Nature Mimicking Nature

Yesterday was another fabulous day at Lavenham Farmers' Market.  I love doing this farmers' market.  I recently received some business advice that recommended I do more weddings and events then I would no longer need to do farmers' markets.  I must confess I was a little horrified by this.  They are indeed hard work, picking, preparing, bunching and transporting flowers and this always involves both a very late night and an early following morning.  But I think of it as a treat, it is my main opportunity to catch up with other producers and to meet my customers and talk non-stop about flowers for hours on end and to listen and take note of which flowers my customers love and select, so I can learn for future growing seasons.

Today is quite a different day, it's an indoor, quieter day due to the luscious rain we are having here in Suffolk.  I was beginning to become well aware of how dry the garden soil was last week as I mucked, rotavated and prepared beds.  I must also confess to a slight smugness, in that I have actually, for the first year ever, managed to already sow all my planned autmn sown hardy annuals for next year. I have also transplanted most perennials that were getting cramped and my biennial plants (sweet williams, wallflowers and foxgloves) all look healthy but are well and truly in need of this rain. So as the rain continues to fall outside and I am selecting a few photos to update the website I have come across this photo of the beautiful North Norfolk coast. I took this picture last Wednesday during a gorgeous day out, walking the coastal route from Brancaster to Wells, with some added time scheduled in for 'foraging for...' blackberries on the way back home. 

The colours and textures of the scene really struck me and as today's weather couldn't be more different I thought I would use some 'leftover' flowers from yesterday's market to let 'nature mimic nature' and reconstruct the scene in the photo with flowers.  Love-in-a-mist and 'Summer Skies' delphiniums as the sky and amaranthus and 'Frosted Explosion' grass as the sand dune grass.  Et voila I have a virtual beach scene on the desk in front of me as I hear the puddles splash outside!