These are confusing times for sure. I’d love to simply show you this pink bouquet and talk about why I love the combination of peonies and roses so much, but with everything that is going on today, and with everything that has been going on around the world over the past months, it all feels rather shallow.
To talk about pink petals, stem length, bloom longevity, when so many people have suffered in the covid crisis, and when so many are suffering because of social injustices, wherever they may live, is a tricky line to tread. I remember feeling this way after the attacks in Paris a few years back. I said then that the shocking events made a mockery of me writing about pretty flowers, or delicious recipes. And that’s how I feel today.
But this is the challenge facing any blogger, instagrammer or social media publisher right now. How to stay true to yourself and your ‘brand’, expressing your true feelings of sadness and compassion, without appearing opportunistic or hurting anyone’s feelings.
I have tiptoed around the situation for a few days now. The truth is I can’t do much to make a difference in this world. I can’t bring peace, or make the virus disappear. But maybe, by sharing my love of nature, by sharing the down to earth care of my garden, or the sweet sound of morning birdsong … or a pretty bouquet, then maybe I can bring a little calm and respite. I truly hope so.
I believe that these last months have have been very tiring for us all. None of us like uncertainty; we didn’t know where the virus was going to take us; we still don’t understand all the economic fall-out of the past few months, and it’s so easy to worry about our loved ones.
So today the only thing that I can bring you is a pink bouquet of flowers from my garden, put together with love. It soothed me to create this bouquet, and I hope it will do the same for you. Let’s hope that out of all the madness and scariness of this first part of the year, there will come some real changes which will prove to be positive, and that together we’ll learn to show more respect and for each other and for our planet.
92 comments
Thank you for the bouquet. Traversing these times is difficult but we can still appreciate an act of beauty and kindness. Phyllis
Thank you Phyllis xx
The beauty of nature always is the best for soothing
Gorgeous flowers Merci
Beautiful writing, Sharon xx
This is exactly what we needed today,Sharon.Thank you!It restores some tranquility and once again renews our hope,for we are indeed now walking by faith and not by sight.
Thank you so much for the beautiful bouquet
thank you Vicki xoxo
I love the pink bouquets, roses, peonies and foxglove I think. We must persevere. We must live just and honest lives individually as we do it spreads and flowers and grows.
Living honest lives individually and together 🙂
xx
Thank you, Sharon. Your photos are so vivid I can almost smell the flowers!
Thank you for the beautiful bouquet ! These are all my favourite flowers. We now live in a condo which we love very much, but this is the time of year I really miss my garden! Thank you for the beautiful gift.
You have just written exactly what I feel ..
these flowers are GIFTS they are so beautiful.. thank you
Photos of the beautiful flowers are so appreciated in these difficult times. Thank you for your thoughtfulness!!!
thank you Serena, it’s so difficult to put into words all the feelings we have right now 🙂
Thank you for your honest voice and soothing flowers. I am feeling particularly fatigued after an arduous week and have also turned to my garden for solace.
May we all find some calm with the simple nourishment that comes from flowers and strong voices filled with integrity and kindness for all.
Your post is a beautiful blessing to me today.
I too am spending more time in my gardens looking for peace and hope.
Lovingly said, Sharon.
My heart is thankful for you.
The flowers a beautiful, stunning, calming. While in my blog the conversation is sewing, quilting, needlework and cooking, I rarely go into political subjects or current controversy. No matter what you do, say or feel, it will offend somebody so I would prefer someone tell me they dislike the colors I have chosen for a quilt block! For those who choose to tread the prickly subjects, bravo, it’s not me. Stay well, stay safe, keep those pretty posies coming, I love them!
You are so right Cheryll, it is a very difficult line to tread. Keep enjoying the quilting and the needlework, I’m sure your work brings joy to others.
x
Absolutely beautiful and you accomplished what you intended to do..looking at these pictures does bring calm and lights up the day with beauty. Thank you
thank you Antonia
🙂
Beautifully said Sharon.
