This month it’s all about peonies, picnics & pageantry!
June is a glorious month with feelings of summer in full swing; we can spend more time in our gardens and relish those magical dusky evenings - there’s the feeling that school's (almost) out and holidays are beckoning. This year it feels that life is buzzing again with anticipated gatherings and high days inspiration. Last week I visited the Chelsea Flower Show (read all about my best bits and Pollyanna Wilkinson’s incredible garden below) and despite some traditional cloudbursts, spirits were not in the least dampened - our capital was buzzing with a positivity that was intoxicating.
And what a brilliant time to celebrate the platinum jubilee of our beloved Queen, Her Royal Highness Elizabeth. After seventy years on the throne and now 96 years old, I cannot think of a better role model - someone to whole heartedly admire and help us all feel positive (and respectful) about old age. Susannah Coe has written about the imminent pomp and pageantry of the Jubilee events, so whether you’re watching the action in London or on the telly with some Pimms and trifle, don’t miss our round-up. Sarah Corbett-Winder shows us three outfits to wear to the celebrations this weekend and now I can’t stop thinking about that Dôen dress! But amid the festivities and elation in the air, there may be a shadow creeping in that could temper the joy - Nicole Croft’s piece this month, 'The Spaces Around Us’ is a moving reminder to leave a little space for … life. Writer Tula Goodwin gives us an insight into the Queen's lifelong passion for horses and how we might also find some visceral joy of the equine kind.
June is synonymous with peonies which are pure heaven to me - their voluptuous petals and scent evoke memories of summer celebrations and they make the most perfect posies for decorating the table or picnic display. My dear friend Butter Wakefield gives us her ‘guide to peonies’ including her favourite varieties. June is also about picnics - so update your kit; make the trifle or Tart London's delicious recipe below, and get in the fresh air!
Lastly, don't miss our interview with the uber-talented interior designer Elizabeth Day. She shares some of her projects, as well as generous tips on how we can refresh our own homes, letting us peek inside her tropical colonial home in Singapore and her beautiful Devon cottage (which, for first hand experience, you can actually rent!). Plus, we’ve also supplied a mini-guide to some favourite Devon hotspots. I hope you enjoy this edition and find time to feel inspired, creative and to nurture yourself. Have a wonderful Jubilee weekend, raise a glass to Her Majesty and I wish you
a very happy and jubilant June! With love,
P.S and not wanting to blow my own trumpet - I was honoured to be a guest on Sarah Raven’s podcast this month, where I had the surreal thrill of discussing tulips
Interior Designer Elizabeth Hay on the Singapore tropics, the Devon countryside & how to decorate in style with colour, print & whimsical detail
Singapore-based English interior designer, Elizabeth Hay creates beautifully layered interiors combining colour, pattern and print to imbue the feeling of lived-in, deeply comfortable homes for projects all over the world - from Singapore to the Hamptons, London to Ibiza.
Landing her first job at Colefax & Fowler, Elizabeth then went on to train with Veere Grenney and has been designing in her own name now for almost a decade.
Elizabeth's design ethos has evolved over time - from her English countryside upbringing and influenced by her family connection with Kenya, her many travels and her interest in and appreciation of other cultures. Her small design studio in Singapore focuses on detail and originality and every project reveals Pandora’s box of beautifully rich textures, surprising yet thoroughly considered details, bespoke furniture and a marvellous mix of colour and pattern…
Chelsea Flower Show is one of my highlights of the year. Quite often, in the past, I've been installing huge displays for Chelsea in Bloom throughout the night before it opens and by the time I get myself to the show, I'm feeling pretty zombie-like and float around not taking anything in properly. This year, I was feeling pretty spritely for once and after hanging out on the Brora stand chatting to their customers about our collaboration, I spent a wonderful hour in the Grand Pavillion absorbing the magic. Pollyanna Wilkinson’s garden “This too shall pass’ for the Mother's for Mother's charity was my highlight…
Read more of Willow's highlights of this year's Chelsea Flower Show and her
Peonies are gorgeously extravagant growers with sensational scent, and according to some, they symbolise a happy marriage and good fortune. They are wonderfully long-living perennials both in the ground and as cut flowers. The Herbaceous varieties need staking and support, particularly in our wet British weather, the rain makes the blooms heavy
Willow shares her tips & tricks for laying a table
I adore laying a table for a special occasion, so much so that there’s often no room for the food! I either start with the flowers or the table cloth; depending on what I can get my hands on.
