From my desk ~ a floral interlude

136 Replies

I am working on a blog post which is consuming a lot of my word power.

I need a break; a refreshment of the mind, a stretching of the senses.

I thought you might like to enjoy it with me.

Here it is; a floral interlude.

 

 

I love this time of year in my garden. Sweet, fragrant flowers  abound; posy-ready and ripe for gathering.

This spring my eye is drawn to the purples everywhere. Are the purple tones taking over, or is it just an illusion created by  the post I have been writing?

Here’s a teaser of what to expect  when you next hear from me. Who is she? I am sure some of you already know. 🙂

Who is she?

 

136 thoughts on “From my desk ~ a floral interlude”

  1. Mary

    You are an extraordinary gardener Gallivanta – these arrangements are gorgeous and has made my day. All elegant, purple is a favorite color of mine.

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      I am glad the flowers have worked their magic on your spirits, too. As for purple, I made myself very happy the other day with purple nail polish. It was a very uncharacteristic action on my part (to get purple painted nails) but I keep looking at my nails and smiling.

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  3. melodylowes

    I will take a floral interlude at any time! Hour no object! 🙂 Our leaves have all dropped and the mornings bring frost in the grass – we’ve had our first skiff of snow as well. So all the flowers you can spare will be very welcome here!

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  6. Eileen

    A lovely lift this morning. Thank you! I have purple and yellow pansies now outside our living room french doors. Hoping they will last a while. We are finally getting some chilly temperatures.

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  7. Kate Johnston

    Ah, I just read about Myrtle and how she came to be via Andrea Stephenson’s blog! I wholeheartedly support #loveyourshell campaign and I think your purple flowers are divine!

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  9. shoreacres

    Well, I have no idea who that turtle is, and I’ve never seen her, so I’ll await your explanatory post with high anticipation. As for the purples: I was in the process of compiling a little album of all the beautiful purples I was finding among the wildflowers when my camera stopped working. By the time it came home from the camera doctor, Harvey intervened, and I never got back to it. I do have some photos, though, and really should put them together somehow. Once a routine is disrupted, it’s hard getting back in the flow.

    I do agree that purple (or lavender, or lilac, or any of the other colors in the family) are hard to photograph. I have trouble with them seeming washed out, especially if I’m photographing in the shade. I’m sure there’s an explanation and a remedy, which I could find if I put my mind to it.

    I do have a turtle story in draft, myself. I have a photo of him, too — but he’s not purple.

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      And I await your turtle story with high anticipation, too. Turtles of any hue are most interesting. I am also keen to see your purple flower collection. When I was perusing information on the colour purple, I came across the story of Mauveine or Perkin’s mauve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauveine, and learned that mauve is the French word for mallow. It amazes me how much I still learn every day (not that the information is always retained for long. 😦 )

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      Mél@nie, Lady M, I was out for a walk last week and came upon the most beautiful deep mauve lilac bush. The fragrance was sublime. I don’t see lilacs much anymore. I think they must be considered unfashionable by modern gardeners. The one I saw was a relic from an old garden I think.

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        1. Gallivanta Post author

          Yes, I have been watching your mega storm via BBC. Probably good to be back in Edinburgh for that. You certainly wouldn’t want to be on the water or near the coast.

    1. Gallivanta Post author

      Thanks Kerry. It’s been fun putting together a few posy-like arrangements lately. I hadn’t made any in a long while. Yes, that little purple turtle is popping up everywhere. 😉 As for real turtles, do you see any in your area?

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      Thank you, Su. And guess what…..the bees were in the cavolo nero flowers today. They must have heard me worrying that they hadn’t come to partake yet.

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      My word power is reviving! Or should I say coming together again? It gets a bit scattered sometimes, especially if I am tired. The little turtle is a sweetie. If you can find the widgets on the side of my WordPress page you can find out more about her. I particularly love her #loveyourshell. 🙂 ( I think the widgets only feature on laptop or computer view. I haven’t noticed them the few times I have used a mobile device for WordPress.)

