Buche de Noel

Christmas was just around the corner when I realized that my reliable Buche de Noel purveryor had closed her little French bakery.  What to do?  I had to create my very own and it wasn't hard at all.  Bought a deliciously moist jelly roll and decorated it with gusto.  Now that I got the knack of it and after looking at some outstanding examples on the internet, I can see this becoming a new Christmas tradition at Furball Cottage.  I may even think of making enough for friends and family.  Put your name down on the list if you're interested.  Remember, Christmas 2011 is just around the corner.

A ROSE OF SUCH VIRTUE



Advent is NOT Christmas.  No time yet for carols and merry-making.  Advent is a season of expectation where the cold, dry, dead-seeming earth is waiting for the arrival of the LIGHT.     We are all expecting.... the Mother has not yet met her Divine Child.  The Mother... The Rose of Such Virtue, the rose that bare Jesu: Alleluia.  In this rose contained was Heaven and earth in little space. 

Res Miranda [miracle of miracles].  That was the theme for our church's choir concert last Sunday.  The Cantor, David Harp, asked me to do the flowers to adorn the sanctuary, a great honor.  And a little later he  also asked me to read two poems during the concert.  Gulp!  For the flowers we decided on something stark and dramatic representing the rose that blooms in winter.  Two arrangements for the two front corners of the altar plus two swags hanging from the reredos.  I think the results speak for themselves.  The reading was harrowing but well worth the effort  to hear the Rev. Tim Wengert say to me later: "Hearing you read is like going to a gourmet restaurant, to savor every word".  Oh my!                                                



MY (TEACUP) RUNNETH OVER

Antique/vintage English teacups provided by David VanSciver for our class  last night.  Everybody's design was lovely, lots of spray roses - dark and light pink - something called 'ground pine' never seen before but a fabulous filler and it will last almost forever.  All too ladylike for me... had to jazz it up...  A spool of cool wire, some strange, shimmery fiber you pull with your fingers and attach wherever you want bling.  Would this work for a New Year's table?  Oh, you bet it would!

God's Polka Dots

AN OLD CROCK

Several years ago, a friend gave me her collection of stoneware crocks, nine in total, which I added to a couple of very old ones given to me by another friend.  Never could do anything floral with them.  Didn't feel like doing the old cliché of dried grasses or great bunches of daisies, so they just stayed in the garden shed catching dust and serving as homes for winter mice.  When David VanSciver asked us to bring a troublesome but rustic container to our second lesson, I immediately knew what I should take.  This crock is not tall enough for its height and nothing had ever looked good in it until now.  The seed pods helped quite a bit and the colors blended nicely.  Thanks, David, for the wonderful seedpods and for waking up this old crock from a long slumber.  Oh, and the angled stuff is equisetum (horse tail) from my garden.

BEHOLD THE POWER OF LANDSCAPING

                                                   

Before

                                                                          After

A little bit of cardboard, some glitter, a few hours of boredom... A putz is built.  Once finished, the little house looks forlorn in its snowy field surrounded by its picket fence. As in real life, a house without a garden is like a body without a soul.  So here comes a bit of dried-up moss... still something is missing... trees!  Two snippets from my beloved cryptomeria japonica that died this summer due to the merciless drought.  Now the wee inhabitants of this chalet can smile and I'm sure there will be smoke coming out of the chimney as soon as they settle down in their new abode.  Good night.

ROOTS AND ALL

Looking for interesting ideas for a design on a windowsill at the HUMC Harvest Festival, of course I went to the thrifty woman's flower emporium, the nearest Produce Junction.  After looking at the unispiring variety of cut flowers, I fell in love witht the amazing colors of this calla lily and the rest, as they say, is history.  The dish is from the fifties, found at some thrift shop or garage sale long ago.  Never used before, waiting for its perfect complement.   No way I was going to cut those flowers, so decided instead to use the whole plant, roots and all, add mosses and lichens and let it all hang out.  A stiff backing of liatris was all that was needed.  I enjoyed the puzzled expression of so many people who stopped over and seemed to wonder if this was a mistake, a broken pot, an unfinished work.  A card explained it all: "A Naturalistic Design"  Hopefully at least a few read it and learned something new.