A tale of three vases

My pre-siesta reading at the mo is the correspondence between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor called In Tearing Haste.

It’s marvellous. A wonderful witty and absorbing correspondence that spans 1954 to 2007. Full of joyous news from a very adventurous travel writer and the Duchess of Devonshire who does an even more acerbic line in chat than her more famous literary sister Nancy.

One thing I have noticed apart from wanting to nick some of the dialogue :

‘Think what lovely drinks and talks we’d have, followed by some smashing guzzle somewhere..’

Is the creative ways they have for apologising for their tardiness in sending news. My favourite so far is Fermor’s ‘I am lower than the dust answering so late to your letter, and will spare you the watertight complexity of my excuses.’

Far better than my paltry ‘Well it’s about time you read some news from me about the garden this year.’

That was how I was going to creep back onto these pages, chastened by tardiness, laziness and general malaise brought on by a torpor of heatwave hell.

I’m going to dip my toe with this little photo essay. Let’s see if I return with gusto, or remain lower than dust.

Columbines, Aqualegias. Gorgeous spring flowers. I love picking them for vases in in May.

But oh so fragile and ephemeral. I was yearning to keep them longer in the vase.

Here is attempt number one.

Desiccating slowly in a puddle of water hoping they would dry naturally.

And ten days later this.

So that was a bust. I read that some people like to dry their flowers in semolina. Thank you Instagram. So I gave that a go.

For these small white aqualegias it worked a treat.

Here is the vessel with the grains.

Having scored so well with the little dears, I thought I would shove a rose in there (lower pink layer) and see how it goes.

And did I forget it on a table in the potting shed for weeks? Alas yes.

Dear reader, organic semolina may be a balm for the soul, but it harboured moths.

I have just returned from a dash to the compost heap to remove the festering mess.

So that’s not something I intend to repeat.

Sometimes you just have to gaze on the photos and be content.