Whenever you are in the world, hello.

I am making wreaths. Not just any old wreaths mind you. Wreaths with dahlias from our cutting garden. Preference and Labyrinth and the fun girl Totally Tangerine are the dahlias that are flowering still. Dahlias chosen for their beautiful autumnal colours. Dahlia varieties chosen for their strong stems and blooming habit. Dahlias that I never leave in our solid clay soil. I love then too much!

Not just any old wreaths either in terms of their mechanics. Straw and string are our sustainable friends for making. There is always a joy to making when there is no issue with having to think about what to do with it afterwards. Created without floral foam or florists wires, ours can go straight onto our compost bin.

We’re now in mid Autumn in our Cheshire canalside cutting garden. There’s a nip in the air and Jack Frost has yet to visit. Lichen covered branches tumble from our beech tree, and we’re avoiding the horse chestnut as he showers us with conkers. All of these things influence our aesthetic. Now is the moment the spindle berry tree is adorned with her bright pink and orange berries. She knows she will match the dahlias.

All the seasons are fleeting. The light is shifting and we look to the Southern Hemisphere for their light as they looked to us what felt like only a few short summer moments ago.

Online when the southern hemisphere dials in to our classes, you can see the light pouring into the window, just as our dark seeps through ours. There is always ying and yang. There is no light without the dark.

And while the light is not the only thing that feels like it is profoundly shifting, we’re more determined than ever to keep planting our garden and to keep making sustainable wreaths and creating with sustainable seasonal flowers.