Some sweet wild flower blue pieces from a wedding last weekend. With delphinium, bachelor button, tweedia and elderberries.
Vintage blues.
Shaker order.
The Garden is said to be the index of the owner’s mind. If this be true, many who otherwise might be acquitted, must be judged to possess minds susceptible of much improvement in ORDER, USEFULNESS, and BEAUTY.
The Shaker’s Garden Manual, 1843
I’ve spent the last couple days wrestling with gone-wild burdock and quack grass in the peony patch. I’ve been equipped with heavy-duty Felco clippers, but at moments I have wished for a small chain saw. I read this Shaker quote a few months back and it has been haunting me the last couple days.
In better news, the dahlias and garden roses are coming in beautifully from the markets! and are combining into some beautiful peachy-pink numbers. Here’s a bit of garden with cafe au lait dahlias, english garden rose, sweet juliet rose, and peach yarrow.
Richness.
The color purple has long been associated with royalty and spirituality and is believed to have a calming, stabilizing effect on the mind while also boosting imagination and creativity.
In purple, here is a wild and garden flower bouquet for a bride in early July. I loved how rich it turned out in color. With sweet pea, scabiosa, campanula, veronica and oregano.
Farewell, Spring.
Above are my attempts at a graceful goodbye to the peonies. I will miss them. If one thing must finish, though, for another to begin, well, then…..here’s to the dahlias! (which, by the way, are still weeks away from blooming). The strawberry plants, I am happy to report, are still producing…..
Engagement captured, Corey Hendrickson photos
Last week required a trip to NYC to secure floral goods. I usually enjoy these treks; the drive provides hours of uninterrupted pondering and in the city I wander around without a car or schedule…..something that never seems to happen at home.
But last week in the city I had an Aha! moment that went something like this; ‘How in the world does anyone survive a summer in the city?
I felt as if I were in a huge sauna……except no one was in restful sauna mode….and what were the sirens and taxi drivers doing there?…..and who invited the subway rat?….and, would someone Please Turn Down The Heat!
At the end of the day, tired and grumpy, I headed to the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, hoping for a revival of sorts.
And there I was sitting on a Promenade bench watching the lazy-moving sailboats and barges in the Harbor….the hazy sunset…..the quiet conversations…..when I noticed the two of them all dressed up, leaning on the Promenade fence, talking excitedly. Suddenly he was down on one knee and in the next second she was crying, trying on a new ring, and nodding her head. Conversation hushed as everyone watched them hug and kiss and quietly walk away. And somehow I felt better…..
Speaking of engagements, here are some beautiful new engagement photos from Corey Hendrickson. You can see more of his work at http://hendricksonphotographyweddings.com and in Martha Stewart Weddings, VT Vows, and InStyle Weddings. It is always a treat to work with Corey; he has an especially quiet and artistic approach to photography that results in beautiful photos.
These are pics of a couple in Arlington, VA. who will be getting married later this summer in California. Corey will be photographing the wedding as well, so we may get a sneak peek at those in a few weeks.
photo: Corey Hendrickon
photo: Corey Hendrickson
photo: Corey Hendrickson
photo: Corey Hendrickson
photo: Corey Hendrickson
Bartzella peonies
A few pics from a wedding in early June, where the yellow Bartzella peonies really put on a show…..
Peonies, by Mary Oliver
This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers
and they open —
pools of lace,
white and pink —
and all day the black ants climb over them,
boring their deep and mysterious holes
into the curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away
to their dark, underground cities —
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,
the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding
all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again —
beauty the brave, the exemplary,
blazing open.
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?
Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,
with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?
Mary Oliver
Primping
Pics coming soon! from a new photo shoot! First, of course, we have to let the magazine go to press. In the meantime, here is what the primping process looked like…..
A little….
…..garden sweetness for a rehearsal dinner. With clematis, peony, anemone, chamomile, hosta, filipendula, and bishop’s weed in milk glass urns.
Autumn light
photo: Daria Bishop Photography
It feels much too early to yearn for fall and I am oh-so-happy to be immersed in peonies and strawberries, two dependable and simultaneous happenings of June (how does that happen?!!….if I were looking for signs that Someone, Somewhere, is in charge and trying to make us happy, peony season coinciding WITH strawberry season would be at the top of the list….).
Pictures, though, are such a reminder of what is to come…..and what has been……and this one, from Daria and Andy Bishop, captures early autumn so beautifully.
A ceremony site scene from a wedding last September at the Stowe Mountain Lodge. To see more of Andy and Daria’s beautiful pics of the day, see the Autumn Wedding Portfolio.