Font Sunday: Tea tins

The Design Museum in London plays host to a photo-sharing afternoon on Twitter every Sunday, all about fonts in different contexts. There's a different subject each week, and people share photos of interesting fonts.

Today's subject was tea packaging, which was the perfect excuse for me to grab a few of my tea tins, chop some bits from the garden, and join in the font photography. You may have noticed that I am a big fan of pretty containers (especially anything Tiptree) and of good tea!

There isn't much flowering in the garden now. I had some hollyhocks, but they've been eaten by caterpillars or some other hungry so-and-so. (The Very Hungry Caterpillar seems like an adorable story until you notice the downside of hungry caterpillars). But I had fountain grass and bunny-tail grass, sedum, a few asters, salvia, and a couple of David Austin 'Cariad' roses.

The tall tin is from Postcard Teas - a lovely shop on Dering Street, just off New Bond Street. The owner, Tim d'Offay, goes to the tea plantations himself to see how the tea is grown and to check the conditions in which the workers are living. The teas are delicious, and if you go to the shop, Tim or one of the other lovely people working there will make you a cup of the tea to try before you decide which to buy.

The shorter tins are Wedgwood. As well as teapots and cups, the company also makes beautiful tins of tea, in different shades of blue.

The pink Cariad rose was especially welcome after yesterday's rugby result. I've never understood rugby, but after living with lots of Welsh rugby fans in Swansea, if I had to support anyone, it would always be Wales!

Finally, here are George Orwell's instructions for making a good cup of tea. The article was called 'A Nice Cup of Tea' after the phrase that brings us such comfort, but I think "good" is more appropriate. Also, the phrase "nice cup of tea" sometimes reminds me of the film Vera Drake; not very comforting! I agree with most of what Orwell says, particularly that the best tea comes from India and Sri Lanka (I am a bit biased, though), that it should be very strong and leave you feeling "wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it".

I'm about to embark on a research project for university, and I know the one thing that will help me to get through marathon study sessions is an endless cup of tea!

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus! Daffodils at the Garden Museum.

Or Happy St Davids Day, if you prefer!

I did flowers for an event at the Garden Museum this week, and used lots of bright British daffodils and scented narcissi, combined with lovely yellow forsythia, pretty green guelder rose (Viburnum opulus), dramatic purple monkshood (Aconitum), purple limonium, blue hyacinths and British yellow tulips. I used British eucalyptus and viburnum tinus, and the gardeners at the museum gave me a big pile of foliage which would have gone to the compost heap had they not seen me on the hunt for extra foliage! They told me the name of it, and I've forgotten - Lavatera (tree mallow) maybe?

Spot the shy narcissus.

I remember monkshood from my flower identification exams at college - we had to learn which flowers and plants were poisonous or skin irritants. I wore gloves to handle the flowers, as I do with euphorbia (beautiful flowers, but horrible, irritating sap).

There were daffodils, limonium and guelder rose to brighten the cafe tables.

I think spring flowers suit this beautiful old church perfectly!

You can just about make out the model of the museum here - it will be closed at the end of the year to allow time for a major reworking, which will hopefully make it an ever better place to visit.

I had to return the gorgeous pedestal afterwards to my friend who had kindly lent it to me, but the flowers sat nicely on the floor of the museum.

Guinness, Cariad and the Wizard of Oz

I did a bouquet for a Welsh lady who loves going on holiday to Dublin. 'Cariad' David Austin roses in an old Guinness fudge tin was my plan, but I only had a few stems of roses. So I picked as many pink and white flowers from the garden as I could, and topped up with dahlias and asters I'd bought from the market. I liked the idea of clashing shades of pink, and lots of frothy flowers and panicum, in a less Barbara Cartland-ish container.

The pale pink dahlia with the yellow centre is called Wizard of Oz - it's a beautiful flower. I don't know the name of the other variety, but it's a fabulous bright salmon colour.

These striking flowers below are pink asters (aka September flower, as it is the birth flower for September). They last well in water and floral foam, and come in other colours, such as white and purple. Both the dahlias and asters are British - you should be able to get them from your local grower for another few weeks.

One of my favourite parts of floristry is the moment after you've finished conditioning all of your flowers, and you look at the buckets of beauty you have to work from.

I made a posy of dahlias and asters.

And I put the leftover cosmos in a bottle - I love the movement of the stems and the pretty, colourful flowerheads.

RHS Flower Show Cardiff 2013

I visited my friends in Bridgend last weekend, and we took advantage of the glorious weather on Saturday to go to the RHS Flower Show Cardiff. Apparently, that turned out to be the busiest day in the Cardiff show’s nine year history, with 9000 people visiting.

Daffodils were all around us, as you’d expect, with some brilliant names – Baby Boomer, Sophie's Choice, and Doctor Who (Quality Daffodils developed this variety to celebrate the television show, filmed in Cardiff, which is fifty years old). Quality Daffodils won the award for the best exhibit in the marquee (you can see a photo showing the length of its gorgeous display) and what is incredible (and fascinating for a florist) is that the display was of cut flowers which had been painstakingly cared for and arranged. There were other spring flowers, including some stunning primulas, a pale and pretty muscari called Babys Breath (which, fortunately, has the usual bubblegum scent and not the slightly nasty smell of gypsophila) and an astilbe called Drum and Bass Pink! Pheasant Acre Plants, who I’d seen at Wisley (and who most of my indoor bulbs are from) also had a beautiful display.

There were more stalls and fewer big garden displays than some of the other flower shows, but there were still many beautiful displays by the growers, and a colourful exhibition of literary-inspired, plant-filled wheelbarrows which were made by Welsh primary school children. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Treasure Island were popular choices, but there were also great entries inspired by The Hobbit and Rapunzel, as well as one where I didn’t know the book but I liked the Cardiff City FC symbolism and the beautiful fritillaries and daffodils!

 The atmosphere was fantastic – maybe because of the location (right in the centre of the city, by Cardiff Castle) or maybe Welsh families are more outdoorsy than English ones (I’m sorry, what an unpatriotic thing for me to say on St George’s Day!) – but it felt like a festival rather than a flower show, with people sunning themselves and eating the delicious ice cream that was served in several stalls. And after the longest, coldest winter that I can remember, it was a joy to see blue skies and blossom-filled trees, and feel the warmth of the sunshine. By the time I returned to England on Sunday, the narcissi and fritillaries in the garden, which had been so shy to grow, had suddenly shot up and blossomed.