when is a bouquet not a bouquet

Summer is here, school is out and the atmosphere has relaxed.  Friends arrive for tea and stay to dinner, meals with friends and family are spontaneous and fun, but you still want them pretty.  My answer to the quickest flowers ever on a table is individual flower heads in small verrines or low glasses.  Dot them all over the table, interspaced with candles and you're away.

And when they're not spread out over the table, group them up tight on a pretty tray and they decorate the corner of a room or a hallway.   Summer entertaining has to be this much fun.

 These rose and poppy heads were from a dinner last Friday - sorry I lost the pictures of the table laid up!   Two days on and they are still pretty, grouped on the tray they can be moved around and decorate to order! !

For a simple barbecue with the children and their friends, nobody wants a sophisticated table, but everyone likes a splash of colour.  I had a bouquet of these duo-coloured roses, and they worked well in single glasses.

I'm sure you have ideas for quick summer table decor, 

if you  send me a picture I'll add it to the post.

............

a few hours later .....  thank you to:

Gina from Art and Alfalfa for this colourful vase

and to Ulrike from In My Garden for her garden flowers in a jar

and to Linda in Denmark for this stunning bouquet from her wedding

dans mon jardin

Despite our springtime drought, the garden seems to have pulled through and has been giving us pleasure through May and June.   We've made note of things to improve for next year, plants to buy, to divide to move around.    I can't help but love the old fashioned cottage flowers, roses, delphiniums, lavenders and lupins.

running away

A very busy week ahead of me, which I'm really looking forward to, but a little part of me is saying "calm down, run away, seek some quiet!!".  Maybe I'd enjoy a few days alone in a forest cabin like this, no clutter, no phone.  Sweetly shabby.  Just need to add a big comfortable bed and make sure the cabin is near a fresh mountain river!

I'd travel light,  a few books, paints and canvas, comfortable clothes.

The truth is I'd long for company after the first afternoon!  But it's still nice to pretend ...... how about you,  what's your fantasy escape route?

All photos thanks to Mires Paris

summer evening joy

Few pleasures more simple yet more pleasurable 

than an evening bike ride, en famille.

Gentle colours, sweet perfumes, empty lanes, happy chatter.

I know I'm lucky ......

wheat fields, freshly cut hay, an abandoned house I'd love to get my hands on, a peaceful lake, country pleasures that do us good!

Blogger seems to be up to its little games again, I have lost my followers,  and leaving comments and uploading pictures is difficult - sorry to anyone who hasn't been able to leave a comment yesterday and today, if you want to email me the comment I can try and upload it for you, thank you!!

I ♥ bunting

I  ♥  bunting, I can't help it, it must be my British blood.  Give me a green lawn, a village fête, a summer party any day, but preferably give them to me dressed with bunting.

I love patriotic bunting, flowery bunting, stripes and checks.  I prefer cotton, but like paper too.

Imagine how pleased I was this week, when I stopped by at Bords de Scene, and found that Christelle had changed her shop decor ( again!) and invented a whole new approach to bunting - black and white!  Her flags are cut from old sewing patterns -  I am lucky to know creative girls like her!

so where does your preference lie?  

summer colours against a blue sky, or chic french monochrome?!

magical st tropez

The village of St Tropez is tiny, at least it used to be.  Of course with it's popularity for decades it now sprawls out a way along the coast, but it will never be a city.  It retains a certain magic.

In the 80's, before we had any children we lived in St Tropez and we lived it to the full!!  Even then it was no longer the sleepy little village made famous by Brigitte Bardot in the 60's, and that my husband, the Corsican, knew as a child, but it was still serious fun!

We worked hard, we siesta-d harder, we dined late and partied later... much later and we took a lot of vitamins!  We were lucky to live the side of St Tropez that the tourists never see.  The stunning villas, extravagant soirées, the artists and the entertainers who call St Tropez home.

We were lucky enough to know the beach called La Bastide Blanche, before the tourists found it, and used to go  there for sea urchins, armed with a bottle of white wine and a fresh lemon - heaven!

My favourite months were May and September; for the perfume on the breeze and the extraordinary colour and light.  I adored the yacht race, then called la Nioulargue in October, and would often find a few hours luxurious peace at the tiny art museum, l'Annonciade, where you can still see paintings by Dufy, Bonnard, Signac and other impressionists.

How about you?

Is there a mythical coastal town that has a special relevance to you?

all photos with thanks to google images

mon bouquet du jour

 Still having fun and making the most of the flowers in the garden.  Several readers were kind enough to ask me questions about last week's bouquet, so this week please indulge me while I give a mini tutorial!

First thing to know is that it's worth picking a lot of flowers even for a small arrangement such as this.  As you can see I used several branches of 1- poppy, 2 - rue,  3 - euphorbia, 4 - pink rose, 5 - mahonia, 6 - apricot rose and my essential rose 7 - pierre de ronsard

For this arrangement I used a vintage gravy boat, filled with floral foam.  It doesn't matter if the foam isn't new, it can be quite expensive to buy, I use mine again and again.

 

Always start with the background colour or filler.  Here the euphorbia.  When composing arrangements like this it's best to build up crescendo to the stars of the arrangement, strategically positioned last of all.

Here I'm beginning to give some body, and define the outline of the bouquet.  You can see how heavy the rose heads are at this time of year, I actually worked them up resting on top of each other.  Until finally I added the apricot roses, their touch of soft orange lifted the whole arrangement and made the other colours stand out.

Voila!  A touch of beauty to enjoy, and ready in ten minutes. 

How I love these simple country pleasures.