Paper whites

Yesterday was my 28th birthday!

Alex sent me a whole lot of paper white narcissi. 220 stems to be exact, although I didn't count them myself. All of my vases are still in storage, so I was desperately trying to find appropriate vessels to plonk them all in before dotting their heavenly scent in different corners of the house.

These are from one of the flower farms on the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall. I just love that they were hand cut on a farm off the British coast and couriered right to my door.

The Isles of Scilly are well known for their flower farms, at the peak of this industry in the early 20th century, approximately 40 tonnes of flowers were being shipped from the islands to markets in London weekly. The Isles are owned mostly by the Duchy of Cornwall which leases much of the freehold land to the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust. The rent payable? One daffodil per annum. Such a funny and sweet little bit of history.

We've woken up to snow here in Wiltshire today, so right now this is what my day is looking like...

Kate  x

Winter pears

The apple tree that we usually pick raid from each autumn was almost entirely bare this year, so I am embracing pears in a big way to make up for it. A healthy addition to the fruit bowl, but also easy to turn into a sweet dessert.

They're beautifully photogenic. These are the Corella variety. The prettiest of all the pear varieties in my opinion. They lend themselves to a still life composition so nicely.

Ever since I read A Garden in the Hills by Christine McCabe (one of my favourite books of the last 18 months) I have thought about trying her apple fritters recipe. Now I am wondering if I should try it with these pears.

Recipe from A Garden in the Hills, page 307

To make the fritters, sift together 1 and a 1/2 cups of plain flour, 1 and 1/3 tsp of baking powder and a pinch of salt. To this add 1/2 a cup of brown sugar, 2/3 of a cup of milk and 2 well beaten free range eggs. (Preferably Claudette's. Of all the hen's eggs hers are the loveliest- brown shells, saffron yolks. We know they are hers for so resolutely independent is she that Claudette commands her own nest, frequently escaping the confines of the large chicken run to rummage among my vegetables.)

Mix well and add the apples, peeled, cored and cut into thin slices, or grated if you're in a hurry. Drop tablespoons of the batter into hot oil (Mum used fat or dripping) and cook until golden. Dust with icing sugar and serve immediately with great, fat dollops of cream.

I think this would work well as a sort of pancake/pikelet recipe too. 

Maybe for brunch this weekend.

Kate  x

Delayed

I had my British passport and vintage sun hat ready for an English 'summer'.

And then we were delayed...

We should be England bound in time to experience the very last few days of summer now. Arriving on the cusp of an English autumn ain't too bad!

Kate  x

An arbitrary date

June the 1st is just another day on the calendar, but it has me fidgety about routines and habits.

I haven't finished a novel since March, my social media use aimless scrolling is sky high, and despite getting a nasty mole cut out of me and biopsied, I am still hit and miss when it comes to a sunscreen applying regimen.

Arbitrary though it may be, it's as good a time as any to re-commit to sunscreen, reading time and faffing with flowers more often (so at the very least I have lovely vignettes featuring cut flowers to post on social media).

Whenever I feel like my time is being wasted in ways I will regret, I meditate on this:

"RALPH WALDO EMERSON ONCE ASKED WHAT WE WOULD DO IF THE STARS ONLY CAME OUT ONCE EVERY THOUSAND YEARS. NO ONE WOULD SLEEP THAT NIGHT, OF COURSE. THE WORLD WOULD CREATE NEW RELIGIONS OVERNIGHT. WE WOULD BE ECSTATIC, DELIRIOUS, MADE RAPTUROUS BY THE GLORY OF GOD. 

INSTEAD, THE STARS COME OUT EVERY NIGHT AND WE WATCH TELEVISION."

-Paul Hawkens

I am off to have the stitches from my biopsy removed today, then I will be ticking off some much ignored chores from my to do list before reading a big chunk of The Wind in the Willows. A book I started, oh, last year...

Kate  x

Latest thrift find + enduring milk glass obsession

This little Coalport dish was a happy find for $4 at one of our local Vinnie's last week. I ummed and ahhed a little deciding if I would buy it (another thing to wrap and pack into shipping for our move to the UK), but I justified it because I am going to use it as a soap dish. I plan to stop buying liquid pump soap and instead keep this with a little bar of soap by the bathroom basin. (Alex is forever coming home from business trips with pilfered hotel toiletries- so I rarely need to buy hand soap). So that $4 is actually a bigger saving, in plastic waste too.

I happily splashed the cash (a whole $12.50 *sarcasm*) on these darling dahlias on Saturday though. That dusky pink colour had me hook, line and sinker. The combination of pale pink with the stark white of vintage milk glass is stunning I think.  I can't get enough of my milk glass vases. My collection is small right now, but I continue to grow it any chance I get. Milk glass isn't common place in the vintage/collectable/charity stores of Australia, but it should be more prolific in England. Fingers crossed.

