I'll take 2 dozen

I have to credit Dear Leen of The Flower Boutique for providing the material for this post.
FYI.....She doesn't sell them in her shop.

Who knew you could get printed roses? These certainly give Aqua a run for their money.

Fuzzy felt

Yesterday I spent the late afternoon playing fuzzy felt. Do you remember it from back in the day? The iconic shapes, jumping dog, girl with ponytail etc? Did you know it was conceived in the Second World War by a lady who cut gaskets for tanks in a shed? Well you do know, file it away for the next game of Trivial Pursuits or the pub quiz.
I was joined in this session of fuzzy felting by The Very Polite Young Boy
It soon became evident that i was far more interested in creating pictures out of felt offcuts than he was, there was something rather wonderful about just creating. No need to worry about shelf life, whether it was commercially viable, or rude customers....I have had a right chestnut today.

Next week? pictures from macaroni.

In honour of all things fuzzy, i have discovered the glow function on Picasa. Hi-tech stuff.

Margaret?

I have an awkward customer, I say customer but actually they have never bought anything. They come in once every few months, and ask for for something I don't have. I think it is a game, or the reenactment of the Margaret and Roy Sketches from Little Britain.

The general public, gotta love 'em

Baby it's cold outside

1. Even I have given up the flip-flops. Ballet pumps and fishnet stockings are the order of the day. This is the first official "foot" shot, we can now pronounce ourselves a proper blog.
2. Todays bouquets are being warmed up with orange chilli peppers and crocosmia.
3. Penhaligon's Love Potion is my winter signature scent.
4. Leonidas rose love it or hate it...I can't decide.It should be perfect for this time of year, but there is something about it that is a bit contrived, is it too perfect?

Last night with the fire on, we feasted on cheese and butter with truffles in it. I LOVE truffles, the earthy, musky taste is like nothing else.
Whilst I tried desperately to concentrate on newsnight, The Hound and Mr Ferrari practiced their magic tricks. It seems they are planning a career change, The Hound already a member of the magic circle, has recruited Mr F as his glamorous assistant......you can expect a UK tour of village halls to be announced very soon.

Other topics of conversation have been, Come Dine with Me, it seems the whole of Stamford are into competitive dining, Mandelson for leader? should the big table go back where it was? What is the weather like in Istanbul? Which image to use for the advert?

Anemones and sloe gin

No rest for the wicked, a 90th birthday party at Burghley House, lots of anemones.
The Hound tired from a day of frolicking in autumnal leaves.
A sloe gin update, it is now the colour of Benylin, The Aristocrat is adamant it is ready.....

Rosehips and dahlias

An autumnal wedding at The George.

The bright red was in honour of Manchester United - apparently this is football team.

It was also in honour of the FOB's love for Ferrari, I slipped a picture of the World Champion in his flowers.

National Wedding Show

Ballet pumps on? Bridal folder under arm? Why then you must be heading to the NEC to the National Wedding Show. Be sure to stop by stand B12 and visit Emily Quinton, wedding photographer extraordinaire. One of those field pictures is of Hayley and Tim, and where the devil did she get those flowers?...xxx

What would my mama do, if she knew about me and you

This weeks wedding is sponsored by Pixie Lott, and The Mother Hen is here.
The shop is bustling, friends visiting from London, and The Hound has his Pig's ears from the farmers market. Yesterday's cows ear remains untouched, this new low fat snack has not met with his approval.

Topics of conversations have included, dahlias to lift or not to lift? Quince jelly, will Massa return for the last race? (I think not, and probably never again) and that rumour........

We had a venison burger for breakfast.
xoxo

Now the party's over

So far this morning we have
Listened to Roxy Music....Avalon
Voted for a double breasted tux
Eaten a cheese and red onion toastie loving made by Sue at the Hair House.
Made up some bouquets.
Solved the mystery of the missing mixing bowl - were you wondering?
Had a visit from Monsieur Le Grump.
Discovered that conker championships are merely a smokescreen for real ale drinking and pipe smoking. The Hound rolled in at 3a.m.

Has your morning been equally as exciting?

Blue spruce and mixing bowls

This is the single worst quality picture ever posted. A Blackberry is no 40D, but it was all i had at the time.
Yesterday the air was filled the scent of blue spruce and holly, not than holly is scented. To most this is evocative of mince pies, presents, carol singing, to a florist it is evocative of 24 hour days, the flu and layers upon layers of clothing.
It was all in aid of a magazine photo shoot, 4 things to do in the home for Christmas. I fear the picture of me will be horrendous, I have a tendency to grimace at a camera, I just don't have the confidence to look cool, sophisticated or knowledgeable. I did manage to get a manicure, bright red nails, that is sure to set the cat amongst the pigeons.

