fresh flowers in the late summer home

MINDFULNESS, SEASONS, SIMPLE RHYTHMS + ROUTINES, SUMMER, THE FAMILY HOME

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A small bundle of fresh flowers for the home can be water for the soul, especially in these late summer months when the temperatures soar and the fields lie crispy and parched. I tend to sprinkle small bundles or sprigs throughout the home, on tables, night stands, and bathroom counters, even in the boys’ room. Although I do this year round, it feels more satisfying somehow in August.

Georgia O’Keefe once said that “Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time,” but I imagine more often, one might appreciate fresh flowers long before pausing to study or paint one, possibly even without consciously knowing it. Perhaps we don’t quite understand why a certain spot in our home or in another’s feels peaceful or inviting, or why we feel happier doing the dishes or quietly taken care of as we flip off the bedside light. Perhaps those little blooms are hydrating us, even when we haven’t time to notice.

Fresh flowers do not need to be large or expensive to shift the countenance of a room. A humble market bundle will do the job beautifully, and economically I might add. I keep my weekly budget at $10-$15, bumping only on occasion for special dinners or guests or on a particularly crushing week. Most weeks, one of the children join me, snipping stems and filling pitchers with water. It gives them joy to create simple arrangements, and more indirectly, they experience how flowers might water or bring life to many things––a home, a soul, a friendship––in oppressively hot seasons. Welcome, August.

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  1. In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings,
    Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
    with many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
    With every leaf a miracle – and from this bush in the dooryard,
    With delicate-color’d blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
    A sprig with its flower I break.
    – Walt Whitman

    Though it speaks of spring and not mid-summer, your lovely post reminded me of this lovely citation.

    Bisous xo

  2. oh, the joy flowers brings!
    we’ve cut out so many things from our budget through years on the journey to minimalism! but flowers and candles are there to stay :)
    as foraging ain’t that easy living in Copenhagen – our local flower shop owner by now knows the names even of our dogs :)

    and in general many danes has routine of friday flowers and light candles even during breakfast time. i guess that’s one of the better ways to survive darkness in fall/winter here

  3. So true Bethany… Edith Schaeffer talks often about the effect of the little touches like flowers… You are so right! I always feel a more contented, happier soul when I’m surrounded by those little buds!

  4. I love spring and summer here in Colorado because of the flowers!
    I do fill the house, even the bathroom and the kids’ room.
    They just make me smile.
    It’s what I miss the most in winter.

  5. Thank you for sharing a lovely post about the power of fresh flowers! I used to think it a waste of money to buy flowers that would die only a week later but I started letting that go and now make it a weekly routine of buying fresh flowers either from the farmer’s market or when I’m grocery shopping! Now that I have made it a routine I can’t go without them! ☺️ Happy Monday!

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