On the workbench

Next week is the The Floral Coalition flower school.

Lotte and I spoke this morning early, to discuss the flowers we are going to procure. At first glance our work is quite similar, but when you actually look at it, very different.

I am fascinated by this, and can't wait to see the differences in how and what we make.

Sort of like being a spy on the wall in somebody elses' workroom.

Isn't that what all florists would wish for given the chance?

Apart from world peace obvs.

Things you are going to need if you want to be a florist

Part 1 of an occasional series

This is the single most useful thing i own. It's a 4 pint plastic jug.

Large enough to part fill most vases, small enough to fit under most taps.

Even the one in that village church where the sink is really small and you have to get the key from the old trout sweet lady in the cottage opposite who will make you jump through hoops and never be in when she says she will, because the bride chose you to do the church flowers and not the church flower ladies.

Don't you forget about me

There is a bit missing, the bit where i forgot the rhubarb was in the oven, and burnt it.

Not fully burnt just heavily caramelised the edges, but enough to rifle through the cupboards in search of a tin of fruit to add to the spoonful of rhubarb left.

No tins of fruit, no jars of weird peaches in honey.

but i did find a jar of stem ginger in syrup which added the necessary hydration, and sweetness.

and a tin of cardamon flavoured evaporated milk which the sell by date said 2006, but it was fine.

The crumble topping was a paleo inspired, ground almond, and coconut oil with the last of a packet of walnuts.

Overall it was a crumble with eastern promise, which exactly what i had planned......

Winging it at the very last minute,

I think this is why so many florists seem to be good cooks.

Simple Minds

The floral calendar

according to the instagram goes something like this

Tulips!
Rankels!
Magnolia!
Blossom!
Peonies!
All the things in my garden!!!!
Look at the size of my cafe au lait dahlias!
Christmas wreaths!

In this country we are currently somewhere between the blossom and the peonies.

I have peonies here, they came in this morning, like an old lover, bold as brass, expecting you to be as in love with them now as you were then.

I am still at the sneering stage, remembering the bad times.

Resisting.

Lately

and in the order that blogger deemed appropriate

wedding flowers

chandelier fetish

blossom obvs.

new/ old vases for weddings.

There hasn't been a food post for ages, i seem to be eating the same thing over and over again.

Are there any good food blogs to inspire?

#iphoneonly

My CF card reader has been on the blink all week.

So pictures from my iPhone.

Flowers and dogs mainly.

I am such a cliche.

Also not to self, if you take a picture with said iphone, it will magically appear on all your devices in with all your other pictures you show to brides.

Awkward.

Take me outside

sit in the green garden

and The Mother Hen and I did just that.

Is there anything better than an open garden? The promise of tea and cake, a plant stall, and a snoop around somebody else's garden. It is a truly wonderful thing. The oooo's and aaaaah's at floral splendour and perhaps the chance to see what wallpaper they have in their drawing room.

Like true English roses, we wandered the gardens and sat and took tea and cake outside on the windswept terrace. Chatting with others and saying how nice it was to be outside, whilst secretly wishing we had worn more layers.

Then on to the Herb Nursery, where i encouraged Mama to buy all the varieties of hellebores ever, and herbage, so that i can snip at them next year. If you are in the vicinity, a visit to the herb nursery is a must. It is a delight. Lovely people, and plants.

This weekend there is a bank holiday and it is Hambleton Open Gardens. They had me at the word Tombola.

Lately

Still having a dalliance with yellow, to the delight of most but the chagrin of others.

and lily of the valley which delights everybody. Ever.

How can such a little flower be so captivating? Is it nostalgia? A reminder of our grandmothers?

and we need a new blog header, i for one am sick of the sight of this one, do you have a preference for the next? Something softer, if i'm going to have to stand on a chair again, might as well get it right.

for people who like the weddings, did you see this in The Telegraph? Constance dipping flowers in whitewash, she was the Bornay of her day.

and i can't stop watching this, one because i want one, but also just because i love a behind the scenes video and Diane Kruger's hair.

oh, my life is changing everyday

in every possible way

Filling hexagonal vases at the weekend, reminded me of chemistry lectures at university.

I loved chemical equations.

Life changes, do you ever think what if i had stayed in science/ taken that job with Ferrari/ married him?

Not in a maudlin way, just in a sliding doors sort of way.

Also The Cranberries

thinking about thinking of you

summertime think it was June.

furniture is being jiggled.

windows cleaned

There is natural light

and the heater has been resigned to the storage, so if the temperature plummets tomorrow it will be my fault.

also does anybody use Blogstomp? I have the trial and seems good for the resizing of images for blog and website. Is it good?

Blogger is having a fit mixing up all the images and its driving me crazy. Also the answer to this is not Wordpress.

and so many people have asked me what was Mrs Thatcher's funeral tribute. From the images I would say, Duchess de Nemours peonies, avalanche? rose sweet peas, phlox, and white forget-me-not.

I don't know who did them. Do you?

Also Dakota

Goldilocks and the three yellow roses

An ill fated quest to find the "perfect" yellow rose.

Ill fated because the "perfect" anything doesn't exist in the flora world. Perfect for that moment exists, and then you order the same flower in the following week and it has decided it might develop a deeper colour that week, just because it fancied being a bit different, a bit like me always wanting to dye my hair auburn.

So instead you have to make the perfect palette using a plethora of shades and tones and shapes. You don't have to do that, you could just bang out rose domes of all the same thing and it would take a third of the time, and you would probably make 3 times as much money.

My brain wants to put ALL the shades in.

I'm trying 3 out today.

Top Design - one of those roses is actually perfect, but there are 39 others that aren't. Annoying.
Caramel Antique - can do no wrong in my book, but only looks yellow if petalled, by the time it opens it has faded to champagne.
Shine - what sort of a name is that for a rose?, a spray, as yellow as they come, no tone just absolute yellow.

Mixing them all together is more pleasing but i think you need at least 3 other shades in there to make it work, and in different light they all look peach.

Yellow roses are a lot like men.

The search continues.