Spring comes Home...

"In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast;
In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest;
In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;
In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love."
~ Locksley Hall, Lord Tennyson.

Come Spring and whether you are the young man in Lord Tennyson's Locksley Hall or the farmer's boy, Walter in O'Henry's Spring time à la Carte (one of my all time favourite love stories) or Bertie Wooster in the more acerbic, P.G.Wodehouse's Jeeves in the Spring time, your thoughts invariably wander towards the beauty in the air and the romance in your heart.

Except in my case, it's not romance that is sitting firm on my mind. It's something far more prosaic and mundane - I have been dying for some sleep and a few moments of peace and quiet in the loo without someone sitting outside the door, crying "Mamma, Mamma, Mamma" in a never ending monotone. 

Because while Spring arriveth along with loads of flowers popping up everywhere like mushrooms gone mad, it also seems to have bring along a whole army of flu viruses! 

So after a week of sleepless nights and exhausting days managing 2 extremely cranky and clingy kids with headaches, body aches, fever and nausea, while battling the same symptoms myself, I decided I really, desperately needed to do something to cheer myself up! 

Now what does a romantically challenged, materialistic mortal like me do to cheer herself up come Spring? Well, she goes berserk treating herself to loads of Spring flowers, arranging them all over her home and then goes crazy shooting them! 

Spring Blossoms from my garden along with some crysanthemums

The copper beeches in our garden are blooming - till a yr back all I knew about a copper beech was the Sherlock Holmes story of the same name. Then this yr, as signs of Spring appeared everywhere, these pretty trees which had shed all of their reddish purple foliage during winters, decided to put on display a whole new side to them as their barren branches started blooming with gay abandon! Every little branch that was till now inert, was bursting into bloom. With tiny pinkish little flowers that were just calling out to me to take them home.

Copper Beech Blossoms

I went out with a ladder, snipped a few branches and got them home. And then spent the rest of the morning arranging these Spring flowers. 

Here are some photographs from my 'Spring comes Home' look 

First stop - Living room. 

I fell in love with this so-not-expensive, white enamel vase I saw in a tiny little shop a few days back. I love simple containers - jam jars, water jugs, wine carafes. Somehow I find they lend a far more charming and eclectic touch to flower arrangements as compared to fancy, expensive vases. :)

So I took the white enamel jug, stuck some Spring blossoms and some white Chrysanthemums and came up with this simple and pretty arrangement that looked great against the pops of pink in my living room.

The jug on an antique, carved teak tray from the island of Madura, Indonesia

With a Chinese horse hair brush in the foreground

On the tray with a little colourful knick knack box and a clog from Delft

Nest stop : 

Big floor vase with a crocodile green finish. I picked this vase from Singapore ages back. Normally it houses my Chinese bamboo good-luck plants. But this time I decided I needed the cheer more desperately than the luck. So the bamboo plants were relocated and some more Spring blossoms went into this as well.

Green vase and a jade green Buddha in the background

Finally stop: Kitchen. 

I am exceptionally lucky, I have a large kitchen. And I like to sit around when I cook so I created a little nook for myself - 2 cosy rattan chairs, a table and all my cook books. I sit there and read when I am waiting for something to cook. Sometimes I just sit and go through the cook books for inspiration before I decide to make something. A friend of mine once joked that this is where I shall win the Cooker Prize! 

Now while my pretty rattan chairs have chocolate stains now thanks to my 2 brats who love lounging around in them, I also like to have this place look pretty for me.

So I took a large mouth wine bottle that I had saved up because I liked its shape and stuck some more blossoms into them. And Viola!! Spring cheer is every where!!!

A cosy little nook in the kitchen where I like to wait while cooking

Spring flowers in a simple large mouthed wine bottle