averygoodun42 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
averygoodun42) wrote2008-06-21 12:06 am
averygoodun42) wrote2008-06-21 12:06 am
Today was a good day
But, damn, I wish I'd bought batteries today!
A friend came over for tea, which was a lovely excuse to bring out my tin of Russian tea, big teapot and nice tea cups and play at being a decent hostess (although she brought the cookies...).
After she left, I went out and did a bit of the necessary maintenance on the garden, enjoying the lovely temperature and clean air from our thunderstorm. While out, I brought out the clippers and pruned off the huchera blooms, which are so gangly and homely compared to the foliage before setting them aside on the porch to do the weeding.
When I was finishing up the weeding, Babe came by and saw the succateurs. He immediately took them up despite my insistence that they were dangerous and that, no, he could not play with them, and please put them down now!
He finally did put them down, but asked and asked and begged to please clip something with them, so that I finally relented.
My lavender is blooming nicely this year, so I picked out the fullest flower cluster and pinched the spot Babe should cut at. He lunged forward with the clippers at an alarming speed, and I instinctively recoiled. Fortunately, I suffered no damage. Unfortunately, the stalk of the bloom was left with an unclean cut. I took the pruners from Babe and finished off the cut more slowly and neatly.
Babe asked to cut something else, so I again found a suitable stalk to remove, and this time instructed him to go slowly. He listened, but unfortunately, he erred on the side of timidity, and again tore the stalk without cutting it cleanly because he'd used the duller tip of the blades. Again, I took the clippers from him and repaired the damage.
He didn't ask again, but I felt bad that he hadn't managed to cut a single lavender bloom all on his own, so I again found a suitable stalk and held it up for him to cut. I instructed him to go slowly and use the base of the blades, and, sure enough, when he did so, the stalk fell cleanly from the plant, and there was much rejoicing.
So, there I was with three little lavender blooms. That isn't really enough to stash in the linen closet for the scent (besides being mildly allergic), nor enough to make a bouquet. I pondered for a bit what I could put them in, as I don't have any bud vases, and even my smallest drinking glasses would overwhelm them. I couldn't think of anything in my possession that was small with a narrowed top.
Except medicine bottles...
So, I dug through our rather sizable collection of leftover bottles and found a nice, small, brown glass one that had held a rather foul smelling Chinese herbal remedy years ago. I filled it with water, stuck the three lavender blooms in, and voila! Instant bud vase! Before the flowers went in, I lamented the fact that the label was still on the bottle, but after looking at it, I realized it somehow suited; lavender is a herb, after all.
Babe was still outside, so I placed the impromptu vase on the island with the remains of the tea, and went to check on him.
Hours went by, and, as I was cleaning up the island, I noticed that the vase, flowers and teapot went very nicely together. Knowing the rule of odds (compositions usually work better if there are an odd number of elements), I added the sugar bowl to the arrangement, and yes, it worked quite nicely.
So nicely, I got out my spotlight, sketchbook and charcoals and sketched it.
So, what does this have to do with wanting batteries? Well, the batteries in our camera died some time ago and we haven't yet found the base to recharge them. So, the camera sits, useless, on the shelf above the computer.
At first, I wasn't too upset about not having the camera available because it's not a very good close-range camera and taking shots in low or focused light is always challenging. But then, after I finished the attempted sketch, I started experimenting with the arrangement a bit more, and I came across perfection. And the medium that would suit it best is photography, not paint.
And I don't have a working camera to even attempt to capture it.
Fortunately, the lavender is freshly cut, the teapot doesn't need to be used again anytime soon, and the spotlight will alert Geoff to the need of not touching anything. It can wait until tomorrow night, when I will either have new batteries or have found that damn charger.
A friend came over for tea, which was a lovely excuse to bring out my tin of Russian tea, big teapot and nice tea cups and play at being a decent hostess (although she brought the cookies...).
After she left, I went out and did a bit of the necessary maintenance on the garden, enjoying the lovely temperature and clean air from our thunderstorm. While out, I brought out the clippers and pruned off the huchera blooms, which are so gangly and homely compared to the foliage before setting them aside on the porch to do the weeding.
When I was finishing up the weeding, Babe came by and saw the succateurs. He immediately took them up despite my insistence that they were dangerous and that, no, he could not play with them, and please put them down now!
He finally did put them down, but asked and asked and begged to please clip something with them, so that I finally relented.
My lavender is blooming nicely this year, so I picked out the fullest flower cluster and pinched the spot Babe should cut at. He lunged forward with the clippers at an alarming speed, and I instinctively recoiled. Fortunately, I suffered no damage. Unfortunately, the stalk of the bloom was left with an unclean cut. I took the pruners from Babe and finished off the cut more slowly and neatly.
Babe asked to cut something else, so I again found a suitable stalk to remove, and this time instructed him to go slowly. He listened, but unfortunately, he erred on the side of timidity, and again tore the stalk without cutting it cleanly because he'd used the duller tip of the blades. Again, I took the clippers from him and repaired the damage.
He didn't ask again, but I felt bad that he hadn't managed to cut a single lavender bloom all on his own, so I again found a suitable stalk and held it up for him to cut. I instructed him to go slowly and use the base of the blades, and, sure enough, when he did so, the stalk fell cleanly from the plant, and there was much rejoicing.
So, there I was with three little lavender blooms. That isn't really enough to stash in the linen closet for the scent (besides being mildly allergic), nor enough to make a bouquet. I pondered for a bit what I could put them in, as I don't have any bud vases, and even my smallest drinking glasses would overwhelm them. I couldn't think of anything in my possession that was small with a narrowed top.
Except medicine bottles...
So, I dug through our rather sizable collection of leftover bottles and found a nice, small, brown glass one that had held a rather foul smelling Chinese herbal remedy years ago. I filled it with water, stuck the three lavender blooms in, and voila! Instant bud vase! Before the flowers went in, I lamented the fact that the label was still on the bottle, but after looking at it, I realized it somehow suited; lavender is a herb, after all.
Babe was still outside, so I placed the impromptu vase on the island with the remains of the tea, and went to check on him.
Hours went by, and, as I was cleaning up the island, I noticed that the vase, flowers and teapot went very nicely together. Knowing the rule of odds (compositions usually work better if there are an odd number of elements), I added the sugar bowl to the arrangement, and yes, it worked quite nicely.
So nicely, I got out my spotlight, sketchbook and charcoals and sketched it.
So, what does this have to do with wanting batteries? Well, the batteries in our camera died some time ago and we haven't yet found the base to recharge them. So, the camera sits, useless, on the shelf above the computer.
At first, I wasn't too upset about not having the camera available because it's not a very good close-range camera and taking shots in low or focused light is always challenging. But then, after I finished the attempted sketch, I started experimenting with the arrangement a bit more, and I came across perfection. And the medium that would suit it best is photography, not paint.
And I don't have a working camera to even attempt to capture it.
Fortunately, the lavender is freshly cut, the teapot doesn't need to be used again anytime soon, and the spotlight will alert Geoff to the need of not touching anything. It can wait until tomorrow night, when I will either have new batteries or have found that damn charger.