Flowers from the Garden

There was no real plan for the flowers this week. I was setting the table for Sunday lunch and somewhere between the plates and glasses, I looked outside and thought the table needed something from the garden. So out I went with my clippers. A little of whatever was blooming came back inside with me—Versailles Flush cosmos and armfuls of Ballerina and Zinderella Peach zinnias in all those wonderful late-summer shades of pink, peach and gold. Rather than searching for a proper vase, I reached for an old enamel splatterware pitcher. Its soft blue-green seemed just right against all those warm garden colors, and its wonderfully ordinary shape kept the whole arrangement from feeling too precious. A few snips, a little rearranging, and onto the table it went. Perhaps that’s my favorite kind of flower arranging after all. Not flowers purchased for an occasion or an arrangement planned days in advance. Just something blooming outside, an old vessel waiting inside, and a table about to be gathered around. Sometimes Sunday lunch is occasion enough.