Joining in with Cathy’s ‘In a Vase on Monday’, here is a Spode jug filled with hydrangea, alchemilla mollis and self sown musk mallow
which is also my bloom of the day over on Cee’s photographic blog. The mallow has arrived in my garden, seeding itself in gravel in both white and pink. The flowers have a delicate smell of honey.
The hydrangeas are at my favourite stage
just before they get all buxom and blousy
such soft interesting shades all on the same bush.
The jug was given to me by my mother-in-law many years ago. The crocheted cotton doily was made by my maternal step-grandmother whom I called Dabbity.
She was a Domestic Science teacher and I learnt so much from her about cooking, gardening and crafting. We sat for many happy hours knitting and sewing together whilst my Granddad also a teacher, would read snippets from the newspapers to us which resulted in deep discussions about life, the universe and everything.
My mother-in-law loved fine china, and I can still hear her describing the beauty of this jug to me as she gave it, gently stroking the twisted handle and telling me all about this very special design.
And explaining about the significance of the markings on the bottom of the jug
which gives it the date it was made and where. Sadly, I can’t remember the details of what she told me, but I understood that it was a very special and valuable jug – consequently it sits hiding away in a glass cabinet, never to be used as a jug as it is now also so precious for sentimental reasons. I really never want to own any more precious breakable things – the responsibility is too weighty!
It is lovely to be able to bring the jug out and share it with the other arrangers in this wonderful meme. Here with the photo of my mother-in-law (and father-in-law)
at our wedding in 1972. My mother-in-law, Pearl, was a hard-working farmer, a brilliant gardener, knitter and cook and the most lovely Granny to my 3 children.
Fond memories.
Hello! Gorgeous flowers and the jug is precious! They go great together. Loved the pictures. 😀
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Thank you Vashti, so glad you enjoyed the vase, it’s lovely to share it with you.
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What I really love about this meme, are not just the beautiful flowers, the vases, but also the lovely memories which we can share.
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Me too! It makes this meme such a rich experience and each week brings forth new snippets and gorgeous flowers and stories.
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A beautiful vase, the hydrangeas make me think of Christmas, that is when they flower here.
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Ah yes, Christmas – it’s great to know that! Here the seed-heads are often preserved and sprayed with gold, silver and glitter for Christmas. Thanks so much for dropping by. xx
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Just discovered you through Ronovan’s Haiku blog and what a lovely discovery! Such a beautiful arrangement and your Spode jug is charming. Spode glaze is always very good so using it for flowers will not damage it because the glaze should not be crazed or absorb water. Meilleur voeux! 🙂
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Aaaha! Welcome TJ! A Haikumily brother/cousin! Great to have you along. So glad you like this week’s vase. It is such fun putting them together.
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Thanks for sharing the memories – how wonderful! The twisted handles on that jug must have been applied separately by hand 🙂 I love your mallow and indeed the whole arrangement is so lovely!
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You are very kind, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. Yes, the touch of the potters hands in so much of the making of the jug is what made it special to my mother-in-law and now to me.
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Beautiful flowers, vase and story.
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Thank you Gillian, so glad you enjoyed it, thanks for popping by.
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What an exquisite vase and arrangement! So beautiful, they compliment each other so well. Lovely to hear about the special memories you have associated with the jug. 🙂
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Thank you Eliza. This meme is such a rich experience on so many levels isn’t it – sharing our gardens, items in our homes and snippets of our lives as well as connecting with like minds all over the world – who would have thought it! One of those wondrous happy miracles!
Would you like a dash of lemon in that? ❤
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Yes, I love the way blogging brings like minds the world over together – a miracle of our modern age!
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The jug cries out for flowers and those you selected fit it perfectly. I love that twisted handle – quite unusual.
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I’m glad you like the combination. One of the many things I love about this meme is that I’m dusting off things I have not used for years and am able to share them. xx
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A fabulous vase….I adore crotched doilies and have many from my great grandmothers….and hydrangeas are perfect for a vase now…I have many blooming and hope to add more to vases in the future…..yours look perfect in the Spode.
