We made wreaths—at Rancho Cistus

Saturday afternoon I retuned to the scene of several past wreath making parties to have a go at it again. There have been years where Ann Amato and I cut greens from the garden in the rain with Sean Hogan and Preston Pew, but this year we arrived to piles of interesting things in the driveway ready for the making.

My friend Bridget (OMG, I haven't shared the news here but Bridget who used to live around the corner from me, then moved to Louisville and started a business called Mahonia is back in Portland and is now the Director of Operations at Cistus!!!) kicked things off with a little talk on the "how to" of wreath making and then we all started grabbing stems from the selection in the drive. Just then hundreds of geese flew overhead, I was not the only one who lifted my phone to record the moment, it was pretty majestic.

But back to the wreath making. I failed to get any shots of  Bridget giving us direction and a pep talk, but I did get a few shots of people in action and after pics. It's so inspiring to see what we each came up, since we all had the same things to choose from.

Dan Pogust at work here, one of the co-founders of the Portland Botanic Garden

Ann with her arborvitae wreath.

Evan Bean and Linda Wisner (in the background) hard at work.

Evan was smart to turn the needles of this conifer upside down for maximum contrast and to show off their silvery bits.

Bob made a spectacular eucalyptus wreath.

Evan proudly showing off Franklin—A(wreath)a Franklin that is. Yes, they're pretty darn punny. Giving Sean a run for his money.

Ann with her bodacious buxom beauty wreath (buxus/boxwood that is).

I didn't think to take photos of my two wreaths until I already had them in the car. Wreath A...

A, again

And at home...

I hung this one and stood back so Andrew could see it and his response, "so that bare wire, that's intentional?"... yep.

And wreath B...

This one is still laying on the basement floor, pending the official holiday decorating spree to come...

Since there was still a little daylight after the wreathing I walked through the nursery.

I think this grapevine and lichen wreath might have been one of my favorites of the day!

Seen in the Cistus big-top...

And here's Ann, closing out the day with suitably twee Kinfolk-like cover pose. Work it Ann!

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