Looks like an early wnter

I don't remember it being this cold, this time last year. Conversation between florists, (you see we are all great pals) is not of rose types, or the latest celebrity atrocity in Hello magazine. It is of thermals, where to buy the best, the prettiest, the one's that come in a wider selection of colours. To ugg or not to ugg, warming soup and of course the return of florist face.

We are filling seashells with pale roses, The Hound is tucked up in his new "In the style of" Missoni duvet, and dreaming of a weekend in Morocco. Gwen Stefani is providing the appropriate soundtrack.

A bit more from the show

It was an early start, The Other Miss Pickering and I rendez-voused at the shop at 6, and loaded up an eclectic assortment of furniture and some flowers.
Later The Mother Hen arrived, and all was well.

It was a funny old day, buoyed up by strong coffee from Mr Reid, and Laduree macaroons from the beautiful people. I still had hair extensions in from a party for the Stamford Hen the night before. Britney Spears eat your heart out, but at least I wasn't wearing a shiny suit.....xxx

We met some lovely new brides, with exciting ideas and venues, and caught up with existing ones. We mingled with other vendors....even other florists, contrary to popular belief we all get on....well nearly all of us. Life is just too short, and there are plenty of brides to go around.

My apologises to the group of ladies who came to catch a glimpse and discover the identity of Mr Ferrari, he was doing boy things with The Hound.

p.s. the numbers on the old jars have caused quite a stir, they are simply wheelie bin numbers. Effective are they not? Woe betide anyone that uses those cast iron stands.

Show and tell

Yesterday was Burghley Wedding Fayre, tales of brides, boys, macaroons, and aqua roses to follow. Until then here are a few snaps of our stand, this mainly consisted of picking up the shop and it's contents and placing it in The Great Hall.

A short play

The scene is set in the kitchen, enter stage left
Miss P: My Dearest Mr Ferrari, what did you do today?
Mr Ferrari: I made some bread.
Miss P: How wonderful, did you make much?
Mr Ferrari: About 27 loaves.
Miss P: Oh my!

The next evening, scene is set in the kitchen, both characters replete after a supper of stuffed Portobello mushrooms.
Mr Ferrari: I think I should make prawn butter
Miss P: Potted prawns?
Mr Ferrari: No, prawn butter, you blitz shell on prawns with butter, lemon and cayenne pepper, the recipe is in that book.
Mr Ferrari points to large book entitled, The big book of interesting and beguiling things to cook.
Miss P (reading the recipe): You are right, you blitz it all together shell, eyes and all.....but it says here that you need a special fine drum sieve, and who has one of those lying around the house?
Mr Ferrari (opens draw to reveal said drum sieve): Ta da!

Miss P rolls eyes, laughs and smiles fondly, safe in the knowledge that you can freeze cream

THE END

There aren't enough hours in the day

It is all go here, The Hound is turning out wedding bouquets and buttonholes, I am mainly eating gifts of millionaires shortbread from the aforementioned Hambleton Bakery. They wrap things in waxed paper, like off of the olden days.

Have a fabulous weekend, we will be at the Burghley wedding Fayre

We have some Amaryllis in the shop, they are called Ferrari.....I am not sure how they got in.

The Hound scored some Wild Boar trotters at the farmers market, and I think I have had too much coffee.
xoxo

An autumnal day

1. Flowers for a coffee table
2. Hambleton Bakery are now doing soups and sandwiches, I had Pumpkin soup and a roast vegetable and houmous sandwich. Mr Hart himself made my sandwich. Tres bon. I love bread
3. Adding to my collection of Polaroid cameras

Also a couple have just been in clutching a succulent plant from the display outside. "We have a fetish for them" He said with a look that was a bit odd....
Sometimes people shouldn't share.

You've heard of Watergate?

Take one quirky florist, add an eccentric farmer, some locally grown food, pudding served in Bonne Maman jars, Carry On mugs, chocolate mousse a la 1970's, and a cinema in the bottom of the garden.

It's a Boden wearers wet dream.

There is such more to tell you about yesterday, but you would never believe me.

Meanwhile back at the ranch The Hound and Mr Ferrari watched the race, practiced magic tricks, and filled the fridge with even more tempting morsels.

When bad biscuits happen to good people

When you are invited for lunch, the least you can do is knock up a batch of delicious biscuits.
These were not delicious, pink food colouring comes in the same shaped and sized bottle as vanilla extract, I'm just saying in case you hadn't noticed either.....
Not one to be wasteful, rather than starting again, i drizzled them in chocolate and popped them in a Kilner jar.
All they needed was an old luggage tag to label them Halloween cookies.

Gilding the pumpkin

If like me you are not really feeling carved pumpkins this year, why not coat them in gold? Unless you are seriously rich, I would advise gold leaf, and just do a bit of each pumpkin.

The size you use to adhere the leaf smells and not in a pleasant way....don't say i didn't warn you.

Arabian nights

An arrangement of hibiscus, chilli, mint, dahlias, anemones and amaryllis...inspired by last nights supper.

The Hound keen to explore his Arab heritage for his upcoming appearance on BBC's "Who do you think you are?", requested a Bedouin evening. Whilst he got creative with silks and floor cushions, I prepared a feast.
Cous cous spiced with cardamon, cumin, clove, coriander and any other herb beginning with the letter C, finished with spiced aubergines and pomegranate seeds. Honeyed figs, and a happy chicken made accompanying noises. We sipped mint tea and gin, and later, after more gin The Hound performed the dance of the 7 veils.

