Knowing we were in Edinburgh till Monday I did wonder whether to prepare a vase before we went, like the pictures for the foliage post, but decided instead to go for the foraging option.
There is a small front garden at the property (same poroperty as last year) and on our first daylight foray I noticed the cotoneaster in various pretty shades so snipped a few discrete pieces and a single stem of a nearby acer. These were joined by a rain-washed heuchera leaf and some buttery yellow rose leaves, possibly R rugosa. Reflecting the season, leaves were dropping from the rugosa and the cotoneaster as I brought them inside and gently placed them in a new charity shop acquisition, another little Caithness Glass vase with perfect autumn coloured swirls. Unlike my kitchen at home there were plain and uncluttered surfaces and plenty of light so photography was a relative doddle this time round.
If you are encouraged to post a vase yourself, either with pickings from your own garden or foraging from round about, please do so and post links to and from this post. For some, the challenge to post every week will get harder as the year progresses, but hopefully it won’t stop the challenge being fun!
Rambling in the Garden 
You are a true inspiration, posting even when away. I too have a new charity shop vase (see what you are doing to us all!) so even though I have almost no flowers left in the garden I am going to see what I can find.
Oh thanks Annette – and I had to laugh about your charity shop comments 🙂 Glad I bought that one – it was perfect for the leaves I had already spotted.
I love the yellow leaves by the way and the way the leaves have fallen round the bottom of the pot.
Aren’t they pretty? I am fairly sure they are R rugosa which pleases me greatly as I have 3 rugosas on order so hopefully will have my own yellow leaves to look forward to next year! Oh, and they hadn’t fallen, they were sort of artistically arranged – having already fallen off 🙂
Why didn’t I think of that? Please see my “contribution” for my apology.
http://johnsviccellio.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/in-a-vase-on-monday-missing-in-action/
Always next time John – and I wonder where you have been off to…
I am also about to be away for 8 days, so I did not bother making a fresh vase. However, so many people were interested in what my gentian would do, that I did write a post about it! https://cosmosandcleome.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/in-a-vase-on-monday-gentian-update/
Hope you are having a lovely holiday!
Thanks Kimberley – back home now, and that’s always the best bit! I wonder where you are off to….
I really like your play on words with the title of the post. 🙂
Thanks Judy – and it was appropriate 😉
Pingback: In a vase on Monday – in the pink! | Creating my own garden of the Hesperides
How could I not find some flowers when you post even when away. Lovely colours in the leaves and the ones around the base of the vase are a fun way of saying it’s autumn. I was surprised by what I found today, here’s my post: http://myhesperidesgarden.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/in-a-vase-on-monday-in-the-pink/
It’s so engrained Christina – I couldn’t not do so! The leaves were absolutely gorgeous and it was such a quick vase to do, but I did it on Saturday and then had to dismantle it last night and pack the vase away to come back today 😉 I rambled as soon as we got home but I tried not to think what I might have picked if we had been here earlier in the day!
Love that you left some dropped leaves as part of the arrangement. I am at home but I think foraged describes the ingredients in my bouquet. http://eachlittleworld.typepad.com/each_little_world/2014/11/in-a-vase-on-monday-late-november.html
Thanks Linda – and ‘foraged’ is definitely recommended at this time of year, well any time really 🙂
Love the title this week!
My contribution for today is quite simple. I had wanted to do something Thanksgiving-themed, but everyone already knows about best-laid plans, don’t we? Especially when it comes to gardens!
