July 27, 2010
Queen Ann’s Lace
Queen Ann's Lace
One of my favorite summer bouquets is a simple assortment of Queen Ann’s Lace wildflowers.
These fragile, transparent, soft swirls of white seed were aptly named – they look remarkably like delicate, graceful Victorian lace.
I love to walk in the little wood not far from my house and pick handfuls of Queen Ann’s lace. I know that they won’t last long. But when I bring a bouquet home, and place it in a simple white pitcher, my room is transformed.
I feel like I have taken a brief time-travel holiday into a simpler, less demanding age.
July 15, 2010
Michigan Wildflowers
Walking through a filed, looking at wild flowers and remembering their names, picking a bouquet to take home with me, gives me a sense that all is well with the world. Nothing we create can be more beautiful than these creations of nature.
Here are a few kinds of wildflowers that grow in my part of Michigan in the summertime:
beach pea
pink lady slipper
black-eye susan
star flower
blue iris
trillium
columbine
coreopsis
daisies
day lily
everlasting pea
fireweed
flox
forget me not
marsh marigold
July 5, 2010
Small Gestures
A hug from Sam
I am a person of small gestures.
Little things in life give me pleasure.
- Sitting on my old couch, after an afternoon nap, and sipping a cup of coffee
- Walking on the sandy shore of Lake Michigan and singing the same Serbian song over and over again, like a mantra
- Walking on the sandy shore of Lake Michigan and looking for treasures – twigs, stones, wild grasses
- Walking Kaya late in the evening, darkness around us, the two of us invisible
- Walking Kaya in the afternoon, finding wildflowers along the path, making an extravagant bouquet
- Lying in my bed, listening to a torrential downpour outside
- An honest conversation with a friend on a Saturday morning at the Farmer’s Market
- A hug from Sam, for no reason at all
Gracious Living - Day by Day 