Miss Pickering presents Valentine's Day....

Love potion number 9 - a mix of vintage roses, viburnum, tulips, myrtle, rosemary and ivy trails. Small £50, Medium £70, Large £100 plus delivery*I love you more than ice cream, grand prix and amalia roses, anenomes, tulips
Small £50.00, Medium, £70.00, Large £100.00 plus delivery*

All wrapped up in grey tisue paper, with a bright pink ribbon.

Or you can have The Sheldon - a dozen red grand prix roses with eucalyptus and pussy willow £85.00 plus delivery

If you are in Sheffield, or maybe Bristol, wishing you too could have one of our bouquets, fear not we send our bouquets nationwide. All packaged up in one of our boxes and delivered overnight, they can be with you on Saturday morning, or delivered to your place of work on Friday. Call us on 01780 482961, dramatic gestures, love tokens, and wild abandon our speciality.

* Delivery charges nationwide £10.00 for Friday 13th, £15 for Saturday 14th, Please enquire for local delivery charges on 01780 482961.

Know your customer

Today started out as a good day, a little early at 4am, but a good start none the less. One of our packaging suppliers delivered something for Valentine's Day, and with it a Galaxy caramel bar. They do this every time they deliver, a thank you for your order kind of thing, sometimes it is Green and Blacks, once it was a Hershey bar. I shared a little with The Hound, don't all call the RSPCA, he had the caramel part. Here he is looking just dandy.

As the afternoon went on the day got gradually worse, mainly due to people trying to sell me things. Not the usual electricity, or telephone supply calls, but wedding sales calls. Now, I have a sales background, but even to the uninitiated calling a florist to sell them wedding advertising on a Friday afternoon is just foolish. Any florist worth their salt is busy actually doing a wedding, and doesn't want to chat.

Would you like to advertise on our CD-Rom? No I would not, who looks at those? Unless they are all forced to watch the adverts like on 4 on demand, or at the cinema - what is the point? Would I like to advertise on our chav wedding website? No thank you, May I ask why? - the fatal question, if they are pleasant I tell them we don't have any money left in the advertising budget, if they are pushy, I tell them exactly why.....

Rant over, thank you for listening, as a reward here is a picture of some flowers, I hope you all have a lovely evening, I think mine may involve a glass of the good stuff. Tune in tomorrow for more on that Valentine's Day packaging - it is not red - deal with it.

Today we have mainly been......

Making an amusing opening times sign

Using locally grown flowers, tulips, anenomes and because this is Lincolnshire a few hundred daffs. Field to vase -2 hours, HFW eat your heart out. Is there a more annoying man on TV at the moment? aside from Jamie Oliver that is.

Also we have been drooling over the Valentine's Day menu at Oundle Mill, discovering strange songs have mysteriously ended up on my Itunes, and craving Parma Violets

Presenting the results of the Great Valentine's Day experiment

On Saturday I conducted what will become known as the Great Valentine's Day experiment. I would say n=98.

Several bouquets were made up as an alternative to the dreaded dozen. Every single man chose the one with the red roses, most ladies chose a more vintage pastel palette. In conclusion, we will do our best to influence their decisions, and we have decided that mixed with a hot pink, Amalia rose, anenomes, and some of those dark and brooding Ronaldo tulips - red roses on Valentines ain't all bad? I will do my best ladies, if he is insistent we will make them beautiful, and not at all Sheldeon like.

Meanwhile, Martha Stewart has felt the need to defend her staunch stance on pencils. I can't help but think creativity is an individual thing, and if you want to use a Hello Kitty fruit flavoured marker pen, you should be allowed.....only please not in my shop, traditional red and black striped HB only if you please. Still you have to hand it to the woman, the defence comes with 2 links to stores where you too can purchase her standard issue pencil.

Do you write with a biro, scribble with a 2HB or like me use a fountain pen filled with purple ink?

Outfits for a wedding

My lovely friend Michelle is getting married. This is a rare occurrence in my circle, the high levels of debauchery mean that we rarely get around to it. So it is with great excitement that I am planning wedding flowers for a friend. Yesterday she emailed me a picture of her dress, I am desperate to share it with - it is really beautiful, but I fear she may shoot me.

Instead I have been doing some late night Net a Porter window shopping for my own outfit.

Dresses by Tibi, Diane Von Furstenburg, and those shoes by Givenchy

A Saturday in the shop

Playing with a Canon 40D

It is on loan from Mr F, I might not give it back.

Running away to join the circus

The Hound has returned. Did I tell you he ran away to join the Chinese circus? His head was turned by a pretty lioness. He returned this morning, evidently circus animals do not sleep on beds of Egyptian cotton.

