Late Summer

A few photos from a late summer arranging gig yesterday with Chickadee Hill Flowers. I love Emily's big arrangements. She always manages a shape you thought impossible to build with flowers. Every piece of material she applies is done with deliberate attention and starts with a thoughtful framework of greenery. At a glance it feels like you are experiencing something that fell from the most secret garden plot and right into the vase - if you you knew how much observance and experience it takes to create a piece so beautiful.

I got to make a large wreath with Darcy. We used Queen Anne's Lace, four different types of Eucalyptus, some blushing Sedum, Spruce branches, and spent Astilbe flower seed heads. It's great to create something with someone else. If you are carrying a heavy fridge with another person, you are not going to skimp on your efforts, but rather lift hard and consider your partner at every step! I grow so much when I work with other people.

The airy cabin space where we installed the large arrangement and wreath sat on a beautiful point of private land by the ocean. The water was a translucent milky green, a perfect swimming spot.

Chickadee Hill Time

↑ Private

I am learning so much at Chickadee Hill Flowers. The other day we arranged and installed flowers on a beautiful chuppah that Emily's dad made. The apple branches made everything extra lush and lovely. We also used Forsythia branches, Mountain Mint, Dahlias, Matricaria, Queen Anne's Lace, Cloud Larkspur, Peonies, and Baptisia greens. Beyond the material that she grows herself, Emily also sources from the incredible Sacred Bough Farm (definitely worth a follow on Instagram! @sacredbough).  The greenhouse feels especially exotic right now - the Sweetpeas that Emily started back in January are being cut down soon to make way for peppers. Until then I will continue to enjoy their incredible fragrance. I rolled my ankle and fell on my head once - It smelled like Sweetpeas in the room at the time. The smell of their blooms will always haunt me a little bit but I still love them all the same.

Home Garden

↑ Private

I love the time of year when the lilacs leave thick mats of fallen blooms on the ground. This spring carpet is a fine luxury. I leave the irises as their blooms fall away - their stalks and molting brown petals are so enchanting. The night I took these photos was heavy with the damp - it was low tide and I could smell the wet seaweed on the beach all the way down the block.

Drug Busts

↑ Lewiston, Maine Drug Bust / MDEA (via)

↑ Brunswick, Maine Drug Bust / MDEA (via)

↑ East Madison, Maine Drug Bust / Somerset County Sheriff's Office (via)

It occurred to me this morning as I flipped through my local paper that I love drug bust contraband photos.

First of all, how much thought goes into setting up the photo? Do police stations have special areas set aside for these pictures? Does some dummy try to set the shot up in a dim corner when another officer intervenes "The light is much better there over by the coffee maker."? Does the task default to an officer with artistic prowess like a waiter whose knack for drawing lands him the task of scribbling daily specials on the patio blackboard? Were any of these pictures taken with a cellphone? I especially like the second photo because you can see the photographer's shoes.

I also enjoy drug bust photos because they document a bunch of someone's stuff that was very recently taken away. The people whose possessions are documented here remind me of squirrels.

Gr8 Cranberry

I took a trip to the outer islands with a friend this week. It's always windy out there and most everyone is related in some respect. The ground has been softening into a nice mud so, needless to say, the noisy duck population is thrilled! We shared some wine with lunch and spent the afternoon looking after the animals and scrooming around in a rattly golf-cart.

Some Pig

      I love harvest-time fairs. Have you read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White?  I count myself as one of the many kids in New England who have. I took these pictures at the Blue Hill Fair in Maine, USA last year. It's the same fair where Fern entered Wilbur the pig.

1. Fried Dough - powdered sugar topping is better than tomato sauce toppings ALWAYS
2. Stake out water-stream shooting games. Always figure out which guns are best for winning the giant stuffed bears before you shell out cash
3. Tractor pulls [power-sport motoring competitions of pure brawn] are extremely noisey and raise a hell-storm of mud and exhaust (YEAHH!)
4. Vegetables can be bigger than you