Skip to main content

The simplest of vases on Monday

As we hurtle towards a period of excess, razzmatazz and a world of green, red and sparkly things (many garish and over the top), my vase this week offers the simplest of stems, and the promise of even better things to come.  Hazel catkins.

To fancy thing up a little bit, sitting alongside my vase are a few leaves and the shaggy acorn cups of Turkey oak, Quercus cerris, which was introduced to this country in the 1700s from south-east Europe and Asia Minor.  I love the rich chestnut brown on the inside of the cup.

Comments

  1. Wow, those shaggy acorn cups are amazing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are fun aren't they! I loved them when I was a child. A bit like little furry animals! A

      Delete
  2. Just beautiful and beautifully photographed- especially the acorns. Always a pleasure when someone makes us notice something beautiful we might walk past.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Cathy. I am enjoying the soft colour of the catkins, because I know that any day now the colours are going to be ramped up to red holly berries, glossy green leaves, and so a period of quiet is rather nice! A

      Delete
  3. Yes, the acorn cups are absolute stars but the leaves and catkins are stylish in their own right and it is good to celebrate all three of them - thanks for sharing them with us

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought the catkins were a lovely reminder that there is life after Christmas and a New Year is not too far off. Will that bring fresh new things - goodness only knows. What we can rely on, though, are plants to follow their star!

      Delete
  4. I love the catkins and the fuzzy acorn cups!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've always loved catkins. As children, of course, we were told that they were lamb's tails, left behind in the hedgerows! Once the catkins in my vase start to open out and the pollen falls, you might be seeing them again!!

      Delete
  5. So simple and beautiful. I will definitely be looking for some of these over the next few weeks. Beautiful finds and photographs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Alison. I am always surprised to see catkins in December, but they are always there. To me they belong to Easter, but I expect that now these stems are indoors and warming up the catkin flowers will start to come out! Pollen everywhere! A

      Delete
  6. Nice. Those acorns are lovely, they remind me of Overcup Oaks. I rarely seen any catkins like that, so thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't heard of Overcup Oaks so I have just looked them up. Another lovely oak tree! Apparently the Turkey oak in this country is starting to challenge our native oak. It's taken over 300 years to do that, so I think it must be a bit of a slow starter!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In a vase on Monday - colour

The intense colours in my vase this week come from nasturtiums, sweetpeas and a single glorious zinnia! Their beauty and love of life speak for themselves and need no further words from me! Enjoy!

Coastal walk from Gullane to North Berwick

By the time I have walked about four miles, my toes are screaming at me - it's the arthritis, you see.  One of the joys of being that little bit older than I was.  However, for a long time, I have been keen to walk along the beaches, and follow the coastal path, between Gullane and North Berwick. So, having worked out the tide times, I decided today was the day, and off we went. Below is our starting point, the bay at Gullane.  It's a lovely beach, very popular with dog walkers. This is looking east, the direction Tilly and I were going to take. Looking back, up the Forth, the unmistakable bulk of Arthur's Seat, and Edinburgh's skyline, just clear enough to see. For most of the walk, there is the choice between wandering along a series of beaches, or following a path along the top of each. There's no denying it, at heart I am a shell-seeker.  I have loads of shells at home.  We lived on one of the out islands in the Bahamas for a just over a year, a lo

Possibly the last post and a sizzlingly hot vase on Monday

The border in our tiny garden is in an in-between phase at the moment and not very colourful, but elsewhere there are pops of high summer colour and I have brought them together in my vase today. The running wave uses Blogger as it's vehicle and they are changing the way a post is created but unfortunately I cannot make the new format work. I can't progress beyond the title! I cannot navigate to the main body of the post to create text. The new template has no prompts for adding photos, weblinks, to format the text, change font etc. It may be my old MacBook that's as fault but I can't do anything about that!! Are any other IAVOM bloggers who use Blogger having the same problems? I have tried, three times, to contact Blogger through their 'Help' prompt and received no feedback or contact whatsoever. This post is using the old 'Legacy' format, which no longer permits any kind of formatting of text, and so after four attempts I have finally manage