In Mum’s Vase on Monday

Despite rapidly approaching 90, my Mum never fails to have a little pot of blooms on the chest of drawers in the guest bedroom when we or other visitors come to stay – a gesture that was one of the contributory factors to the commencement of the Vase on Monday meme, that and the desire to rekindle my own long-gone habit of picking and plonking at the start of the week. I am therefore pleased to be able to give her full credit for the above vase, which was waiting for us on our arrival here on Saturday. On checking she was OK with me hijacking her vase for my Monday post, she doubted its credibility compared to my ‘carefully arranged’ vases, and I had to reassure her that in truth ALL my vases were essentially picked and plonked, confirming just how effective an informally collected selection of blooms can be.

On a small island just off the coast of western Scotland my Mum’s largely untended garden suffers from a large quantity of rain, late springs and short summers, salt laden air and fierce winds at times, not to mention a very shallow layer of soil above slate bedrock – far from ideal conditions for gardening. However, amidst the neglect certain plants still maintain their presence, reliably flowering year after year with some, like the hebes, flowering pretty much all the year round.

In the vase, a stoneware creation from the local Argyll pottery, are two of these valiant hebes (a dark and a light blue), pink achillea, a gorgeous dark pink bud of honeysuckle, self-seeded ox-eye daisy, pink mallow, corn marigold, frothy alchemilla flowers and a lovely blue brodiaea  which so far resists any attempt on my part to establish it in our garden.

Placing the vase in front of an old mirror augments the beauty of the blooms, but made it a nightmare to photograph, and in its original location on the chest of drawers you would have seen the reflection of a pile of clothes and other travel paraphernalia as well as that of the vase! Careful manoeuvering of both mirror and vase onto the bed and judicious cropping eventually brought about an acceptable result, with the addition of a little tower of slate pebbles from the beach outside my Mum’s house as a localized prop. The tiny ‘up’ sticker with the arrow pointing downwards on the main picture always reminds me that this mirror used to be in my elder sister’s bedroom when she was a teenager, the sticker no doubt a freebie from a typical 60s magazine like ‘Fab 208’!

Whether you are at home or away, what can you forage to put in your vase this Monday? Do share it with us by adding a link to your post in a comment on this one, and include a link in your own post to this one too – we would love to see what you have included today. And thanks of course go to my Mum for allowing me to share her vase with everyone!