Mr Bombastic

I have been singing Mr Bombastic all morning, the one by Shaggy. The pink roses are called Bombastic. I'm not crazy.

It turns out the song is Mr Boombastic. Which makes more sense.

The Stamford Hen bought Bantam eggs, the colours are beautiful.

Ham from the Spanish man.

and enamel bowls await being planted up with something or other, white cyclamen?

This weekend brings eternal sunshine and barbecues and swimming.

and then can it go back to Autumn please? I have ornamental brassicas i need to shift.

Merci beaucoup.

Today

we are straddling seasons.

This heatwave has got to people, it's all strappy tops and requests for peonies.

I am wanting to put the Halloween window in, but it seems highly inappropriate given the temperature and burning sunshine.

It's a Hitchcock theme this year.

A high five to anyone that guesses which film.

Think of a number

Do you remember Johnny Ball?


I do. With great affection. I was a complete number nerd. I loved maths.

I have broken out the wheelie bin numbers again. Do you remeber we used them here and here?

Use them to number your reception tables or for presenting gifts in jars to small children. They love things with their age on. I don't.

I have also thrown in the enamel ones as well. They are for sale in the shop. £8 each. Bargain. But i don't have all the numbers.

Everything in the shop is for sale with the exception of The Hound...and myself.

Darling you thrill me

Honest you do
Honest you do

an Otis Redding sort of a day.

Do you do orchids? I think you are either an orchid person or not an orchid person.

I'm not.

but i like the roots.

It's a lot like when you go to a museum and there is a car or a clock sliced in half so you can see how it works.

I prefer museums to orchids. I love a good museum.
Also, any bowl for a pound specials today, romanesco, and figs.

How i take pictures for the blog.

I get a lot of emails that tell me i have won some money or offering me penile enlargements but i also get some that say.......
"Your camera takes really lovely pictures, which one do you use?"

I am not a photographer, and i don't really know what i'm talking about, but if you're asking....

I started with a Canon film SLR, and then went to a digital Canon 350D so that i could use the same lenses.

Then i was given the Canon 40D, a much bigger and heavier camera, with capacities way beyond me, but i love it, and always have it on me.  Always on auto focus and always on AV priority. I still feel a bit of twit taking photographs in public.

It came with a 17-85mm lens used to take picture 3, and then i bought a 50mm f1.8. used to take picture 4.

Most of the photographs for the blog are taken in the shop window. I like the natural light and the dark grey background. It helps that i mainly photograph flowers, food and The Hound. It is difficult to take a bad picture of pretty things. A hit and miss process, I generally take 3 hurried photos for every one that you see here, and then forget to delete the bad ones from my hard drive and wonder why my laptop is so slow. The best ones are generally when the light is right.

I don't use any editing software. I don't understand how it works, and it takes time which i don't have and i am an idiot with software.

I upload the images using Picasa because it has a big "Blog this" button. Select the images, press the button et voila.

The best tip is to befriend the pro's and learn via osmosis.

Do you blog? how do you take pictures? Do you have a favourite lens? Do you have a good camera bag? Do you have any top tips for us all?

I wouldn't say i was a planner

I would say I was, um, a kind of "fly by the seat of my pants" gal. You know, moment to moment. ...

Name that film.

and so there wasn't really a plan for the shop. It just seemed like a good week to close. All i knew was that the floor had to be scrubbed and the beams painted, and that i needed more drawers. I had visions of of late starts and long lunches and no flowers. Foolish foolish girl. It was all late nights, no lunches and emergency wedding flowers.

It started with a chest of drawers and a dressing table and a step ladder bought at auction with The Mother Hen. If you see her at an auction, do not bid against her, there is nobody more competitive, you will not win.

and so i enlisted the services of architect Angela, i know, she really is a proper one, and Calum. Whilst they scrubbed the floors and painted the beams i made coffee and lit scented candles.

and then we found the table football, and that was that, the filing cabinet followed, and the tile topped tables, and the enamel numbers and more science bottles.

The geography maps were a stroke of genius, I don't know where she found them, but they are amazing, printed on fabric and dating from 1952.

The shop feels so very very different, spacious, lighter, and with a whopping great big table football in the middle of it. The flowers aren't all on one table, they dotted all over the shop. Literally.  Most of all it is fun. As one man said "so many shops are a bit up themselves" I am inclined to agree, and  i am bored of seeing  florists with welsh dressers and vintage tea cups.............

Next week it will be closer to being finished, a few more details to add and a bit more stuff to be made. I'll take better pictures.

For now i have a match to referee. It gives the men something  to do other than trying to look down my top. Simples.

Do pop over to Angela's blog. She has some cool stuff for sale.

Tattoos and solar systems

and the odd flower.

There is much activity on the street, new shops opening. Clothes shops mainly.

This has made us ponder our winter wardrobe, The Hound has informed me colour blocking is still big news for Autumn Winter. I am determined to go through another winter without wearing a gilet or a fleece.

and has anybody seen any good winter shoes, perhaps with a modicum of practicality?

Don't worry i am planning on balancing out the practicality with fishnet stockings.