. If you walk right down to the bottom you will discover a path that follows a creek bed.
It feels like you are in the countryside, not a city suburb with all the hustle and bustle that entails, and so it is a favourite route when walking with Mr Petal & Pins and Agnes.
At this time of year a pink hawthorn tree adds an extra air of romance to the entrance, the flowers are so pretty they look like bunches of miniature roses and I can’t help but dream of garden fairy dresses when I walk by.
Walking somewhere regularly I think you discover a favorite route that isn’t always about the shortest way but more about the little joys that things along the way can bring.
In primary school I would cut through a vacant block that had wild freesias growing and my sister and I would often stop to pick them.
In high school it was walking past a large overgrown garden with a mysterious old house that you could just glimpse through the corner gates that fed my imagination (helped along with a few urban myths).
Passing that garden nearly everyday for five years felt like a glimpse of ‘otherness’ – how I would have loved to explore it.
These days it is home to the Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre thanks to the generous bequest of the original owners and so it feeds the imagination and brings joy in other ways.
On Sunday I am taking petal & pins to the Wild Ones Art & Design Market held at Hazelhurst and a little smile of joy is bound to cross my face at the memory of those days peering in.
Following on from my last post I thought I’d share some photos of my tree peony – aren’t they just the most gorgeous of flowers!
There are a lot of this variety in gardens around my neighbourhood and I am lucky to have two growing in mine.
Just like when the blossom is out they make a Springtime stroll a very pretty one indeed!
I was going to photograph my Spring garden today but it’s raining.
Instead I ‘m sharing with you my ‘Paris Flowers’ that I made earlier in the year.
I called them this inspired by the combination of soft pink wash I painted on the paper and black satin ribbon bows that form the sepals.
Paper flower making seems to be having a ‘moment’ by the stream of gorgeous ones appearing in my instagram feed lately.
There are some exquisite ones by artists making them from crepe paper, special crepe paper mind you not the flimsy bright coloured stuff of kindergarten craft memories.
I think though my métier is for using real flowers for my garden fairy dresses so my fabric scissors are safe from being given over to paper anytime soon.
Last week started out sunny in Hobart, there was even enough sunshine to decide to eat lunch outside and linger but by the end of the week Winter wanted a last hurrah and it rained, hailed and howled.
More snow fell on the mountain and my early flowering camellias dropped on the ground.
They are too pretty to leave languishing so I brought a few inside to enjoy before the petals had a chance to brown. Combined with a few pretty pink blossoms on a vintage plate I think they look rather scrumptious.
It could be reinterpreted into a dessert – meringue and raspberries perhaps?!
Instead I created a confection of a dress for my Garden Fairy’s Wardrobe.
© Sandra Alcorn 2015 petal & pins
All words and images on this blog are my own work (unless otherwise credited) please respect this and contact me before reproducing elsewhere.
Petal & Pins 