I spent Saturday in downtown Los Angeles. Just after 7am, with 2 friends, I boarded a bus filled with 55 women and 2 men for a 45-minute trip to Pershing Square to join the
Women's March-Los Angeles. Seventy thousand marchers were expected but, on the way there, we heard that the number of marchers had more than doubled to 150,000. But the numbers grew steadily. There are no definitive counts of the actual
size of the crowd but current estimates place it between 500,000 and 750,000 participants.
Men were well-represented but the march had a distinctly female vibe. Knitted pink "
pussyhats" were everywhere.
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| Wedged in among thousands of marchers, it was difficult to get any good photos but this one may give you some impression of the ubiquitous pink color |
So, Sunday morning when I darted out in the rain to pick materials for "In a Vase on Monday," pink was on my mind and, luckily, still abundant in my garden. I didn't spend much time deliberating on my choices and, as the rain came down more and more heavily as the day proceeded, I made do with what I gathered on my first mad rush around the garden.
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| Front: The flowers are packed into a vase rather like my fellow marchers and I packed the streets of Los Angeles |
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| Back: But I like to think the varied materials support one another as well as thousands upon thousands of strangers supported one another on the streets of LA |
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| Top view (You can find an aerial view of the Los Angeles march crowd here) |
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| Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: Argyranthemum frutescens, Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold', Coprosma 'Fireburst', Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl', Pentas 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossom', and Rhodanthemum hosmariense with noID Dianthus |
The few extra stems I couldn't cram into my selected vase were popped into a tiny vase.
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| Camellia williamsii 'Taylor's Perfection' with another noID Dianthus |
These two vases found places, while the presentable leftovers of last week's vases were consolidated and found a spot too.
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| The tiny vase sits near the kitchen sink; the larger vase sits on the dining room table; and the mash-up of last week's vases sits in the front entry |
The rain continued all day. It was more rain than I think we've had on any single day in the 6 years we've owned our current house. The daily total exceeded 4 inches. While I realize that may not seem like a lot to those of you in wetter climates, it is a LOT for us. Probably not a drought-buster, but things are looking up there. Unfortunately, SoCal's honeymoon with rain also appears to be over with the onset of mudslides, fallen trees and flooded freeways.
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| View through my kitchen window on Sunday at 4pm |
For more vases,
visit our host, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
