Welcome to ‘In A Vase On Monday’ when I am linking up with Cathy at Rambling In The Garden to join her challenge to fill a vase for the house from the garden every week.
This week’s flowers very nearly did not happen. I was engrossed with household chores this morning, confident that I could leave collecting and photographing my planned flowers until the afternoon. After a late lunch I had some administration to attend too and suddenly realised as I worked that the sky had grown very dark. I only just managed to retrieve the laundry from the washing line before the rain started and we were then treated to a thunder storm. I often collect flowers in the rain, but draw the line at thunder and lightening.
Having decided that a vase was just not going to happen today, I remembered a couple of roses that I had thrown into a jam jar in the greenhouse after accidentally chopping them yesterday whilst dead heading. Together with a few sprigs of lavender that I had sitting in the kitchen they made a very small vase and I searched for a few props to pad out the arrangement. This is the floral equivalent of creating a meal Nigel Slater style – from a few leftovers in the fridge and some store cupboard staples!
The props that I used are yet another lace table cloth and the old book of music that I mentioned a week or two ago. I came across it in a charity shop and it is one of my favourite ‘finds’. It is called Orpheus Score and contains a number of pieces of music – I really need to find out more about what this is. Although it has a beautiful binding all the pages have come loose, so I have to be very careful when handling it.
The rose is William Shakespeare by David Austin, hence my reference to the Bard in the title this week. This rose is one of my all time favourites, which I plant in every garden that we move to. It is described in the David Austin catalogue as having ‘exquisite blooms of the richest velvety crimson, gradually changing to an equally rich crimson’. It really is a truly stunning colour, although it does not cope well with very hot or very wet weather – all the more reason to cut it for bouquets! Its growth can be a bit soft so I have placed an obelisk in the middle of my three bushes and I poke the long stems through it for loose support. In my main borders I tend to plant roses in threes as recommended by David Austin – they have much more impact flowering as one very large bush.
You will remember that I am taking an online photography course with Kim Klassen called Be Still 52. For week 5 of the course we are looking at using side lighting in our photography, so today I placed my vase in front of a west facing window and instead of shooting into the window as I usually do I stood side on to the window. I am impressed by how much detail this lighting angle has picked up in the rose above – you can literally count the petals.
As ever I like to play with focus when I am photographing my flowers, so above I have focused on the music leaving the blooms looking blurred.
In the next shot I focused on just one of the flowers, which has thrown the other details out of focus.
As I have explained before, remember that when I am playing with focus in this way I have my camera set with a very low f-stop (f2.2 today). It is the low f stop that gives the blurry background.
In the end I was quite pleased with my small vase and I have placed it on my piano to remind me of its musical connections. I have recently started to learn to play and I have to say that learning to read music is the hardest thing I have tried to do for a very long time!
Next Monday we will be in Durham for our eldest daughter’s graduation ceremony, so I will be taking a little break from making a Monday vase – I will still be checking in to see what Cathy and the others have made though!
Insert your profile info here, by going to Users -> Your Profile -> Biographical Info. Profile image (avatar) comes from gravatar.com. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nullam faucibus ornare lectus nec cursus.
Stunning!! Love the flowers and love the sheet music!Thank you for such a beautiful post — your blog is such an inspiration!
Thank you Kristin!!
Beautiful, i love David Austin roses.
Jane x
Thank you Jane – although I love the older roses David Austin’s English Roses repeat so well that they are my first choice for garden borders.
I wondered if that was what it would be – I love that shade of rose, very similar to Munstead Wood which also has a lax habit. I envy you your rain – it has been so humid here but the pressure has remained static so we may be out of luck 🙁 Even a simple pot luck vase gives pleasure, and certainly makes good use of the left overs – so thanks for still contributing despite the other factors 🙂
Thank you Cathy – I think the pot luck ones often turn out to be my favourites!
A very enjoyable post, love the rose and your anecdote of the day, we also had a storm and was very glad of the much needed rain. Your photos are lovely and I really like the music book as a prop.
Thank you Julie. That much needed rain was very short lived – my borders are very parched again.
I love the deep dark rich colours of these peonies!! Beautiful. Your photography is lovely too!
Thank you – the darker colours have a lot of presence in a vase.
Perfect little vase for today Julie. The rich dark red of the rose looks strong against the black of the music in that last image–intriguing. I enjoy reading the story of your day. Susie
Thank you Susie – I love the visual combination of flowers and music – it gives me the same feeling that I get when listening to an orchestras tuning up before a show.
Gorgeous roses ,Julie!
Thank you Sajina – the roses have had a great season so far. I think they enjoyed or warm wet winter.
I guessed which rose you were going to use straight away, I have WS too, I love its perfume and I love all roses with this dark rich colour. I enjoyed this post about your day as much as about the vase. Interestingly I did think about using WS with my lilies but decided against it.
I am glad you enjoyed reading about my rather mundane day Christina – it is nice to share the little details sometimes. As well as WS I have Munstead Wood, Souvenir de Dr Jamain, Falstaff and Heathcliff. Heathcliff is a new one for me and is really stunning.
I must look for some of these, I’m sure you’ll share some of the others.
I love your Nigel Slater comparison 🙂
William Shakespeare is so lovely! Some time ago I gave the plant to my mother who is a theater critic but sadly it did not survive the cold winter of 2012/2013. Will have to buy a new one!
I think Nigel Slater is my favourite cook – I just love his relaxed way of putting bits and pieces together and I read his books like novels at bedtime.
It’s great that you managed to produce such a lovely effect with a few “bits and pieces”! Very impressive!
Thank you Cathy – I think that flowers are so beautiful that it really doesn’t matter how many or how few you have – they always look great.
Very true!
A really effective yet pared down arrangement. Just lovely.
Enjoy your day on Monday. Funnily enough my God daughter is graduating from Durham this year too, and I’m heading up on Friday week with my daughter for an Open Day!
My daughter has had an amazing three years – I know there will be lots of tears next week when she has to say good bye. I hope your daughter likes it!
I wish I had such leftovers on hand, Julie. The arrangement is beautiful – I love the deep color of the rose. Your accents are perfect too – and I’m impressed by the work on your photographic skills. (I point and click and hope for the best.)
Thank you Kris. I never thought I would be able to use a DSLR. I still have much to learn but it is surprising how things start to come together once you decide to learn something new.
Nice to see flowers and music together 🙂
Thank you – I have been enjoying the flowers this week whilst I have been practicing my pieces.
A most effective last minute recipe Julie. Enjoy your daughter’s graduation.
Thank you Anna – I am really looking forward to it.
Your storm missed us entirely. Lovely to get some rain. William Shakespeare is a stunning colour. It looks so pretty in your little vase. I would love to learn more about photography, it is great fun to be able to play around with different shots like this.
I hope you have a lovely weekend at your daughter’ s degree ceremony.
Thank you Chloris – I am really looking forward to our few days away. I think we are forecast some rain over the weekend which our gardens will enjoy but I am keeping my fingers crossed for a sunny day on Tuesday. It will be nice (and challenging) to practice my camera skills on something other than flowers.