A Festival of Flowers

Salisbury Cathedral is bursting with blooms.

It is the weekend of the flower festival.

I wander around with my friends, Fiona and Sonya trying to take it all in.

There are a huge number of arrangements to fill the vast and majestic space.

They range from the bizarre to the beautiful -

I had no idea you could do such things with flowers!

I skip the more bizarre and decide to photograph those that I think look more natural or have (to my mind) a good combination of colours.

As we round the corner a pianist is sat amongst the flowers playing 'an English country garden'.

And my favourite?

Well, there are two arrangements that I particularly like.

It may be because they are beautiful and well balanced ...

or it may have a little to do with the fact they were made by my florist friend Jennifer!

One last walk to the back of the cathedral

I find some glorious hoops of roses and hydrangeas

plus a wicker wheel of gloriosa lilies.

Then off to phone Jennifer to tell her, hers were the best!

How much can you get in a Mini?

A lot!

It is 7am and my friend Fiona and I (and Mini) are in the Tower of London. We are holding an event here this evening for the children's charity, Hope & Homes for Children. I have the job of organising the event - and so of course also volunteer to do the flowers.

By 8am we have the boxes unloaded and are having breakfast (including a glass of fizz ...well why not enjoy yourself) sat in front of the famous White Tower. It is a real treat to be here when there are no visitors and to have passes that mean we can wander around all day.

To start with there is not much wandering, just a lot of arranging. To the scabious, delphinium and campanula we are going to add lisianthus, spray roses and lavender.

Then it is quick look around and into our heels and dresses and the evening is about to start.

Cinderella

I may not have received my £10,000 ticket to the ARK Gala Dinner - which was William & Kate's first official engagement since they married - but my friend Fiona did. However she didn't forget me (sat at home by the hearth) but got her phone out and took some photos of the flowers for me. Fiona was there representing Hope & Homes for Children, one of the children's charities that ARK's fundraising helps (Over £17m this year ...I hear the raffle tickets were £5,000 each. Not a night to say 'Oh I'll have a strip').

Arriving early she was the first onto the purple carpet and the bank of photographers called out could they take her picture. She smiled and shouted back 'Yes, but I'm not famous you know'. To which they replied 'We know dear, we just want some test shots'!

As it was Fiona made friends with the photographers, in particular the Sun's royal photographer who was one of the few people who got a shot of Colin Firth. He got the call on his phone to say he was arriving and told Fiona to stick with him. She tells me she was so excited she just started running, until he called her back to say 'You don't even know which way we are going yet!' Sadly when she got to see him (he looks even better in the flesh apparently) she was shaking so much she couldn't get her phone out!

So the flowers? Banks of glorious delphiniums and bowls bursting with peonies and roses.