There is a strange wind blowing again, the furniture in the shop has moved around and the new window is somewhat minimal.

The Hound and The Aristocrat have gone out for the day.........to a conker championship.

Por una cabeza

I love this colourway, warm ivory, browns, and dare I say it......peach. Today's bridal bouquet, a warm ivory and gold dress and boys in uniform.

It has been a busy day in town, Stamford School Open day has meant an influx of Range Rovers and Bentley Continentals. There is a distinct unwritten dress code for this sort of thing. Boys MUST be in something a la Jack Wills, fathers in jeans and jacket, pinstriped or tweed depending on age and how old the money is.
For the mothers/wives there are 3 distinct categories, depending on which wife you are.
First Wives club - tweed, sensible shoes, Labrador hairs.
The "difficult" second wife - designer all the way, probably Armani, sunglasses a must, the botox needs topping up.
The Third "Daddy please let it be the last" wife - DVF wrap dress, eyebrow raising heels and a smile, these ladies are pre-botox, smiling is still possible.

Now if you will excuse me, I feel a tango coming on.

xoxo

You're gonna make me, make me love you take 2

We are all Girls Aloud here, this post also seems to have posted itself without the words, so apologises if you get it twice in your RSS feed - i don't actually know how that works.

We are currently loving things in vintage pots.
Receiving gifts of home grown dahlias from fabulous customers.
Feeling cold, time for stockings and a goodbye to the flip flops.
Still thinking about how delicious Cromer Crab is.
Planing a weekend of scrumping the Mother Hen's garden for holly berries and ivy, for Tuesday's photo shoot.....might also need to dust away a few cobwebs.
The Hound has a spring in his step, which makes for a nice change.


Next week we have a guest blogger...Mr Ferrari, can you contain your excitement?
He might tell you how to make the perfect chicken stock, or he may tell tales of the bygone days of the London Underground.....life is never dull.

Amnesia rose

An appeal to all florists and brides, please can we calm down on the Amnesia usage?

It is such a beautiful rose, that when I first encountered it a few years, I thought i would never be able to love anything else again. Now my love for them is fast dwindling, they are everywhere, in every bridal magazine, every "stylist" is using them, and I fear they are losing their cache.

Shall we make a pact? Let's give them a rest for a while, and use something else. Perhaps Cherry Brandy could be the next big thing?

If you simply must use them, here are the answers to the FAQ's in my inbox.

Bride: My florist can't get them, where do you get them from?
Miss P. They are available through any decent wholesaler, if your florist can't get them, change florist. Harsh, but any florist is only as good as their suppliers....

Bride:I would love to grow them in my garden, do you sell plants?
Miss P. No it is not a rose available as a rooted plant. Try Intermezzo from Beale's roses.

Florist: How dare you suggest I shouldn't use them, who do you think you are?
Miss P. Calm down dear it's only a commercial.

The Hound: Please can we go home now?
Miss P. Not yet

Reader: Is it annoying that your computer crashed 17 times whilst trying to write this post?
Miss P. Yes

Reader: It has been a strange week on this blog, when will you get back to posting twee pictures?
Miss P. Tomorrow

Reader: What does an Amnesia rose look like?
Miss P. It is the one on the far left, I used these images, as I still can't get over the fact that I took them and they are completely unedited.

Nobody does it better

I have acquired the recipe.

Mr Ferrari's mystical green elixir
or Watercress sauce is the new ketchup.

You will need
3 cloves of garlic
200g watercress
40g Tarragon
300g Mayonnaise
2 Tbsp lemon juice
200g melted unsalted butter

Blitz greenery and garlic, add lemon juice and mayonnaise, pour in melted butter.
Serve with poached salmon, roast chicken, chips, or just dunk a piece of bread in it.

How'd you learn to do the things you do?

Girl meets boy

Who doesn't love a film, where the heroine/ hero is a florist?

Will Jennifer Aniston be convincing as a floral goddess? I for one will be growing my hair and wearing woolly hats with sparkly scarves this winter....watch the trailer.

Is Bed of Roses still your "favourite use of florist in a rom-com" ? I have this film on VHS, I have no VHS player.

Have you ever been tempted to run off with the groom or bride?

Do you know of any other films featuring florists? Did you run off with the girl making your buttonhole? Did you ever send flowers to someone just to make them smile? Could we make a Jeremy Kyle* show out of this?

*Mr Kyle is the British Jerry Springer.

Vintage packaging

We are finally getting around to finalising text and photos for a new website....please take note Mrs P...x

I have been looking at at old packaging as inspiration. The gummed labels were 10p in a charity shop, the tin of drawing pins was full, bonus.

