The sun is shining here today, for the first time in what feels like weeks. And although it’s supposed to be only in the mid-50’s the next few days, I definitely prefer cool days with sunshine than grey, miserable, rainy days like those that usually fill the winters here in Frankfurt.
So I took advantage of a bit of the sunshine this morning, doing some sweeping and cleaning up in our courtyard. Two friends are coming up from the Munich area this weekend to visit so I needed to do a few things to make sure they don’t have to walk through a bunch of leaves or dog poo when they enter our guest house (since Ayla has decided she needs to poop under the covered areas of the courtyard only.) As I was sweeping, I decided to trim back our grapevines on the barn (the ones I can reach anyway since they go about 5 meters up along the wall) and FINALLY started a wreath which I have been wanting to do since we moved in.
Here’s what I was able to assemble so far. Yes, I still have a long way to go before I can really display it with pride…but it’s about 3 feet across and the last time I saw a wreath that size for sale, it was about €165. This project has taken me about 15 minutes so far with 5-6 vines (9-15 feet long) and I can understand why one would pay for a wreath like this…but not that kind of price.
I stopped at this point with this one because I can’t reach anything else to cut…but I hope to continue it at some stage before winter really arrives. We have a whole lot of grapevines up on the wall and I think I could easily finish this one and perhaps make a second wreath from what we have already.
I’m also considering making a vine from the wisteria we have growing all over the place here…but in the past it has been really brittle so I’m not sure if I will be able to arrange it as needed to make a nice wreath. But I’ll play with it a bit anyway and see what develops. It’s free and if I can get some big wreaths for our gates and doors around here, that would be awesome…even if they only last a year (which apparenlty can be an issue with wisteria vines.)
Making a wreath is not difficult. You just start with one vine, form it into a circle and wind the ends of the vine through the circle form until you have the whole vine integrated into the wreath. Son’t worry if it looks a bit off at first; as you add vines to the circle, you’ll be able to change the shape a bit…just try to make sure you don’t pull a loose end that will cause the shape of the wreath to change completely. As you can see, I still have some leaves to trim off this one, and will need to tuck the ends of the vines a bit more as I go along. But the main thing to watch out for is that you don’t break the vine as you weave it into the circle…and that you relax while doing it. It’s not meant to be a high stress event. If you screw up the first one, so what? Take it apart and start again…or begin again with all new materials. You could also use a wire loop for a basis if you want but I don’t think it would be necessary in most cases.
