During the past week I had often thought there would be no hope of salvaging enough floral matter – or anything worthy of display – to contribute to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden’s In a Vase on Monday this week.

The rain has been constant, every single day, and I have watched my garden from the window during constant battering’s of torrential rain accompanied by strong wind gusts.

Yesterday afternoon, however, there was a break in the rain. I dashed out into the garden to take photos of a couple of plants that didn’t look too bad to share today, thinking today’s contribution would be a post entitled something along the lines of “what could have been”, if only the weather had been kinder.

But low-and-behold, today we have sun! After having 57 ml. of rain yesterday, and around 95% to 100% humidity every day for the past week, today the humidity has dropped down into the fifty-percent range, but the day is warm, reaching 27 degrees Celsius.

I waited until the middle of the day before collecting any flowers to give the petals an opportunity to dry out a bit. I know that isn’t the recommended practice, but after the sodden mess some of the plants were in yesterday, I thought it best to wait. I had noticed yesterday that the lavender and salvias weren’t looking too much the worse for wear after the week that was, so snipped a couple for a vase. They are “old” favourites, and always look pretty in a vase.

As I paused to admire the Aloe “Pink Fairy”, which has just begun to flower – and survived the deluge of rain very well – it occurred to me that they might look pretty with the lavender and salvias. That’s my “new” addition to the vase.

Don’t they look lovely? I don’t think the little buds have fully opened, considering the tiny bell shaped flowers at the lower part of the stem and the closed buds above, so it will be interesting to see if they open now they are indoors.

The last Hydrangea flower on one of my bushes looked too lonely to be left alone, so it had to join the vase as well. Surprisingly, I have two “new” hydrangea buds on this plant, so will keep watching them to see if they fully develop at this time of year.

I remembered when Cathy displayed her vase last week, she noted that daylight savings had just begun in the U.K, so added an old watch as a prop. Here in Australia, we turned back our clocks this weekend just gone and are now on regular Eastern Standard Time time again, so this week, my prop is my Grandfather’s fob watch. He passed away in 1946, in England. In 1951, when my parents emigrated to Australia, Dad brought his father’s watch with him. Now, the watch belongs to me, and although it no longer works it is a possession I treasure as it was once owned by my Grandfather, who I never met.

So in acknowledgement of the end of daylight savings, I am adding my Grandfather’s “old” fob watch.

Thank you for the inspiration to add my “old” fob watch to this week’s vase post, Cathy. And as always, thank you for hosting In a Vase on Monday. ❤