I spent a pleasant couple of hours this afternoon in a village hall flower arranging.
The theme this time was Christmas - and there were all different shapes and styles of arrangements being made.
We just had to do whatever we wanted - but had to bring a in picture or photo of the design we were going for.
The spikes of yellow flowers are Mahonia, and the foliage you can see is bay, rosemary, Australian bottle brush sprayed gold and some hypericum berries. You can click on any photo for a close up
Yellow cymbidium orchids and red spray carnations.
This will reside in my porch on the window ledge where it will keep nice and cool and will last right up to to and over the Christmas holidays.
You can also see conifer, variegated holly from my garden and fir cones sprayed gold.
Its a bit early for Christmas decorations for me - but this, I feel, is not a traditional arrangement.
When the flowers fade I can remove them and the ribbon, and by adding a few flowers, it will last through spring.
And the cost? Not as much as you may think.
Stem of Orchids £4.95
Spray carnations £2.50
Foliage from my garden and hedgerow
The ribbon I already had - so too the candle which is years old.
And the best bit is - I have enough of the above flowers to make either one more large arrangement like this - or two smaller ones for either side!
The porch smells amazing when you walk in there with all that foliage.