The storm before the calm

The year whizzes by, the month zips along, and now it is less than a week until Christmas Day. I usually end up blogging more at Christmas during the calm after the storm...that week between Christmas and New Year is a time of reflection for me.

I went to a Christmas service at the end of November - which feels like ages ago now. It was a remembrance service for people who were bereaved, and it was intended to be a candlelit service held outside, by a Christmas tree. Unfortunately, the gale-force winds meant that the candles wouldn't light, so people took the candles with them to light quietly in their homes. It's the only service I've been to where we sang Once in Royal David's City and You'll Never Walk Alone, but it was lovely. In fact, I'd never sung You'll Never Walk Alone before, and I didn't realise what a moving song it is.

Now the weather has shifted again, and walking back past the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree last night, I realised it was 9pm on the week before Christmas, and I wasn't wearing a scarf or gloves because it was so mild.

I hope your Decembers are going well, and if it's stormy for you now, that there is calm ahead.

The year in flowers

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Blue Patch Christmas fair

I did another Christmas fair a few weeks into December. Jane and Julia of Blue Patch invited me to join them at their Herne Hill sustainable fair, after seeing my flowers at Diggin' Design.

It was a lovely day, but much colder - I think we had lost feeling in our fingers and toes by the end of the fair! I focused on Christmas wreaths this time - making traditional, decorated pine wreaths (all British pine, of course), and various foliage wreaths (with British moss and mostly British foliage).

I also made candle tablecentres and a few tin posies. Foliage and flowers were nearly all British, with the exception of the snowy thistles, gold-painted waxflower, and silver brunia. The marshmallowy chrysanthemum blooms were popular, as were the tulips and heather, and they were all British.

The loveliest part of the day was when a mother and daughter decided to buy a wreath made with three kinds of moss, decorated with a few snowy thistles and white heather. I don't know whether they knew that moss is the symbol of maternal love in the language of flowers.

A few details from the day - I love working with this beauty!

And finally, I got to see what two of the wreaths looked like in situ - both Julia and Jane sent photos of their beautifully-dressed front doors!

Wherever you're going, I'm going your way

Last autumn, I had the pleasure of doing wedding flowers for a lovely couple, Zula and Jody. They had their wedding in a barge on the River Thames, and it was my kind of wedding – a cool and intimate venue, lots of personal touches, and family and friends helping out. Jody and his friends did a great job of setting up the venue, including an inviting-looking sweetie table and a show-stopping cake table. Jody’s mother brought a lovely tea set with her for me to fill with flowers on the morning, and although it’s a bit of an adrenalin rush, as reception flowers often are, there was such a warm atmosphere and it felt like a privilege to be amongst the good-humoured family, friends and the (surprisingly calm) groom in the exciting few hours before ‘I do’.

Although I spoke to Zula on the phone and through emails to discuss the flowers she wanted, I never got to meet her. Jody and his friends told me what a lovely person she is, and that’s certainly what I thought when I corresponded with her. I was delighted when she sent me photos taken on the day, and I could finally see the beautiful bride whose flowers I had so enjoyed doing!

Here are some photos of Zula and Jody’s big day - the first five are by their photographer and the last seven were hastily taken by me! I wish the couple a long and happy wedded life together. (This post title is from the song Moon River. I had the song in my head every time I looked at photos of this wedding - I guess because it was on a river!)

Sugar plum fairy in a pear tree

I was a bit sad to hear that my partner, who loves Christmas drinks in coffee shops and the Mariah Carey song, wasn’t going to have a tree this year. If it wasn’t for the trouble I had when I carried my topiary tree on the train back from college, I would have made another one for him. So, since he likes candles and prefers silver to gold, I made this table centre for him. Leigh at Nikki Tibbles Wild at Heart taught me how to insert soft-stemmed ranunculus into floral foam without squishing or snapping them, and as the market is full of them right now, I thought I would try them out at home. I used eucalyptus and berried eucalyptus, white and pink ranunculus, ilex leaves and thistles that I’d painted silver, and sugared pears. I think the berried eucalyptus has made this a bit flat, but otherwise, I’m quite happy with it. Let’s hope it survives my last trip to the Midlands before Christmas.

Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree

For our last week at college this term, we did lots of Christmas arrangements. The garland and the candle table centre were fun and comparatively straightforward to make, and the wreath took a while, but we were used to that kind of work after making two laurel chaplets in November (see Remembrance Day post). However, the topiary tree was a seemingly endless slog! I was so relieved when I’d finally finished making the ‘tree’ part, but I didn’t have long to decorate it. And as I carried it home on a crowded train, the tip broke off. I have since spruced it up a bit with a golden angel and some ribbon, and I will add those photos later.

There was no red or green on our classroom tree though. Every man I’ve shown this photo to has reacted with the same bemusement. But as our class is comprised mainly of girls, we loved it, especially with all the secret Santa presents underneath.

I won't make a list and send it to the North Pole for Saint Nick

We had our college Christmas party a bit early, due to assessments and Ofsted inspections. I managed to get my Secret Santa name a massively reduced Paula Pryke book – which seemed to go down well. I almost squealed when I opened my present. A girl at college works at Vive La Rose, a beautiful florist that I’ve mentioned before, and had got the mini milk bottles that I’m so keen on, filled them with different sweets, and put silver foil milk bottle ‘tops’ on them. These are so colourful and cheerful; I almost don’t want to eat the sweets! Except I do, because I’d like to have eight milk bottles in time for the eighth day of Christmas!

I did another candle table centre today. I got lots of coloured or scented candles and bought some eucalyptus and red carnations from the local florist (I would have preferred to use roses, but they won’t last as well in foam). I’m pleased with this one. I hope it brings a smile to my friends’ mother, whose birthday is next week.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

I used to steadfastly stick to a 'no Christmas talk before December' rule – I wanted the Christmas season to feel short and special, and that wasn’t going to happen if there were mince pies and carols two months before. Now that I’ve entered the world of floristry, the goal posts have shifted a bit. I made my first Christmas arrangement yesterday. And on Wednesday, when a friend from my floristry course and I hopefully manage to get a pitch at a market, I will have made several more.

For this little table centre, I used fake snow-covered thistles, bright red hypericum berries, beautifully glossy ilex leaves, a little gypsophila, and a few spray carnations that have the marvellous name ‘Mr Rooney’. I had a candle disaster, and ended up using a scented candle that is a little too small for this arrangement. But hopefully my friends, who this is for, will forgive me!

I used a few broken stems of hypericum, a thistle, and some ilex leaves to make myself a buttonhole. I know corsages are meant to be for women and buttonholes for men, but just as I sometimes prefer to wear men’s trainers (they are better for playing football, albeit badly), I also prefer to wear buttonholes. I felt suitably Christmassy wearing this one as I caught up with friends at the beautiful William Morris exhibition at 2 Temple Place today.

And in other news, I got a lovely surprise when I walked around the garden last week. Firstly, there were a couple of very late roses that had blossomed. And secondly, my snowdrops have started shooting. I’ve heard that they rarely flower in their first year, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. Let it snowdrop!