« February 2008 | Main | April 2008 »
The next Newsletter will be out tomorrow - it will have a bit about what is blooming in the garden, a special offer on corsages, how to make spring flowers last in a vase and a knitting pattern for these cute fluffy bunnies - just the thing to use up all those odd bits of wool.
If you aren't already a subscriber and would like to be one (its free - comes by e-mail every fortnight and I guarantee no spam) - email me here and put Newsletter please in the subject line.
I love old things.
I grew up in an old house surrounded by antiques, I studied history and art history, I worked as an art gallery curator. My whole life has been steeped in the remnants of other people's lives and the patina and personality of other people's things.
I always assumed that I would live in an old house.
However, having decided that we wanted to live in this area, and as we are not millionaires, it quickly became obvious that I would have to chose between buying an old house with personality and a tiny garden or buying a modern box with a decent amount of land. We went for the land.
The plan all along has been to transform the house by using old materials inside - finally, after 4 years, we are about to begin changing the garage into bedrooms so that our existing bedroom can become my studio/office. (Anyone with a home based business will recognise how important this is - another year of working on the kitchen table and I think I will be evicted). Finally it is time to go shopping.
My favourite kind of shopping. Salvage yard shopping.
For ages Glasgow was without a salvage yard - all the bits that people pulled out of tenements were shipped to Edinburgh and London- but recently
Glasgow Architectural Salvage (GAS) opened off South Street so we went to have a look.
Heaven - everything from doors, windows and sinks to shop fittings, enamel signs and old bicycles. All piled up in a dusty jumble.
As I said - heaven.
This is the door we chose - very sturdy, very good condition, we will commission a piece of glass to replace the 1920s bubble glass at some point in the future. We also got a couple of old butler's sinks which we will get set into the reclaimed chemistry bench worktops in the kitchen.
This morning is a good one. Snapdragon has been chosen as one of the top 50 florists by the Independent newspaper.
Thank you to the panel of Victoria Summerley, Annabel Lewis and Tricia Guild. I am just so, so chuffed and extremely smiley!
A friend had great news yesterday and went off to celebrate by eating an entire bar of chocolate. I shall be celebrating in similar style- we shall head into town for lunch and to buy a new front door - then we are going to a James Taylor concert and onto friends' joint 40th birthday party.
Oh its going to be a good day.
I hope all your Saturdays are as fine,
J
x
I don't know whether it is the springing of spring or the after effects of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's Chicken project but the world seems to be suddenly full of chickens.
Yesterday I saw some pecking about on the main road (possibly these are not long for this world!), others scratched about in the carpark at Balmaha and Zoe's music teacher seems to have acquired a small flock. A friend from Glasgow phoned to ask me whether I thought she would be able to keep chickens in her garden.
Jane Harrower, who we get our chickens from, is thinking about getting in meat birds as opposed to just egg birds as she has had so many enquiries.
Our own chickens are much happier now that there is intermittent sunshine - they are no longer poor shivering wrecks but strut about my flower beds scratching up mulch. We moved them to the main cutting garden, away from the mud of the pig field and put the electric fence around their house. They are not bothered by the fence at all but it stops Jasmine from eating all the eggs.
It is lovely to have them back. It is also lovely to be able to make mayonnaise again (there is no spltting if you use really fresh eggs, you can glug the oil in and it doesn't split).
This is Treela - who wants to be a house chicken.
I had a great morning with Karon, we both have similar issues going on in our businesses (how to get known, how to expand, how to tell a story about what we do, how to keep it all authentic) - it is a buzz to have ideas sparking off similar minds.
We have a few exciting projects mapped out so watch this space!
My greenhouse is filled with hyacinths at the moment. I decided not to sell hyacinth bulbs this year - though by no means difficult they are not as foolproof as narcissi and amaryllis and I hate the idea that something may go wrong and that they may not flower properly in someone's home.
Typically I only made this decision after I had ordered the bulbs so I planted them up after I had cleared the Mothers Day rush and am now rewarded by trays of flowers about to bloom. I think a lavish photo shoot is in order!
I also think that rules about forcing bulbs may be complete balderdash - if you want your hyacinths in bloom for Christmas then follow the rules but if you are happy for an Easter splurge just plant them and let them get on with it.
After a fantastic Easter break spent doing very little apart from walk, eat chocolate and make rope swings it is time to get back to work.
Today I shall be blocking out what I am going to be doing for the rest of the year - what products, what shows, what publicity and so on. This is an unusual level of organisation.
The reason is that tomorrow I am headed down to Ayrshire to have a meeting with Karon from Dream Acres where we shall be brainstorming to work out how we can usefully collaborate. It is a risky venture in some ways - one that I would undertake with very few people.
