From Bolt to Vase

One of my most abiding pleasures in life is finding beauty in unexpected places. Whether that's in the gentle sway of laundry drying on the line, the cascade of leaves from a ginkgo tree, or the camouflage print on a toad's back (Huxley and I found an incredible specimen hiding out in the mint patch by the front door!), discovering the innate exquisiteness in nature is so very fulfilling.

Which is why I was so happy to realize just how gorgeous collard bolts are in a vase. Who knew, right?

Hubs is the party truly responsible for this revelation. I'd been trying as much as possible to pull off the flowers from the collards in the garden (planted last September and still going strong owing to our incredibly mild winter!) all spring, so as to prolong their life span. Then I got busy with writing-projects and baby-watching and, well, life, then it rained, and the flowers went bananas.

We began noticing just how much the pollinators of every persuasion out here in the cove seemed to love the flowers, so we opted to let them be, for now, at least. Hubs got curious about what one could do with the flowers (aside from sharing them with those buzzing beauties), and brought a handful inside. I put the blooms in water until we decided what we might do with them and realized, suddenly, that they were perfect just like that.

For Jen's potluck dinner, we placed a vase of the blooms on the feasting table. They served as a perfect compliment, and nod to, the southern bounty of foods it adorned. I'd have never have imagined I'd be tricking out my dining room table with collard blooms. And now, well now I can't imagine not doing it!

For those who've mentioned it, you can see many more images of our old window cold frame, and read about how we made it, here.