Flower Arranging

There are things that women are supposed to be good at, and one of them is flower arranging. No, no, not me though.

I'm rubbish at anything like that. In general, I like flowers growing outside and if they're going to be indoors I like the kind of flowers which know exactly what to do when you put them in a vase.

Daffodils, for example. You get a bunch of daffs, trim their ends to make sure they can drink the water, stuff them in any sort of container and out they come with all their jolly yellowness and Springness.

Tulips can be great too, but I got a bit wary of tulips when someone told me that you should stick a pin in their necks - something to do with the fact that they suck up a bubble of air when you put them in water, and it knocks their heads over.

Now that's getting a bit too much for me - no way am I going to go round a bunch of suicidal tulips sticking a pin in their necks. That's bordering on the dreaded Flower Arranging thing.

As for all that twisting wire round flowers and sticking them in foam - it's a mystery to me, and one which I prefer not to contemplate. I don't like arrangements which are over-complicated.

But big, glorious bunches of flowers, where the flowers have been expertly chosen because they complement each other - - now, that's something else. Here are flowers from my mother's birthday:

Here are some from Emily and Gareth's wedding:

Gorgeous. I like flowers to look as though they just came together by happy chance, and not as though someone's spent hours arranging them. And the people who put these together had enough skill to make them look effortless.