Loving the roses!

In the utterly romantic blowsy bloom stakes the rose has to take the crown.  One of the most ancient cultivated plants, the rose is rich in symbolic meaning and associated with passion and love....A relationship that developed from-and the earliest known reference to the rose, Homer’s epic the Iliad. Here it is told that Aphrodite, on rushing to the aid of her wounded lover, Adonis, scratches herself on the thorns of a white rose, her blood turning the white petals a deep red.

I adore roses and can never pass on the opportunity to inhale their wonderful fragrance.  Even in death, the shrivelling browning petals still have much appeal.   I have just started to grow my own plants, ramblers chosen for their fragrance as well as their blooms. One is Swan Lake, a beautiful subtle pinky white climber that is yet to bloom. Another I purchased is a yellow climber, (I can’t remember the variety) but I have just learnt (thanks to the illustrated language of Flowers, compiled by Mrs L. Burke) that yellow roses are associated with jealousy!

Beautiful vintage fabric, probably by Sanderson.

Another Sanderson print on heavy linen and simply divine.

section of an antique English quilt

My gorgeous vintage Colefax and Fowler curtains with the most amazing duck egg backdrop.

My home is filled and I'm still filling it when funds permit with romantic old fashioned blowsy rose blooms, often found nestled cheek by jowl with other quintessentially English floral delights.  Sanderson, Colefax & Fowler along with Warner have to be my favourite design houses and famous for their traditional Country House style.

Beautiful rose-adorned Colefax and Fowler curtains currently available on eBay

Family reunited

I have had this trio of Georgian prints for sometime but have never been able to find a suitable spot for the three of them (adding a simple nail to any wall in my house requires a power tool and a very steady firm hand, which I don’t have). The lady of the family has therefore been sadly estranged and mostly forgotten about until recently when after painting a utility room I discovered that I had three existing nails to work with! Voila! Family reunited (at least I think they are a family). The prints were purchased together in the same battered gilt frames that work beautifully with the teal of the paint. I just wonder who they were.




It is almost a year since I hung up my white (well not so white) lab coat to establish my vintage interiors business. I miss the day job in many ways, especially the lovely people that I have met along the way but I don’t miss the long commute. I also now have the much needed time to give my home a huge makeover. I have been battling with the different style possibilities for far too long (I love them all) and as much as I love the idea of living with minimalism and white walls and furniture a plenty (well not so plentiful), a look that always looks fabulous in the glossy magazines I do have a passion for colour, the trouble is there are just so many to choose from!

I adore greens and blue...a strong reminder of my other world.  Please enjoy a glimpse of my previous life  while I, in the words of Loyd Grossman, ruminate and cogitate a little longer over colour and Interior style possibilities.

Highly motile cyanobacteria and why the photograph is slightly blurred .

Poles apart from the world of vintage interiors......the fascinating and beautiful micro-world! I wonder if our paths will ever cross again? The images show free-living cyanobacteria, often called blue-green algae and are widely distributed on land and in water and perform plant-like photosynthesis. They are very environmentally significant.

The beautiful multicellular Anabaena~each cell interconnected just like beads on a string.

From plant pot to fork......My Country Living rhubarb crumble.

I have had this recipe for rhubarb flapjack featured in the April 2010 edition of Country living in my mind for far too long.

We live in a town house with a relatively small garden so I plant a lot of items in terracotta pots and amongst these is my rhubarb plant that somehow has managed to survive the last two harsh winters.

The plant was looking lush so I decided that it was at very long last time to bake!

Gorgeous buddleia & works well as a posy in a vase

I couldn't find the firm oats that were recommended so I decided to use the honey granola from Dorset Cereals instead and black treacle (if you love bonfire toffee then you will love this crumble) rather than the suggested golden syrup.

Having chopped the ripe rhubarb stems I realised that there was not enough to bake with and added some lovely autumnal coloured apples to the mix.

Honey granola  from Dorset cereals

Instead of ginger I used cinnamon (so much for following the recipe). 

I scooped into bun cases to create mini crumbles (blackened because of the treacle).

Hares about the house....and chintz charming!

The hare is probably one of our most beautiful British wild mammals. This of course leads me onto yet another weakness; rabbits and hares and I can never refuse yet another new (well old) addition to my collection. I kept rabbits for twenty years, the first being rescued from the pot when I had just turned 13. She was a beautiful New Zealand white and inevitably was named Snowy! I don’t know whether it is the long ears and the twitchy noses that lend such appeal. I think that I am in good company though as the rabbit obviously bewitched the talented Beatrix Potter, becoming one of her most frequently illustrated subjects and who could resist the charms of Peter rabbit and his cousin Benjamin?



Years ago I was lucky enough to snap up a very old hessian covered rabbit with rather worn shabby ears and the sweetest button eyes (shown above and below). His form is very much that of Peter rabbit and I would love to know more about him.

Beautiful Toile heart bought from Heather (Hellish Designs) at one of the Country Chic events

Peter rabbit? I love his original ribbon and bell.

Horace on the gorgeous chintz bedding.

Chintz charming

I recently unearthed a book I had purchased many moons ago, published in the 1950's and entitled A Hare about the House by Cecil Webb. It is a charming story based on the foundling and extremely charismatic Irish hare, Horace. This lucky hare had the run of the house and soft furnishings! I particularly love the pictures of Horace seated on the most heavenly chintz bedspread with contrasting bed curtains. 


I can’t remember when my obsession with chintz developed but prior to the Ikea promotion calling upon us ladies to chuck out our chintz. I was shouting back at the screen. No, give it to me!

I don’t know how many people (if any) did chuck out their lovely floral adorned delights.   If there is however anyone out there still considering chucking out their chintz then do please get in touch.

My first ever eiderdown purchase

Vintage memories......rescuing the past

I recently came across the verse:

‘what we loved as a child remains in our hearts eternally’.  My childhood was quite simple with very few material possessions, none of which remain today.  I have always loved animals, with horses and dogs being my favourite of the domestics.  I was lucky enough to be a stable girl and ride as much as possible in return for my labours around the yard. My duties extended to milking the owners goat, which I have to say is definitely a learned skill and perhaps I should include it in my CV.  I often think of the ponies that flitted in and out of my life. I had no control over their comings and goings and hope that life was kind to them.

Memories of those years at the farm remain in my heart and as the years go by I yearn just a little harder for those simpler times. 

I often wonder what became of this sweet duo

My very early rabbit, possibly Peter rabbit

The gang...a very mixed bunch of old loved toys

Even my long suffering daughter has to house part of my collection in her room.

I love this French bunny, aptly name Pierre

Old books can be just as irresistible as the tattered soft animals that win their way into my heart.  My latest find, an early edition of Robert Williams Wood’s ‘How to tell the Birds from the Flowers. A Manual of Flornithology for Beginners’ published in 1907 is an absolute joy. Hope you will enjoy some of the pictures that I have included.  The book is still in print and would make the most unusual gift for those difficult to buy-for people in your life!