What a bitch

If people talk about me they normally say things like

That Miss Pickering is so sweet, such a lovely girl, marvellous manners and she has that beautiful dog.

That's because they don't read my tweets, or look deep enough into my eyes to see the murderous look i sometimes get. I try to keep this side of me hidden, but sometimes even i, sweet Miss P. can just be a plain old bitch.

Like this morning at the vets, i waited 30 minutes for my appointment, and then she told me The Hound was fat. I wasn't pleasant back to her, i was wrong, i have now have to go back and apologise. I hate that.

Then 2 brides emailed me this morning, one was Emily who i know very well, one was somebody i don't. They both got similar emails, that to all intense and purposes said:

I am going to ignore every word you say, because you are now only 3 days away from your wedding, and you are therefore irrational. All brides are. Don't worry about the flowers, let me do that, you should be worrying that you are about to commit yourself to a man for the rest of your life, and be drinking champagne.

Emily totally got it, the other bride, did too. Thank god.

I now need somebody to be a bitch to me, I am stressing that i still have nothing to wear to Emily's wedding, is he coming with me or not? Have you seen the price of flowers this week? The vet practically accused me of neglect, i have eaten many carbs before marbs.

Thankfully The Mother Hen is popping in. I am hoping for a slap, and a pull yourself together.

In other news, i have more medicine bottles, these have coloured liquids in. Let's not go there.

and copper pans, i hung up the rack, we are taking bets on how long before it comes crashing down, and also how much damage it does in the process. Science corner has become domestic science corner.

See Jenny, it's not always rainbows and butterflies here, don't be homesick. x

Summer roasts

During times of summer i.e. the whole of the wedding season, i chose roasting as my preferred method of cooking. You probably choose barbeqeuing, most people do. That's because most people have a barbeque, i don't know why we don't.

Anyhow, i am a big fan of the summer roast, purely because you can leave it be, and go and do something else, and you can roast a meat and eat it for the rest of the week in various guises.

Trout are roasted with chervil and lemon, chickens with lime and basil, peaches with demerara sugar and knobs of butter, and strawberries are turned into crumble.

If you open the cupboard and find no other sugar than light demerara and lavender, don't panic go ahead and use them for a crumble topping. It is a taste sensation, if however you can't be bothered to sieve out the dried flower heads, give your guests the heads up. To the uninitiated the little flecks of lavender can look like bugs. Just saying.

Other top tips:

1.Don't EVER use the word porn in a post title, you leave yourself wide open to perverts.

2.Always watch every Grand Prix, because you never know when you might witness some amazing driving. Mr Button, you have proved yourself.

3. It is good luck if it rains on your wedding day, and super good luck if it rains all day long.

4. Wear waterproof mascara everyday, especially when tired because people send lovely thank you cards and they might make you cry.

5. If you don't put too much topping on your crumble, it is basically just hot fruit, and therefore can be eaten as breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack, supper....

Just follow the light

And don't be afraid of the dark
In the moonlight
You'll dance till you fall
and always be here in my heart

Today is a much better day, all it took was a pot of peroxide, a centre parting, and a lot of kohl, and a man coming into the shop and saying.....

"you have some cool stuff"

and Becca emailing to say pages 22, 122, 123 in Wedding flowers magazine.

and a quick chat with Mr Naylor about a party.

and the lovely Spanish man with the ham on the farmers market.

Brilliant.

Another weekend, another grand prix, some more weddings.

Also i have word that my good intentions of optimising the site for mobile phones was bad. I have unoptimised. There has also been word that big corporate offices are banning blogs, like they do with Facebook and Youtube. This is an outrage, how do we get round it? Does the RSS feed thing get through?

oh and Travis. It's a feel good, road trip kind of song.

Life swap

Today I don't want to be Miss P.

Because that would make me a florist who left her camera on the kitchen table and then made the most amazing arrangement ever.

It would also make me the girl that left the house feeling fashion forward in coral and navy block colour, and then was told by people that i look as though i am going camping/to the beach/too summery.

and also the girl that will punch the next person who uses the word awesome.

So today i am swapping lives. I want to be the girl that owns the perfect cake shop in London.

and the girl that wears perfect summer dresses

This is one of those interactive posts, you can swap your life today too. But with whom?

Food porn

Yesterday. Lunch. Hambleton Hall.

Now you see why I am getting married there.

Like the good blogger I am, I took photos. We had a private table, nobody saw. It's fine.

Today. Customer. Small child.

I don't have children, i don't want them, they scare me, but i have watched supernanny, and i know that if your child was in a flower shop and it was squeezing all the flowers, you should just tell it to stop. Don't reason with it, don't ask it, don't give it a choice. Just no.

Otherwise the owner of said shop will chop your little child's fingers off.

I am one of those women, no matter how many times you tell me

"I was just like that until i got married and being a mother is the most fulfilling thing I have ever done"

I'm not all deep and meaningful like you, I am selfish and shallow.

