Praise be to the birds for all the planting they do around here. The hedgerow along the front fence is populated by many of these Cotoneasters. By the looks of the bumper crop of berries this year, they’ll soon be popping up in even more places.
A little closer look reveals how bright orange and shiny the berries are in natural light.
Out came this shiny black vase. I didn’t quite get it together for Halloween, but the season obviously was influencing my choices here.
Often, when using this vase, I will form a pice of chicken wire into a frog substitute to hold things in place. These branches were stiff and full enough to stay where I put them, unaided.
By inserting them at a low angle, they formed a grid that is able to support the stems of the last two red peppers from the veggie garden.
It went on the table amidst the small white pumpkins that will stay throughout the harvest season, some cast iron bird napkin rings and a few candles.
Losing power is not such a bad thing when plenty of candles are on hand and a stack of wood is ready for the fireplace.
Do visit Cathy to see what she scared up to put in a vase this week.
Lovely choices! I adore the addition of the peppers. And such a romantic way to spend a stormy evening.
Laura~Veggies can be as beautiful as any flower, don’t you think?
I like the simple, Halloween-inspired arrangement. It’s lovely. Though, while pretty, that cotoneaster makes me nervous. It pops up around my parents’ house and I transplanted one of them into a bed at the edge of the woods. It’s even more weedy there and I meant to take it out this summer. Never got to it, though.
Evan~Having a large property leads to a point of view not shared by many. I can’t possibly populate our piece of Eden with the coveted special few, so I welcome what comes our way by chance. I may live to regret it.
Brilliant! One of the best I’ve seen. That vase is … wow, I love it! Where did you find it?
Beth~Oh, I wish I could tell you. It was a gift many years ago.
I always love your arrangements, Ricki! And I enjoyed our last power outage so much, I’m considering instigating my own now and then. We had such a lovely time playing Scrabble in the candle light – I want to do that again!
Anna~Good idea! We tend to become slaves to our conveniences. Who does not love an excuse to eat up all the ice cream and cozy up to the fire?
Perfect combination! I love a simple arrangement, especially when there are orange berries involved.
So why did you loose power? It doesn’t seem like we’ve been too stormy lately.
Loree~Country living gives us many opportunities to rough it. You city slickers have such an easy life.
This is really special Rickki and with the candles makes a delightful centre piece for the table. I agree with you about the cotoneaster, just because a plant is happy enough to seed itself around everyone thinks it is a weed, when it is providing berries for native birds and that must be a good thing. People get obsessed with plants that are difficult to grow as if there is something intrinsically better about them – give me the ones that want to grow every time!
Christina~So true about plants that “want to grow”. They can provide the backbone. Not that I won’t indulge a few of the plants that want to be coddled.
Great crop of cotoneaster berries, like you say – good to be able to use a few of them to bring inside. I keep looking at the fruit still in my greenhouse and contemplating doing a vase just with them, and your peppers are a perfect foil for the berries. You have such a useful vase in that black ‘basket’, and have demonstrated the ‘chicken wire’ in action, something that was recommended to one of the vase posters and is indeed a good prompt to all of us. Love those white pumpkins too! Thanks for sharing.
Cathy~I also stuck some of those cotoneaster branches in a wall pot outdoors, thinking they would carry through the season, but they are not so long-lasting as all that.
I don’t know how I missed your vase post – the combination of the berries, peppers and black vase is inspired. The vase looks a lot like that now famous circle pot I came by to see your favorites post and caught this one as well.
Kris~I’ve been admiring the circle pot, but didn’t make the connection until you pointed it out just now. And R questions why I blog?