http://ladyoflamancha.blogspot.com.es/2014/11/in-vase-on-monday-darling-bud-of.html
Thanks Karen – simple is always effective, as well as usually being quicker/easier etc. In no way is it a cop-out 😉
Just perfect for the season, Cathy, and very well photographed. Cute title too 😉
Thanks Annette – but I couldn’t go wrong with these pretty leaves, though 😉
Pingback: In a Vase on a Monday: | My Aberdeen Garden
Very enterprising Cathy! I hope you’re enjoying your trip. Here’s my contribution: http://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2014/11/in-vase-on-monday-rose-goes-along-for.html
Thanks Kris, and yes, a pleasant few days, but good to be home
That’s a lovely vase for this time of year Cathy. I love the artistic arrangement of leaves on the worktop too. I’ve used a tiny crystal vase this week for my flowers which I forced into flower (more by accident than design) Here’s the link. http://countrygardenuk.com/2014/11/24/sweet-william/
Thanks Gillian – it may have been simple and ad hoc but I was pleased with the result
Pingback: Sweet William | Country Garden UK
So glad you put together a vase even while away, Cathy! It’s such an inspiration to see the lovely autumn colours, and your creativity in putting it “all together”. We don’t have any autumn colours here to speak of, but I do have a few new flowers available 🙂 Here is my vase at http://smallsunnygarden.blogspot.com/2014/11/herbs-and-firecrackers-for-monday-vase.html
Thank you Amy, and I suppose it shows again just how effective a very simple ‘plonking and placing’ can be – something any one of us can do 😉
I guess I’ll add this to the comment stream here, Cathy – I’ve worked with the settings on my blog and have now enabled comments from OpenID users. I’m hoping this will correct your difficulty using your WP profile. It comes at a cost since all previous comments have disappeared from my posts – I think something was not thought out well! Would you be so kind as to test by leaving a comment at http://smallsunnygarden.blogspot.com/ ? Please let me know if this works for you! Thanks, Amy
Stunned that you still find time when on holiday to pick and post a vase, Cathy, especially as Edinburgh is a city full of distractions 🙂 I love the foliage you’ve used to put in your lovely little vase – a great charity shop find. The autumnal shades show just how much difference there is between the east and west of Scotland … I still have a lot of green in my garden here. Here’s the link to my offering this week: http://silverscrappers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/in-vase-on-monday-last-roses-of-year.html
We enjoyed some distractions but plenty of chilling too – and the vase only took minutes to put together. The difference between E/W and N/S can sometimes be considerable, can’t it – and most of the trees had lost their leaves in Edinburgh
Joining in Cathy today and I have mostly foliage and dried flowers…I love how foliage can make for such a stunning vase as yours with just foraging…although I lost a lot of foliage with the freeze I still plant to keep joining in….here’s my link:
Foliage and dried flowers will still bring pleasure, I am sure – keep them coming, Donna!
Pingback: In a Vase on Monday: Pyjama Pickings | Words and Herbs
Really loved your photos this week Cathy! The autum colours are lovely, especially with the ones fallen below the vase, which is a treasure too. Such dedication is admirable – hope you had a good break in Edinburgh!
Here’s my vase for this week: http://wordsandherbs.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/in-a-vase-on-monday-pyjama-pickings/
Thanks Cathy!
Thank you for your kind words, Cathy, and yes, it was a pleasant few days but I’m happy to be home again. Oh and I had another vase from the same shop which hopefully will get an airing soon too.
Your new vase is most attractive Cathy. It has a look of a cold November misty morning about it and those warm glowing leaves are the perfect compliment. Well foraged!
It’s a freezing and foggy Nov morning back at home, Anna – perhaps I need to forage some warm leaves here, although I couldn’t recreate Edinburgh’s vase.
Hi there Cathy! Funny enough, I don’t have such pretty leaves on my (young) trees but I still have pinks & purples in my garden! Ah well, that’s how it goes. Have a good week! Here is my link 🙂 http://mominthegarden.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/in-a-vase-on-monday-pink-purple-red-coral-in-november/
And now back at home I don’t think I have any small autumn coloured leaves in the garden (but perhaps if i went out to look….). Isn’t it interesting seeing how the contents of each other’s gardens changes over the seasons?
I can see you have upped the bar Cathy by making an arrangement whilst away from home!! Well done on this lovely idea – I am going to have to make more effort on my next trip away. I love the simple use of leaves – it just goes to show how much more we should make of the material around us.
You can find my contribution this week at : http://peoniesandposies.com/2014/11/24/in-a-vase-on-monday-nothing-fresh-this-week/
Thanks Julie – and finding the vase while we were away was a happy coincidence, as we didn’t go into the charity shop looking for vases. It would have been a wine glass otherwise, I expect! I am sure that limited resources do make us more attuned to alternatives we might otherwise miss – so bring on winter vases! 🙂
How amazing to keep up your meme whilst you are on ‘ leaf of absence’ with foraged plants and a charity shop vase. That’ s what I call enterprising. Lovely autumn colours.
As the ‘hostess’ of the meme, I could say I felt duty bound but it’s not really like that – it just makes it part of the challenge and certainly more so than making an earlier one at home to post later. I was thrilled with these colourful leaves as I anticipated I might need to look further afield.
Delightful vase this week Cathy. The staging is clean and shows off the arrangement to perfection. With guests this week my attention is elsewhere but have enjoyed checking in with this week’s vase.
Ahem yes, the clean staging…. it would be a struggle to get that at home….. No blank walls or surfaces here at home I am afraid – well, no I am not actually, as it wouldn’t be ‘me’ if there was 😉 Enjoy your visitors and thanks for still finding time to pop in and see our vases
What dedication, Cathy – above and beyond, I’d say. Well done! It may be small but it’s big on colour – and imagination! So I believe there wil be few leaves waiting for me when I get to Edinburgh this weekend. They seem to hanging on well in our garden here. Will have to have a forage before my “leaf of absence”!
But surprisingly it was milder (and drier) up there than here – you could really see the difference a few days away had made when we got back
Pingback: In A Vase On Monday – Nothing Fresh This Week – Peonies & Posies