Eloquently written Sharon, beautiful flowers. Have a lovely weekend x
Sharon, I wonder if you know of the design work of Joy Proctor? She creates the most exquisitely lovely florals and event design work AND has been writing eloquently and powerfully about the desperate need for racial justice. I hope you’ll have a chance to see and read her thoughts, if that resonates. Thank you too, for your own glorious work! Ahhh peonies and roses
Thank you so much
Beautiful. Thank you so much for your kind words and the thoughts you are sending our way.
Flowers are a gift from God, you can never go wrong passing them on. Thank you.
Sharon, thank you so much for the beautiful bouquet & your heart felt expression of feelings. With every blog & lovely photo & unique Stylish French Box, you do make a different in the World. Virtual Hugs, Bonnie
It is obvious that your heart is just as beautiful as your flower arrangent, Sharon. Thank you for sharing both with us.
Beautiful bouquets… flowers …a gift from God…and through your talent a glorious bouquet…thank you… so soothing, Teresa
Beautiful flowers and beautifully written words❤️
Pat
THIS makes my heart sing. Thank you so much.
thank you for this beautiful gift of flowers. I love peonies and they are they are the most fragile of flowers, they bloom for such a short time. Yet they come back each year to delight us.
Thank you for sharing, for myself my garden has been my therapy…. many disturbing things we can not change, but we can be nurtured in the beauty that surrounds us. Beautiful!!!
You have indeed brought a little calm and respite. Thank you.
Sharon, your written word is very moving and I believe you have expressed what so many of us feel. Your Instagram blogs, photOs and everything you do inspires. Thank you.
Indeed, an extremely fine line to tread and you do it well, thank you Sharon. And those peonies, roses and hollyhocks are divine in both colour and arrangement. Nature is always a balm for the soul. Merci bien!
They are exqusite…as you ate elegant! Could not have been more sincere…carry on…it’s what we do. franki
Thank you for the gorgeous bouquet. My absolute favorite flowers. We must have a break from all the negativity and sadness. God wants us to pray for peace and this is definitely peace. Your posts always brings happiness to my heart.
Thankyou Sharon for not only the beautiful flowers but the thoughts behind them.
Hi Sharon!
It has sure helped me! I would be even happier if
I could grow huge roses like you!!
Thank you as always for your beautiful writing!
No one says it like you!!
Hope to see you next year!!
❤️❤️❤️ Lynn Casper
Thank you for the beautiful flowers and your heartfelt message. Both are much appreciated and will be long remembered.
Leslie Alexander
Dear Sharon…don’t ever apologize for loving beauty. Continue to be true to your heart…your sense of the lovely that gives so much to others. As Andrea Bocelli has said “Beauty will change the world.”
Thank you! By sharing your thoughts and positivity along with an absolutely beautiful bouquet you have made a difference.
Thank you. So lovely in a dark difficult time
Thank you for this gorgeous bouquet of pink flowers along with your story that we all can relate to.
In this time of such unrest and uncertainty your familiar blog with all things French helps to keep life steady.
Hi Sharon
I love your pictures. Beautiful peonies and roses. I believe in pink! And I’m in my garden everyday too! Thank you for sharing happiness with us. Xx
This bouquet is stunning and just what we all need right about now. Thank you!
Sharon, you shared three of my favorite things—roses, peonies, and pink! And you shared them directly from your heart. And that is what this world needs so badly now—heart for all people of all races, heart not to burn and destroy property in order to make a point which will not bring about change. We need the heart of God to make real change. And that is what I pray for. Thank you for always being a bright corner with your blog and boxes and books. I so appreciate you. Blessings, Cate Tuten
Thank you for this beautiful genuine gift through this amazing bouquet and the sincerity of your words. I have just come in from tending my garden of flowers, where it brings me peace and a hope for the world. Your words brought tears as it is truly a trying time but the simplicities of flowers and a kind word , where we hope one day soon gather with loved ones and share a meal (taken from your recipes) and be thankful for all that we have. Thank you Sharon for bringing a light to a very sad time.
