Friday's Flowers

May 15, 2010

Yesterday afternoon I met the lovely Megan from Homeschooling on the Run. My first blogger meet-up, which was as fun as I hoped it would be. Of interesting note - Megan is a homeschool graduate and I always love meeting those types.

Megan came to visit so I could give her some perennials from my garden. She lives relatively close to me (within an hour's drive or less) and when I found out she was a gardener wanting to fill in some of her yard space I was very happy to share parts of my established perennials with her.

The kids played with her one year old and I dug and talked and talked (I'm rather chatty in person). I was happy to do the digging and let Megan tend to her little one. I also showed off my beautiful worms. Megan can attest to my compost-happiness.

All that to say, I didn't get the next week of eats installment written because between our perennial-digging visit and my other activities of the day I didn't have a moment to sit down and write. So you will just have to wait for that goodness (my most requested soup recipe and a week's worth of menu ideas - coming your way), most probably till next week. Does this mean I should re-name the series to weeks of eats?

But what I really want to showcase today are my beautiful garden flowers. The ones growing in the yard and those picked and arranged into bouquets in the house.

A few weeks back bouquet season started in our home, with the picking of sunny tulips and daffodils. Bouquet season is the time from early May till late November when I have continual bouquet(s) of flowers, picked from my garden, gracing our table and counter tops. I've worked hard for the five years we've lived here to build continuously blooming perennial beds. I think the best reward for all this work, the fruit I enjoy the most, is the bouquets I can create from the bounty.

So far this month we've enjoyed the scent of lilacs in the kitchen (3 weeks early I might add) and now this week it's pink Aquilegia hybrida (columbine), blue Phlox divarticata (phlox) and purple Allium schoenoprasum (chives). It will be pinks, purples and blues till early July when the oranges and yellows make their dramatic entrance.

But this little beauty was where my camera was drawn to this week. And the fragrance, oh my goodness. Real Convallaria (lily of the valley) blossoms, not the cheap, overly used fragrance found in granny's perfume bottles, is absolutely heavenly.

I know this post is getting long but I've had this little idea floating around for a couple weeks and I think it's time to share it and move forward. I intend to dedicate Friday's here at FIMBY to my bouquet of the week. I will post photos and maybe say a few words, but maybe not.

This is where it get's fun... would you consider joining in? We could make it like one of those wildly successfully Mr. Linky blog-fests. You too would post on Friday a photo of a bouquet (it doesn't have to be from your garden) and then link back here. If you are not a blogger you can leave a comment and if you send me a photo file I can upload it to your comment. I don't want to exclude anyone who wants to participate.

I'd like to start next week so be watching for it. Plus, because I want people to participate and I'm a really nice person (tee, hee) I'm going to enter everyone who participates into a monthly drawing for a bar of my soap. Prizes!

I'm not sure how many months we'll go for so I'm leaving the completion of this bouquet blog-fest (hey, that's a cool name) open ended.

Please do consider joining me. I will start next week and review the "rules" (you know, Mr. Linky etiquette stuff) at that time. Remember, it doesn't have to be a bouquet of personally grown flowers. It could be farmer's market flowers or a handful of dandelions from your 2 year old. The point is to appreciate the everday beauty of summer's flowers and to maybe grow as photographers (but you don't have to be a "photographer" to participate).

Brother, I've rambled on long enough. You get the idea.