corners of my home :: collections

We've been collecting lots of little bits and pieces while on our (almost) daily walks around the neighbourhood. And they're making lovely collections and piles around the house - of course collecting dust!

Ari is at that age where he picks flowers and bit of grass for me. So lovely. I've never forced it on him, so I'm really glad that it's just something he wants to do, of his own thinking. When he went out for the day with Sam + Ben (Sam's brother) on Monday, he came home with some lovely grass flowers for me, as well as some bits of stick covered in moss. The little boy knows what I like.

Last week, as he was saying goodbye to his Grandma, walking her down the steps - he ran over to our lavender bush and picked some flowers to give her. Sometimes he's in the backyard with his dad, just doing stuff and comes running inside with a teeny tiny piece of grass, wanting to put it into a vase.

So, now - we have quite a collection of drying grasses, flowers, leaves. It always takes me ages to throw dead :: dried flowers out. I love the shapes they turn into, the little shriveled up leaves + petals. The different colours they turn into. Of course, some dry better than others - so I keep them for longer. I'm trying to get better at getting rid of them when they're covered too much by dust + spider webs.

I do think I get this from my Mother. Possibly from Dad also. But I remember all the little bits of displays my Mum would have around her house - dried leaves, seedpods, twigs, feathers, entwined with ceramics, bonsai trees, fabric. Thinking about it, my Dad used to have a collection (in his shed) of dried out lizards he'd found around the place + mouse skeletons.

I also have little bowls and containers filled with skeletons, butterfly wings, dragonflies, feathers, bits of bugs, shriveled flower petals. They are just part of our everyday, sitting on windowsills, on bookshelves.