The recipe for the cous-cous was a hybrid from about 8 books, pouring over cookery books is a great hobby of mine, I have several thousand, and we are currently revisiting Nigella's Feast. I am fascinated by the section on Jewish food. It could be Gefilite fish next week.

There's no business like showbusiness

During the wedding season, our little shop gets taken over by roses, peonies, jam jars and swatches of ivory fabric. Sometimes it can be difficult for people not of a bridal nature to fight their way through the organza, and make a purchase. For this I apologise, and The Hound has spent the last 2 days, putting the shop back together. He has unearthed some beautiful vintage pots, 8 pairs of florist scissors and a gentleman who came in to buy some flowers in March, Seemingly very happy surviving on Caramac bars and reading back copies of Brides magazine. So far the changes have brought about several complaints....the shop is too tidy.

A friend emailed me an article that states Sagittarians are twice as likely to succeed in show business as any other star sign. They cited Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Donny Osmond as examples of Sagittarians doing well.

It seems we are driven, ambitious and broad-minded but at times argumentative and blunt. I plead guilty to argumentative and blunt, and will think about X factor as next year's project.

Politics and royalty

Eventually we will get to the flowers....
The other evening Mr F and I dined with a former Prime Minister, there were quite a few other people there too. I had so-so soup, a trio of indeterminable fish and cheese for those interested in the culinary aspects of this encounter.
The speech was good, a lot of Mr F's views confirmed...he was tickled pink by that, it seems not being Prime Minister makes you a better statesman. The evening was quite splendid, lots of "hear hear" a sprinkling of hypocrisy and I counted 4 men sleeping at the next tables.

With that addressed we can move on to Les fleurs. Regardez if you will the above bouquet, this was a minor Royal wedding in September. What are your thoughts?
Nice? The cream flowers look yellowy making her dress look a bit cheap? A bit of foliage wouldn't go a miss?
Well whatever your thoughts Caroline Marshall-Foster editor of Florist and Wholesale Buyer, thinks this sort of bouquet is what we should all be pushing. Not as she describes a "roundy moundie" of roses hand-tied, which appear to require no skill. Apparently pushing classic shower style bouquets is the way to raise the bar of floristry.

In my humble opinion I think the way to raise the bar in floristry is to ensure the bride has something she wants, that suits the style of her dress, figure, and theme of the wedding. A traditional shower style bouquet might be just the thing for a Royal wedding, where one poses formally in front of one's palace, but as the majority of weddings are less formal and use reportage style photography, I disagree that the wholesale marketing of a "Sophie" bouquet is wise.
Selecting the right flowers and foliage to go into a bridal bouquet is skill enough. We don't all do domes of Aqua roses.

I didn't let it lie.

A strange week

1. Rosa Oleysa, my new favourite thing
2. The shop has been full of white flowers
3. The Hound has slept a lot.

Didn't you used to be Prime minister?
Another round of French Toast?
How is that new hair product working out for you?
Do you sell wire? I need to pick a lock.
FWB editorial, tackle it or just let it lie?

Answers to all of these questions very soon.
Auf weidersehen xoxo

The Burghley Wedding Fayre November 8th 2009

Gosh! can it really be that time of year again? It would appear so.
Do you remember last year? Well apparement this year is bigger and better, there is a Champagne bar.......
You can book tickets online...hooray how modern.
Yours truly will be in The Great Hall, with 1.The Mother Hen and 2.some folded aspidistra leaves and diamante studded roses. One of these statements is untrue....You decide which.
It is sure to be a fabulously inspiring day, you can probably choose a venue, a dress, a horse and carriage and a florist all on the same day.
Here are some top tips from somebody who has been to two wedding fayres in her whole life.
1. You will get a goodie bag for filling with leaflets, so you probably just need to bring a small clutch bag.
2. Wear flat shoes, there will be a lot of things to see, and you might want to stroll around the grounds.
3. Don't come armed with your 6ft foamex mood board, save that for a one on one consultation. Pop a few fabric swatches in your clutch instead.
4. If you are getting married in September....BOOK everything you haven't already at the fayre, it is the most popular month to get married at the moment.
5. Sharpen your elbows, it gets busy.

Anybody who is coming in the hope of getting a glimpse of The Hound or Mr Ferrari will be disappointed, they will mainly be doing boy things that day.
I will have a crisis over what to wear, so if it turns out to be one of my more eclectic looks, just smile. Last year I fashioned a little headpiece out of Grand Prix roses...fancy.

Sweet disposition

1. Gotta love a man that brings you cake on a morning.
2. Inside a tulip.
3. I want a weekend in Paris, another Eiffel Tower print will have to suffice for now.
4. I love, love, love this song serious road trip stuff, a map, a thermos, and the open road.

Pomegranates!

1. A gift of the biggest pomegranate the world has ever seen, direct from Istanbul, recipe ideas anyone?
2. Buckets of Autumn
3. Customers wearing the most peculiar shoes

My life would suck without you

Thumbs Up
Pumpkins and chilli plants, I love the gnarled ones.
Kelly Clarkson
New sandwiches at Marks
Finally measuring The Hound. Nose to tip of tail 1.93m, this is with the tail straight, which never really happens in real life. Foot to shoulder 79cm.
A wedding free weekend, the second this year - what the devil to do?
Visitors to the shop

Thumbs down
Dropping a box of pins 2,500 pins
Another one? Will there be any of us left?
Postal strikes
George Clooney having surgery - we love the distinguished wrinkles or is that just me?

Laters baked potatoes xoxo