In a Vase on Monday

Happy Easter!  The camellias, magnolias, cherries, ornamental plums,  and spring bulbs are announcing that spring has arrived.  Outside our back door  and quite visible from our perch on the back porch, a robin is busily building her nest in a mahonia. What a joy to observe  flora and fauna rushing  to fulfill, within a season, their reproductive mandate.

I've never cut magnolias to bring inside before but love their fragrance and decided to see how long they'll last.  A glass vase by a Seattle artist seemed appropriate for the season.  Because of the way the blooms are arranged, these might be good candidates for a sparse, ikebana-like arrangement. Perhaps that'll happen next week but for now they're just plunked into a vase.

A few hours after being inside, they're opening up nicely.

Peter Rabbit decided to investigate.

There are always flowers at the church where I work but on Easter, they're so numerous that folks are asked to take some home to enjoy.  Orange/red and yellow parrot tulips  and this one with very frayed edges caught my fancy.

The  valley where the church is located has fabulous fertile soil and was once filled with farms, quite a few of which produced daffodils and other spring-flowering bulbs.  It's appropriate, then, that these reminders of the past grace the church on Easter.  Alas, the last of the bulb farms has been sold and growing fields are increasingly being replaced by industrial buildings and parking lots.  It's sad to think of loosing so much incredibly deep and fertile soil.

The orange made me think of this vase by the same artist as the first but the oranges aren't quite a match.  Oops. The tulips do have a bit of a lavender cast to them which the flash washed out so they kind of go with that part of the vase.

Oh well, just keep throwing things at it and maybe it'll work out.  Let's see, what else that has orange in it is lurking around the house?  How about some pysanky eggs?  Oh great, introduce yet another shade of orange and why not throw in some fluorescent pink while you're at it?  A cute duck vase and some Easter grass will make it all better, right?

Sometimes, it's better to stop, rethink, and redo the whole thing but I tried thinking once and it hurt my head so here it'll stay for this week.

Many thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting the addictive In a Vase on Monday meme.  Ramble on over to Cathy's  blog to see what others have put in a vase this week!  Happy spring!