In particular I love the fonts, a font is a very important thing, sometimes it is more influential than the words. The Hound refuses to shop in some stores because of their logo, but then he is prone to moments of pretentiousness, and is being particularly awkward this morning.

A great blog for fellow font fanciers.

Other things we are organising include Christmas.......we have a magazine photo shoot next week, all blue spruce and hyacinth bulbs, and I might yet get around to using those road maps.

Wedding bells (again because blogger seemed to have lost the photos)

My name is Miss Pickering and I cry at weddings. In my line of work this equates to a lot of tears. I think it is a culmination of factors,
1.I generally get quite attached to my brides.
2.Weddings involve a lot of late nights and early mornings.
3.Being a part of what people will later describe as "The best day of my life" can be a bit stressful 4.I quite often bang my knee, stub my toe, or burn my finger on the glue gun in pursuit of floral excellence.
5.I am a sentimental old fool

6 poached salmon

There was a party. The salmon were poached, the chicken Elizabethed and a rabbit went in the pot.
A beautiful girl in an ivory dress, a boy with a suitcase and a man with an amazing sleight of hand. Not to be outdone The Hound took a turn of the room and wowed the crowds. Of course there were flowers, roses and mint, hydrangea and dahlias, and some cheese and chutney, and a green elixir of which I shall bring you the recipe, should Mr Ferrari oblige...

Three counties were offered up as God's own, plans were made, and those shoes had an outing.

Later we all took time out to remember Frank and Ruby.

Will you forgive me an indulgent post?, littered with private jokes known only to a select few. Perhaps if I list the flowers used in the tablecentres? Would that help?

Roses: Sweet Avalanche, Chaim soutaine, Rannucular, Milca sensation, Magic pepita and Black Baccara. Hydrangea, dahlia, viburnum tinus berries, copper beech, rosemary, mint,oak, lisianthus, cotinus, nerine and eucalyptus.

Parce que vous le valez bien

Spiced peach chutney

The Hound and Mr Ferrari have been spicing peaches.

Bravo!

I am addicted to this song. I am not sure what this says about me as a person. Flo Rida and a X factor winner? Really?

Where are you weekending? Be good, but if you can't....don't get caught.

xoxo

A kiss to build a dream on

I am not feeling very wordy this week, do you ever get weeks like that?

She's in fashion

Like skirt lengths and heel heights, flowers and plants go in and out of fashion. Every florist has their default cream rose, favourite white lily, basic foliage, sometimes there is a rose you want to put with everything and you overdose on it. Enter Chaim Soutaine - the striped one, 4 years ago it was difficult to walk the mean streets of W11 without seeing buckets of these, then we all got bored of them, I am having a renaissance. Other flowers we get fed up with for different reasons, inconsistency, discrepancy in colour, I am of course talking of Illusion.
Then there are the fads, which hopefully you didn't all embrace, the black Christmas tree, those Harlequin roses - rainbow striped....nice!
I am not a dedicated follower of fashion, I prefer to do my own thing.

"But" I hear those supermarket developers cry
"we need to know what the next big thing is"
Purples? Taupe? Who knows?, although if you do know could you let me know? I have to sound very intelligent and informed when I speak to a glossy magazine in the morning.

Dog days, sunny lunches, and gourmet evenings

Over Sunday's breakfast we suggested to The Hound that he might like a trip to Rutland Dog Day. He popped his head over the top of The Telegraph, took a sip of his macchiato and gave us a look that suggested he would not.
He was dragged there anywhere, he recoiled at the dancing dog group, ate a few treats and humoured a child by playing with a stick.

Later that day I joined the lovely Kelly for lunch, glorious sunshine, delicious roast beef and talk of baby names, cakes, books, old school friends, and recipes.

To round off the weekend, a party at the Tobie Norris, a thank you to their regular customers, the wine flowed and the food....the food was divine. Morsels of hot salmon and roast haddock, mini pizzas, hamburgers with Stilton and black pudding, and chocolate brownies. Thank you so much for thanking us.

Question. How do you spot a blogger?

Answer. They are the ones photographing rather than eating their food.

Chicken a la Miss P
1. Perform tomato harvest.
2. Brown off chicken legs.
3. Chop dried up head of fennel and the last red onion - it might be best to just use half an onion, but do you ever use up the second half?, or does it just sit in the fridge wrapped in cling film?, might as well use it all.
4. Return chicken to pan, pour over white wine that was probably opened too long ago, add handfuls of herbs from the garden.
5. Cook on the hob for a bit, add a tin of rinsed cannellini beans, and the halved tomatoes until warmed through.
6. Arrange in fancy white soup bowl, but draw the line at wiping the bowl clean of juice drops - that is far too pretentious.

Aren't Mondays meat free? Is this turning into one of those "lifestyle" blogs? Is it black or grey bins tomorrow?