Good morning friends, I sit here on the last day of October writing to you - from Charlotte Airport, NC with a glass of wine. I am taking a little weekend away after a VERY busy and exhausting month on the farm. Charlotte is not my final destination, but Woodstock Vermont is where I am heading for the weekend. I have always wanted to visit this area, especially at this time of year. I am meeting up with Jess whom I am sure you have heard me talk about - she moved back to the East Coast this summer, so we decided that we needed to meet up and we have made it happen! We are staying at a lovely hotel in Woodstock and having a Pottery Lesson at Farm House Pottery and driving around the area checking out the beautiful sights. I have even brought my posh camera along with me so hopefully next month I will have some lovely autumnal photos to share with you.
Autumn in this area has come in gently with beautiful sunny days and crisp evenings, perfect for working out side but also all the cosy feels in the evening. The colors of the trees have been magnificent, with no constant rain to pull the leaves from the trees leaving them in a soggy mess on the ground which is usually the case at this time of year.
We started the October with a new workshop on the farm called “Botanical Pumpkins”. Guests came along to the farm and decorated white ghost pumpkins that I had grown with flowers that I had cut from my field and then pressed. It was a lovely creative day, and very different from your traditional carved pumpkins. These pumpkins will last well into the new year if kept out of the cold and rain. We of course finished off the event with cake, tea and chit chat, which is always the best way to finish a day!
Usually I decide to “pull the plug” as I call it, on the fields at the beginning of October so that we can get the fields put to bed by the end of October. This flower season has been a little off. The dahlia season really didn't get started until mid August, so as it was still looking good at the beginning of October, I decided to let it run until mid October. Honestly, even though the season started later we had the most glorious dahlias this year. Each year I go through my field and decide which varieties that I love and do well for my weddings and bouquets and which that I am not in love with or are not productive for me. I think by the time I retire I will have the perfect field - maybe!
Photography by Jessica Vallance
October also saw the last of the weddings for the season, two local weddings and one a vow renewal in New Hampshire. For this wedding I created a bouquet of everlasting flowers and very carefully packed it up and sent it across the country. Thankfully it arrived in one piece, which is nothing short of a miracle as the box I packed it in looked like someone had put their boot into it…it truly doesn't matter how many “fragile” stickers you put on it , it will still be used as a football.
The big dahlia dig was bookended by the two local weddings, this is the reason that I slept most of the way to South Carolina today. The last part of this month was truly exhausting and this little weekend away was the carrot on the stick that kept be going. We dug up 1,400 dahlias in 1 1/2 days. I enlisted help, do not think that I did this on my own! October has been a lovely month for weather, digging dahlia tubers in the dry is a totally different experience that in the cold and rain. Once we have dug them up, we then have to wash them. Honestly, that is worse than the digging. Day after day of washing…it really felt that it was never going to end. But I have to say, there is no better feeling than a hard day of physical work and then a soak in the bath tub followed by a cosy night in front of the fire with a book.
My goal was to get it completed by the time I went away, because honestly if I had to come back to that….I might be heading to the hills in Vermont and you would never see me again. I have left with all the dahlia tubers tucked up in their containers and in the basement of our house. A job well done and I am so grateful for my team for making it happen.
A lot of people think that at this time of year my work slows down….oh no…still lots to do out there. Lots of spring bulbs to plant, some beds still to tidy up and then of course we have our Christmas Wreath Workshops in December to prepare for. I am also working on lots of lovely Christmas Table arrangements and wreaths made from my everlasting flowers for the holiday season, definitely one of my favorite things to do. All this keeps me busy, satisfied and out of mischief!
I will sign off now, get on my next flight and enjoy a lovely weekend away, and hopefully comeback for the last push of the year.
