Friday Seedlings
Dispatch from the holiday juggle...
This week I’ve been in Wales, the perfect escape to truly welcome Spring, and all in a sea of daffodils! I've also been the boys’ social secretary and uber driver - ending up in London for some ice cream rolls and caged baseball before coming home again.
I know many of you are juggling working, caring, mothering, grandparenting and all I can say is that I hope you’re finding the sunshine helps! And having a mini egg or three on the run.
For this week’s 6 things I share a couple of new interviews - with Paddy O’Donnell for Farrow & Ball taking all things colour - my favorite subject alongside flowers and fashion; and with my friends at ODD, where I share one of the reasons I agreed to move to the country from London with small children was for one of their dreamy rockers - I’ve just had it redone and cannot stop swinging in the sunshine! I also share the best M&S find - I went in for a chicken and came out with this gem! And I talk you through my sunscreen conundrum (and the winners) and a little confession on my basket obsession…
As we run up to Easter next weekend, welcoming our homes and gardens to visitors as we defrost, I share my best tips for Spring (& Easter) entertaining - for flowers, tabletops and to make it special, whether you’re inside or out.
Finally, I answer this week’s Ask Me Anything question about getting started with a cutting garden.
Happy weekend!
Love Willow
5 things I’m loving…
1. My podcast Interview with Farrow & Ball
I loved joining Patrick O’Donnell on The Chromologist, Farrow & Ball’s brilliant podcast. The conversation covers everything from my childhood in Wales to the big city move later on, as well as my love for flowers, nature and colour, of course! Have a listen here…
These were my four colour picks, my favourite Farrow & Ball hues. And I also had such fun creating an arrangement of flowers that echoed their new Spring collection. Watch it here.
2. Rocking in the sunshine - an interview with ODD
Is there anything more heavenly to have in a country (or any) garden than a canopied swing rocker for two (or three!)?! I think they might be the most quintessentially English version of the American porch swing and I’ve long been obsessed. I’ve recently had my beloved rocker recovered in beautiful Emma Grant fabric for ODD.
It was a bright white morning in March when Willow invited us to visit, as the first of this year’s guests on the ODD Journal. In spite of the sunny weather, it was a few days short of the spring equinox, and her garden in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds had one foot still firmly planted in winter.
It was still a heavenly scene: light dancing through leafless trees onto swathes of hellebores and Leucojums nodding demurely against mossy walls; church bells and schoolchildren heard in the background. The garden had a stillness, like a held breath, so different to the sense of movement everywhere come April…
Read more of this lovely interview when ODD came to visit me at home last month…