I can be fulfilled with flowers, the love of a good man, The Hound, gin, Michelin starred restaurants and presents.





I won't really chop their fingers off, I' ll just smile sweetly and think it.

18

To my baby sister

Happy 18th Birthday.

Where did the time go? When did you stop being the little girl with the bob, and the pretty French dresses? and turn into a much taller girl? full of charm, creative and intelligent in equal measures and jolly good company too.

and even though you like mashed potato and parsnips, and have gone against my demands that you study food photography and styling at University...

I love you so much.

xxx

p.s. just because today you become an actual adult, doesn't mean that i will stop being the annoying overbearing older sister, who will BBM you every day whilst you are university to check that you are ok, and are not drinking or talking to boys.

Somewhere over the rainbow

This weekend day off was in technicolour like things off of the 50's. I like things from the 50's.

1. Rummaging in the wardrobe to find an outfit for a wedding. I have *nothing* to wear.
2. Any bowl a £1, sometimes he will let you have them for 50p. Pepper recipes welcome.
3. 2 bowls worth of tomatoes were roasted, i haven't the patience for proper slow roasting, 185 degrees c for 90 minutes, or until you just can't wait any longer. Serve with  feta and a hunk of bread, although we are no carbs before marbs so it's pitta bread here. I know, but in my world......
4. Just because they were lying around, and fit with the theme.

We didn't go to the show, The Hound was under the weather, he has now made a full recovery, whilst our backs were turned he dug over half the garden, and has taken to rising at 5am. Joy.

Did you buy a bowl for a £1?

Tomorrow is my baby sisters 18th birthday. How did that happen? When did she stop being 2?

The book of love is long and boring

No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing
But I love it when you read to me
And you can read me anything

Today's weddings were brought to you by Peter Gabriel and a lot, possibly too much coffee. There was a caffeine crash and burn, it wasn't pleasant.

I don't know what the song means, but i have played it on a loop since i saw that proposal video. You know the one? you don't? Have you been living under a rock? Or just preoccupied with watching the puppies?

I like the song, I love being read to.

That is all.

Except: for the tops of small cakes.

Quelqu'un m'a dit...

.......que tu m'aimais encore. It is a Carla Bruni, curly hair kind of day today.

Some flowers for weddings and other things. The ornamental cherry from the garden of The Stamford Hen, the honeysuckle from the garden of my Grandmother.                                                                        

I tried to use The Hound as a decoy, distract my Grandmother with biscuit eating tricks, whilst i grabbed the kitchen scissors and snipped. Chez Grand-mere is the only place he will eat dry biscuits, she is a vegan, he knows that nothing better is coming.

Turns out The Hound is rubbish at decoy work, and we only managed to slip away with a few strands, but enough for a few vases. He is going to stick to pirating.

Also, if you deliver flowers people will cross streets to say

"You shouldn't have"

"I didn't know you cared"

"For me?"

It is really funny and original.

There is another weekend, what will you do? Will you go to the Rutland Agricultural Show and look at cattle?

There's more....

Must finish reading people's emails. Must not get sidetracked by their engagement stories.

We are also included in the flower advice bit. Florists like me, and Javier, and some other people who i don't know, but i do know their work (it is good) are sharing advice on where to spend your floral budget. There are some really good tips. Well done to Julia Scirrotto, who took my waffle and made me sound like i know what i am talking about.

Also there is a column called My World, which asks dress designers about their inspiration. It is Stephanie Allin, she of the whippet ad campaign. Her answers were very sophisticated, she doesn't mention tomatoes once.

Go and buy a copy now, for the advice, and the whippets.

also this is what The Hound looks like when he is sulking.

In the press

This morning i received an email from Becca our head of press to say "you are in You and Your Wedding"

She gave page numbers and everything. I emailed back to ask what the devil i was going to do after she were married and stopped reading the magazines.

"Don't worry" she said, "afterwards I will become a wedding blogger. Isn't that what all brides do nowadays?"

This is why i am doing her wedding.

The Hound has had his nose put out of joint a little, on the opposite page to our flowers, were whippets. 5 of them, all tied up with ribbon. Looking very very cute.

He is sulking.

I have found my wedding inspiration.

Garden roses

I don't really know anything about garden roses, not the proper ones anyway, and by proper i mean ones growing in a garden not the ones sold to florists as "garden" roses.

Show me any commercial rose, and i could probably name it, ask for the name of a pink rose and i could give you about 87, but don't ask me to name the rose growing over the doorway of your thatched cottage.

I have no idea what this rose growing in the garden is, a climber, single flowering, little scent, but captivating none the less.

I am hoping to use it in one of this weekends weddings, red and berries.

Already freaking out it is going to look Christmassy.

I am on the iced coffee again, this one has crushed coffee beans in it.

Also are you loving the use of the back of an old picture as a backdrop? I watched this video last night, and got all inspired. I might even start using my tripod.

In other news, I am still searching for a dress like this, and loving my hairdresser, who made my hair look just like that.