Thank You so much to Cathy of Rambling In The Garden, ramblinginthegarden.blog for this opportunity to indulge in two of my pleasures, thrifting and playing with flowers. I need good excuses to gather more ‘stuff’ and so this weekly activity, of ‘In a vase On Monday’ is just so much fun! This is the time of my life according to my friends, when I should be divesting myself of these strange attachments. Before I had this excuse to buy another vase or bring even more flowers into the house, I grew very nervous about adding more oddities to my collection, feeling guilty that I was bucking the trend of what ladies of my age ‘should’ be doing. This week’s purchases cost $1.50 and after I removed the smelly candle, complaints around the house ceased, which was a good thing. After all, when the other member of the household has a collection of old car bits that take up substantially more space than my cupboard of vases, there should be no complaints in my view. My friends despite their advice, when cleaning out their stuff knowing my habit, on occasion, will ask if I would like some of their collection, which is somehow not the same as searching and the ‘thrill of the find.’

Oddity

Amaranthus caudatus or Loves Lies Bleeding, is an odd plant and the one I have was calling to be used so when I saw this candle holder I thought it might have a place to go. It is an odd arrangement but Amaranthus, Cosmos, Snapdragon, Antirrhinum, ‘Chantilly Italian Ice Mix , Rose ‘Morden Centennial’, Peach Leaved Campanula, Campanula persicifolia and Lady’s Mantle, Alchemilla mollis, all fitted in there nicely and took forever to look semi-pleasing. The old opera glasses and plate fit the colour range.

Then there was this.

Encore

More Peonies – so easy, trim them and pop them in, no fuss. It’s funny how the most pleasing of flower arrangements can be the simplest.

I had hoped some of the many splendid local gardeners might see this activity as a fun one to join in and send some pictures of their creations to this blog for me to share. A few have trickled in so this is a ‘please’ to those who I know also love playing with their flowers to send pictures of their creations. Don’t be shy!

To see more of others creations from around the world go to Cathy’s Blog at the link above. This was her brilliant idea and what strikes me is that although contributors come from so many different latitudes and longitudes, our flowers are very much shared and common amongst us.