In the light of a new fall surge of COVID–19 cases, the Ontario provincial government has been urging everyone to keep this year's Thanksgiving celebrations limited to members of one's immediate household.
For us, this is less of a change than it would be for most people. With family living far and wide, our Thanksgiving holidays have always quiet. Last night there were just four of us. Still, we made a hearty meal, lit some candles and had a wonderful evening.
Arranging the flowers and setting a pretty table is so much fun! Here's a peek at what I did.
Just to be cautious, I bought a bunch of grocery store flowers to augment what I had on hand. In the end, I am not sure I even needed them.
Everything else came from the garden (despite the light frost we experienced last week).
I always try to watch for old florist's vases at thrift stores. This lovely white ceramic one was under $5 (most florists use plastic vessels these days). I am sure I will use it again and again.
To hold the flowers in place, I used a floral foam block because I had one on hand (the dollar store is the cheapest place to find them). Note: I do know this green foam is not biodegradable. In the future, I hope to change to using a floral frog or chicken wire.
With the foliage that makes the core of this arrangement, I got quite creative.
I used quite a lot of peony foliage because it had turned lovely autumnal shades of maroon and gold (the peonies are pretty much done for the year and needed to be cut down anyway, so this was a win-win in my books!).
Fragrant herbs like sage, oregano, curly parsley, rosemary add a subtle hint of scent. I also employed sprigs of Euyonumus for the variegated foliage and berries.
There are still quite a number of roses in bloom in the garden, but they are mostly pink and white (not quite the fall vibe I was going for). Instead, I picked pink hydrangeas, orange and yellow Nastursuims, white Eupatorium, Feverfew (small white daisies) and rose-colored Sedum.
I wasn't sure about mixing bright purple in with all the fall colors, but I decided to give it a go and found that the cool color really contrasted nicely with all the warmer hues.
I am always hesitant to take pictures inside the house (I don't have the proper camera lights), so forgive the poor lighting. Here is the arrangement I made for our Thanksgiving table.