I have known a number of crafters who don't have a sense of the core of their business - one in particular who didn't know what her business was, and more importantly didn't know what it wasn't, so was like a magpie,distracted by everyone else's bright ideas, copying things from here, there and everywhere. A great lesson in what not to do.
I think that the most important things that Karon and I can bring to the table is a sense of self and an idea of what our own businesses have planned for the next 9 months. And a sense of humour. I am really looking forward to it.
We are lucky enough to live in a stupendously beautiful part of the world.
Our front hedge marks the boundary of the Loch Lomond National Park and we are about 5 minutes drive from Loch Lomond itself.
Perhaps because of this, we visit the Loch far too infrequently - there are always other things to be done or other places to go.
This holiday weekend we are all off work and school and have deliberately kept the days free so that we can spend time as a family and just "be".
This morning it was bright and crisp, with snow on the hills and sunshine on the slopes so we decided to drive up to Rowardennan, at the end of the road on the east side of the Loch and then walk round the point, beach combing as we went.
It is a lovely walk - a mix of spindly trees and pebbly beaches with awe inspiring view after awe inspiring view. Every time you turn a corner you gasp afresh.
There are circles of ash where people have built fires, toasting their toes as they stare out over the water. Something for the summer I think (though it shall have to be a smoky fire to keep away the midges).
Sometimes it is important to stop, take stock and realise how lucky we are.
Over the past couple of weeks there have been a few prompts to define Snapdragon as a business - to come up with the so called elevator pitch where I can define exactly what we do and where we are going in 2 sentences.
First there was a Not on the High Street survey that asked what my overall aim was for my business (the multiple choice answers ranged from crafting in front of the tv to taking over the world); then there was a questionnaire via WIRE and tonight I am going to a women's networking meeting at the local hotel in Drymen. It has all got me thinking. Again.
To be honest I don't have an answer yet. I grow cut flowers sustainably and organically and dream of being able to send them nationwide within the UK to bring a bit of cutting garden loveliness to people's lives. I am inspired by such loveliness to create cushions and teacosies, pictures and notebooks all decorated with images of my garden which are thankfully easier to transport and sell by mail order. Once we have restored the Airstream trailer and parked it on its reclaimed deck I shall run workshops - teaching people to grow and make things themselves. See, already we have reached the 87th floor and my elevator mate has run away!
Really though what I want from Snapdragon is the chance to prove that a small, ethically based business growing and making things in Scotland can work, can make money, can employ a few people, can make people smile.
In the meantime I have been experimenting with images of Airstream trailers amongst the flowers - its still at an early stage but slowly coming together . . . .a project for Easter.
Euan will read that bit and fume . . . the project for Easter is really clearing accumulated junk from around the house so that building work can start - junk that includes several hundred pan tiles, a few sinks and lots of pots of plants.
The photo is from last summer (obviously) - at the moment the dream still looks too muddy for photos.
One of the interesting things about living in rural Scotland is the juncture between the wild, rugged scenery and the management that is entailed in making that scenery sustainable - both economically and structurally.
Of course all the green and pleasant land throughout the UK is a managed landscape, the rolling green hills dependent on sheep to graze them down and so on.
What I found slightly peculiar in this part of Scotland though was that when you get away from the pasture of our immediate neighbours, you are into the wilder areas of shooting estates where the crop is the opportunity to shoot birds or deer and the land is kept as carefully managed moor and copse to let the birds thrive.
One side effect of this is that at certain times of year excess game sloshes round the county and it is not unusual to return home to find a brace of pheasant hanging on the doorhandle. We now have a great repertoire of pheasant recipes - the best of which is pheasant and cinnamon from the Moro cookbook.
This week gave us a chance of something a bit more substantial - deer have thrived in the mild winters and have bred to a point where the numbers are threatening farm livelihoods, so they are being selectively culled. This is probably something that some people feel squeamish about. My main concern though is that the meat should not be wasted so when we were offered a deer for the freezer I began to leaf through the cookery books.
This morning I have been experimenting with adapting a Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe for braesola - the loin of venison gets marinated in a mix of salt, wine and spices for 4-5 days in the fridge and then wrapped in muslin and hung on the shed veranda for a few weeks to turn into a dried meat.
I am very excited about it but I have my suspicions that I shall find it difficult to get others to try it.
The latest issue of my fortnightly e-mail Newsletter is now out.
Email me here if you would like to subscribe.
This issue there is a bit about splitting clumps of snowdrops, some stocktaking special offers, and a give away of bulbs of this beautiful lily Netty's Pride.
J
x
