namesake

Yes, she's no more now than a drop of snow

on a green stem- her name is now her calling.

Her mind is just a frozen melting glow

of water swollen to the point of falling,

which maybe has no meaning.  There's no telling.

But what a beauty, what a mighty power

of patience kept intact is now in flower.

A verse of Snowdrop by the mighty Alice Oswald.  And these little prophets telling me their spring secrets in a woodland glade at Cammo.  If you don't know anything about Alice Oswald (and you should, she's brilliant) don't worry, I'll be posting about her very soon.

Bittersweet Pumpkin Persian ORANGE

Antidote to February joylessness: a slow wander with the ever contemplative Mr Jenkins through sandy dunes and rattling grasses. Plenty of sniffs for him, plenty of opportunity to admire the plump, juicy buckthorn berries for me.  Tangerine, tea rose, melon.  A love affair with orange for 2012 is born.  What no one tells you about these little fruits is the smell, like fizzy orange juice that you've left on a hot windowsill for a while.

Frilly yellow knickers

Yes, I've been bad, reeaaally bad, at posting in recent months.  Excuses excuses, life gets in the way, busy busy busy, blah blah blah.  Anyway, I'm back and will do better.  So here's a little something for everyone that loves daffodils (who doesn't?).  Currently sitting in a little retro jug on my table, I must say the smell is quite intoxicating. Instant smile and instant antidote to this leaden, solid January weather.

Chamber of delights (part one)

A little taster of the wedding flowers I put together for the wonderful Emma Walker of craftscotland and her now husband Mick Pritchard.  The mantra we all repeated was 'celebratory and joyful' and Emma's love of colour ran through the bouquets and the reception (more of that to follow).  Thank you Emma for letting me be part of your day and trusting my creative vision.

Fragrant roses from an English country garden

Polka dots and striped haberdashery loveliness

A little buttonhole magic (and a white rose for a Yorkshire born groom)

A little something vintage and blue for the bride

A love poem to start the day

Mary, Mary, How does your garden grow?

Mary Katrantzou Spring Summer 2012

I do like a flower installation and Mary Katrantzou really wowed me with her carnation catwalk at London fashion week recently.  Her collection was "inspired by nature, but viewed through a hyper-real lense".  This proves that the humble carnation has serious flower power when a creative eye has a hand in it.  Image courtesy of The Guardian

Yuki Aruga (part two)

Sweet Dreams, 2011

Everlasting; Circular Fragmentation, 2011

Untitled; Circle 1, 2011

Perpetual Bloom, 2011

Well, I told you to expect more from the multi-disciplined artist Yuki Aruga and here it is.  Her beautiful oil paintings are so evocative of the roses in them that I can almost smell the heady scent.  Intoxicating.

A little Friday fancy

A few images that have been inspiring me lately.  It's always nice to start the weekend with visual elevenses.  

I can't credit them because I don't know their origins, very sorry 'bout that.  

Yuki Aruga (part one)

Sustained in Motion

States

Infinite

I love animals and I don't eat them so you might think having a 'bit of a thing' about taxidermy is perhaps a little odd.  Well in this case the talented Yuki Aruga uses a delicate touch and the addition of fresh flowers for a 21st century take on the ancient art of taxidermy. Floristry and dead animals... strange but wonderful.

Renaissance woman

Pietro Perugino (1446-1524), Woman

I know that rose, like I know my name

Long way going to

Get my medecine

Sky's the autumn grey of a lonely wren

Piano from a window played

Gone tomorrow, gone yesterday
I found it in the street
At first I did not see
Lying at my feet
A trampled rose
Passing the hat in the church
It never stops going around
You never pay just once 
To get the job done
What I done to me,
I done to you
What happened to the trampled rose?
In the muddy street
With the fireworks and leaves
A blind man with a cup I asked
Would he sing 'Kisses Sweeter Than Wine'
I know that rose,
Like I know my name
The one I gave my love,
It was the same
Now I find it in the street,
A trampled rose

-Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan

Listen to Alison Krauss and Robert Plant's beautiful version of this song here

The Triffids are coming

Triffids in West Lothian?  Actually a quiet, hidden glade where curling tendrils of ferns have colonised to create this magical emerald landscape.  Of course it immediately made me think of the 1951 post apocalyptic novel by John Wyndham.

This is also an opportunity to mention the work of the artist Catherine Charnock.  She is from South Africa but now lives and works in Oxford. This mixed media drawing depicts triffid-like dandelions in a scene of desolation.  You can see more of her work here

'The frogs are coming' 2007

Strings of sea gulls on a Summer's day

Everyone should get married outside, under trees laden with leaves, blossom and blooms and a lawn dappled with sunlight.  In my opinion.