In my previous post, we took a brief look in the rear view mirror. This post goes further back, to the beginning of my blogcation, in late March.
Preparing for my weekend visitor, I fill the vases…..
for the table
and for the bedroom
Update:
Today, April 13 is Thomas Jefferson’s birthday. One of my favourite websites for plant information is this one http://www.monticello.org/site/visit . I would like to visit the Monticello gardens, one day. In the meantime, I looked up sage and borage to see if they featured at Monticello, and they do. I particularly liked this reference to sage/salvia.
“This Mediterranean shrub has been grown in gardens since at least the thirteenth century. It was thought to prolong life, even “render men immortal.” Sage was a standard item in gardens from colonial times, and was included by Jefferson in a list of “Objects for the garden this year” in 1794. The term Salvia comes from the Latin salveo meaning “I am well,” a reference to its virtuous powers. In addition to being a useful culinary herb, Sage is an attractive ornamental dwarf shrub that attracts bees and butterflies, but is not favored by deer.”
Although I do not have to worry about deer ( snails are bad enough! ) eating my plants, I love that I have a plant in my garden that relates to health and well-being and healing. How lovely to look back and realise that I greeted my special guest with a vase of ‘well being”.
© silkannthreades
Such beautiful bouquets!! I have sage in my garden, too. 🙂 I love to put it in soups.
And in tea?
I never thought of tea… Hmm. What else do you put with it in tea? Oh, now I’m going to be late to my daughter’s event!! LOL The tyranny of the small. 🙂
I am not sure because my one attempt at making sage tea was not very successful. Hope you survived the tyranny of the small!
12 kids, one small basement room, not enough chairs, screaming Disney songs at the top of their lungs. Enough said. LOL Ah, parenting, nonstop fun!!
Ah, I am happy I can now say ‘ those were the days’! 🙂
They are fun, but I reach my limit in those circumstances so quickly! LOL
: )
These bouquets are so lovely. I especially like the one in the pansy ring using the sweet rocket and leaves. You’ve inspired me to get mine out and give it a try with what I have.
Blessings ~ Wendy ❀
I am so glad you have a ring vase too. Would love to see what you put in it. And I am sure you would have a lovely verse to add.
Borage…a favourite in my garden as well. That Chilean guava is so striking – the fruit and leaves look amazing in your arrangement. What a beautiful welcome for your guest.
I love the fragrance of the Chilean guava too. It really perfumes the room.
now admit it, you are a nature goddess in disguise?
Who knows! It’s interesting to consider the possibilities. 🙂
I’m most taken with the guava, both for its pairing with the art, and for the artistry of the arrangement itself. Isn’t it a pleasure to prepare for guests? One of the loveliest lines in Eleanor Farjeon’s “People Look East” (perhaps my favorite Advent hymn) is “Love, the guest, is on the way.”
Of course, that poem/song also contains the line, “make your house fair as you are able”, which takes a good bit of burden off the host or hostess!
I don’t have guests very often (NZ is so far away!), so there is always great anticipation and excitement around their coming. I like that very sound advice, though, of “make your house fair as you are able “.
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Spectacular! You say it with flowers and fruits too. BTW, where is the Hostess? 🙂
Not too far away!
I guessed so. 😀
🙂
I am so exhausted today actually.Is Chilean Guava edible?
Yes, indeed they are. I like them a lot. It is a member of the myrtle family. Sorry to hear that you are exhausted.
Hmm,… I must wear my maroon pajamas and eat Chilean before I fall asleep! 😉
Sleep well!
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Glad to see Borage has made a re-appearance in your house. Was it a year ago we were talking about Borage? Or does it grow year-round at your house? I love the look, feel and smell of Sage and will definitely be replanting it when I return to the Med! 🙂
My borage seems to grow all year round. I don’t think it is supposed to behave like this but it does! Sage will be perfect for your Med garden. And clever you! And I did mention borage about a year ago https://silkannthreades.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/1761/
Thought so! And you are lucky to enjoy it year round too…
Yes, thank goodness, because it keeps some colour in the garden.
