End without ceremony
Pull the stems when the petals drop, shake the soil-truth from the water, and wash the jar with hot water and a bottle brush. A clean jar invites the next bunch; a stained one quietly argues against it.
Petals and stems to the compost or the green waste, where they finish as what they were: a week of someone’s garden, borrowed and returned.
Record the week’s flowers
One line in the notebook, the same one that anchors the morning: what the bunch was, how long it held. A year of such lines becomes the household’s flower almanac, useless and pleasant in exactly the right ratio.
The shelf rests bare for a day if it wants to. The pause between bunches is part of the practice, the way the rest day is part of the walk.
Published by the Fiolella journal.