mom's are great, aren't they?

We came back from Red Deer with a lot of fun stuff!

Mom got us an assortment of flavoured honey. Idle Husband's favourite is the blackberry. She also got us bee pollen and a honeycomb, both of which I have no idea what to do with. I'll have to think more about those.

She also found this amazing green jar and glass pitcher at the thrift store. The jar is huge so I'm going to have to do some switching around in my pantry...it might be used for whole wheat flour or maybe sugar. I desperately want to try cold brewed tea, but I keep thinking this pitcher was meant for flowers and not drinks. I'm on the fence about using it for iced tea.

Mom and I went around and cut a ton of flowers, too. These peonies are so fragrant! They're so nice! I'm super excited to have peonies in my house! Can you tell?! Also with it in the vase is some parsley that was almost going to flower and some solomon's seal (I love soloman's seal. It smells like candy when you cut it. Unfortunately, the flowes are over now, so I just got the leaves. The flowers look very similar to lily of the valley -- cute little white-green bells).

This is a Big Betony (Stachys grandiflora). It really lives up to its name, cuz it gets huge and takes over everything around it. When I planted it, I didn't take that into consideration (it was more of a random, oh! I can actually dig a hole here! type of planting), but I would love to have one again and plant it somewhere where it can become the huge bush it wants to become. It's also a plant that doesn't need any care or babying, comes in a fantastic shade of purple, and doesn't even notice when you cut half the flowers off. That equals a winning plant in my book.

I have some tiger lilies that are really close to opening, but (of course) mom's opened sooner. I love how that bright orange looks with the blue of the vase (new fixation: orange and bright blue).

Remember the delphiniums? Well, I had those in the bathroom last week, and I just thought the room looked 100% better. I know it sounds weird, but it changed the whole feel in there. I have a new rule. As long as there're flowers to be cut, there has to be flowers in the bathroom. I accidentally cut these tiny stems the other day, so guess where they've ended up?