For the Jubilee, I want colour and fun so I'm using a beautiful cloth from Soler with the matching napkins. Daylesford has some beautiful linen checks at the moment which I've treated myself to in a vibrant emerald green. More often than not, I buy 3 metres of a fabric I love and use that as the table cloth. In a dream world, it’d be hemmed but in reality, I rarely get round to it. Think about using ribbon or raffia to tie napkins up in a pretty bow, the bigger the better. If you're wanting to bring in blue red and white but not go the whole hog, think about using blue, red or white ribbons…
Surrounding each field were bands of wildflowers, stripes of merging pinks and yellows and whites, like green paintings in coloured frames. As well as rendering a pretty order to the landscape, it felt reassuringly like nature had been given some breathing space, with room around the edges of everything. And it struck me that we too might need a similar mandate…
The Queen, whose lifelong passion for horses is well-known, had her first riding lesson at the age of three and was given her first pony, a Shetland mare, by her grandfather, King George V when she turned four. And her latest official birthday portrait, at the age of 96 shows her flanked by two of her beloved grey Fell ponies, Bybeck Nightingale and Bybeck Katie with flowing white manes, against a backdrop of flowering magnolia…
Our guide to the pick of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations
The official and extensive, schedule: Trooping The Colour, Platinum Jubilee Beacons, the Thanksgiving Service at St Paul's, bell ringing at St Paul's, the concert with the Queen, Diana Ross, Andrea Bocelli and the UK’s Eurovision entry Sam Ryder to name a few, and the Pageant!
Street parties planned in Mayfair, an extravaganza in Covent Garden and around Earlham Street where there are floral crown making workshops
With The Queens Green Canopy. The Woodland Trust is encouraging institutions, communities and individuals to plant trees, it is an ambitious planting scheme with a commitment to plant 70 major new woods and forests. We as individuals can become involved in the project too, the planting will take place later in the year around October and November 2022
You can register with The Big Jubilee lunch for a starter pack which can be ordered
Fortnum & Mason are offering a Platinum Jubilee menu in their tea salon available until mid-July as well as hampers and merchandise for the celebrations
The Elizabeth Line has just opened. Modern, clean and quiet, though it is discombobulating to go from Paddington to Tottenham Court Road in one stop
Visit ‘Life Through a Royal Lens’ - a Photography Exhibition at Kensington Palace which runs until October and explores the Royal Family through photography bringing together some of the most iconic images ever taken of the Royal Family
Head to Sotheby's for the Jubilee Arts Festival, The Jubilee Season where they are exhibiting a tiara exhibition including the tiara Lady Diana Spencer wore on her wedding day which hasn’t been displayed since 1960. Over the celebration weekend Michael Morpurgo is reading from his new book ‘There Once is a Queen’ and celebrations carry on until mid-June
For the full Platinum Jubilee round-up read the article via the button below…
For the Silver Jubilee, I remember my mother made me a long Laura Ashley dress, pale blue with small white flowers. Apparently, she wore a Laura Ashley dress too but with a sheepskin coat over it in the evening, as it got a bit chilly. I had never been to a street party before and I liked the idea of it, apparently staying out longer than my parents because I was having so much fun. As a child who had grown up in Italy, the party food was strange and sweet, Victoria sponge, jelly, and brightly coloured iced biscuits.
But who can resist a bowl of hula hoops?
It’s the presentation of these celebrations I am drawn to, I love bunting and trestle tables and the optimism that the sun will shine on us all! Walking down Savile Row last week the bunting was up and fluttering in the sunshine, there is excitement building up in London…