      Reply ↓
  18. the eternal traveller

    Every time I see a post with someone’s beautiful garden flowers featured I think to myself I must make sure I do some gardening. Of course, something else happens and I don’t get to it. We’ve just returned home from a wonderful road trip to visit a friend for his birthday and he gave me some dahlia bulbs and some others of unknown origin. I will make sure I go out and plant them today. Thanks for the inspiration. 🙂

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      Ah, I hope the planting was achieved. A friend gave me some dahlias to plant a few months ago. I haven’t grown them before but I am hoping they will flourish in my garden. This particular dahlia has lovely sunset tones. I love it .

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      1. the eternal traveller

        It’s been raining for most of the day, but I did manage to get out between showers to put the mystery bulbs around the border of my rose garden. I need to dig over the soil and add some fertiliser before planting the dahlias.

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    2. paulliverstravels

      I’m the opposite. I like apartment living because I always over water or under water plants, hate mowing the lawn and other yardwork, and would much rather hang out in a city or state park for my nature needs.

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      1. Gallivanta Post author

        Apartment living is certainly a good option. I have lived in several apartments over the years, and enjoyed doing so. However, I have had my own little garden for 17 years now and I would find it hard to live without it. It’s a reasonably low maintenance garden, and the plants don’t seem to mind a bit of neglect.

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      Tiny, I don’t know how long it will take me to finish the next post but at least it is in draft form, and almost ready. I have had a few distractions this week with my wee Jack straining a cruciate ligament. He’s not allowed to go on walks for 2 weeks so he’s getting a little stir crazy. But better stir crazy than causing more damage and needing surgery.

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      It’s good stuff isn’t it, Clare? I am not sure how it works but it does; like the blue rinse which used to be put in the white laundry wash. That used to fascinate me when I was a child. And I was sure you would recognize the turtle. She’s ever so lovely, just like her family of origin. 😉

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      1. Clare Pooley

        My hairdresser tells me not to use it every wash or my hair will turn blue like those old-fashioned blue rinses popular in the 70’s for ladies of a certain age!
        Yes, Myrtle’s family of origin are so lovely!

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      Those two chickens make me smile every time I look at them, which is often because they are on my kitchen window sill. I love your explanation for their bellies….fermented seed! Good one. 🙂

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  24. Letizia

    What beautiful flowers 🙂 My world seems to be surrounded more with yellows and oranges just now as the foliage is starting to change and pumpkins are appearing in front of everyone’s doors. I do have some late blooming cleome (not sure how to spell them) and they are a beautiful light pink!

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      The splashes of orange in my garden are provided by the calendula. The nasturtiums will be next. But, of course, that is no where near the overwhelmingly orange/yellow tones you are talking about. How good of the cleome to provide a dash of pink into the mix. Are they fragrant still?

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        1. Gallivanta Post author

          Hooray for daffodil planting. Do you plant them directly into the soil or bury them in little baskets? My bulbs are in the soil and, over the years, they have wandered.

  25. utesmile

    I love purple tones and in Spring it feels even more fresh and fragrant. You floral interludes are so beautiful. thank you for bringing a bit of Spring to us!

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      1. utesmile

        We just had the most bizarre light today. At about 2.30pm the sky got darker, the sun was an orange ball, you could look straight into it, it was not like a normal sun. And then it got really dark but with a yellow red tint in the air. It looked like the world would end….. funny . Now at 6 pm it got a bit brighter again. I have never seen a sky and the world like that. It felt even a bit scary.

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        1. Gallivanta Post author

          I am sure it was a bit scary. It reminds me of what the sky was like once when we lived in Cairo. I really thought the end of the world was upon us. Glad the sky brightened towards evening.

    1. Gallivanta Post author

      The age of purple; I like that, and judging by the number of purple haired women I saw today it could be true. Purple’s time has come for the masses. As for the chooks, they were a gift from my sister. A gift which keeps on giving because they make me happy every day.

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  28. GP Cox

    I think many of us are in need of a breather. I am planning one at the end of the month when I’ve scheduled some computer maintenance, so I’ll be off-line.. Whoa – will THAT ever feel strange!!

