There have been times....

 over the last month when we thought that we would never see a flower in the garden this year......

but look!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

after a cold and very shaky start we have got flowers.......not many....yet.... but its a start and boy are we proud...the first few are trialing in our homes to check on vase life.....so maybe in a week we can sell some to you!!
We have larkspur in the most lush colours.....scented stocks and cornflowers...the sweet peas are nearly there...sorry...but excited just doesn't come close!!
We are already planning for next year with the first of our seeds arriving in the post this morning...foxgloves...hollyhocks.......aquilegia.......to name just a few.....
the list of work to do gets longer daily but picking that first stock and smelling the scent  this evening was just heaven.
Hope you all manage to enjoy the summer sunshine this week end.....x

Dare to be Different

 This month our town has an 'arts fest'...lots of films...talks...courses....walks.....music....and other wonderful things to do.......go to the HADCAF website to see the full programme... so filled with the artistic spirit we decided to dress our shop for the occasion!!!!
As regular readers will know its impossible to take a photograph of our window...but we have done our best..so try to ignore 
1. the reflection
2. the strip lights in the shop
3.the photographer who needs her roots doing
4. any other distraction

 The plan was to make a tree inside and out which somehow connected....we used the sturdy kiwi branches for the outside which come in fantastic swirly shapes......and arching birch for inside...encased them in some lengths of bark...then we made mock cages from more twigs and foliage......

 ......then borrowed the latest trend for suspending flowers upside down (?).....yes this is true.....a cross over between floristry and art...and there we have it.......

 ....this one is a close runner up to the now famous and much copied pom-pom window of earlier this year in that so many people have come into the shop and commented on it......we just love that........

Pom-Pom Love

As you know if you  are a regular here we take our windows as a pretty important feature of the shop and change things about at least every two weeks....

continually coming up with fresh ideas is always a challenge...

however after seeing tissue pom-poms as a wedding feature we knew we wanted to fill the window with these frilly lovelies for our Mothering Sunday Window....after an afternoon of tissue folding and the floor looking like a confetti factory we have this...

 the reaction from the good folk of Hungerford was a resounding  FANTASTIC!!!!...I don't think we have had such a positive vote of people popping their heads through the door since the infamous Halloween window of 2011.....

thanks so much for the thumbs up....and remember its only 9 (and a half) days to Mothers Day.....

unseasonal

 ......we craved bright colours and a hint of summer in all these bleak and misty  February days........
jewel like poppies......opening as big as plates.......but I love them all crumpled...like crepe paper.......
they seem such a fleeting flower but we burnt the ends of the stems and the ones we took home are still flowering brilliantly 5 days later......