This time . . .
When it comes to superstitions, people can be funny. We all have our fears and anxieties, but when we’re feeling them intensely in our lives, it doesn’t much matter to us where they originated or whether they are demonstrably true. Little wonder then that superstition affects so very much of the way some people are, or are not able to dance through that oddest of odd-numbered days.
You’ve gotta wonder though, how possibly did it come to pass that the very same number that signifies something as delightful as a “Baker’s Dozen” could also represent the notion of “bad luck” in a different context? Nothing about that extra donut ever seemed like bad luck when I was a kid, so I suppose I’ve simply extrapolated a sense of bonus, onward, still seeing it as a delicious, glazed boon well into adult life. I don’t think I’ve ever worried about Fridays the Thirteenth, and really, see them more as lucky days based on having lived through so many of them now, and always come out on the far side, smiling.
So rather than letting this Friday the Thirteenth pass once gain without mention, mishap or big deal, I thought it might be fun to take a break from my ‘to do’ list, to see if I couldn’t share a bit of the luck that often appears on Fridays the Thirteenth in my goofball world.
The idea is this: I’ve made a quick little bouquet from just the tiniest handful of whatever was growing in the garden today, and having made it, I thought I’d show you just how easy it is to make its portrait using nothing more than window light, a couple of common kitchen props and whatever point-and-shoot camera you might have. I’ll be using my little iPhone 4, but really, almost any little camera will do.
How often have you heard someone complain that they simply don’t have enough flowers in their garden to make bouquets for their home? Or, as apartment dwellers, that they don’t have a plot of dirt in which to grow flowers at all? This tiny little demitasse bouquet is more than capable of bringing big cheer into otherwise drab settings, but it won’t cost you more than a small handful of blooms and a few snippets of greenery. You can do this!
See, no big space required to shoot it, no fancy lights, just a corner of your kitchen table. And as for the bouquet itself, pshawwwww, it’s hardly as big as the phone is.
One of the beauties of these miniature bouquets, aka, poseys, aka tussle-mussies, is that they don’t take up a bunch of space, so you can place them almost anywhere. Nightstand, windowsill or, as shown here, on the porcelain lid of the lowly toilet tank.
The recipe for this miniature bouquet was simple, just four ingredients: Half a dozen grape hyacinths, a couple of tender young sprigs of golden hops, four or five floral clusters of sweet rocket (many consider this a weed with flowers, it grows wild along roadsides everywhere around here), and another half dozen little snips of tender greenery from the garden’s shady edges. I suspect a walk in the springtime woods or a nearby vacant lot would yield just as much potential and variety, so if you don’t have much going on in your own garden keep your eyes peeled when you’re out walking and consider bringing just the tiniest little bit of that awakening springtime world home with you . . . and then, once you’ve made a miniature bouquet for your home, try your hand at gathering a few props so that you can also play at making its portrait.
Enjoy . . .