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I am hoping to crochet a few doilies myself to leave as little, unbreakable (!) heirlooms – there is something so charming a comforting about having a hand-crafted piece from a Grandmother. So glad you like it. xx
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Thanks for sharing your family history like this – your relationship with your grandmother Dabbity and grandfather must have been so formative, and how lovely to get on so well with your in-laws. It is indeed a pretty jug with that lovely twisted handle (and is that Laura Ashley fabric under the doily?) although I don’t think it is as old as you might think. We have a book of British Pottery marks and it seems that Copeland Spode introduced the word ‘fine stone’ to this mark in 1962… No idea of value though. Is this mallow an annual and how big does it grow? It looks good alongside the hydrangeas and alchemilla – thanks for sharing 🙂
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Thank you Cathy for taking the time to look up the marking – it is exciting to know a meaning of the code on the base. 10 years younger than me!
The mallow has seeded itself this year, so as it is flowering so well now, would that mean it is an annual? I don’t know, I will have to watch and discover. It is thigh high and, I think, very beautiful, a welcome visitor, I hope it stays. Thank you so much for hosting.
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Not sure about the mallow – I think there is an annual one but also a perennial one which I have grown from a free packet of seeds but is much taller (and very lanky – could have been pinched out?). I am glad you found the mark info useful.
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This was a lovely post Daffy. That jug is beautiful, and so unusual with its twisty handle. It seems your mother-in-law was a very lovely woman, You have so many precious memories in just that one photo with the parents, in law, the jug and the beautiful doily which was crocheted by your step-granny,
As for the flowers, those mallows are gorgeous, and what is not to love about a buxom and blowsy hydrangea! 🙂
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So glad you enjoyed the different elements of the post – and you are so right, I should embrace the buxom and the blowsy – I’ll make it up to her by cooling her roots with a good thick mulch! 😉
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She will no doubt enjoy that 🙂
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I like very much both your vase and the story behind it. Hydrangeas are great at this stage, I love them in vases, too. And the jug, well the jug is a real masterpiece. Plus great photos. Thanks for sharing!
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Anca, thank you! I’m so glad you enjoyed the different aspects of the post. I love hydrangeas at this stage and in their fading, much more than the middle full bloom stage – and now I feel a bit mean for saying so!
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Lovely flowers,but it is the story of the jug that I really love.
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Thank you Cathy, the stories that go with the props is what makes this meme such a rich seam of enjoyment for me, such a cleverly simple idea. So glad you like it.
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Oh your photos are so beautiful 😀
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Wow! Cee coming from you, that means a LOT!!!! Thank you!!
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Great arrangement. I admire how you’ve balanced the Hydrangeas with alchemilla mollis and that pure white mallow, all so lovely. Enjoyed the nice background story of your special vase with its unique handle design. -susie
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Thank you Susie. Yes the frothy alchemilla does balance the pom-pom of the hydrangea doesn’t it – I hadn’t quite realised that before – also the colours provide a sort of balance too – so glad you mentioned that. The stories of the props so enriches this meme, what a clever idea of Cathy’s.
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The flowers in the bush makes me remember my childhood. We had similar flowers in our garden
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Thank you for sharing your memory and welcome aboard!
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Beautiful arrangement
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Thank you Gina
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It is lovely how an object or a plant can bring back so many lovely memories. Your arrangement looks so cool and elegant, just what I need on a hot day.
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Thank you Christina, that’s what I especially love about Cathy’s meme – the staging and the stories that go with it. it has been hot here too, at last, and now the garden needs some rain.
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Lovely bit of family history and beautiful arrangement
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❤ so glad you liked it ❤
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Love the handle on the vase and that last photograph.
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The handle is rather special isn’t it. So glad you like the photo I took so many til I was happy with that one.
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