In the shop

The flowers have changed.

It is late Spring early summer now.

The hyacinths and bulbs seem out of place, only a few varieties of tulips remain, the parrots though, the best ones, and suddenly everything is taller, and i need new vases . I always need new vases.

At the weekend The Americans came, and Lotte came down from Glasgow and we talked of flowers, and ate asparagus pizza. It was all rather wonderful.

and now The Hound, i have photographed him, so that you can see he is absolutely fine, but the little darling has developed an auto-immune disorder Symmetrical Lupoid Onchodystrophy if you would like the fancy name. I know quite a few of you are hound people, and just wondered if any of you have  any experience in this matter? I have been on all the forums, but would love some more first hand experiences.

Murky buckets.

Garden bounty

Last night there was a charity flower school in aid of Marie Curie.

It was a riot.

Similar to one we did in the autumn, bring scissors and garden foliage, and there would be flowers and cheese and wine for you.

People came armed with all manner of bounty from their gardens it was heaven. This land is indeed so very green and pleasant.

It never ceases amaze me, how even with access to the same flowers and foliage, everybody left with an arrangement that was entirely different to anybody else's.

Thank you to everybody that came, and to the committee who work so very hard behind the scenes.

I wish we could have filmed it, the perfect slice of middle England, they had me in stitches.

This morning there was an earthquake in Rutland.

Rutland has been on the news.

and then a very lovely lady came in to chat about British flowers, i didn't hold back on my opinions.

nor did I to the waste people, Shanks has been taken over by Biffa, we used to speak to a nice lady at the depot up the road, but now you have to call a centre in Bucks. It took 15 minutes to get through to a lady who didn't know where i was or very much care, or understand that Trevor the driver is the man that holds Stamford together.

Is this progress? I asked her

Have a nice day she replied.

Waste disposal is the very unsexy side of floristry, i could talk about it for a very long time, nearly as long as i can about f*****g cornflowers.

Back on the chain gang

A beautiful Spring wedding.

Rankels, roses, tulips, lilac, jasmine and what have you for M & J.

Stubton Hall was the venue, if you want a venue sans swirly carpets and heavy brocade chairs,  and avec chandeliers and nice pots, this is for you.

Fresh flower cake toppers are so much prettier than sugar ones.

but i have jumped on the Sarah Wilson band wagon so sugar is now a banned substance.

The Pretenders obvs

I know you have a little life in you yet

I know you have a lot of strength left.

My grandmother is very poorly, things as a consequence have been a bit shit.

I'm so proud of Ma Hen, who has moved mountains. We have joked that there is a photo of her in all consultants' offices and written above it "Do whatever she wants doing, she won't let up"

I have done the usual Miss P. thing of shutting out all the people, because they have an annoying habit of saying things like "she's had a good innings" or recounting tales of what they believe to be similar experiences as a way of showing empathy. Equally annoying. I know I'm a bitch, people are trying to be nice.

Once you have shut out all the people, the only thing left is work. I have thrown myself whole heartedly into flowers, weddings, searching for the perfect vessels. Finding a new variety of rose, or the perfect shaped vase in which to show it off. I'm like an addict, wide eyed, scouring.

I shall bring you images of new vessels another time, but for now i bring you yarn.

A furniture shop was getting rid of lots of yarn, so i bought the lot and filled them with ranunculus. The shop window is uncharacteristically minimal. Customers are unsure about it, i can sense they feel uncomfortable, wondering if when they come in next time it will be to an entirely zen space.

and quite a lot of people have come in asking if i have wool suitable for making cardigans.

Kate Bush

In other news

Baby George is such a dude
New blogging schedule = 2 posts a week Tuesdays and Thursday
I haven't eaten any sugar
I have put the shop heater away and bought cosmos plants, so if the temperature plummets, you can blame me.
Might start selling wool