In a Vase on Monday: January treasure

Dank. That is the perfect word to describe what it is like outdoors today (yes, in bold). According to the urban dictionary, dank can also mean ‘excellent’ or ‘a general insult’, or a few other things, but I’ll stick with its original meaning of ‘unpleasantly damp and cold’.

Undeterred by the grey, I ventured out into the garden to see if I could find any colour for a Monday vase. There is a lot of soggy, brown foliage out there and I had to avert my eyes from several areas, including a patch of hundreds of new crocosmia shoots where we’ve been trying to clear it. Grrr. I had a good rummage in the undergrowth and was delighted to find some fresh, perfect hellebore stems with fat pink buds underneath a veil of fallen leaves. I also snipped a couple of sprigs of white heather (no idea what type and I’m sure it was pale pink last year), a few beautiful cyclamen leaves with their delicate, silvery patterns and some tendrils from a mass of tangled ivy .

These treasures are plonked in a glass that I bought a few months ago for this very purpose. I spotted it sitting on a supermarket shelf, on sale for £2, and imagined it full of Monday vase flowers. I’ve taken several photos of it against different backgrounds with artificial and natural light. Despite the dankness I feel much better for getting in to the garden and having a good poke about. I feel even better now I’m indoors and I’ve spent some time absorbed in gazing at the leaves and buds, the patterns and colours. I know, I’ve said it before, but I do love faffing about with flowers and taking photos; I reckon it’s time well spent if it perks me up!.

I’m taking a new look at the ivy in our garden after reading an article in the latest RHS magazine. I knew it was good for wildlife but I didn’t realise how important it is to leave ivy plants to mature (about 10 years) so that they provide flowers and berries. And I didn’t realise how many species and cultivars there are of Hedera. I spotted quite a few different leaf shapes in my short expedition to the bottom of the garden, so I’m going to take more notice of this plant now and try to persuade David not to pull every last bit of it out of the hedges.

Thank you, as ever, to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for hosting this weekly gathering of pickings from around the world. I’m off over there now to see what everyone else has found.

In other news (and quickly) – thank you for your get well wishes for my poorly boy. He roused himself over the weekend and has gone in to school this morning. Fingers crossed he’ll continue to improve.

Hope you have a good week x