Camera Advice please

The priority over the next month is to get the website properly up and running. To this end, Christmas profits are going to be directed towards buying a digital SLR camera.

Now I don't know where to start - I need something relatively lightweight, easy to use, high quality and good at closeups (so that I can edit out all the junk round the edges).

Please can someone pass on their advice and recommendations.

Weddings and weeds

This week I have been thinking a lot about weddings - my brother Stephen and his fiancee Helen will marry in August and I have also met with two other couples this week to go over flower suggestions.

All three couples are lovely and want more from their weddings than the conspicuous consumption pedalled by the wedding magazines.

One couple in particular threw me back in time to my own wedding - like Euan and I they will marry as soon as they finish University and, like us, they want their wedding to be a proper community occasion.

Euan and I were very lucky, my Mum and I made the dresses, my Aunt iced the cake with intricate bouquets of roses, lots of people in the village provided flowers for the bouquets and decorations, a family friend did the catering, we were close enough to the church to walk there and back and Euan's saxophone teacher put together a fabulous swing band for the night. It was a wonderful, wonderful day and one that couldn't have been put together by simply flinging cash at it.

I think that there is a trend away from all the excess of the 1990s wedding - I have noticed a few websites emerging and catering for the couple who don't want everything - a trend to watch I hope.

The hawthorn trees are the best thing in the garden at the moment, the weather has been so mild that the birds haven't needed to strip the berries yet - I am looking at the sky as the ground is full of weeds.

Mud

This is the bed where I am meant to be planting my tulip bulbs.

Obviously that is not going to happen and I am trying not to get histrionic about it.

The tulips are always a problem - 3 years ago we got tulip fire - a fungal disease which attacks the gardens of people who are too greedy when they read through bulb catalogues. It causes twisty leaves and ugly mouldy spots on the petals - not really something you can live with.

This means 2 things - firstly that we plant the tulips into a new piece of ground each year so that there will not be tulip fire spores about - secondly that I pull all bulbs and do not keep them year to year.

When we began laying out the raised beds we began with the level part of the field which has quite light soil and have gradually moved north towards the heavier slopey part. Six weeks of almost constant rain has put these beds under water and if I am to get any of the bulbs into the ground I shall have to plant them elsewhere.

That means that I shall have to plant them where there were tulips last year. This warm wet weather is just the kind that tulip fire loves.

As I say - I am TRYING not to get histrionic about it.

Thinking about branding

One thing that I am taking time to do during these festivity clear days is to think about what I want "Snapdragon" to become. I am doing a lot of pacing about and looking at old photos.

It is clear that it is time to concentrate on evolving into a brand - to come up with something consistent, something recognisable, so that a website makes sense.

I have resisted this in the past as I associated branding with corporate banality - and feared that there would not be room for the kind of one off quirkiness that I enjoy doing.

Then I came across a blog which defined a "brand" as being a business that refuses to tell anyone else's story. Now that really feels right, it is personal not corporate. Perhaps it is just a case of working out exactly what that story is - or more importantly what it isn't.

The photo is of Petersham nursery - a place with a great brand and story.

First time in the garden for weeks

I love this time between Christmas and New Year - there is time for all the socialising that I missed out on in December and, as the girls stay with my parents for a few days, it is a chance to get back out into the garden for great stretches of time.

This morning I have been clearing weeds from one of the raised beds so that I can get around to planting the tulips.

I was given a fantastic garden trolley for Christmas - 3 times the size of a wheelbarrow with sides that flop down and great chunky tyres. I have been filling it up with piles of goose grass and creeping buttercup and pulling it round to the chicken run where the hens set upon the pile in a frenzy . I think that they have been rather bored while I have been inside making Christmas wreaths.

Browsing the Country Living Magazine website I found that they have posted the article about us from 2005. I look a lot scruffier at the moment in my very muddy boots, patched leather jerkiny thing and thermal hat.

Saving the best till last

This table arrangement of dogwood, haws , apples and paperwhite narcissi is the last proper arrangement that I am doing this year.
It is for a woman who has been a customer since I began the business. She is great to make things for as her brief is always very generalised - the brief for this was "red and white - swedish colours, no gold". Hopefully she will love it.
I now just have a few small things to make up for tomorrow's farmers market and then I shall spend the afternoon potting up all the bulbs that I have left and hopefully make a start on the last batch of ponty toed stockings.

On to the indoor stuff . . .the last leg!