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      I am afraid I get quite frantic if I am offline for too long (like a couple of hours). That’s if I am stuck at home. It doesn’t bother me so much if I am away from home, or on holiday. Enjoy your break. Not long to wait now.

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      1. Steve Schwartzman

        Naming a visible color “Ultra Violet” seems to fly in the face of physics, given that our eyes can’t see ultraviolet light. But then probably no one expects those in the world of fashion to adhere to science.

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        1. Gallivanta Post author

          Fashion colours seem to have their own rules but fashion, or more accurately textiles, would be a lost cause without science; I am thinking of Burberry https://youtu.be/hkLCAlTtX10 for example, and Charles Macintosh (Mackintosh). I don’t know how much the promoters of fashion think about science, though. 🙂

        2. Steve Schwartzman

          You’ll see how unfashionable I am when I say I’ve never heard of the company called Burberry nor the person it’s named after. I had, however, heard of Macintosh and the mac that came from his research. American English doesn’t refer to a raincoat as a mac, but the Beatles’ song “Penny Lane” probably introduced many Americans to the word: “And the banker never wears a mac / In the pouring rain, very strange…”

        3. Gallivanta Post author

          The terms Mac or mackintosh aren’t used here very much anymore. We use the word raincoat, or parka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parka . And across the ditch in Australia, they have the driza-bone. To quote from their website:’ Our story began on a ship in the 1890s when British sailor Emilius Le Roy conjured the image of an indestructible wet-weather jacket made from recycled ship sails that were treated with oil. From here, the oilskin legend was born and would later become the famous wet-weather coat and an Australian workwear staple.’ And, while I know of Burberry, I haven’t ever owned a Burberry.

        5. Gallivanta Post author

          ‘Cagoule’ is a new word to me, too. Also new to me was the story of the discovery of Perkin’s Mauve and the subsequent development of the synthetic dye industry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauveine
          If Wiki is correct, it would seem that the giant German chemical company, BASF, had its foundation in Perkin’s discovery. Oh the power of purple (aniline).

        6. Steve Schwartzman

          I’m impressed that Perkin made his discovery at age 18. I couldn’t help noticing that Perkin set up his factory to make purple dye in a London suburb called Greenford. I searched in vain for a town named Purpleford.

  32. thecontentedcrafter

    I know who that turtle is and I just love her! I wish I had a young child to buy her for……….. Your flowers are a delight. I have none! I have not even planted yet – never so late before! I’m blaming the weather but really I just haven’t quite gotten out there into it yet – though I have done the winter clear up (I say that just in case you think me a completely useless gardener 🙂 ) I have finally put a post out though today – feeling relieved about that!

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      Dear Pauline, I haven’t planted yet either. The flowers in the garden are all self starters. So obliging of them to reappear without any help from me. As for the young turtle and her story, I am also a bit short on young ‘uns to give her to. So I may just keep her all to myself. 🙂 Loved your post; it was worth waiting for!

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      1. thecontentedcrafter

        Yes, that is just as good a thing to do with that delightful purple turtle. My eldest collects children’s books even though she has none herself – perhaps I should pick up a copy for her 🙂

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        1. Gallivanta Post author

          I think she would love that! My sister collects children’s books for my mother. As an ex-kindy teacher my mother has been in love with children’s books since forever.

  33. Juliet

    What beautiful flowers. Thank you Gallivanta, I needed some refreshment too. The turtle is a mystery to me – are you working on a children’s book?

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    1. Gallivanta Post author

      Juliet, I noticed on Facebook, that your new book is now with the designer, and that you are enjoying a breathing space. Glad I could provide some extra refreshment for you. The turtle does belong in a children’s book but not a book of mine. 🙂 If you are using a laptop or computer you may be able to see the links to this lovely turtle on my sidebar. 🙂

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      1. Juliet

        Well I got that half right! The book looks delightful. Yes, you are up with the play regarding my book. The designer is doing the layout now, and I have to write a blurb for the back cover but have no words left. So I’ll just enjoy your lovely flowers and take a walk.

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