Foxgloves on Friday

Well, why not? Since I spotted some growing in my succulents, which isn’t as painful as it sounds, I’ve been fixated on foxgloves. Remembering those I saw at last year’s Chelsea Flower Show I thought it was about time those from the Botanic Nursery, had an airing here. It looks as if the ones below are clambering towards the top of the pavilion last May. I think it’s mostly the angle though, that and trying (and failing, it seems) to get as much foxglove as I could into a single shot.

I didn’t do any better getting these into the shot either. But I’m forgiving myself for their creamy yellowness, which starts from the fresh lime green.

When you think foxgloves, I’m sure we all think fairly similar. But in the photo above there’s the traditional downward facing bell (the white ones in the background), the creamy yellow in the foreground which is more horizontal and the more flowery purple stems. That messes with our ideals doesn’t it? Thankfully they’re all pretty, so I think they can get away with it.

My favourite though are the ones that has the speckled landing strip for bees. And they’re the ones that are most like the ones in my garden, which is lucky isn’t it?

On crockery watch at Jarrold in Norwich

I have a bit of a thing for crockery. That sentence felt like it was prompted by some kind of confession at a self-help group. It wasn’t meant to, and I suspect you already know about my crockery thing, or some of it at least as I’ve shared a few crockery posts here in the past, and use my own mini-collection comes out for styling posts at times. It’s not really a mini-collection either, as I have complete tea sets but let’s keep that just between you and I, ok?

In Norwich recently I was keen to take a look around the city’s independent department store, Jarrold and as we wandered around the Lanes I spotted it in the distance and steered MOH towards it and inside before he could work out quite what was happening. We headed straight to the Lower Ground floor where the homeware department was. I wasn’t expecting to be bowled over (sorry!) by the dishes that called my name, but I was.

You can see why, can’t you?

I had more time than I thought I would to peruse, and wish and wonder and plot and plan for their use and future purchases as MOH had landed in front of the gin section, and was doing his own extensive research.

While the bold geometric patterns above are great, it’s the smaller repetitive patterns that I’m much more attracted to. My problem, as ever, is choice. Too much of it appears to paralyse me, rendering me almost unable to make an informed decision. Quite often, the choice becomes much simpler, if I can’t choose then it becomes I’ll have all or nothing. And that quite often helps the decision making process, I mean, buying all of these just because I couldn’t choose would be silly, so the answer was none. For now.

There will come a time I’m sure when following that decision tree, I’ll think it perfectly sensible to buy the lot, perhaps then narrowing it down further will become more realistic. Or maybe, I’ll change tack completely and go for the bees…

Or other small patterned insect, bird or animal patterned crockery.

Who knows.

But all those decisions, or almost decisions, made for thirsty work and so this Gin and Tonic set were actually the most likely to leave the shop as purchases, but by then it was time to prise MOH out of the wine section before we ended up with a serious discussion on how many bottles we should buy.

And it was definitely time for tea and cake…

Geometric and encaustic tiles at Grand Designs Live

I’ve said before that Grand Designs Live, and in fact any show is a treat for the senses, and can provide complete overload as well as the inspiration you might be after. Or both. And sometimes, like anything, it takes a while for the brain to process it all. There’s so much to see, that it means very tired legs at the end of it after trying to see everything, and MOH will tell you I try my best to see just about everything.

At times though there’s things that just make you stop and smile. And yearn for a Victorian style property that has a short path in the front garden that could be tiled, or better has the hallway that you could lavish tiles such as these on.

But first, let me tell you about encaustic tiles - a term i’d not heard of before. They’re simply ceramic tiles where the pattern is made of different coloured clay, rather than being part of the glaze. Usually they have two colours, but can have up to six colours, and the image below shows some good examples of these, and they’re stunning aren’t they?

You’ll probably have seen them before though, even walked on them I’m sure, as they’re often embedded into designs with geometric designs.

And of course, there’s plenty of designs. This one definitely has the feel of a patchwork quilt pattern - I wonder what came first, the tile pattern or the quilt?

And if you’re thinking that all of these are very traditional, then think again. This smaller pattern has a much more modern feel and in a modern setting, say a bathroom with a crittall-type shower enclosure and black fittings would look stunning, and bring the traditional and contemporary styles together.

They also give the tiles I’ve shared from Porto a run for their money too, don’t they?