All of the outdoor decorations have now been mae and we have now moved onto indoor decorations - table centres, garlands and mantle decorations - which need to be made up much nearer Christmas as they obviously have a shorter shelf-life.
This Christmas is unusual with Christmas Day being a Monday. Wheras I am working up until the 24th, most people finish work tomorrow and think of Christmas as beginning tomorrow lunchtime.
Therefore people are wondering where their indoor decorations are - forgetting that they are due to be delivered on the 22nd - and I am fending lots of phonecalls. The problem is that it is not really sensible to get fruit based decorations too early - people would not expect the apples in their fruitbowls to sit around looking lovely for weeks on end.
The table decoration above was delivered yesteray afternoon as a Christmas present - the red glass hurricane lamp will seperate the candle from the foliage and prevent it all going up in flames.

Taking a break

One of my favourite writers is Elliot Coleman whose book The New Organic Grower is obviously written after a lot of practical experience http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/main/books/books.html

There are, however, two pieces of his advice that I find very difficult to follow - the first is record keeping - I know that it is important, I know that it would make life and decisions much easier but, although I am great at starting at the seed sowing stage, I have always lost my record book by the time the plants have grown.

The second piece of advice is even harder for me - the need to take time away from work. This sounds easy but as soon as it gets hectic here I go into a horrible self-important mode, snapping that I don't have time to eat or have a bath or take a phonecall - can't people see that I am busy ???????.

Today I realised how right he is. I was delivering door rings to Helensburgh today and made time for lunch with a friend who lives near there - 2 hours just sitting and eating and chatting. What a tonic.

I feel much much calmer - I have come home and made a list of what needs to be done tonight and it all seems eminently possible. I might even fit in a bath.

The photo is of part of a mantlepiece garland.

A great team

Yesterday was one of those days where everything seemed to go wrong. It was the day when EVERYBODY wanted their door ring delivered and we had wedding bouquets and buttonholes to deliver to the youth hostel at Balloch. It was all things that had to be done at the last minute with a deadline.

To begin with the wedding bouquets just weren't going right - they refused to look like they were a part of the ivy frame, they somehow weren't at all like the prototype. We solved the problem by individually wiring all the flowers which gave the bouquets an airiness that had been lacking but this added a couple of hours onto our estimated time. Thank you to Sally for keeping calm and to Euan for supplying coffee and keeping the children out of the way.

Then we suddenly ran out of foliage. The pile of greenery still looked large but there was something wrong with all of it when examined closely - black marks on the ivy leaves, slug holes or general grot. It was 2.30, and there was about an hour of proper daylight left, so we took to the phones - Sally has a lot of good friends with established gardens, Euan collected our Chiristmas tree and a bootfull of very lovely fir trimmings from the Duffs in Buchlyvie and I found a neighbour with an overgrown garden wall who was happy to have it trimmed. By 4.00 we were back in business and I was so glad to have unflappable resourseful people working/living with me.

By midnight most people had their door rings and we had a car load of things to sell at Callander Farmers Market.

Thank you to the Halls, the Duffs, and Sally's many gardening friends.

Getting on with it. . . . .

I have more or less stopped taking orders for door wreaths ( there are always a few regular customers who sneak in after the deadline), so now it is really just a case of getting my head down and getting on with it.

Deliveries have gone out to Bridge of Allan, Glasgow and Killearn, Tomorrow will be Balfron and Croftamie and Monday, Helensburgh and Rhu. Then we will move onto the indoor decorations.

Some customers order an exact copy of last year's door ring, but most leave it up to me, with vague parameters such as "very fruity" or "soft and shaggy". I love this as it means that every door ring is different and I don't get bored.

Some of my favourites this year have hydrangeas in them - they go very well with the strings of cranberries and licheny wood.

Someone called me yesterday with the offer of a load of ready made holly wreaths - It would save me time they said - all I would have to do would be wire in ribbons and plastic flowers. I don't think that they got the point of what I do.

It is very soggy here - Drymen primary was closed yesterday and deliveries are having to be re-arranged to avoid flooded roads.

E-Mail not working

My e-mail is not working this week - if anyone needs to get me call 01360 660 903.

The real state of the house

Yesterday I was phoned by a customer who wanted to order decorations for her Christmas table.
We got talking about what we would be doing on Christmas Day and I said that we were going over to my parents and that, - as I am working up to and including Christmas Eve - I shall be glad to be able to close the door here and go and sit down in someone else's house and not have to worry about decorating the table or arranging the cards.
It was obvious that she had the impression that our home is a wonderfully decorated place, relaxing and candle-lit, styled to the Nth degree. Perhaps I should encourage this misconception. Instead I post a picture of our dining room as it is at this precise moment.
I am sure that I had assured Euan that this year I would be doing all the wreath making in the greenhouse - but Baby its COLD out there. . . .


