The March Edition
The Spring Magic Issue!
Welcome to the March edition! I can’t tell you how happy I am that March has arrived today and spring is here at long last. Well officially, I mean we may still have frosts, bitterly cold days and more rain; but the days are longer, the birdsong stronger and the garden is beckoning….
March not only signals a new season but has become the month to celebrate women - with International Women’s Day on the 8th and Mother’s Day on the 15th (here in the UK). It’s a good month to pause, acknowledge and celebrate the wonderful women in our lives.
My Willow Loves this month has an unconscious red, blue & white theme (oh and pale pink too!) as I march towards Spring. Plus 6 more loves for paid subscribers at the end. My flowery tip this month is my favourite Spring centrepiece - a ‘Garden in a Glass’ - just so easy and so satisfying! It’s magical. Talking of magic, I went to see Wuthering Heights this week - my goodness, the romance of it all! I can’t stop replaying it in my mind and we’ve found 16 forever fashion pieces inspired by the drama. More magic unfolds as we chat to the totally magical, Beth Taylor - a psychic like no other and we ask her everything we want to know about how she knows so much!
There’s also baking ideas for Mothering Sunday, garden jobs and what to sow this month, plus a mini interview with my mother and me. Finally, we round up things to do or book ahead for this month.
Wishing you all a magnificent month of March with plenty of sunshine (we can but dream) and lots of flowery fun and love all around.
With Love,
Willow
*This is my Monthly Free Edition, but every week, I send out emails to my paid subscribers with flowery, fashion, food and wellness content - ideas to inspire, create and nurture. I hope you will join our growing community, we have so much planned this year!
PS. this is a long read so might be best to read in web browser (just in case it cuts off in your email).
Willow Loves
What I’m loving for early Spring dreaming - blue & white, some very soft pink and bold punches of red. With stripes, of course and a sheepskin chair to curl up on and wait for the warmer days outside…
Top row, left to right
Fine faded denim stripes on the perfect spring weekend jacket
Our Loving Cup of dreams (and Mother’s Day dreaming?)
Patch pocket striped fun from La Veste
The perfect red cardigan? I think this is it, Navy Grey
Heart skipping for these pretty pale ballerinas. Imagine with spring skirts!
A super soft sheepskin chair to curl up in and wait for summer
Willow Loves… (6 more!)
(scroll to the end for our paid subscribers)
March Flowery Trick - a garden in a glass!
Now’s the time to recreate my magical ‘garden in a glass’! It’s one of my favourite flowery tricks for a spring centrepiece. The combination of fine pretty flowers with the glow of candle through glass is simply magical. Create for your next dinner party or ‘just because’ and prepare to impress, even if just yourself as it’s so easy!
Here I’ve used pretty winter and early spring flowers such as snowdrops, muscari, snakeshead fritillary and tulips; but you can be creative and use whatever you like. Try to use flowers that have stems that are malleable enough to train around the inside of the glass vase.
Watch how on my YouTube video here…
Wuthering Heights!
Oh the drama! Have you seen it? What did you think?
I went just this last week and I cannot stop thinking about and replaying the trailer! The romance was off the charts dreamy and I am so inspired by the whole vibe - the fashion and interiors while fantasy in part, still have me wanting to run through the moors with big skirts and boots and decorate my hair with tiny pearls! There’s actually a lot of beautiful fashion and accessories around right now that would be at home on the Wuthering Heights set and we’ve rounded up 16 swoony pieces. Do you think Emily Brontë would approve?
Mimosa for International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day, is as it sounds, a day for celebrating women. On 8th March, people all over the world spend the day acknowledging women’s biggest achievements as well as raising awareness of the general inequality that still exists. In some places, it’s a day of protest, while in other parts of the world, it’s a less controversial celebration of womanhood.
The first Women’s Day was marked in 1909 in New York, and it swiftly became an annual fixture to hep recognise the social and political struggles faced by women. As well as addressing the political agenda, it’s a day to show women how much we love and respect them, be it your mother, friend, sister, teacher, doctor. As a sign of this love and appreciation, the tradition is to give a bunch of bright yellow mimosa flowers (Acacia dealbata).
The custom of giving mimosa flowers can be traced back to Italy to around 1946, where International Women’s Day is more commonly knowns as Fiesta della Donna. The flowers were intended to be presented as symbolic tokens of respect and appreciation, and all over the country on this day, mimosa flowers are given as a token to women by women from men to women, mothers to daughters, colleague to colleague.
Mimosa flowers were chosen for the fact that a) there’s not much else in flower at that time of year and b) it’s a strong, naturally growing, resilient plant that can weather tough conditions - just like women.
This 8th of March, seek out some of the frothy yellow blooms from your local florist and make someone’s day. Give her a beautiful bunch of mimosa to show her how much she means to you. Not only will you make her feel special and loved, but the act of giving is proven to make us happier and more joyful. It’s a win-win.
An excerpt from The Wild Journal - A Year Of Nurturing Yourself Through Nature by Willow Crossley.
