There can't be many people reading this (especially if they are in the UK) that didn't have a nature table in their primary school classroom! And the item to watch was a dead-looking, sturdy twig with a big fat mahogany-coloured shiny bud on the end of it, which would sit for weeks in a jam jar. Waiting. Then one day, a crack in its sticky armour would appear, and each morning after that, the unfurling. The wonder of nature would reveal itself, bit by bit, until one day ..... ta dah ..... the tightly packed contents of the sticky fat bud would burst forth into hands of green, and Spring had arrived! Hooray!
My vase this week, a flower brick by Totnes potter Colin Kellam, has the fresh young leaves and tiny candelabra flowers of the horse chestnut, and one twig of sycamore with the buddiest fat buds you will ever see!
And from whence they came!
So, not a vintage flower brick but certainly a lookalike vintage one - gorgeous! I will see if I can look this up and find out more. What a lovely selection of leaf buds you have - I really ought to pick some for myself to recreate the same pleasure. Thanks so much for sharing this, Amanda
ReplyDeleteThose sycamore buds are probably the fattest most promising looking leaf buds I have ever seen! They are just beginning to pop! Lovely! A
DeleteLovely! What a fun thing for kids to enjoy at school.
ReplyDeleteYour vase/brick makes a lovely testimonial to the joys of Spring, Amanda. I'm afraid there are few nature tables in Los Angeles County schools but at least the kids do visit our local botanic garden to get a fix of nature. (I know as I'm signed up to lead 7 tours in the next month.)
ReplyDeleteGood for you Kris, to be introducing young ones to plants. Who knows, you may be inspiring a gardener or botanist of the future! What could be better!! A
DeleteHow come I've never heard of a flower brick before - that is a lovely one. You have inspired me to go and find some leaf buds - good nostalgia!
ReplyDeleteThere is an interesting information here about flower bricks! http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O21382/flower-brick-unknown/
ReplyDeleteIt's on the V&A Museum website. I have to say I didn't realise they date back to the 1700s! A