Happy Thanksgiving from the islands…

This year we’re having 2 small family dinners on Orcas Island. The surrounding green forest and Salish Sea influenced my table setting.

Here are some views of the table, I’ll show you how I built the arrangement using my 3-step method below.

To make the arrangement I put a roll of poultry wire in this galvanized trough.

Next, fill the vessel with greens, I used ferns, salael and evergreens from forest.

Now for some color, step 2 is to fill in any gaps between the greens with flowers of your choice.

Step 3 is to add something unusual, for whimsical texture and color. I impaled fragrant yellow quince with sticks and positioned them in the bouquet.

Also red Hawthorne berries.

Finally, I added lichen and fungi covered branched from the woods.

Nosegays of garden rosemary and oregano buds and a Madrona twig finished off the green linen napkins tied with twine.