Forget tulipomania. (well, at least until next spring). Tonight I picked the first dahlias. 

It’s perfect this evening. At the end of a pretty busy day, I’ve spent a couple of very quiet hours in the garden. The sun is setting with just a light breeze blowing. Here is the view from here.

Yesterday evening, I left London but not without taking a snap of my flat mate William’s lilies… the new ephemeral attraction of Lambs Conduit Street. Pop by and look up – they’re on the balcony (they smell even more amazing than they look).

Arriving in Dorset late last night I woke early to a morning of unbelievable stillness. A heavy dew has fallen. Dare I say it… there is a bit of autumn in the air already. Here are a couple of pics of the vegetable patch. Who knew asparagus could look so beautiful?

Oh dear, I feel like I’m turning in to Sarah Raven. Basically, I love Sarah Raven, although I think it could be a finely balanced thing as to whether I might suddenly start not liking her. But for now, I’m very happy to start mistaking myself for her.

It was a weekend in the veg patch; rainshowers one minute, baking sunshine the next. Mum and Dad came to stay and we went to my Uncle’s 80th birthday party in Lyme Regis – 41 Pentreaths (or cousins) all in one room, the eldest 91 and the youngest 3. What do you give an 80 year old uncle who has expressly forbidden all presents? A box of vegetables picked that morning seemed a good bet.

(Bridie, if you like that little bunch of flowers tucked in the corner of the box – I’ve brought you one for the shop this evening).

I was particularly struck today by the beauty of the cabbages, January King and the Cavolo Nero, or Tuscan Kale. They are for the future. For now, its all about peas and courgettes. Here was lunch today. Delicious – but do you see what I mean about Sarah Raven?!

This morning, I was driving to Dorset via a new site in Wiltshire. I got a little lost on my way down, and chanced upon the incredible valley west of Wilton – Broadchalke, Bowerchalke, Fifeild Bavant, Ebbersborne Wake.

Getting very lost in the narrow chalk lanes, it was a great joy to chance upon Reddish House – Cecil Beaton’s home after he left Ashcombe. 

There’s a wonderful photograph of Beaton and Hockney in the conservatory at Reddish in Peter Schlesinger’s brilliant photo memory, A Checkered Past – one of my favourite books that we sell in the shop (although it is very hard to get hold of – forgive us if we sell out).

And then, here is Reddish today – I don’t think Beaton would approve of that gate and wall. But the rest…. amazing.

Have you noticed something incredibly exciting arriving in London? I can’t say I hate Boris, I can’t say I love him – but I do love the new London bike scheme. All over London, for the last few months, I’ve seen weird square things arriving in the footpaths. And this week – they turned into bike racks. When do they do all of this stuff? In the middle of the night? 

I like the dark blue – I guess we’re lucky these bikes are sponsored by Barclays, not Orange (of course the bikes are sponsored – this is London not Paris after all).

But I REALLY like the idea of the London bike scheme. I can’t wait for the 30th July.

Meanwhile, this evening I arrived down in Dorset. It was good to have a wander around the veg garden at sunset. The potatoes are nearly over, but the peas are nearly ready. Courgettes and pumpkins are beginning their crazy march across the beds. The calendula officianalis are in full swing. The orchard and the meadow – despite the drought – are coming together.

Sometimes, it’s hard to believe that I only moved in last autumn, and only really started gardening in the spring. Vegetable gardens are a wonderful thing.

Meanwhile the nicotianas and lilies are in flower on the terrace. It’s all really a question, now, of thinking about my big old herbaceous border. Riddled with ground elder, and in need of a lot of work.  That’s a task for next year… watch this space…!

A little while ago, I found a sad old chair in a junk auction, falling to bits and covered in a revolting greasy chintz. Not very encouraging, but there was something about its shape, length and line that I liked. (I’m afraid I don’t have any before photos).

So, I bought it for a couple of hundred quid and took it down to Dorset where it spent the winter getting cold and damp.

