Saturday...

It’s been a very sunny week although today marked a wet change...

The seagulls went crazy last night, about 15 minutes before it started to rain and this morning, ( like every morning at this time of year ), the mother seagull was on the shed roof trying her luck on behalf of her babies...who are about the size of a house!

Earlier in the week Cheeks had been in his element; in the garden, in the sun ( loved how he even wrapped his tail around the pot! )

Although the garden has been besieged by purple this week, the nasturtiums are blooming so massively that I have to pick a big bunch virtually every evening...

...I think a few people worry that I am a flower wrecker just for my table compositions, but I like to try and save loads of the flowers I use.
This is another Beryl ikebana shallow trough which I placed some of the de-stemmed nasturtiums along with honeysuckle wisps from a buddleia arrangement I put together at the beginning of the week and some hydrangea leaves...

The lacecap hydrangea is a really pretty plant...I unearthed this one years ago after a massive lavetera suddenly died and then revealed the delicate struggling shrub underneath...

...the day lilies are still being amazing, although I always feel like it’s been a shame for their ‘day’ when it rains...

( and that’s a giant echium pre massive purple stem in the background )

and the hollyhocks are getting huger by the day which means propping them up with old sticks...

...and so back to the purple buddleia again...and a day lily...which I hesitantly decided to pick at 6pm this evening, rather than see it shrivel up in the dullness of a Saturday evening!

Wednesday...

I have one buddleia in my garden...a very light purple one.
But neighbours on either side have two slightly different shaded dark purple buddleias... which overhang into my garden!
I picked two massive bunches from my own garden this week and they are making the house smell amazing, so I thought I’d snip some of the overhangers too...

the selection of neighbourly purples...

...combined with sweet pea, lavender, perennial pea and bronze fennel ( I’m very proud of this purple fennel, as last year I picked a teeny seedling from a crack in a pavement, planted it in the garden and now it’s about 5ft tall and just about to flower! )

...I thought that the valerian, hydrangea and heuchera flowers added to and complimented the buddleia textures...

with the heuchera leaves echoing the purples and pinks, and the poppy heads acting as a good contrast...

I chose one of my favourite ceramic vases...

...and started with the buddleia and hydrangeas before the adding the valerian and the other green textures and props.

I really like the bold geometry of this black and white pencil as it often works as good visual punctuation, and this aqua colour always sits so well alongside pinks and purples...

I also have a strange little doghnut vase which belonged to my other grandma ( Florence ), and which is hugely useful for little snippings which I either I cut off and don’t use in the large arrangements or for flowers and leaves which I rescue after a flower and petal composition...

It’s quite an odd vase because really you have to look at it from above... perfect for the table!

Monday...

The pinks and purples are really arriving in the garden now, and this weekend brought the first Hollyhock as well as the first Buddleia.

I wanted to create something with the hollyhock, although it’s not easy as each flower has a tiny stem and I didn’t want to just discard it afterwards...

I grew these from seed about 3 years ago and find it so satisfying that they keep coming back ...

I always cut the Buddleia back really hard each year which seems to bring them back stronger and larger, even though it’s a massive job keeping on top of it...

It’s amazing that one day there is maybe one looking like it’s about to bloom, to absolutely loads of them the next!

The Perennial Peas are winding their way into everything too...

the field scabious are just starting to appear amongst the day lilies...

and the Valerian as always just keeps on growing...

On a slightly different note, having spent a bit of time on the table with the pink and purple from the garden yesterday, I then discovered some other pink and purple...in my cupboards!!

(...the Medusa potato!! )