Flowers in the House
Narcissus - Abba
The weather’s all over the place with rain and then some sun breaking through and then a lot more rain, so the country roads are flooding and the fields are looking more like patchy lakes. The bulbs are really springing up though, which brings me no end of joy. Some bulbs in the garden were planted by me but others were kindly buried by the previous owners, so they’re an exciting surprise as leaves emerge and I eagerly try and figure out what they are.
We’ve got flowers in the house too, as many as we can fit into vases, vessels, anything that’ll take them. A handsome thistle sits in stark contrast next to the thing that looks like mimosa but I’m not actually certain is mimosa, whilst the tulips and daffodils huddle together in the brightly striped vase in the kitchen. Last year I found a beautiful little cream vase in a charity shop which has become home to some cuttings from the bush out the front but, alas, we have detected a mystery leakage which I temporarily ‘fixed’ by just placing it on a tissue - a job for another time.
Flowers in the house are my favourite way to bring the outside in and enjoy the coming spring months when I long to be outside. Before Christmas I bought some bulbs at Tavistock Pannier Market, ‘Narcissus Abba’, my photo of the label tells me, and with 4 flowers having bloomed so far they’ve been worth the wait. Not only did four flower heads pop up from a stem when I was expecting one, but they smell absolutely glorious too!
As well as gardening and the impulse to turn the house into a plant nursery, I’m also feeling the itch to bake. I’ve amassed, over the years, quite a considerable collection of cookbooks which, along with all my saved posts on Instagram, scraps from magazines and ideas that pop into my head, all come together to muddle themselves into more of a overwhelming list of options rather than a helpful selection of which to simply choose from. This multitude of choices has meant, on many occasions, that I spend so long deciding that I never actually get around to baking anything at all.
Fortunately, this weekend’s urge to bake has the added factor that I actually have a deadline, a birthday in fact, which is the kick up the bum I need and I’m excited. I know I won’t allow myself to simply say ‘I’ll do it next weekend’ so the question now is, what? I sip my coffee and start to make a plan in my head. I need to check the cupboards for ingredients but I’m quietly confident that my usual stance of ‘buy everything in case you ever need it, even if it’s only once’ means I’ll have most things I’ll need. The necessary next step to move from the dining table where I write feels as good a reason as any to sign off so down goes the last of the coffee, I’ll see you after some cake!
Flowers in the house