Today, I have felt like running off. I am having the ultimate bad hair day, caused by my air styler blowing up, and getting caught in a rain storm delivering flowers - the recipient was not even in. To those that think delivering flowers must be the best job in the world, think again. People are never in, houses do not have numbers or names, sometimes you are greeted not with a smile but with a "he needn't think he can win me round with flowers"

Or as in today's case where we were given the incorrect address, the lady who answered the door was so pleased "I can't believe he remembered" said she, problem was he hadn't, they were for the cottage around the corner. I felt so bad for her, I returned to the shop and made her a little posy. My main reason for feeling blue involves shoes.. Yesterday I purchased a pair of leather pixie boots, hoping that I would look like this. I don't.

It doesn't help that in my haste to procure a sale bargain, I picked up a pair of wide fit boots. My feet are not wide, hips yes, bosom most definitely but my feet are slender and I have the daintiest ankles - quite how I remain upright is a mystery.

Mental note made to stick to expensive shoes in the future.

Wild abandon or I would choose Harry

Experimenting with flowers for Valentines Day, The Hound and I have decided that Valentines flowers are too prim and proper. Who wants a neat dome of red roses? What does that say about the man giving them to you? They are Sheldon flowers, remember that film?

"A Sheldon can do your income taxes, if you need a root canal, Sheldon's your man... but humpin' and pumpin' is not Sheldon's strong suit. It's the name. 'Do it to me Sheldon, you're an animal Sheldon, ride me big Shel-don.' Doesn't work"

Instead we want flowers with wild abandon, trails of ivy, and heady with the scent of rosemary and myrtle, flowers that say, let's have a "lie down" in the middle of the afternoon, and give you pink cheeks for the rest of the day.

Ladies spread the word, drop hints, email him this link, otherwise you too may end up with a dozen red, they may even have faux diamantes in the centre - quelle horreur!

Introducing ........Mr Naylor

Mr Naylor, a real life grower of flowers and the odd potato. Here he is pictured ready to start bulb planting with some of his helpers.

He is one of the funniest people I know, King of the quips, Prince of the one-liners, and baker of delicious brownies He also grows beautiful flowers, daffodils, delphiniums, peonies, that sort of thing.

Should you wish to know more about this fine chap, have an interest in the environment, current economic crisis or just like dogs in costume, read his blog, or his column in the Farmers Weekly, listen to him on Radio 4 or make him a friend on Facebook.

Your life will be enriched.

The money shot

Turns out there were thousands of people at the other end of the street.

Everyone must have gone to Obama's inauguration

He's the one on the left

Apparently there were bigger crowds in other parts of town.

Much ado about nothing

The streets of Stamford have been cleaned, roads closed, cones everywhere - anyone would think Royalty is coming.
Actually HRH Prince Charles is about to walk past the shop, I will endeavour to get a photograph.
The atmosphere has reached fever pitch.

The ultimate man to eat tuna carpaccio with

Mr Ron Dennis. The 2009 season won't be the same without the camera panning to see the delightful Mr Dennis at the pit wall. Martin Whitmarsh doesn't hold quite the same appeal.

Unveiled on Friday the Mp4-24, much prettier than that red one, and a sure fire Drivers and Constructors Champion car. There are still 65 days until the first race, so fear not back to photographs of flowers, weddings and other such delights until then.

Today's post has been brought to you by a sprinkling of narcissism, a pair of high heeled Mary-Janes, Berocca, and has had the Soundtrack. It has also just dawned on me that in the whole of 2009 I have only had 2 gins.

Once upon a time Miss Pickering lived in Italy

Where the food is delicious

They name biscuits after kisses

There are lots of men to eat tuna carpaccio with

and Miss Pickering was known as La Bionda.

(Soundtrack for this post)

Something blue

For Emma and Tom, one stylish girl, and one hopeless romantic - a marriage made in heaven.

Roses and muscari

Today

I have made a bridesmaids bouquet that is so pretty, it moved a lady to tears.
I have been listening to some vintage Bryan Ferry.
I have had a bad hair day.

The end

Vintage roses - here are some I made earlier

They are tres popular are they not?

Flowers by Miss P, Cake by Katie

Valentine's Day

The Hound and I are sitting discussing Valentine's Day over a bowl of soup (homemade smoked bacon and butternut squash) We are actually discussing the forecasted high price of red roses and the euro exchange rate, the challenges of it falling on a Saturday and our hatred of a dozen red, but you don't come here to read about such trials and tribulations.

To The Hound love is a packet of tripe sticks and a good smoked pigs ear, he is also partial to a good back rub, which sends him into a cloud of tail wagging , followed by a twirl of contentment but thankfully sans the post-coital cigarette

For me it is a kiss, a full on hollywood kiss, the type that literally takes your breath away, leaves you weak at the knees, and your lips plump for days. I think kissing is my favourite thing to do in the world. I love it more than ice cream, even pistachio.

This is as far as we have got in our Valentines discussion.

The day Miss Pickering rejoiced over a piece of software

If like me you have a polaroid camera, but are struggling to find film for it, or even find the camera in some dusty old boxes - help is at hand. A new fandangly piece of software turns your images into polaroids. It is probably the most fun you can have with a computer. Download the software at www.poladroid.net

Recipe for a jolly good wedding

Flowers in jewel colours and men in uniform