In a Vase on Monday: Alternative

Some of you might remember this slim rectangular vase and the wild plum twigs from last week , but instead of red roses we have a red Hippeastrum. The alternative contents are, I suppose, a form of humble apology to some Unknown Persons – for there is an addendum to last week’s story…

The roses, you might recall, were found on a verge, seemingly abandoned in despair or anger by an unknown individual, and in true opportunist foraging style I retrieved them for the vase. Your comments, like my post, puzzled over the possible background to the abandonment but, unless you thought it but didn’t want to say it, no-one suggested as a friend did that they might have been left as a tribute… I was aghast, ashamed in fact, that I hadn’t even considered that as an option, so used am I to seeing sad cellophane wrapped bunches left on roadsides following a tragic accident. For someone who had lost a loved one this way, leaving a bunch of red roses close to Valentine’s Day would, of course, be entirely appropriate, and although I wasn’t aware of an accident having happened at that approximate spot this was no excuse for me not having considered it a possibility.

Reader, I went out under cover of darkness and replaced the roses near to where I had found them, leaving with them a reverent and abject apology…

The whole confession is of course added to the original post and in future I will be more circumspect when my vase involves foraging. In the meantime, the wild plum twigs lived on alone in the vase, the buds breaking open to reveal the tiny white flowers, yet another of the signs that spring is trimming its bonnet for a new season. To make up for their lonely week I have retained and added to their number for this week’s vase, adding one of the two stems on Hippeastrum ‘Red Lion’ which have been gracing the Coop for a number of weeks, as you might have read in a recent post. Keeping potted bulbs cool, as this has been in the lean-to greenhouse, adds weeks to their longevity but does require a degree of patience. I was intrigued when I zoomed in on the photographs and could clearly see how the anthers had split open, thus releasing the pollen.

Having retained the full height of the stem and incorporating some relatively tall twigs, creating a suitably bland background for outside photos was not going to be easy, so I trialled shots against a dark green wall in our back sitting room; hmm, still not brilliant… Oh, and the prop, symbolising the alternative, is the travel version of Othello, a simple strategy game with reversible black and white counters – do you know it? Its tagline is ‘A minute to learn…a lifetime to master’. Having ‘rediscovered’ it for this post (and I had forgotten its name, recalling it possibly as Reverso, which may indeed have been its original name), I am itching to play it again! There is a full size version  around somewhere too although I suspect it might be in the ex-marital home…

You don’t need to include any sort of story with your Monday vase, but it can add extra interest and I know there are times when it also adds to our store of knowledge, whether useful or not; just see what you can find in your garden or carefully forage locally and pop the result in a vase or other receptacle or present it naked (ahem, not you), linking to and from this post so we can share in the pleasure it brings. I shall be late responding to your comments and viewing your vases this week, but I shall dutifully catch up during the week, I promise.