Day one of the new me! I always mean to use the car less and shop locally more and all the other things that are good not only for the planet, but also for me and so this week I have started to try and practice what I preach. Yesterday I cycled to an appointment in our local village - which isn't much, but usually I would have been running late and so I would have hopped in the car. And today I cycled to Errol which is the nearest place with a butcher, Post Office and chemist. It's about an 8 mile round trip and as I cycled along I realised that it really is a no-brainer in so many ways to do this - it's 25 minutes there and 25 back, so that's nearly an hour of aerobic exercise - completely free! No gym membership, expensive kit or clothing - plus I got my shopping done and supported local small businesses. And I seemed to have more time to chat to people.



On the way back a buzzard flew right by my side for about 50 feet with a mouse in his claws - nature in the raw! I noticed rabbits and squirrels, trees, autumn colours and the thing I noticed most was the smells - which you never notice zooming along in your car.

The next schedule visit to Errol is this Friday morning - and now I've gone public I will be even more determined to keep it up. Three trips a week should keep me fit, keep more money in my pocket and, maybe, I'm doing a little bit to help the environment.

Very exciting - I've just been watching the new catalogue coming of the production line at the printers in Perth and I now have the first 300 copies in my grubby little mits! At last! Wow. It's like giving birth (well, not quite, obviously) every time I do this and it is always such a good feeling to actually hold a copy in my hands having worked so hard to get it to this stage.


The first copies will go out tonight to try and avoid the post strike and then the bulk will be sent out to everyone early next week. I so hope that you like what you see ....

Quick post just to say that I have just managed to buy some more vintage crocks and so they are now back in stock. They are becoming increasingly difficult to find which is why they aren't always in stock - so if you've been waiting for one, grab it quickly!

So, off to Glasgow to visit the Barrhead tannery, who make our beautiful leather bags. I love going out and about to visit our manufacturers around the country - and nowhere more so than Barrhead, where you are immediately transported back in time. Things are done here much as they have been for hundreds of years - the stone staircase tells you that with each step hollowed out by years of feet walking up and down. The smell of the leather is just wonderful and I love seeing the different leather and suede finishes that are possible - not to mention the colours. Deerskin makes really great leather and suede in varying weights and one of things I love most about it is it's durability - I've been using my suede Lily slouch bag for well over a year now and life with me is quite tough on any bag - from being thrown in the bottom of the car every day or having to double as a cat bed - and it still looks fantastic.


This photo shows some blue suede ready to go off to another client of the tannery. We spent some time working on a couple of new bag options - I'm taking the Eleanor bag off in a slightly different direction and working on a bowling style bag using deerskin and maybe some beautiful Scottish tweed. Watch this space!

I spent last Thursday at a photography workshop run by Ray Cox, one of Scotland's best garden photographers. It was a good opportunity to spend some time improving my photography skills (which so far have been rather suck it and see!) and to get ideas and direction on garden and flower photograph from Ray. When there was a break in the rain we managed to get out in the nursery to take some photos - these are a couple of my favourites from the day.


The course was run at Glendoick Garden Centre, which we are lucky enough to have just down the road from us. The nurseries there specialise in rhododendrons and azaleas and the Cox family have spent two generations plant hunting for them. The garden is also open when the rhodos are at their best, in about May, and are really worth a visit if you can get there.

The T aftermath ....

These photos really make you think. I was driving back up the M90 from Edinburgh when I suddenly saw the most unbelievable sight near Kinross. This is now two days since T in the Park and what you can (hopefully - click on the photo to see a blow up) see here is not a festival in the process of being set up but acres and acres and acres of abandoned tents after the event. I felt almost sick. It's one of those things that you really have to see to believe and I really couldn't get close enough to properly show you - but it's just extraordinary. It honestly looks as if no one has taken their tent with them - and the other rubbish left is monumental. It seems to me that it says everything about our society - 'proper' things like tents, which in the past would have been kept for years and years and reused endlessly, are now so cheap that they are basically disposable. We've just bought a 2 man tent for our son to camp out in this week - and it was £14.99. So many things spring to mind - how do Tesco's produce a really pucka tent for £14.99 - what on earth are they paying for it, and just how little are the people actually making it being paid? And, look what happens when you make things so cheap - people just stop caring about them. All these people couldn't see the point in spending the time to pack them up. It's just horrible.

