I've Been Busy!

YAY!! The Warning is Gone!!

That warning, saying that my blog was an attack site, should never have been there to start. Thanks to those of you who braved the warning, clicked the "ignore" button and commented.

Apparently, it was a scam. Some site I had visited (and I know which one) put a cookie on my blog. When I followed the links to the conclusion, it wanted me to pay $100 to get rid of it. I am notoriously cheap, so paying to remove that was not gonna' happen!

I ran virus and malware, but that didn't take care of it, and neither did clearing the cache.  Just now, I thought to delete all the cookies, and just like a snap of the finger, the warning disappeared!! It's too bad I didn't think of that sooner.Thank you for hanging in there.

Work is picking up, now that fall is on the horizon and weddings and parties are once more added to many date books. I am really enjoying my latest job, with Cyndey Davis-English of  English Garden. In October, weddings get very busy with Mel Day of Dogwood Tree Florist.

My creativity gets tweaked (and satisfied) with both of them and I am truly grateful for the opportunities for being surrounded by fresh flowers and also with congenial people!

What are you grateful for today?

As I said....I've been busy!

A silk arrangement, done for a friend. Details below.

I had saved some real bird nests from ones we used last Christmas at the history Museum, and put two of them into this arrangement. (Thanks, Mel, for letting me keep them.)

I did the flowers for these four tall candelabra yesterday. They are packed in buckets, for easy transport.

Another detail from the birdcage arrangement.

Candelabra flowers - detail.

The Meaning of Rose Colors

Red:  the symbol of pure love

White:  symbolize purity or new beginnings

Yellow:  everlasting friendship (old or new friends)

Orange:  enthusiasm and desire; a burning love

Purple or Lavender:  love at first sight, passion, luxury, royalty

Pink:  admiration, appreciation, joy, thanks (any shade of pink)

Peach:  sincerity and gratitude

This list leaves out the newest colors of rose -  green - available from pale to lime green. I wonder what the meaning of these will be?

So, tell me:   what's your favorite shade of rose?

Sorbonne Lilies

I couldn't decide which photo I liked better, so I'm posting both. These Sorbonnes are my favorite lilies.

Flora

Something pretty to look at; a rose, a peony and a gardenia.

If Only.....

you could sit on my deck with me and catch the heavenly aroma wafting on the breeze of my gardenia bush that is chock full of blooms!! I took this photo two days ago, and there are about 10-15 more blooms on it this morning. Is there anything so pristine as a new gardenia bloom?

Beauty and the Bad

This one is supposed to be turned to the right, but I can't get it to do that now.

It's looking better, but it's still bad! I took two frogs out of the pool this morning and the hawk was very interested! I saw him fly off the deck and the pump house into the trees twice, as I went out onto the deck. One of the frogs is still sitting there and the other is gone. Either the hawk got him or he jumped back in the pool. 

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You know the building in New York where the IMF guy is now staying?   The one at 71 Broadway?  That's where my daughter lived for 18 months. It's 2 blocks from the World Trade Center location. Although it is a very nice building, with nice apartments, it must be quite a comedown for a man who is used to $3000 per night hotel suites!  lol

Tuesday at the Flower Shuttle + Canada Geese

Peonies, roses and solidago

Iris, roses, bachelor buttons and solidago

Tulips, roses, hydrangea, wax flower and purple statice

There was a story in our newspaper recently about two Canada geese who have chosen an odd spot in which to roost. It is between a mall parking deck and the post office, across a busy street with lots of traffic. There is no lake or water nearby, which seems odd for them. I went to the PO after the Flower Shuttle today and parked right beside their spot. He is on the left, and she is on her nest near the rear wheel of the car.

When I first got there, he seemed calm, but as traffic increased, so did his angst - and he waddled to the edge of the plot to stand guard. It is amazing how alert he is; turning his head from left to right, surveying the possible dangers. I asked the clerk in the PO how they were doing. She said that sometimes he stands in the middle of the street and won't let cars pass at all. I was lucky he was not in that mood today! I told her that I appreciated the way Canada geese males take care of their mates, and she said "Wouldn't it be wonderful if all males were like that!" 

I don't think I've ever gone two days without a post before; it feels strange.  I've been working in a shop (not the usual one) for Mother's Day. I thought the last shop I worked in was busy, but I didn't know busy until I started working for the new one. In addition to all daily work and the Mother's Day arrangements, they have six weddings this weekend! I know it is hard to keep the details straight in your mind for more than one wedding, so I can't imagine having six at one time. It is rather like a factory there!

Photos would be nice, but I hardly have the time to take any. 

The flower business is one where some designers float around working with many different shops and someone you met years ago while working at one shop may pop up later in another.  When I walked into the shop on Wednesday, I saw a woman with whom I had worked 4-5 years ago. Of course, I couldn't remember where I had met her, but as soon as she said the name of the shop, I remembered. There was a man who had given a seminar/demonstration some years ago at the wholesale florist. He didn't know me, but it was nice to see him again and watch him work. We can all learn from each other and I have noticed over the years that most florists don't mind sharing their knowledge and secrets. That makes working a whole lot nicer, don't you think?  I sure am enjoying it; if I didn't - I wouldn't be working. My body doesn't always cooperate with what I really want/need to do. I forget and pick up something too heavy, or twist while I am lifting - and then I pay the consequences for weeks. Someone needs to keep reminding me that I am not superwoman!

There will likely not be another new post for several days, so have a great Mother's Day and I'll catch up with you later.

Old Flower Photos

At Carolina Country Club for a party.

