In a Vase on Monday: sunshine on a rainy day

~ Sam

It’s the last day of the school holidays here and my three are making the most of it, i.e. at midday one is still in bed and the other two are lying on sofas plugged into their devices. To be fair, it’s a dull old rainy day which makes everyone feel lethargic and not inclined to rush about doing all the last-minute back-to-school jobs, plus we’ve run out of breakfast cereal.

While there’s a lull in proceedings, I’ve picked flowers for a Monday vase (I’ve missed it these past few weeks) and set about photographing them with one of the best birthday presents I’ve ever had – a Nikon camera! As well as a fantastic new DSLR to play with, my mum handed me this gorgeous jug yesterday – it was my grandmother’s and she thought I’d like it for flowers. Isn’t it lovely? It’s a little chipped and worn but it holds such happy memories of my dear grandma and I love it.

The contents of the jug are: zinnias, pink Japanese anemones, Verbena bonariensis, poppy seed heads, Miscanthus flowers, jasmine leaves, a spire of Heuchera flowers, dried lavender and a lovely copper-coloured osteospermum. It’s definitely a late-summer-blending-into-autumn collection of blooms. As usual, I’m joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden who is showcasing a gorgeous ‘Cafe au Lait’ dahlia today.

The village show on Saturday went really well, especially for David. His sourdough loaf won the ‘best home produce’ cup AND the overall ‘best exhibit in the show’ (a large shiny) cup! My son and daughter shared the cash prize for ‘5 meringues’ (he won but they agreed beforehand to split it as they were the only two who entered…), our ‘7 raspberries’ came first and second and my little milk jug of flowers was highly commended (which means it didn’t come first, second or third but the judge thought it had some merit). I also entered these zinnias into the ‘5 flowers of any annual’ and they won 🙂 A happy outcome all round for our family.

You can just see my daughter’s fingers on the right holding up the paper backdrop for me!

Right, I’m off to the supermarket. Wishing you a thoroughly good week whatever you’re doing.

30 thoughts on “In a Vase on Monday: sunshine on a rainy day”

  1. Well done for nearly sweeping the board at your show – you will have to get a trophy cabinet soon! The jug your Monday’s blooms are in is absolutely gorgeous, and perfect for the late summer blooms you have popped into it – love it 🙂

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  3. I have just looked at your post of holidaying in Castle Bolton. Its where I live. you must have walked past my house! I feed the chickens some days. We live at West End farm top side as they say in these parts. Glad you had good time in Gods Own Country.

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  4. That jug is just perfect for your flower arrangements, and I think this is a particularly lovely one. It has a nice amount of height and depth, and is full of early autumn colour. Well done on your fabulous results at the local show! How I’d love to master sourdough – I love to eat it, but I would like to be good at baking it too.

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  5. Ooh, a new camera, lucky you. I hope you had a good day. And the jug is lovely, perfect for those vibrant late summer flowers. Well done all at the show, good effort! Especially David. How nice to live with an award winning baker, I hope he keeps the bread bin well stocked. Good luck with the return to school. Two already gone here, just one big one left and he’s off tomorrow. CJ xx

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  6. I love your new/old jug! It works perfectly with the zinnias and other flowers in your vase. The Japanese anemones make me envious as it’s always a dicey proposition whether they’ll appear in my garden in any given year and they’re no-shows thus far. A belated happy birthday and best wishes with your exploration of your new camera’s magic too – I received a Nikon DLSR for my b-day this year as well but I’m afraid I’ve made limited progress getting on grip on its capabilities.

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  7. Very sunshiny! And I love the jug too. Nice it holds memories as well as being so pretty. Congratulations on all those ‘awards’. Such local shows are rare in this part of the world. Hope school gets off to a good start.

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  8. Congrats on all the prizes and just love the jug and blooms!
    What is the orange zinnia? I’ve grown a couple of varieties this year but they’re not as ‘zingy’ as yours.

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  12. Well done on your wins and commendations. Sounds like you’ve got some wonderful presents that will be fun for a long time. Lovely bright vase. I love the zinnias and the heuchera spike was in interesting upper storey.

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  14. I always love your flowers in vases, you inspire me to grow more cut flowers. Love love love your granny’s jug- it’s beautiful. And very well done to all at the show. Ps teenage positions exactly the same here, regardless of weather outside! Still, college starts on Monday. Rude shock time 😆 xx

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  15. I do like your arrangement, especially the wispy grass seed heads. It is lovely to have your grandmothers jug, these things do become more important in time. Congratulations on all your winnings, I am particularly found of sour dough bread.👍

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