A busy day at the Flower Farm

The observant amongst you will have noticed that I have a great friend who owns a flower farm and I occasionally go and help her out on busy days. Those of you with even more exceptional observation skills will have noted that this Sunday is Mothers Day, probably the busiest day in a florists calendar. So the combination of the two found me at 7am yesterday morning hoping in the car for the 60 mile trip to Common Farm Flowers in Charlton Musgrove, Somerset. 60 Miles isn't far on good dual carriageways but as I live in the country we don't have many of them, so it was B roads all the way, a very pleasant way to travel. 

I knew from several conversations in the previous week that this year was looking to be Georgie's best ever day for Mothers Day flowers and we were going to be working pretty hard. In anticipation of this, I was carrying supplies in the form of a large Lemon Drizzle cake, there is nothing better than a large mug of tea and a slice of cake to raise the spirits. 

Upon arrival I was greeted by a huge wall of empty cardboard boxes in the studio, and others out in the office. 

I soon learned that my job for the day was to run the "Despatch" department. This involved aqua packing the flowers, attaching all the gift labels, putting flowers in the boxes and making sure all the correct labels were added to the box. Now it sounds simple but its quite a time consuming job and I had 55 boxes to pack . So off we went. 

The studio was full of buckets of the most beautiful Narcissi, Ranunculus and Tulips in all shades and loads of different sorts of greenery. Georgie, Sharon and Tessa were working hard to produce beautiful arrangements. Some were going as bouquets, some were smaller and being packed with jam jar's so the lucky recipient would have 3 Jam Jar posies to enjoy, and yet others were being packed with beautiful handmade chocolates, supplied by a local artisan chocolate business. 

Time for morning tea and cake came round very quickly.

Don't worry we ate the rest of it with afternoon tea. Before we knew it , it was 4pm and I was carrying the last completed box to the huge pile in the dining room. 

It was a lovely day , and what made it even nicer is knowing that as I type this, lucky ladies up and down the UK are receiving their beautiful flowers from loving family members and I went some way to helping put that huge smile I know they will all have, on their face. I am paying the price today though, all that bending means I am as stiff as a board, never mind its getting me back in trim for the gardening season. Time to burn off some of that cake. 

Meanwhile back in Barton, this morning, walking on the beach I noticed that a very large branch had got caught in the boulders of one of the breakwaters. It was standing upright looking like a tree, and it got me wandering where on earth it had come from, I would like to think it has washed across the atlantic from some exotic island in the Caribbean or from the shores of South America. Gibson and I sat looking at it with The Needles as a backdrop for a while contemplating its origins. 

I usually finish with a picture of Gibson but this week, its Teacake the Common Farm Dog who has the final picture slot on the blog, she is a lovely little dog with Kamikaze tendencies,. You always have to drive very slowly and carefully into the yard as she will be playing chicken with you and your car. Have a great weekend and for those of you spending it with your mum have a wonderful time, you never know how long you are going to have her ..