North Carolina Museum of Art. Shortly after this arrangement died, the container was stolen from the museum. It had to be an inside job, and I was devastated to lose it. I bought that cachepot at Fitz and Floyd in  the Dallas Mart in the 80's, and hand-carried it back home on the plane. The handles were antelope heads.

For a large corporate party in Greensboro, NC.

For the grand opening of a Pediatric Medical Practice in Raleigh. 

 

 

 

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I had hoped to show you some photos I took on Easter Sunday at the Marriott Brunch, but only one of them turned out well. Mr. kenju's lazy eye was lazier than ever, and it is hard to tell where he was looking when I took the shot. Only one eye was on me, and even it was slightly askew....lol. I doubt he'd want me to show that to you!

We are expecting more storms tonight (Wednesday.) There is a tornado watch until 8:00 pm (unless they extend it) and it will be stormy again tomorrow. We need the rain, but this is ridiculous!

I'll be working for the next three days, so visiting may be curtailed. If you are in the path of spring storms, I hope you fare well.

Odds & Ends

Colossal Shrimp at Wegman's. I don't know how many you would get per pound, but it wouldn't be many!

In Virginia, on Route 81, enroute from Charleston to Northern Virginia. Spring is barely happening there, but there were beautiful red bud trees, some dogwoods and some forsythia in bloom. Since ours in NC have bloomed and gone, it was nice to see the ones up here. The mountains were beautiful, despite the lack of green.

My excellent mahi mahi, over cauliflower mash, with the tastiest, most tender big asparagus spears I've ever had. Sorry, but I simply HAD to take a few bites before I took the photo.  It came from Sweetwater Tavern in Falls Church, VA. I liked it so much that I went back the next day for lunch (with my cousin Joy) and ate a grilled chicken and havarti sandwich (also very good).

I can't ever recall having blooming roses this early in the season!

This is a small piece of some of the debris we found in our yard after the tornadoes swept through NC last Saturday. It is plastic house siding. The edges are so sharp, that had a human been in the path of it, it could have cut through skin as easily as a knife through warm butter.

Yesterday, a couple of people mentioned wanting to know about how to condition flowers.  If you are interested in seeing my old post about proper conditioning of flowers, go here.

I'm working all day today, delivering flowers for three weddings. Catch you later, if  I'm able.

Hard at Work

By the time this post appears, I will be hard at work, conditioning flowers for three weddings. It's a big weekend here. I love being involved with happy times. Weddings, parties, galas and celebrations of all kinds are my specialty. It's not that I don't ever want to see the dark sides of life - I just prefer the happier ones - as most do.  Sometimes, though, the sad things read their ugly heads and we must deal with them. The mother of one of my best friends died this week and the service is today. Because I am working, I will almost certainly have to miss the funeral. Fresh wedding flowers don't wait for sad times; they must be conditioned, etc., no matter what else is going on. It's sad, but it can't be helped.

When I was in high school, Tennessee Ernie Ford had a hit song called "Sixteen Tons." Go listen.....I'll wait. The thing that stuck with me all these years about that song was the line......."you sell your soul to the company store."

When that song came out, I was working part-time for a flower shop owned by friend's of my parents. The most important thing I ever learned when I worked there was that to own a flower shop was tantamount to selling your soul to the store. Florist shop owners have problems that negate the happy side of flowers. Every holiday is spent working double-time. Delivery personnel call in sick at the last minute (if they show up at all.) The flowers get frozen or crushed or wilted, through no fault of your own, and replacing them at a minute's notice can be very tricky. The customers are a varied lot; some are wonderful and others are a trial from the minute they walk in. Designers can be quixotic. All of those are very good reasons not to be in this business - and I haven't even scratched the surface of  wire services - which are another level of hell all by themselves. (I think Dante had a spot in 'The Inferno' reserved just for them (or maybe that was delivery people.)

But, and it is a biiiiig but......I am in it, and thousands of others are in it too, because, despite the problems, we love being surrounded by the beauty of fresh flowers (to say nothing of the marvelous aromas.)

My friend understands this, I know. She is a florist too, and I know she will forgive me for not being able to attend her mother's funeral service.

It Won't Be Long Now......

Tulip Poplar

Crepe Myrtle

Rambling rose

My two scraggly little dogwoods

Last Week at the Flower Shuttle

Roses, statice, wax flower, jade and larkspur

Roses, lilies, hypericum berries, eucalyptus and hydrangea

A parrot tulip

Roses, hydrangea, tulips, hypericum, eucalyptus, jade and lily grass

Roses, salal, alstroemeria, Fuji mums, purple mums and lily grass

On the First Day of Spring...

Mother Nature gave to me:  a sunshiny forsythia (scraggly, but in full bloom). This one started almost 29 years ago as a very small plant at the corner of the house.

Baby dogwood tree blossoms - I love them when they are green like this!

And some determined tendrils, saying...."AHA! I got you right where I want you!" I spotted this beside the door to my hair salon. The tendrils fascinate me, and had I not had someplace to go when I left there, I might still be photographing them!

I know that we will undoubtedly have some cooler weather again - perhaps even the cold will return with a vengeance. But this weekend, we are awash in sunshine and mid-70's temperatures, and I wish that all of you could be here and experience it (especially friends in the northwest, who are having yet another snowstorm.)

Our weather was glorious yesterday. We reached and then passed the previous record of 80* for that date and went on to 85*. I pruned some dead wood out of my forsythias while they are in full bloom and the bare canes can be seen easily. I usually don't get around to it until the bushes are in full foliage, making it harder to see the dead parts.  (Don't ask why the copy in the post decided to assume this form - I have NO idea - but it makes me angry.I need to re-do this wreath. It is old and shaggy. Maybe I should just toss it out and start over...lol)