Category: European gardens

In a vase on Monday: the mermaid

Cindy at enclos*ure13 Comments


I got up this morning determined to make an arrangement for this cute little Majolica-style vase that I bought at the Saturday flea market. I found these flowers growing in the grass and along the fence in the backyard.


They include primroses, wood anemones, sweet woodruff, and a tulip.

By the time I had everything assembled, I had lost the good morning light inside.  So I spent some time wandering around the house looking for a bright place to take pictures.  At one point I was in the linen closet.  By 2:00 p.m., I was back in the living room with one-half of the curtains pulled back.


The vase is about 8″ (20 cm.) tall.  I say “Majolica-style” because after an hour (or two) on the internet I was no closer to figuring out if it is real or fake.  It cost only €8, so I suspect the latter.


I does seem to have some age, so maybe it’s at least an old fake.


I love the mermaid or siren handle.

She needs tiny pasties.


If anyone reading knows anything about Majolica pottery, I would love to have your opinion.

To see what other garden bloggers have put in vases today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

The flower seller, Paris

Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment


A flower seller, Place Voltaire, now Place Léon-Blum, Paris, France, May 1918, by Auguste Léon, via Archives of the Planet Collection – Albert Kahn Museum /Département des Hauts-de-Seine.

The autochrome above is one of about seventy-two thousand that were commissioned and then archived by Albert Kahn, a wealthy French banker, between 1909 and 1931. Kahn sent thirteen photographers and filmmakers to fifty countries “to fix, once and for all, aspects, practices, and modes of human activity whose fatal disappearance is no longer ‘a matter of time.'”* The resulting collection is called Archives de la Planète and now resides in its own museum at Kahn’s old suburban estate at Boulogne-Billancourt, just west of Paris. Since June 2016, the archive has also been available for viewing online here.

*words of Albert Kahn, 1912. Also, the above photo (A 14 052) is © Collection Archives de la Planète – Musée Albert-Kahn and used under its terms, here.

In a vase on Monday: tulips

Cindy at enclos*ure17 Comments


This morning, I have arranged purple and red tulips in assorted small glass vases along the radiator cover in the dining room.

I found the large shells in the woods behind the house soon after we moved in. I guess a former resident had tossed them out there.


To see what other garden bloggers have put in vases today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

Sindelfingen, Germany

Cindy at enclos*ureLeave a comment


Fence on top of a low retaining wall between sidewalk and playground, Sindelfingen, Germany, yesterday morning.

In a vase on Monday: warm weekend

Cindy at enclos*ure4 Comments

Little flowers picked from our yard (except for the tulip) in the kitchen window. . .

We had a relatively warm sunny weekend, and now the primroses are starting to bloom, and the woods behind the house are full of wood anemones.


In the city, all the platz were full of people soaking up the sun. Most were still dressed in black winter coats, so it looked like flocks of large crows had settled down on the grass and concrete. The lines for ice cream were very long — Stuttgarters seem to want cones the minute the temperature rises above 55°F (12°C).


We’ve seen three large hares in the neighborhood in as many days (this is their peak mating season), after not seeing any for months. They are hard to miss, being the size of small dogs — largish small dogs. Occasionally when we come upon one, it stands its ground and we always move along first.


To see what other garden bloggers have put in vases today, please visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.