Mother’s Day
It’s Mothering Sunday in just two weeks (15th of March) here in the UK. It’s a wonderful day of the year for those of us that are lucky to be mothers and to celebrate our own, or the mother figures in our lives. But it can also be a very tough day for those missing their mothers. I think however you’re feeling on this day, flowers help. Beauty helps. Being in nature helps. Spreading love in little ways such as hand made cards (with pressed flowers perhaps) or thoughtfully gathered flowers, or cakes baked at home. It’s the little things that nurture our soul whether with loved ones or sadly without.
I am incredibly fortunate to have such a special bond with my own mother, who has taught me so much about everything, including flowers! Her love for gardening and seeing beauty all around has definitely been passed on. I’m yet to see whether her talent for painting might pass down too! But she did give me a beautiful painter’s palette for my birthday so here’s hoping it might start to emerge soon...
Last year, my mother collaborated on a Loving Cup with us and we had some fun answering questions about each other! You can read it here…
Psychic Powers
Beth Taylor, renowned and in demand psychic, has “always struggled to label or articulate what it is that I do.” A psychic, a healer, an energy clearer? “I suppose I’m an intuitive,” she tells us. “A channel and an energy worker and the aim is to release as much density as possible and bring in awareness and supportive frequencies that remind someone of their innate truth.”
Here we chat with the sought after psychic and ask the questions we’ve always wanted! Psychic, healer, energy clearer and higher power channeller, Beth is hard to define, so let’s just say every little thing she does is magic…
Baking Ideas for Mother’s Day
We’ve recently discovered Sophie Bamford from All Day Cake on Substack and it’s like a virtual all day cake cook along extravaganza. Sophie makes it look easy and the presentation is superb, but she also breaks down recipes so that you have all the support you need. Look through her recipe archive (both free and paid recipes) to get inspired to create some pretty and delicious treats for Mothering Sunday…
Top row, left to right:
Chocolate Viennise Hearts, Apple, Cinnamon & Rose Brioche,
Lemon Drizzle Cookies, Custard Extremes
Blackberry & Pistachio Mini Battenberg, Spiced Financiers.
Coconut & Passionfruit Linzers, Hotel Style Scones
Garden Tips for March 🌱
We’re all itching to get back in the garden and there are jobs we can do to get garden-ready when Spring really shows up. But with the risk of frosts still, we have to protect the tender crops or better still, start them indoors (greenhouse if you’re lucky or on a bright windowsill). Work the soil and get it ready but only when it is dry enough (digging when sodden, which it still is in many parts of the UK, damages the structure of the soil). Be patient and plan your garden with seeds and bulbs indoors first…
Here are some jobs I’d recommend this month:
Garden Ready…
Clear winter debris — remove fallen leaves, dead plants, and weeds.
Prune Climbers — cut back climbers such as wisteria and roses if you haven’t already.
Improve soil — add well-rotted compost or organic matter to borders.
Mulch borders — lay mulch on flowerbeds to suppress weeds and retain moisture.
Prepare vegetable beds — dig and fork over soil when not waterlogged.
Flowery Garden Jobs…
Divide and replant snowdrops and early daffodils once they’ve finished flowering
Plant out hardy annuals later in the month (if first frost risk has passed)
Deadhead winter and early spring flowers to encourage more blooms
Support tall perennials with cane towers before they grow too tall
Planting/Sowing…
In a Greenhouse/ Windowsill Indoors:
Sweet peas and early annuals such as Dahlias, Begonia and Anemones.
For vegetable beds, try Tomatoes, Peppers, and Aubergines (in a heated propagator or bright windowsill) and Herbs (Basil, Parsley, Coriander)
Easiest choices for beginners or if you want simple, reliable success: Cosmos, Calendula, Sweet peas, Sunflowers & Dahlias
March Arts & Culture
What to see, visit & plan this month…
Give bunches of mimosa to all the wonderful women you admire on International Women’s Day (8 March)
Don’t forget Mother’s Day on 15 March!
Watch Wuthering Heights at the cinema before it finishes next week!
Book tickets to Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art at the V&A starting 28 March
Don’t miss the Marie Antoinette exhibition at the V&A , on until 22 March
Watch Love Story - the JFK Jr & Carolyn Bessette Kennedy biopic and ode to 90s New York
Visit Tracey Emin: A Second Life exhibition at the Tate Modern
Visit the Lucian Freud Drawing into Painting exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery
Go to the David Hockney exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery from 12 March
Go and see the new production of Romeo & Juliet which opens at The Harold Pinter Theatre on 18 March
Visit the Rose Wylie exhibition at The Royal Academy of Arts (until 19 April)
Visit the Kate Lowe ‘Wild Solace’ exhibition at Made in the Pewsey Vale, Wiltshire from 6-14 March
Visit the Harpsden Court Tulip Festival this month and a Paper Tulip Workshop on 24 and 25 March
Countdown to the return of Simpsons On The Strand, reimagined by Jeremy King restaurants which opens this month (taking bookings from 30 March)
Plan your Chelsea Flower Show visit in May
Celebrate Spring Equinox on March 20 to mark the official start of Spring (remember: clocks move forward an hour)
PS. Willow Loves (6 more!)