Shanon thank you so much for your beautiful bouquet. For me, pink is the color of healing and kindness. God bless you.
From Chile, South America.
Thank you.
Beautiful!! Thank You for the calmness!!
Be well stay safe.
Breathtakingly beautiful combined with heartfelt words….bravo!
Just opened your blog to see the gorgeous pink bouquet, left me breathless, in a good way. Never worry talking about what nature has to share with us Sharon, its innocence speaks volumes.
Youour thoughtfulness is truly appreciated and proves that with all its broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world filled with people like you….
I enjoy your floral offerings, they are lovely and just what everyone ned now. Liberty of London posts a floral offering every week and I do look forward to it. Merci!
Thank you Sharon! Beautiful!
Dearest Sharon, the flowers are so very beautiful, one more besutiful than the other, and brought joy to me right now, when ai feel such despair for my America and its people. When I am sickened by the disgrace and disgusting evil monster that is in our White House, who is true evil. The deaths of so many thousands of people who did not deserve to die, is very hard to deal with while worrying for loved ones also, and wondering if ever, ever we will be somewhat like before. I am not so sure of that.
I love the flowers you sent out to us. They brought smiles and a few tears, but beauty and caring. I cannot thank you enough for such an emotionally beautiful gift and expression of caring. I love roses, very much, and peonies. I have but one peony, a deeper pink flower, that my grandma Seraphina gave me so long ago, the very early 1970’s after buying our first home, where we still live. I could no more leave the house than I could leave the gardens, never mind they are not finished or as beautiful as I wish they were. I just keep working, trying, though not so young anymore. And having gone through a most unexpected emergency surgery two years ago for an aortic aneurysm in my chest, and did not have much time to live, I am most grateful to still be here, slower, aching a bit more, but loving the garden even more. I have hydrangeas that my grandma also gave to me when we moved here from Brooklyn, N.Y. To Staten Island, N.Y. That I cherish. I started with three of hers, pink flowering, so old now, from the same 1970 time sit always able to give as Much attention as they deserved, but over the years, they made babies, haha, for me, and now the
Three original have become 6, so beautiful, sone I make the pink and 1 or 2 I tease with acid fertilizer to make pinkish lavender, and beautiful. I look up to Heaven when they bloom and always ask my grandma can she see how much I love them and have cared for them. I hope she can.
I love Lily of the Valley flowers also, their aroma is like no other. I wait patiently each year for them to bloom, and have so many I
must dig up and move to other spots. To have room for more flowers. I have also Nikko Blue hydrangea, planted in memory of my
Beloved Siamese Niko lost way too young to cancer years back. He was only 8. My first two Siamese were a beautiful blue point with such beautiful fur named Sammy, Sammy mushy lovey dirty face, all love names as he was most beloved , loving, precious, slept in bed with me for 18 years, more precious than gold, and his “brother” Nickodemus, purchased 2 years after Sam, Who grew to be inseparable after the first 2 weeks of some minor hissing. You would havevthoughtbtgeybwerecactually from the same litter, but sam was a blue point and nicky a sealpoint. Through the years they because mushynu, one word , both would come Running, I lost Nicky at 16 years and Sammy lovey 8 months later a 18 and one month. I thought I would die of grief and pain. Two and half years later, still crying for them,one son bought Niko for me. But lost him way too young. Grief and fear have kept me from getting another siamese. Never in my life have I been this many years without a kitty. I am afraid of the pain of loss. Today my papa Salvatore is gone June 5, 1990, and still I cry. Mama on January 9, 2013, a week before her 98th birthday, loving here with us to keep her safe and fed and warm and cared for. I miss her every day.
So, again I thank you for your very special gift of beautiful flowers, so appreciated and so loving of you to send to us all. Please keep safe and keep us in your prayers. And write us another story too, soon, haha. There, I have given you more work to do. Sending love and appreciation for your kindness, Marianne❤️
That is so gorgeous!
