In a Vase, on Monday – Slow Fade

I haven’t written much recently, or taken many photos. I don’t think it’s COVID related (physical or mental) – just a general end of year transition, a desire to sit and read a few good books and eat too many shortbread cookies. Then two things happened: a colleague gifted me, a few days before Christmas, a beautiful bouquet of pink and white roses, white stock (Matthiola incana) and Eucalyptus sprays; and I read a blog post that talked about Wabi-sabi, a Japanese worldview or aesthetic that “appreciates beauty that is imperfect, impermanent and incomplete.” [so says Wikipedia.]

Yesterday morning my flower bouquet was fading fast – white stock blossoms falling to the table like the snow flakes floating to the ground outside, and the edges of the roses starting to brown. I thought of Wabi-sabi and pulled apart the bouquet, keeping the roses that still seemed to have a few more days left, adding them to a green glass hyacinth vase that already had a few red osier dogwood (Cornus sericia) twigs in it. I finished the vase with the Eucalyptus and thought what a perfect final Monday Vase of 2020 for Cathy’s weekly theme. Happy New Year everyone – here’s hoping that life in 2021 returns to ‘normal!’

The large Nutcracker seems to be playing hide and seek behind the Eucalyptus leaf…

I like the vase in front of this 1980 John Lim print, ‘Count Your Stitches.’

Wabi-sabi – a philosophy that “encourages us to focus on the blessings hiding in our daily lives, and celebrating the way things are rather than how they should be.” [Says Thomas Oppong] The perfect outlook for 2020 eh?