Eventually this spring I got around to sending the chair to my brilliant upholsterer, Fiona Edmunds, based down in Dorset. She has done the most beautiful job restoring the chair – which turned out, for a start, to be an original Howard & Co with the original ticking underneath.

I was not sure what to upholster it in and then thought of my friend Max Rollitt, of yellow sofa fame. Max dyes old French hemp towels & sheets to recover his chairs. And I decided upon his blue nana – a beautiful, fine blue hemp.

A small detail that would appeal to any readers who have the initials E.L. or A.P.  As you may recall, those old French sheets are nearly always embroidered. I could have hidden the letters but Fi and I decided it would be nice to keep that little piece of history alive…

Here are some photos of the new blue chair at the Parsonage… looking quite at home, I think.  It’s probably the most comfortable thing I have ever sat in.

What did you do for gay pride on this sunny Saturday?

I spent the day in my veg patch. Very nice it was too.  Here are a couple of pics.  This evening I had some very old friends round for supper, a good excuse to dig some new potatoes and to pick some very young broad beans.

For me, I reckon my afternoon was really about broad bean pride.  No bands, no floats, no creepy commercialisation of something which should not really be, well, commercial. Just that amazing smell, and amazing spring green, of young broad beans freshly podded.

I suspect that heaven is indeed a garden, not a nightclub under an arch in Charing Cross.

I saw a really old friend the other day for the first time in years. He was just off to the farewell party for Leonie Highton, associate editor at House & Garden for as long as I can find a masthead of that august magazine. I don’t know Leonie well but she’s been to one or two of our parties at the shop and she’s always, well, just lovely. (In fact, I haven’t met anyone at H&G who isn’t lovely, and that is saying something I think!).

So I was quite happy this morning, in a secondhand bookshop, to find Entertaining with House and Garden: 600 recipes for successful menus and parties – compiled by Leonie Highton and published in 1979. Admittedly without a dust cover, but at £1 I think this may be the best value cook book I buy all year.

For a start, I love the idea of successful menus (as well as successful parties). Secondly, the book has some of the best pictures I have seen for a little while. And it is packed with things I would like to cook, and I suspect if I lend it to Bridie she will be in to even more of Leonie’s recipes (I’m thinking of Bridie’s famous heart shaped key lime pie – you need to scroll down a little). 

Who wouldn’t want to be sitting around that nice pine table, on the SOUPS page, drinking from beautiful chunky wine glasses and eating French Onion soup out of stoneware bowls? Or sitting down at that bleached table in the white-painted-brick conservatory, while ‘planning ahead’?  Who doesn’t want a shelving unit in their kitchen made out of white 4″ square tiles – perfection (although I will admit, I would prefer to live without the rattan chairs).

And, on this breezy sunny day in Dorset, who wouldn’t want to be sitting down for that incredible grilled picnic?

Inspiration indeed.

Dear all,

Bridie, Anastasia and I would like some help.

Are you neurotically tidy, enjoy wrapping gifts, sending out packages, are basically happy, not over-enthusiastic but just right, would realise the front step needs sweeping without being asked, are fun to have a drink with at the end of the day, hard working, want to do well, okay with numbers, amused not frustrated by mad customers (sorry, I hope no mad customers are reading this), and in need of a part time job for a few days a week?

Then we would like to hear from you. We are looking for another person to help in the shop. You will shortly see a notice appearing in the shop window, and Bridie will be posting on the News page of the site too.

If you are reading this and think you would like to join the team, or know the perfect person for us – would you get in touch?  

Bridie and I have decided that you will be about 24, French, extremely good looking, of ambiguous sexuality, and ideally called Benoit. 

If you don’t quite fit that bill, we can probably all get over it and we would still like to hear from you. So either way, if you would like to join the team, let us know.  

Please give Bridie a call in the shop or email us.  The best thing would be to send, by good old fashioned post, to 17 Rugby Street WC1N 3QT, your cv and interests. Ideally with a hand written envelope, and please don’t forget to include your passport photo, Benoit.