Post Comment Love 18-20 May

Hello there and welcome to another #PoCoLo if you were here last week it was great to see you.  If you're new here this week, then welcome, it's great to have you along and I know that you'll find some great posts to read and a fabulous group of bloggers too.

I'm hoping that by the time this is published the weather's back on the warmer side. I can't believe how different it's been; one day I was in summer dresses and sunglasses and the next day winter boots and coats would have been appropriate.  And I wished I'd worn them, my cardigan wasn't anywhere near warm enough.

As well as looking forward to the Chelsea Flower Show, which is the post I've linked up this week, I am also interested to see how the Royal wedding goes, and of course the Cup Final.  We've a family barbecue too this weekend and we should head back over to the allotment, to really make it look as if we've made an effort.  We hadn't visited all winter and had been putting off our first visit, but remembering that we failed the inspection last year, we're determined not to fail again.  I'm hoping we'll be ok as in just a couple of visits there's a noticeable difference and significantly less grass, and what's even better is that our plot isn't the worst. Phew.

My photo this week is something much prettier - two alliums in my garden.  The alliums have quietly gone about their business and have suddenly burst into flower, they're alongside the patio and a welcome addition.  As it seems I can grow these, and they aren't too fussy about soil, perhaps I should get some more!

Before we get onto this week's Blogger Showcase, Morgan and I have a request for you - we're looking for some guest co-hosts of Post Comment Love at the end of July and August, so if you'd like to guest co-host our weekly linky, then please get in touch with either Morgan or I.  If you've never done it before, don't be scared, it's great fun and you won't be alone, I promise.

Equally if you'd like to be featured in a future Blogger Showcase then also get in touch, we do have a bit of a waiting list into July at the moment, but all you need to do is send us your answers and we can sort out a date. 

Blogger Showcase: Mandy from MomMandy

Mandy's another coffee and cake kinda girl and her perfect night in involves a food coma.  Mandy blogs about balance, budget, parenting and more and is another of our linkers who's taken us up on being featured.  She's a quirky side too, but you'll have to pop over to Morgan's blog to find out more about Mandy and her blog.

But before you go, don't forget to connect with Mandy on her social channels:  Twitter  -  Pinterest  -  Instagram

An InLinkz Link-up

Looking forward to RHS Chelsea

I *might* have mentioned it once or twice already, but I'm off to Chelsea this year.  And I'm super-excited about it, even more than normal, as apart from it being the best Flower Show ever, I applied and got Press accreditation.  I know, exciting huh?  I found out back in April that my application was successful and recently my pass arrived, all I was waiting for was to find out which days I'd been allocated.  

And I got that email today and so I'm aiming to make as much use of that as I can and visit on a show day and the press day on Monday.  I'm sure it won't be as exciting as I'm making out, but I'm excited. I think I'm allowed to be.

I'm a sucker for all things related to the show at this time of year, and often that's restricted to the television programmes (which are already set to record).  I picked up some interesting facts from the A-Z of Chelsea which was on last weekend, there's

• 27 show gardens,
• 400 exhibitors, 
• over 100 nurseries provide plants for the show, which as you'd expect have to be in exactly the right condition and stage of flowering to be at their best throughout the show, and
• the Great Pavilion is the equivalent size of two football pitches - no wonder it takes your breath away when you first enter.

But often it's the little things, the detail in the gardens as well as the overall impact of the show garden.  Just look at the detail of the plants in the photo below, and the gravel on the path and how it's broken up.  It's amazing how these gardens are assembled, in fact how the whole show ground is transformed for just a few days of the show, and then removed afterwards.  There's the infamous plant sale on the last day of the show of course, but more and more the gardens are being recreated in alternative spaces, and I like that.  I like how the designer's work, the plants and the design gets to live on, nothing, especially such things of beauty should be discarded so easily. 

2015 SHOW GARDEN: THE HIDDEN BEAUTY OF KRANJI

Of course I love to look at the show gardens too, but I don't think I've ever managed to see them all and I suspect this won't change this year - although wouldn't it be nice if it did?  The photos I'm sharing in this post are from my last visit to Chelsea, which I'm struggling to believe was as long ago as 2015.  I'm long overdue a visit...

2015 SHOW GARDEN: BEAUTY OF ISLAM

There's always so much to see and if you ask MOH he'll tell you I have him walking every inch of those two football pitches of the Grand Pavilion.  It borders on the bonkers, the amazing, the wonderful and the superb. I think having just a single type of flower on show adds to the impact and wow factor, and while I haven't shared them here (mainly because I have veg envy and don't seem to have so many photos), the vegetable displays are definitely on the side of amazing.  I'm aiming to get some veg photos to share with you this year, so you can see what I mean.