My milk glass obsession started HERE in case you need convincing of its beauty. It is relatively cheap because it isn't to everyones taste, and I'm grateful for that. The real Fenton pieces can be a bit expensive, but the generic vintage no-name ones are quite affordable. I don't discriminate, and buy whatever I can spy and fall in love with. This one above was $17, and a Fenton hobnail one that I have was $20. I'd love to get a compote style one. I think they're lovely.

So, that's a big tick for milk glass, and a big tick for the last of the dahlias for this season. Although, I'll get round two when we're living in England. 

Kate

Styling and photographs by Moss & Vine

Heather

One thing I am particularly excited about in relation to our move to the UK, is a trip to Scotland, specifically the highlands. It is probably number one on my travel bucket list, and has been for a few years.

I've never seen heather in bloom before, but yesterday I was in the NSW southern highlands, and I spotted cute little posies of heather for sale.

I hope to be able to see whole moors covered in heather come next springtime in England and Scotland. 

Right now I am just enjoying the tiny sprig that I brought home.

Kate  x

Photo and styling, Moss & Vine

Life lately

It has been a quiet start to the year on this space. I'm in a transition phase. This year sees me back at university studying my masters. And also, planning an unexpected but very welcome (now that I've come round from the shock) move to the UK. We're off to Oxford. I can't wait to experience springtime bluebell woods and the Liberty of London flower stand first hand.

There has also been some serious swooning over David Austin roses. I can't get enough!

Like I always say, David Austin is a God!

Kate  x

Styling and photographs by Moss & Vine

The last of summer

Roses, hydrangeas, and stone fruit. This is what I associate with a summer garden.

I have had plenty of stone fruit, and even some roses. But my hydrangeas did nothing this year. Complete fizzer. Not a single bloom in sight.

My birthday Hunters came in very handy with all the wet weather we had.

The last of the summer roses didn't appreciate being picked very much... They were shattering within 48 hours.

But roses indoors is always a lovely sight no matter how long they last.

Kate  x

Moss & Vine

Janu-wary

Wary. That is how January makes me feel sometimes. It is hard not to fall into a post-festive-season slump! Although it is touted as a fresh start and a clean slate, the first month of the year just makes me feel blah (even though, or maybe because, it is my birthday month)! I concentrate more on what hasn't happened (yet) and less on the exciting things to come! And 2016 should be very exciting! To break out of this slump i'm in I brought home some pretty white and pink two-tone carnations. Cheap and cheerful. The combination of milk glass and soft pastel flowers is to-die-for!

There's not much that some $9 carnations, a scented candle and a cup of tea can't fix. But really, I have no good reason to be blah, and remembering how fortunate I am is really all the tonic that I need. It is just another month on the calendar after all.

This too shall pass.

Happy New Year.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine

The eve of eve

It is the eve of Christmas Eve. Already! The year has flown by. I am filled with nervous but thrillingly happy anticipation for what 2016 could bring.

Merry Christmas to you and yours. Have a peaceful, safe and joyous festive season.

Kate  x

Styling and Photograph by Moss & Vine

Clouds of blue

There must be loads of acidity in the soil around the Southern Highlands, because the abundance of blue hydrangeas in the area is staggering! Staggeringly beautiful.

Robertson, NSW

Bowral, NSW

'Popcorn' hydrangea

How to CHANGE THE COLOUR of hydrangeas.

Kate  x

Links to love: December edition

A baked WREATH from Call Me Cupcake.

Floral WINESICLES for an adult summer treat.

So happy to see a SINCLAIR AND MOORE interview on the FLORET FARM BLOG. These are two flower-centric creatives that I love to follow online.

FLORET FLOWER FARM makes me want to live in Washington state and grow flowers. And of course A COUNTRY FARMHOUSE does too.

Current instagram crushes: HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

It's DAVID AUSTIN season. Woo hoo!

I think I could eat THIS in one sitting.

I love these little illuminated DUTCH HOUSES. If only I had a mantle to put them on.

Garland ideas: HERE, HERE, and HERE.

GARDEN DELIGHT.

Finally, in light of the horrors of the last month, and the world being noisy with hate, fear and ignorance, I keep playing THIS scene in my mind. Yes, I still watch Grey's Anatomy. I am twelve seasons committed. Can't quit, won't quit.

And now, I am off to enjoy the best of stone-fruit season here in sunny Australia. How does that song go?
Moving to the country...



Kate  x



Styling and Photographs by Moss & Vine

Birthday eve

I have been spending my Friday putting last touches to Alex's birthday celebration tomorrow. We're low-key in this house. So some presents, some flowers, and a birthday tart is celebration enough.

No birthday in November can be celebrated without the inclusion of peonies. Embrace their short season. Even if the recipient is a man. Or just buy them for your home, and pretend that they are part of your gift...

Originally I had planned to bake THIS cake for tomorrow. But, truth is, I am not the best cake maker, and I am not well acquainted with my oven. Baking adventures, whilst enthusiastically pursued in the beginning, leave me frustrated more often than not. Plus, that is simply too much cake for two people. Right? Maybe, maybe not. 

So I embraced cherry season and made a cherry tart/pie instead.