I’m sure! And such a lovely uplifting colour too.
Yes, indeed.
I love the use of herbs and berries in your floral arrangements. The containers also add such a fine touch to these lovely arrangements.
Thank you Mary.
Beautifully welcoming floral arrangements …
I like the idea of using herbs and berries in your displays and the containers add such a fine extra dimension.
Thank you, Mary. I am blessed to have some beautiful containers. I really treasure them.
How wonderful it must be to be a guest in your home, Ann! Those table decorations are exquisite.
Wills and Kate were on our tv news tonight, on their visit to Christchurch. I thought of you 🙂
Yes, it was lovely to have the Royals here with their lovely smiles and graciousness. They did seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves.
Lovely!
Thank you Mary.
Oh heck Gallivanta. Ooops !! It was LAST weekend I should have visited you. Sorry that you took all the trouble to arrange the flowers for me. 😉 They’re beautiful. Ralph xox ❤
Imagine what else you will miss if you hide behind the bike shed!
So true my friend. I’ll have to have wifi installed there as I’d hate to miss another such weekend as yours. Must go, back to the bike sheds 😉 Have a lovely day. ❤
Back to the bike sheds but pay attention this time.
Yes ma’am 😳
😀
you do flowers so well Gallivanta! I shall make more effort in future, inspired by you 🙂
I am sure you have the most wonderful flowers and leaves and berries to make in to beautiful arrangements. Perhaps better not to add fungi though.
Having spent a great amount of time in guestrooms on this trip we can say we have not seen such beauty in a flower arrangement as yours. Most Blooming Beautiful indeed!
Thank you tg. I am sad to hear of the lack of blooms. I suppose owners of guest rooms have to be careful these days about potential allergy problems for their guests. Or there may be health and safety regulations around flowers in rooms, as there are in hospitals, sometimes….http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091216203449.htm The older generation have often told me of the days when flowers were removed from hospital wards so as not to deplete oxygen levels in the sick room.
gosh.
got sudden image of patients struggling for breath because the peonies are soaking up the available oxygen (how the imagination stirs so quickly 😉
Yes, it is alarming.
The flowers look so welcoming. I bet that your visitor really appreciated your preparations for their arrival.
🙂 And wouldn’t it have been lovely if I had been able to gather arbutus to add to the vases, as well!
🙂
In my mind, I am the guest you so lovingly prepare for. There is a little longing in each of us to be so cherished, is there not? I’d love to be popping by for a visit, knowing you were busy picking things from your garden to make my stay a wonderful experience….
And I would make a very lovely posy for you; it would be lovely in thought but not necessarily perfect in execution.
It would be perfect to me!
🙂
Oh seriously!!!! You are the hostess with the mostess!!! I would like to make a reservation in two weeks to come and play!!☺
Will you bring Little Man? 😀
Your flower arrangements are things of beauty and I really like the way you placed the one on a Monet.
Thank you. I adore Monet and that arrangement seemed to go so well with that page of my Monet book.
What lovely flower arrangements you put together for your guest, she must have felt very welcome. 😉
I do hope so.
I love the Chilean Gruava in a boquet! Lovely & different!
Here is a braingle for you on TJ!
Please do not send me a braingle on a PM from any other country. I would fail miserably! Laughing……..well you could try me on Winston Churchill~
A braingle on TJ! Well I tried and got 6 out of 10 which isn’t bad, considering I haven’t ever studied US History. Anyone else want to have a go? http://www.braingle.com/trivia/15506/thomas-jefferson.html
Sage I had no problem growing back east. Here we have problems with Phytopthera, and the plants don’t seem to last more than a season or two. Too wet here in winter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytophthora
Interesting that you should mention this because our magnificent kauri trees are suffering severely from kauri dieback which is caused by a species of phtyophthora. It is a dire situation. http://www.kauridieback.co.nz/kauri-dieback
Thanks for the link to your kauri trees. Hope they can find a safe way to control Pyhtopthera. It is also responsible for Sudden Oak Death over here. http://www.suddenoakdeath.org/
It’s a nasty thing isn’t it? It will be dreadful if we lose our kauri trees.
