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.

Missing Chelsea

I am in London. Down the road Chelsea Flower Show is in full bloom, but sadly I don't have tickets for Chelsea this year.

Of course, I could have done something about this, but with one thing and another I never got around to it.

So knowing I need a very English flower fix to cheer me up I head to Piccadilly and Fortnum & Mason.

Tucked in the basement is a secret garden made up of vases of peonies, lilac, snapdragons, rosemary and sweetpeas.

Displayed in English pottery jugs, and the distinctive Fortnum's blue bag, there are posies of lisianthus, astilbe, alstromeria and freesias.

I feel better already.

Welcome to Wyken Hall Garden

Now that is what I call a welcome.

I once read that the more beautiful and intricate the birdsong, the plainer and dowdier the bird. Hence the disappointingly brown and boring nightingale that sang in Berkeley Square (although someone did tell me that the nightingale referred to in the song was actually a local prostitute) But I am getting side-tracked. It seems the birdsong, plumage equation works the other way around too. So whilst the peacock that welcomed us to Wyken Hall Garden was majestic in his iridescent loveliness, his song (morning, noon and night) might lead you to wonder what peacock pie tastes like.

Somehow I cannot imagine the cafe and restaurant serving this amongst their menu of tempting light lunches ...but you never know.

I have been brought to Wyken Hall Garden in Suffolk by my friend Liz, who knows how much I like beautiful gardens. She also had a pretty good idea I would fall in love with the shop, that fills the 400 year old barn next to the garden with lovely things that any sane woman would want to take home with her. You get the idea this has been brought together by someone with great taste - and a good sense of humour. I particularly like their sign by the till for customers which reads "Unattended children will be fed a double espresso and given a free puppy".

The garden and associated businesses (farm, vineyard, cafe, shop) are the life work of the Carlisle family who have lived here since the 1950s.

When Carla married Kenneth Carlisle in the 1980s she brought an additional dimension to the gardens with her strong sense of colour and design. She also brought her rocking chairs from her home in Mississippi.

The gardens wrap themselves around the Elizabethan farmhouse in a number of 'rooms'. Those closer to the house are more intimate and slightly formal. These then radiate out into looser wilder gardens that blend naturally into the surrounding farmland.

Everywhere you look you spot places that look perfect for sitting with a book and a glass of wine, and it is not long before Liz and I are imagining what it would be like to live here.

I think that is the joy of this type of garden - it is homely and welcoming rather than stately and impressive.

Visitors can spend a relaxing hour of so wandering around in a happy daydream imagining that they do in fact live here (without having to worry about the upkeep) - and yes, a party under the apple trees would be a great place for a long Sunday lunch ...

There is a great sense of family that permeates the gardens - and it seems this extends to the family pets too.

In this case I don't think you wouldn't actually mind saying 'I'm in the dog house'!

Well loved cats and dogs have their own quiet burial spot, so these family members remain an intrinsic part of the landscape.

One last turn around the garden and we must head home, but I am very grateful for Liz for bringing me here. She was quite right, I do love it.

www.wykenvineyards.co.uk

A Bird in the Hand

As I approach Kate's shop I am greeted with; "No! Not in here!" It takes me a while to realise she is not talking to me but a visiting pigeon.

It doesn't take Kate long to capture her unwelcome guest. That's a farmer's daughter for you.

I am running a workshop in the room above Kate's shop, but first I have to have a good look around to see what she has in that is new.

I always know I am going to get a revitalizing blast of colour when I come to visit Rustic Rose, and today is no exception.

Kate is clearly getting ready for the wedding season and in the window, tiered on vintage teacups, is a cake made by Kate's aunt.

Outside there are pots of sunflowers and daisies

and bundles of glorious lupins.

Today we are going to be using pastel coloured campanula, roses and hypericum to make a wreath of flowers around a hurricane lamp.

It seems all my flower workshop ladies are keen gardeners and as we work we swap stories of different foliage and flowers that can be used in arrangements at different times of year.

All of us are fascinated to hear about one lady's plans to move to Australia later this summer - it seems she already has her eye on a flower shop she would like to buy.

It makes my plans for the summer seem rather tame!