Thank you…xo
Sharon, thank you for this beautiful bouquet! In these crazy, unsettling times your flowers bring a sense of calm and peace. So needed and much appreciated! I can almost smell them . . .
Beautifully said my friend. Thank you for your sweet words to heal the soul of all hurting right now. Blessed to have you in my life.
Don’t ever feel bad or shamed for sharing beauty and light with the world. We’re all focusing too much on the terrible things happening to planet Earth right now.
My graduation was cancelled because of current events; it was supposed to take place today but I don’t think I’m going to have a grad at all. This boquet cheered me immensely. Means a lot. Keep the beautiful pink love coming!! <3
Written so eloquently with empathy, thoughtfulness and love. Thank you so much Sharon for sharing your thoughts and concerns through the beauty of flowers. Thank you Jane
Just the right thing to hear.
Beautifully said Sharon, your bouquet is truely magnificent. Thank you for sharing beauty. Esther from Sydney.
This is a beautiful post and introspection that is not only yours but so many of ours. The flowers are not as if one is ignoring the tragedies but lends a sense of calm to think things through carefully and calmly.
This lovely bouquet of flowers gave my soul a breath of fresh air. With so much uncertainty during this pandemic around the world and social unrest here in the US, your heartfelt sentiments and bouquet of flowers is a reminder that our world’s natural beauty will never be extinguished.
This is glorious Sharon! It reveals the glory of God to me.
Merci Sharon for the magnificent floral bouquet.
You pretty much wrote my thoughts. And that of many of your followers it seems.
I love reading your blog and through it, enjoy so much of France that I am missing so much.
Stay well.
Beautiful post. Yes these are very trying times. You have sent love & beauty through your words & your lovely flowers. Thankyou. ❤️❤️
Your comments touched my heart, Sharon. Thank you.
Hello Sharon. Thank you for this post. It was a cheerful greeting to my morning. We women know beauty and the appreciation of it are soothing to all and part of our charm. Thanks again!
Hi I agree with these comments and would add that the appreciation of nature, whether it be of a giant 347 ft Sequoia growing on the west coast of the US or the bouquet from your garden, is more important than ever. Yesterday I got to see photos of the Sequoia and today your beautiful flowers. Both are uplifting. Thank you.
Nothing soothes the soul like nature. I’ve been craving a bouquet of flowers but this one truly mesmerizes and comforts the psyche. Merci for sharing.
Thank-you so much Sharon for your lovely photos and such beautiful words. I think you got it just right on how so many of us feel. Stay well & safe.
Hi Sharon,
Thank you for your beautiful flowers!
Have a wonderful weekend.
Lucy
When the quote below by an Episcopal minister is what we, in the US, have facing us and supposedly guiding us through these perilous times I say bring on the flowers we all need some true beauty and joy in our lives now, something enduring to cling to.
This is an awful man, waving a book he hasn’t read, in front of a church he doesn’t attend, invoking laws he doesn’t understand, against fellow Americans he sees as enemies, wielding a military he dodged serving, to protect power he gained via accepting foreign interference, exploiting fear and anger he loves to stoke, after failing to address a pandemic he was warned about, and building it all on a bed of constant lies and childish inanity.
— Robert Hendrickson, Rector at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Tucson, Arizona
I wish for all who read your posts and equally for all who have never heard of you to be able to find a glimmer of hope and joy.
Keep showing us flowers!!!
Candace in Oregon
Your heartfelt eloquence is powerful, and your pictures are, as well. Brava for the courage to step outside the completely safe and to express what so many are feeling now. I am reading this on the 76th anniversary of D-Day, when a lot of other people stepped forward, not always out of first choice. And I’m hoping that the recent events and demonstrations will help put us on the road for a more just world.
Sharon- your message was so heartfelt and it was exactly what I have been needing to be reminded of.
It is such an introspective time along with the world paused in a such a painful way.
