Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Ready for Christmas

Wreath. Assorted evergreens with Leyland cedar, winterberry, holly, magnolia, pine cones and Kentucky coffee tree pods.

Salal leaf wreath.

The tree. With Kentucky coffee tree pods instead of garland.

Up top, a dried bird-of-paradise leaf and a dried antherium leaf. Kind of look like angel wings, don't they?
And, of course, the Christmas kale.
 
O Christmas kale,
It's you we hail,
On snowy day,
You bloom away!
 
Merry Merry!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013


 
On the home front, most of December has looked like this:
Very beautiful, but we haven't had the chance to do much outdoor decorating. For one thing, there are still leaves to be cleaned up under there! But the Flower Lady has finished our front porch wreath. She taught a class at the local arboretum, and they got to use greens fresh cut from a variety of species to make their wreaths. The ladies were all natural, they didn't even use much ribbon! I'll get a picture up when we install it, but what you really need to appreciate it is Smell-o-vision-- it smells fantastic!
 
To close, an unusual piece. Dried roses spray painted, arranged with Key lime stem. The FL made it at Thanksgiving, but I told here it was good for Christmas, too.

Lo, how a rose e'er blooming...

 

 

 

 

Sunday, December 8, 2013





It was supposed to be a wintry mix. I went for a walk just as the wintry mix, a.k.a "snow," started. I came back an hour later. This is my hat:
One thing I noticed on my walk-- snowbirds actually seem to enjoy chasing snowflakes!

The Flower Lady went out to the local arboretum to teach a class on holiday wreath-making. There was supposed to be twenty in the class. Zero people showed up. They evidently listen to better weather forecasts than we do! She is not back yet, but she is driving an all-wheel drive with a suitably outdoorsy name, so I'm not too worried. If I were a good husband, I'd shovel the walkway from the garage and get a wood fire going.

On Thanksgiving, over the river and through the woods to sister-in-law's house we went. This was our load of arrangements to take on our little journey, along with a bottle of red for my brother the carver-in-chief.
The poinsettias make a nice segue into Christmas!