A little wonky, and little higgledy-piggledy, but made with love.

Happy, happy birthday.

Kate  x

Lest we forget

11/11/15

Links to love: November edition

This CAKE is phenomenal.

I am so in love with this STYLED SHOOT from +White Magazine. It is simply breathtaking.

Could I pretty please move into THIS dreamy little cottage?

I love the foliage GARLANDS in this wedding.

Even though this is a goodbye post, it makes me want to move to the Southern Highlands PRONTO!

So many BOOKS, so little time.

The Atacama Desert in BLOOM.

Current INSTAGRAM crushes HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

PUMPKIN PIE  from Farmette, timely, as the Northern Hemisphere embrace all things pumpkin. I am giddy with excitement for The Farmette Cookbook to be released in March.

Have you seen the Christmas cover for COUNTRY STYLE MAG this year? It features a joey called Honey who belongs to the master of aesthetics, Annabelle of THE DAILYS, photographed by the dizzyingly cool KARA ROSELUND. I love it when clever, kind, and talented creatives get together to produce wonderful things.

Kara's book SHELTER, has just been released. It looks fab!

HELLO from Adele was worth the four year wait. I will confess to contributing to the song being played in excess of 100 million times in one week on youtube...not sorry.

This seems like a good excuse for a trip out to ORANGE. Which is, incidentally, a place I've been wanting to visit more and more recently...

I adore KATE'S CREATIVE SPACE, and I had a serious case of envy when I read about her FLEA MARKET FORAGING success recently. I have been lusting after a vintage printers typesetting tray. But all of the ones I spotted on etsy were very pricey, and shipping costs made it a pretty prohibitive purchase...until...last weekend. I found one on my travels to the Southern Highlands! Thank you Dirty Jane's in Bowral.

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by M o s s & V i n e

My happy place: The Southern Highlands

We spent the past weekend wandering around gardens and vintage shops in the Southern Highlands. Last autumn we visited Red Cow Farm in Sutton Forest. This weekend we returned to the garden to see it looking utterly different in a contrasting season.

The garden was pretty spectacular in autumn, with an abundance of golden and amber coloured leaves. But I am so glad we saw it again, looking impossibly lush with all its fresh springtime growth. 

Kate  x

Photographs by M o s s & V i n e

RED COW FARM

Thrifted

October is BUY NOTHING NEW month. I am currently on a year-long mission to refrain from buying any new clothing items; the only new items going into my wardrobe as of June 1st 2015 will be thrifted and gifted. It's working out fine, I already have more than enough clothes anyway- most of us do. The impact of cheap, fast, and disposable fashion on our environment and society is horrendous. The 'buy less, make it last' movement should be a standard mantra, but sadly it is not in our modern world where status and materialism reigns supreme. It is crazy, especially when you can find the things you need- or the things you think you need- through other avenues. Make do, borrow, thrift. Sustainability is everyones responsibility. In the FLOWER INDUSTRY too.

I have always loved thrifting for vases. Some of my best buys have been found in charity shops and on market stalls. I thought I'd put together a post to illustrate the beauty brought to my home through thrifted vases. I've chosen four of my favourites.

What: Vintage depression era glass,

Where: from a market stall,

Featuring: pink and blush ranunculus,

Cost: I can't really remember the cost of this one, but under $20 certainly, 

it was bought for me by my Mum a few years ago now.

See it filled with stunning roses HERE.

What: Vintage brass bud vase,

Where: from a collectables store in Robertson, NSW,

Featuring: my favourite blue hue of hydrangea,

Cost: from memory I paid $17 or $18 for 2.

See the pair of them filled with sweet smelling stock HERE.

What: Vintage milk-glass vase,

Where: a retro collectables store called S t o n e C o t t a g e in Berridale, NSW,

Featuring: creamy white ranunculus,

Cost: this was $15 (I got a small discount because I know the lovely owner).

See it filled with garden-cut spring blossom HERE.

What: Vintage milky-green agate vase,

Where: charity shop in Crows Nest, Sydney,

Featuring: may bush,

Cost: this was $13 or $14.

See it with blush tulips HERE.

It is also possible to create beautiful displays just with what is already in your cupboards, or growing in your garden, like I did HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and even HERE. 

Of course, buying second hand vases isn't saving the world. But applying this approach to all of the purchases you make, goes some way to ensuring that you are treading more lightly upon the earth. When it comes to flowers: choose in-season flowers, buy direct from the grower if possible OR take your snips into your garden to see what might be available, invest in good quality artificial flowers, avoid imported varieties which are sprayed with an array of chemicals in order to pass quarantine, take your vase along to a florist and ask them to create directly into it rather than wrapping your flowers in waste heavy packaging, and limit the flower food you use- clean water and freshly cut stems should be enough.

 Below are helpful links with information about sustainability across many aspects of everyday life:

GOOD GUIDE

THE TRUE COST

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH

1 MILLION WOMEN

+1 Million Women (Australian Climate Coolers) 

Kate  x

Styling and Photographs by M o s s & V i n e