The joy of foraging for blooms
Since a very young age, I have loved sprucing up the home - my room, the bath, the kitchen. Give me a blank corner of the house and I'll enjoy transforming it into an aesthetically appealing space. The first and easiest step towards sprucing up a corner is adding greens and flowers. Flowers! Growing up in the 80s, subscribing to cut flowers was really not heard of and visiting the florist was too expensive back then. What I saw, growing up as an Air Force daughter, life gave us an opportunity to cultivate our own little gardens, spruce up verandahs and balconies with potted plants and handmade macrame pot holders. So flowers for home decor came from our very own gardens - roses, daisies, jasmines ... and we simply drew inspiration and joy from the local blooms that were in season. Simple and sustainable lifestyle I think now as I look back.
Years have gone by since those days of doing up homes with that kind of simplicity. The internet and online line shopping has changed everything. Somewhere have forgotten the joys of looking into our own little gardens and foraging for treasures.
So this summer, I decided to see if I could do a replay of those days and go looking around for flowers to bring indoors. There are those pavements where I found moss for my terrariums. I discovered periwinkle growing between the tiles in the parking area, collected pine cones from a tree in the neighbourhood, and its during my morning walks that I pick up sprigs of bougainvillea. In season, just around the corner there's the cork tree that sheds its fragrant trumpet-shaped flowers early morning. I gather them and they find themselves in a little glass adorning the dining table or the kitchen top.
This is the story behind my new collection that I'm calling "The foraging garden" - inspired by treasures and finds from the garden, morning walks and hikes. I have designed hanging buds, vases and bud vases. Organic forms and tones for a soothing touch to your interiors.
These will soon be up on the webstore this weekend.
Feel free to drop your comments below.
thanks
Be it beautifying our living spaces or adorning the idols of our beloved Gods, flowers have a special place in enhancing the mood and the serenity of the day of the average Indian. Our floral world is so colourful that a vast pallette is out there, for us and even for our beloved Gods to have choices…! The connect with nature and the simple sustainability of thus nurturing plants and picking flowers is truly appealing.
I remembered foraging for flowers too with my grandmother every morning for flowers for her daily pooja and plucking fragrant jai-jui for making gajara for our plaits after reading this post. And broughtnforth the memories of tending to the garden through the day in order to thank the plants for their bounty with my grandfather.
Lovely stuff.