A late summer table setting under the hydrangeas: blue willow, gingham, ferns from the edge of the woods, and about an hour of effort.
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August, While It Lasts
August is the heavy month. The days go slow and sleepy, the heat sits close to the ground, everything smells green and thick with it.
There are a few weeks of this left. Then the air will turn and start to smell light instead. That first crisp morning that tells you it’s over.
So we ate outside on Sunday. A late summer table setting, put together in about an hour, most of which was spent carrying things across the yard.
Gingham cloth | Rattan chargers | Blue willow dishes
The limelights are beside the table, still opening: that green-white stage before they turn, when the cones are heavy enough to bend the stems but haven’t gone papery yet. That will happen in September.
They’re only in their third summer. I grew them from cuttings from the ones already in the garden, so they’re small still, shoulder height rather than overhead. In a few years, eating out here will feel like sitting inside them, but not yet.
Most of what’s worth having in a garden is for the anticipation, the knowing of what it will become.
The Dishes My Mother Used Every Day
The blue willow is the reason for the whole table. My mother used these every day when I was very small. They weren’t the good plates, they were just the plates, and I ate off them for years without ever once looking at them properly.
Mine aren’t hers. Mine are an inexpensive imported set I found online, and I bought them on purpose, because they look like the ones I remember. There’s something in that pattern that carries you somewhere, a common item that still manages to feel transportive.
And nobody has to be careful with them. If one breaks, c’est la vie, that’s life.
Blue willow dishes | Rattan chargers | Bamboo flatware | Ruffled linen napkins | Wood napkin rings
A Late Summer Table Setting, in About an Hour
Leaning into the green, I cut ferns from the edge of the woods, where they grow without anyone’s care or request, and dropped them short in the little bud vases I keep for exactly this down the length of the table. No flowers on the table today. The limelights were right there.
Beaded bud vases | Gingham cloth
Then the hurricanes down the middle and tea lights scattered between them, all lit before anyone sat down.
There was no occasion. It was just a Sunday.
Glass hurricanes | Glass tea lights
Supper itself was easy, the way it has to be in August. Last month we did a lobster boil and stood over a hot pot all evening. This one asked much less of me, and I liked it just as well.
Rattan bread basket | Clear wine glasses
Make the Ordinary Days Beautiful
This is the part I keep coming back to. It didn’t take much. A cloth thrown over the table, ferns from the edge of the yard, candles that didn’t need a reason. An hour, and most of that was carrying things outside.
And it turned an ordinary Sunday into an evening we’ll all remember.
That’s available most days, to most people. It isn’t a project. It isn’t a room that needs finishing first. It’s a little more effort than usual, pointed at a night that would otherwise have gone by unmarked.
Make the ordinary days beautiful. Those are the ones you get the most of.
The Sources
sage gingham tablecloth — EVERLY, via Amazon.
rattan chargers — Threshold, Target.
blue willow dishes — BrylaneHome, via Amazon.
bamboo-handle flatware — via Amazon.
white ruffled napkins — FINGERCRAFT, via Amazon.
wood napkin rings — via Amazon.
wine glasses — Schott Zwiesel Tour, Crate & Barrel.
rattan bread basket — Walmart.
beaded bud vases — Threshold, Target.
footed glass hurricanes — Threshold, Target.
white pillar candles — via Amazon.
glass tea light holders — via Walmart.
tea light candles — via Amazon.
bamboo folding chairs — VINGLI, via Amazon.
cafe lights — via Amazon.
