There are two vases of flowers that have been sitting in the cottage house for the past month. Or six weeks. Respectively. I’ve watched them transform from their robust, life-rich selves to droopy but stiff, near-mummified ghosts of their former glory (I am almost 95 percent certain ghosts can’t be mummified, but I’m no expert). I really should learn to discard dead flowers in a timely manner. But as I’ve watched them, day by day on my journeys from the living room to the kitchen, I came to see in them a quiet beauty. A record, preserved in their brittle but surprising sturdiness. So though it was much past the deadline for removing these two vases and their expired buds, I decided to hold onto them a bit longer. After all, I needed my next 10-on-10 project.

But before we go further, say hello to my buds, the fellow 10-on-10ers:

Now, for those of you who didn’t immediately exit out after that horrible pun, the coffee is on me. And bless you. And here we go.