In the essay "A Little Vase of Flowers" in The Morville Year, Katherine Swift recalls seeing a picture of Vita Sackville-West's writing-room in the tower at Sissinghurst: "on her writing-table, among the litter of books and photographs, pen and pencils, was a little vase of flowers. She always had flowers on her writing-table, picked every day from the garden. I believe the National Trust still keeps up the tradition, forty years after her death.
"There is something very touching about flowers seen like this: just two or three blooms, picked at random, not 'arranged'. They still seem part of the garden. And having the flowers close at hand, at eye-level, you can see them properly - get to know them in a way which we rarely do when they are growing in the garden. As the painter Georgia O'Keeffe said in the catalogue of an exhibition at the New York gallery, An American Place:
'Still - in a way - nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.' "
In the spirit of Vita, I picked these periwinkles this morning and put them where I can see them; if the weather forecast is correct, those I left in the garden will soon be covered with snow.
