Flowers. The colour, the scent, the burst of outside that can bring a dull mood and a dull day instantly to life. It doesn’t matter whether I buy them for myself, or the come as a gift, but they always make me feel better. Whether they come from a posh florists in London or the local market or the shop on the way home, a bouquet or even a cheerful bunch, will put a smile on my face without fail.
But here’s a thing. In my quest to bring more photos to the blog, I’ve been enjoying fiddling with the photos. I’m not great at taking photos, I only ever bother to use my phone, but I do enjoy messing about with them afterwards. It’s my version of art, I suppose, the thing that gives me pleasure in taking photos this week. And this week, I discovered that sometimes you can turn the colour nature produces into something even more pleasing by taking the colour away, or fiddling with it a bit, or even just plain spending time looking harder at the pictures and at the subject. (And just for added drama, there is a glimpse of my highly exciting hallway, which is now a very wet, plumbing disaster, hallway! 😉 )
It occurred to me this week that the same is simply not true of the reason for flowers; there is something pleasing, always, about treating yourself to something floral and gorgeous, but it doesn’t quite hold up if the flowers arrive with no emotion behind them. I wouldn’t want to be a person who had enough money to just have deliveries every week regardless. The knock on the door, the promise that romantic gifts bring and the pure joy of knowing someone thought about you. It is that, just as much as how big or expensive the bouquet is, that warms you up and makes you appreciate the beauty of the offering. Of all the flowers I have ever received, the two bunches I have appreciated and remembered most arrived on one of the saddest days of my life. It meant so much to know that someone had cared enough to send them. I still have a photo of one of them as the front image on my phone.
I’d be a liar if I didn’t admit to having loved every minute of this bouquet though. The colour, the scent, the sheer gorgeousness of the outrageous blooms and contrasting colours have been making me stop to stare and sniff and oooooooh every time I go into the room.
And they let me play with pictures, which made me look closer and harder at just how amazing nature is. I even tried drawing them. (That’s a bit beyond my artistic edge though, you aren’t seeing the results!) And… AND for the first time ever, I had flowers with a green carnation in them; I don’t know why green flowers seem so remarkable, but they do!
You can follow the lovely Interflora, who kindly sent me this bouquet for free, on Twitter or visit their Facebook page. I highly recommend their service and the amazing bouquets of flowers they produce. The handtied option works particularly well as the flowers have a pool of water to keep the fresh and they looked gorgeous and were ready to display instantly.
