mother's day

Last weekend I drove the station wagon down to visit my parents for mother's day weekend. I brought along a little jar of loose flowers and on Sunday, I sat my mom down on the patio for a mini flower arranging class. Coral charm peonies, amaranthus, viburnum clipped ever so illegally from the side of the highway and a few coral bell leaves from my window box in Brooklyn.

My mom is pretty much an untapped floral genius. She kept on doing this thing where she'd furrow her eyebrows and really consider where she'd place the next flower- her attention to detail and eye for composition was almost unnerving. I kept on saying things like beautiful flowers look beautiful wherever you put them while jamming flowers in the vase. She was graceful but purposeful.

Her love affair with the coral charm peonies lasted for days. I'd come into the kitchen and catch her openly staring at them from a distance of 6 inches. It was a simple thing, our little flower class, but overwhelmingly nice, too.