I don’t think there’s anybody more skilled in beautiful arrangements than you!! You make it look like pictures and fresh flowers/fruits blend together!
Thank you Tiny. I have fun blending different items together.
Lovely welcome for your visitors.
Thanks Sally. 🙂
I am heading out to the garden now…to plant some sage! 🙂
And when you make that appointment for Monticello…ring me up and I’ll go with you! 😀
I certainly will. What a great visit that would be!
You are skill at flower arrangement! I love the first picture and it is a vase of well being. It is nice. Anyone will need that 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it, YC. If it made you smile, it was good for your well-being, and mine, too.
I like your choices of arrangements. In Italy the formal and ancient greeting that dates back from the roman times is also “salve” so very interesting.
Thanks Naomi. Ah, yes, salve…..what is most interesting is how long it has taken me to make this connection between plant and the meaning of its name. Shakes head!
What an amazing hostess you must be! Your flower arrangements are so spectacular AND thoughtful–I love having that background information on the plants.
I have grown sage/salvia for years but hadn’t really thought about the meaning of the word until today. Have you ever been to Monticello? My grandmother and my mother always had simple arrangements of home grown flowers in the house. It’s nice to be able to follow their ways. 🙂
What wonderful arrangements, especially to greet someone with!
I am lucky that I have enough in the garden to be able to fill a few vases. 🙂
Well, you don’t want to overfill them, you did it perfectly! 😎
LOL; overfilling does get messy eg water everywhere.
Your flower arrangements look so lovely , as always , you have a special gift here. It looks so beautiful and welcoming. Even here the sun is shining and it gets a bit warmer, the trees are now green, birds are singing and it is so lovely! enjoy a wonderful Sunday!
Oh I wish the sun had been out today, Ute. It was such a dull day. The weather has been miserable for the Royal Tour, although I think they had a better day during their tour down South today.
Your flower arrangements are beautiful and thoughtful. Lucky guests!
Thank you Juliet. It’s lovely to arrange flowers for guests, but it is important to do it for oneself too. I am sure you would agree about that.
What a treat to come to your house! You make it look special and the guests will feel special too. Gorgeous!
Thank you Dina. And, of course, you would be very welcome if you ever come this way.
Thank you ever so much! 😃
Your guests are always welcomed with flowers, I’m sure. Such variety and beauty everywhere! Those lovely vases, are they old treasures? My most beloved ones come from my grandmother and from my husband’s grandmother. I love visiting markets and shops selling old things…and always leave with a new old vase…
The vases are treasures, but not family ones. Not yet, anyway. Maybe they will be if someone else in the family wants them one day. I also love that kind of shopping, for new old things, but I don’t get to do it very often. That is probably just as well; my cupboards are already full.
très beau… very nice! refined and classy, congrats hospitable and generous Miss G! 🙂 P.S. I have the same “trivet”(?) you’ve set under the yellow rocket, small world… 🙂
Really? That is a woven mat from Fiji.
mine is made in China like a lot of “stuff” all over the world… we use to say that “China has been purchasing the planet these past 20 years…” 🙂 – which is quite true… 😉
True indeed.
beautiful as always
Thank you. 🙂
You welcome the world with beauty – your guests are blessed to come to your home! Thomas Jefferson would approve.
You are kind. I love to offer hospitality but I would struggle to do so on Jefferson’s scale. http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/wilkinson-monticello-event-extends-jefferson-s-spirit-of-welcome/article_5e1da097-0cee-5801-8e70-81eb1d891980.html Mind you, he seems to have simply left the guests to themselves, or his household, when it all became too much!