2015: LUPINS IN THE GRAND PAVILION

2015: ALLIUMS IN THE GRAND PAVILION

The other part of the show I like to see is the artisan gardens, on our last visit this was one of the few photos I was able to take as the whole space was rammed, uncomfortably so and we gave up planning to come back later in the evening, but were distracted by something equally as wonderful, no doubt.  So they're on my list to see this time round too.

2015: ONE OF THE ARTISAN GARDENS

This year I've decided I should do some "homework" ahead of my visit and have a bit of a plan for what I want to see, well a plan that's a bit more detailed than everything, that is!  So I've taken a look at the RHS site to see what I can expect.

The health and wellbeing gardens immediately caught my eye, as I know how much I benefit from a potter around the greenhouse, or a weeding session on the allotment.  It also wasn't long before I spotted there's a gin garden, it's inspired by the Silent Pool Distillery and as you'd expect uses botanicals in its planting. I've a feeling I'll be making a stop there.

In fact my plan didn't get much further than this, as once I'd started browsing to see what's there I realised I'd gone down my very own rabbit hole, very enjoyable, but it wasn't helping getting this post written.  So for the time being I've reverted to the plan of having a wander and avoiding the crowds, because often that's the best way to enjoy a garden.

Blinds and shutters with Thomas Sanderson

No doubt like me you've heard of Thomas Sanderson and their conservatory blinds and shutters and think you know their products. I did too, but when I visited their stand at Grand Designs recently, I realised that maybe I didn't after all.

It's been a long time since I've looked at blinds, and I think it's safe to say that I've never really considered conservatory blinds.  But with the work we have going on in our conservatory at the moment I was interested to find out if conservatory blinds really could be for us. 

I was surprised to learn that Thomas Sanderson have partnered with Laura Ashley to bring two great names into your conservatory.  There's twenty two colours in this range and while I didn't see them, I'm pretty sure the colours will be classic, muted, easy to live with and coordinate easily with every kind of conservatory decor.

There were a couple of other things I learnt on my visit too, and it seems that blinds are no longer just blinds. I expect the design to be elegant, and functional of course, but I never expected blinds to be full of innovation and technology.

The Duette energy smart blinds have a honeycomb layer, which is where the innovation comes in.  These two layers of pleated fabric offer superior insulation, keeping conservatories warm in winter and cooler in warmer weather - clever hey?  Someone's been doing their homework on the typical UK conservatory! 

Thomas Sanderson's website says that these blinds can "reduce energy bills by up to 25%" and as well as keeping the glare out they "absorb up to 45% of noise pollution" which is quite something.

The technology I mentioned before is two-fold.  Instead of manually raising and lowering your blinds you can opt for a remote control, which was new to me.  But even newer, and only to be expected is a new app.  I told you it was clever.

Shutters provide a completely different look for a conservatory and are also suitable for kitchens and bathrooms.  Thomas Sanderson have developed their LifeTime shutters to keep the heat in, to not fade or turn yellow from exposure or sunlight.  Which sounds exactly what you want, and like their blinds don't have to be boring, as the image below from the stand shows.

It was fascinating to learn more about modern day blinds, and both MOH and I walked away from the Thomas Sanderson stand truly inspired and wowed by the possibilities for our own conservatory. 

What's put us off even thinking about conservatories so far is thinking that blinds were fuddy-duddy, but these certainly aren't.  Another consideration we thought might make blinds a no-go is the width of our window, which is around two metres but we learnt that this shouldn't be an issue either, and the people at Thomas Sanderson's have clever ways around this too, if needed.

Since we've been back from Grand Designs we've given blinds in our conservatory some serious thought.  We are tempted but at the moment our priority is getting through this part of the refurbishment and it's something we'll come back to and give further consideration to once that's done.  The unknown though is the price, and while I understand that Thomas Sanderson is committed to craftsmanship and personal service, it would be nice to know if they're in our price range before booking a design consultation, which for me, is something I'd do once I was seriously considering taking this forward.

I know from our visit to Grand Designs that it's well worth talking to their people, not only were they well informed and knowledgeable, they were also extremely personable and proud of the company they represented.  And how a company's people operate tells you a lot about a company, I think.  So thanks to Debbs and her team at Grand Designs for making us feel so welcome, and for sharing their knowledge, it was much appreciated.

* This is a collaborative post but all views are my own.