Still life on time

Still life, nature morte, the terms express a lack of motion, a lack of life, a moment in time frozen. That one month in the year when there are peonies to be had I'm always drawn to trying out creating a classic still life with them, but I'm never totally happy with them. I'm great at creating unorderly mess but my still lifes are always too orderly, too static, I feel. In case you wonder how much faffing went into this one, I'll post an almost un-faffed one in the extra)
In any case I spent the whole afternoon setting up and creating this still life, which is a study and reflection on the time, transience and the passing of time. For Kramer's Eye (see www.kramerseye.net for info) and for The Art of Flower Photography and most of all for my self :-)
As a result I now don't have enough time to go through the Abstract Thursday entries, so I'll leave that until tomorrow. Sorry for that !

Thanks so much for your kind comments and stars for the frog playing peekaboo, its lively real cousins, the pond frogs, were soaking up the tropical heat today (30 C !) on waterlily pads !