We spent a lovely Saturday afternoon in Uppingham again recently, this time to celebrate my sister’s birthday.  Afternoon tea at The Falcon Hotel was delicious and, considering they had to cater for the veggie, the vegan and the gluten free amongst us, we had a most impressive spread that all of us (the pickiest included) enjoyed.  Quite a feat!

Of course we had to include a vintage hunt whilst we were there and I found a treasure of a table at Junk and Disorderly.  I have been looking for a little hall table for a while to finish off my newly decorated hall and this little beauty is just perfect.  Even the colour is perfect so no need to get out the paint tins.  And a shelf underneath – another bonus – more room for stuff!  Yuan and Peter, the owners, are a delightful pair with a great deal of knowledge and most entertaining.  It makes me quite sad that I don’t have room for any more furniture as they have some lovely pieces.

My youngest son is a gardener/tree surgeon and I can’t tell you how lovely it is to have a conversation with one of my children about gardening – the rest of them glaze over when I talk about gardening and plants.  He is a true gardener in that he can’t just admire he has to be doing and in between drinking his coffee on a visit the other day he pruned my amalenchia trees for me so I had all these lovely twiggy bits to go in with the white tulips a friend gave me.

With the lovely warm weather we have been having (and my tulips and twigs) I wanted my table to be an ode to spring and the fresh green and white gives that lovely feeling of lightness and warmer days to come.  The little bird is by Abigail Brown and she just hopped into her nest and laid a few chocolate eggs – how spring like is that?  The beautiful floral tapestry came from Rutland Antiques and makes me think of flowers yet to blossom in the garden. As I write this the birds are twittering, the sun is shining and my table vignette is fresh and green – oh how to banish the winter blues and gladden the heart. Jacqui x Spring Styling to Gladden the Heart by Jacqui Brooks