Cedar roses and March of the Tools
My husband brought these home for me last week. He'd found them when he was out walking one lunchtime and thought we might like them because of how beautifully rose-like they look.
My own research seems to suggest they might be from a Deodara Cedar, which is apparently known for bearing cones which resemble wooden roses. Might I be right? I'd love to plant one of these trees in our garden as I can think of so many things that I'd like to do with the roses, although just having whole clusters of them on the tree to look at would be exciting in itself!
It may well be mid-March, but when I saw that Heather Bailey was running her annual March of the Tools month, I emailed her immediately to see if the door was still open for latecomers. March of the Tools is a month of celebrating and sharing the tools that make life easier, happier, or just delight you with how insanely clever and practical they are. And it's not just confined to sewing: it's can be cookery gadgets, computer programmes or even photography related bits and pieces...anything really. The reason why I was desperate to take part is because I love finding things that work really well. And then I love evangelising about them. So Heather has given me a legitimate excuse for doing just that and I'm doubly pleased because my blog can now wear one of her clover-backed buttons (well, my blog couldn't actually fit the one with the clover on it in the sidebar...which is why I've put it in the post instead...eyes right for non-clover version).
So hopefully over the next two weeks normal posting will occasionally be interspersed with me excitedly gibbeting about my favourite tools (although for some of the things I want to write about the term 'tools' may be stretching things a little). You can also click on the link above to find out who else is participating and sharing more tool recommendations (I'm keeping my beady eye on Adrianna and Susan, because I have little doubt that I will be fabulously out-tooled by them and that my covet-list will be longer by the end of March).
Florence x
I am going to join the March the tools- I love a gadget and anything that makes life easier, thankyou for the heads up! I look forward to reading about your gadgets
ReplyDeleteYes, they are definitely cedar roses although I'm not sure of the botanical name. The tree is lovely but *large* and - don't quote me on this - but I think there may be a male and a female, so some bear the roses and some don't. I think the 'roses' are the ends of a larger cone.
ReplyDeleteWhat amazing cones. Absolute beauties. x
ReplyDeleteThey do look like cedar cones - very pretty. Cedars are such beautiful trees, one of my favourites, but they do grow very big! You should be able dwarf varieties though (e.g. dwarf blue atlas cedar...cones would be a bit different still attractive).
ReplyDeleteI'll look forward to reading more about the tools...gadgets are very moreish.
(I thought I'd de-lurk finally - I love trees!). Juliex
Oh we had one of those in our living room when I was growing up and I always thought it was a magical wooden rose. Thanks for spoiling that for me.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll be reading along with you on our blog regarding tools. I'm jealous of Susan too. But I'm very much of the "I can do without that" school and she's very much of the "hey, let me buy that so I can play with it" school. It worked out better when we lived 4 miles apart.
I thought those were hand-carved roses! I love them even more now knowing they are nature-made :)
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to believe that these cones are not made of wood - I thought when I read the title to your post that they were a beautiful new form of moth repellant (I'm obsessed with repelling moths since a major invasion the summer before last)
ReplyDeleteI would love to link my blog to the March of the Tools event, such a fun idea. I will just as soon as I figure out the technology....
post your classifeds on this network friends you will get good viewers
ReplyDelete