weed bouquets

My mother-in-law used to be a florist, so we've really been bonding over flowers and talking about the garden. In fact, most of our outings since the Greeks have arrived have been to greenhouses and garden centers. Which is almost like the most perfect time spent (in my opinion).

Every night, they go for a walk and almost every night, she returns with some sort of bouquet of weeds and grasses she picked as she walked.

It reminded me of this one bouquet I put together when I was a kid (mini tangent! when you're a kid you don't have this idea of what's right to do and what's not. You do what you think is pretty -- which is why I believe everyone can draw and everyone's an artist. It's society telling us that that's not a drawing of a horse). The bouquet was composed of all the different seed pods I could find in the yard in the fall and it was literally the best arrangement I think I've ever put together. It started in the vase green and it was kept well past the stems turning yellow.

I think that in the process of growing up, I might have forgotten that you can make a pretty bouquet out of anything you find. You don't have to have a lilac bush (or one to steal from) and you don't have to have a yard of cutting flowers, you just have to see the beauty in everything around you and you'll most definitely stumble on a cluster of flowers that will cheer up your kitchen just as easily as a bunch of expensive florist flowers.

roses aren't technically a weed, but in Alberta these grow wild in the ditches and are still found flowers

I wish I knew what this is. I love its lacy quality

don't forget about berries! we found this on a walk in Queen Elizabeth Park