And the really depressing thing is that I read in the paper that, unlike some other festivals, where the abandoned tents go to charities, at T they go into landfill. Ugh.

Caroline

Jane does it again ....

We've just come to the end of another wonderful workshop given here by Jane Lindsey of Snapdragon. Today's was Cutting Flowers and everyone learned how to cut and condition flowers from the garden to give them much more vase life and how to put together a hand-tied bouquet. Jane gave some great tips - such as how to tie the bunch up easily without having to put it down which is one of those things where, once you know how to do it, you can't imagine how you could have been so stupid before. You'll have to come to the next workshop if you want to find out how! And we also now know how to put the bouquet in water for travelling - another very clever trick. Anyway, as you can see, we were all surrounded by these beautiful flowers from Jane's own garden all day and everyone made a hand-tied bouquet and these gorgeous table centres. A great day all round - enjoy the flowers ....

Way out west ....

I have just spent a few days escaping on the West Coast with my mother and my aunt - wonderful to get away for a bit for some real R&R - and made possible by the wonders of technology. It never ceases to amaze me quite what's possible now - I happily sat at the top of a mountain replying to emails and checking the website for orders on my iPhone! It has to be one of the best things about our modern age that so many people are no longer tied to a desk five days a week. Anyway, this is the view that met us each morning - bliss.

If you've read the article in this month's Homes & Interiors Scotland you will have seen that we have taken a share in the rental of a little cottage near Oban with some friends. It is just wonderful to escape there and we are loving discovering the area. Last week was one of the best finds yet - about 10 minutes north of Oban we found the fantastic Kintaline Farm - I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it is. On the first and third Thursday of the month they have a little farmers market for local producers - we bought delicious salmon en croute and homemade shortbread. For the rest of the time, Tim and Jill Bowis who own and run Kintaline, must be run off their feet running a nursery with some of the best plants I've found for ages at some of the best prices and also breeding traditional utility pure breed chickens and ducks. It was fascinating to see all the different breeds - kept completely separately obviously to avoid cross-breeding. The traditional breeds really are very beautiful - although the lady above seemed to be suffering from a real case of 'comb over'! I can't tell you how happy I am to have discovered this farm - and I know I will be driving home after each visit to the west laden down with exciting plants. Do have a look at their website - it's definitely going on my list of favourites.

So, the nursery plants near Oban are great, but I have to say that the wild flowers run them a pretty close race. This is a sweet little patch of thrift that I found on rocks near the sea.

Back in the office now and I am very excited to tell you that we are now very close indeed to the launch of a new website for Twice. I loved the current one when it was done and it has served the business well, but everything has to move on and so it is for this - we should be going live around 20th June. At the moment it feels like the new BBC weather map did - slightly shocking and rather unnecessarily detailed - but I am already getting used to it and realising that it will be much more user friendly than the last one. I look forward to your feedback!

Something for the hound fans..

I know that there are a few of you out there who like the odd update on my deerhounds, so I thought you might like this photo of them in the bluebells the other day ....

Tired but happy ....

So, I've just come to the end of our two day Preview Sale, held here at home. The idea was two fold - firstly to give local customers a chance to see everything 'in the flesh' and secondly, to put new products in front of people and see how they went. I have to say that it has been a great success from my point of view - many thanks to everyone who came and many thanks to everyone that helped me (Jackie, Paul and James especially).

I was really pleased with the reactions to alot of the new things I've sourced and developed. Log baskets were a great hit and will be available on the website soon and then in the next catalogue. The new range of china that I developed with Susan Kemp looked absolutely wonderful and people loved it. I'm too tired now to run through many things individually, but it was a really worthwhile couple of days for me and Twice on all fronts. I think I'll definitely repeat it for Christmas, probably in late October, early November.

We also managed to raise nearly £80 in donations for the MS Society which is great.

Workshops start next week, so preparing for that now.