Your flowers are beyond beautiful and lift my being up like an old friend. My garden is my healing place; maybe because hope feels eternal there. Mother Earth is our stabilizer and watching every little detail of a single bloom unfurling … can be counted on to lift ones spirits.
I love to read your posts and feel the pictures you share.
Beauty , peace and balance especially when we are feeling uncertain.
Have received my May box but am saving it for a real celebration.!!!! Guaranteed and proven joy! So many thanks for sharing your heart and soul with us. So glad to read positive and restoring mail!
Garden as if you will live forever! (My boys gave me this wooden garden sign years ago!)❤️
Hi Sharon!!
To wake up to such a beautiful bouquet of pink flowers is exactly what I needed, so thank you so much for the beauty in these flowers and the beauty that’s in you.
I have seen the pain from bloggers because people have left rude, hurtful and even mean comments saying that the blogger isn’t being sensitive enough because of what’s going on in the world. Bloggers saying sorry crying when it’s not needed at all.
I think more that anything we need a distraction from what’s been going on since February when we started to hear about this virus. When in March we learn that we had to stay indoors for a uncertain amount of time and now hearing that they really don’t know when it will truly taper off.
To see these beautiful bouquets and know that you put them together with love so that we can get the comfort that such beauty can bring. And besides they are my favourite, PINK!!!!
I say to you Sharon the biggest thank you while hugging you for doing this for me!!i was feeling really down concerning my health. I had my 20th operation 5 weeks ago and it’s taking forever to get my strength back when I have so much to do so seeing these beautiful beautiful flowers has certainly made me feel better about myself.
Thank you!!
Enjoy the rest of the weekend!!
Pam
xox
Thank you, Sharon, for the gorgeous bouquet. I wish I was sitting next to the vase experiencing the intense fragrance of both the roses as well as the peonies. The colors are exquisite and the composition is as lovely as always. Someday I would love to meet you, as you seem to be such a refined, creative and gentle person. God bless our angels on earth.
Well said.
We all need to be reminded that there are still beautiful things in the world.
Through your beautiful words and artistic expression you gave the world a gift. A subtle, yet powerful, gift of love. Thank you!
I’m trying to learn to look on the other side when I am not happy, but it isn’t easy to think of beautiful and happy thoughts. I will remember your flowers, Thank you!
Your photos always give us so many moments to reflect upon. At times I feel like I’m walking through a Museum of Beauty. This is your contribution and it’s big and meaningful.
thank you
Dear Sharon,
Thank you for your compassionate message and gesture. How perfectly the beauty and purity of flowers arranged with love, conveys heartfelt care. The difficulty you expressed, in knowing how to best respond at this time, is a quandary for many, and your effort to sensitively convey those sentiments is meaningful and much appreciated.
Merci,
Sheralyn
Melbourne, Australia
Expressed beautifully and very well written remarks. Thank you.
Your arrangement is lovely and does bring beauty and calm during a troubled time.
Thank you for sharing.
Bonnie Morgan, Alabama USA.
Please keep,sharing. Your pictures and words bring me peace. Thank you.
Good morning Sharon, and may God richly bless you for your kind and gentle heart! For using the beautiful gifts of creativity, encouragement and empathy, that He has given you. Your commitment to sharing the beautiful side of life from glorious France, is such a blessing to many. We all seem to need to work hard today to appreciate and focus on the blessings and good things especially at times this difficult. Please be encouraged and know, that your posts in all the various media, writings and photos are soooooo appreciated. I look forward to seeing little glimpses of your life each day with your beautiful home and property, your darling pups and lovely friendships, it’s all so encouraging to me to continue being creative, hospitable (when we can…) try new recipes, work hard, and appreciate everything in life, from breathtaking views across the countryside, to the tiny details inside a flower bud. What you share of your life, is such a blessing to me and many others who love all things French, and are trying to see all the beauty life has to offer in-spite of the circumstances. I hope this note encourages you to carry on being FABULOUS! I pray you and your family are stay well and safe.
Most Sincerely,
Raven
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