Another gratuitious photo of my helper - the other two cats don't feature much as in the winter they appear welded to the floor.

Amaryllis

The shock best-sellers this year have been amaryllis - first all the loose bulbs sold within half an hour at Duntreath Christmas Fair and now all bar one of the mini-amaryllis "Giraffe" which I potted up have sold this week-end.

I am quite surprised as last year they sold very slowly. They are expensive bulbs and as they are still in bud it cannot be that people are attracted to the beautiful flowers.

Perhaps people saw them when they flowered last year (when I took the photo) and decided to get one this year, perhaps there has been something in a magazine, I don't know but I am hanging onto the remaining plant for myself. I wish I had got more.

Back at the Farmers Markets

Today I was at Glasgow Farmers Market in Mansfield Place in Partick. It was the first time in 2 years. I had a great time and had forgotten how much I enjoyed selling at Farmers Markets.

To be honest all week I have been dreading the day.

Two years ago I was diagnosed with Addisons disease - basically my brain doesn't manufacture steroids - and though it is easily treated I had about six months of illness before doctors found out what the problem was. During these six months I was selling at the farmers markets - dragging myself there and really struggling with keeping going. Somehow I had associated the markets with the exhaustion - today has dispelled that - I really loved it - there is a chance to speak to customers, the day was cold and bright, I saw lots of people who recognised me from 2 years ago.

I shall definately be going back in a fortnight!

I am particularly pleased as we sold out of potted bulbs - a good omen I think for the pots of forced bulbs I intend to sell in the spring.

Greenhouse . . .

Well it is cleared and the floor is swept - so the door rings and bulbs have moved into the greenhouse.
I am in a foul mood - the cardboard boxes for the door rings haven't arrived as the firm ran out of cardboard (and didn't think to tell me). So I am phoning round trying to scrounge boxes.
I need about an extra 12 hours in today.

Making those wreaths with Baldernock Garden club

The appalling camera shake on these photos makes it look as if we were running a speed wreath making competition.
In fact the evening was very jolly and relaxed - I showed everyone how I make a door-ring and then they had a go, with Sally and I helping anyone who got stuck. The results were very impressive and all quite different. I think that everyone was pleased with their creations.
I remembered half way through the evening that I have previously agreed to the club visiting us here in June - better get weeding.

Spring . . .

Just as it seemed bizarre to be thinking about Christmas in August, it now seems really peculiar that I have to make decisions about Spring now - right at the height of the Christmas wreath making.

Yet, if I am to have stock for the Country Living Fair in March, and particularly if I am to have "unique to Snapdragon" stock & not just "buy it all in at the last minute" stock, I need to make key decisions now.

So this afternoon, over a cup of coffee, Laura and I sat down to decide what I am going to commission for the CL Fair, how I am going to package it and what the whole "feel" will be.

It is very exciting - as there is lots of creativity stuff involved - and I now have a million and one ideas running round my head - which will hopefully settle over this week into something do-able but also something that no-one else is doing.

The flowers in the photograph are the ones I took to Drymen bank this morning - forced Narcissi Tete a tete - andthey look very springlike so perhaps that is what has put me in the mood.

Now I really MUST get back to putting moss on wreath rings.

The last proper Christmas Fair

This weekend saw the last of the Christmas Fairs as such - I still have my open day and several farmers' markets - but the Green Gallery @ Home was a lovely way to end the Fair season. Everyone had beautiful stalls - above are photos of Primrose Hill Interiors and Luckycats soaps - and there were also lots of beautiful paintings on the walls and a great relaxed atmosphere. Becky Walker was a great host, Ailsa kept everything moving smoothly, and the days went really well. I am looking forward to future exhibitions - the present one runs until Christmas and is open a couple of days a week.


The hit of the Fair were Luckycats' enormous cube candles scented with lovely subtle fragrances - their snazzy blue boxes arrived just in time and they flew off the stall. Laura assures me that she is making up another batch this week - I am after a couple for my more discerning friends - she can be contacted on 01877-389-126.

I used the Fair to try out a new stall arrangement with a beautiful black and grey Roma material as my stall cloth instead of the usual rustic linen - it completely changed the feel and looked really voluptuous. It helped that it went well with the black mantlepiece in Becky's dining room. I am getting in some practice for deciding what to do with my stall at the Country Living Scottish Fair in the Spring.