This month, I’ve been embracing the gentle arrival of spring and basking in those extra daily hours of sunlight we’ve all been quietly longing for over the past few months. The garden has been slowly coming to life with the first tentative bursts of colour, so I thought it would be the perfect time to put together a table setting that celebrates the arrival of delicate hellebores, fragrant skimmia and vibrant camellias alongside some of the new ceramic pieces that have launched in the shop earlier in the month.

I’ve also been answering the call of my kitchen, indulging my newfound passion for pastry-making and utilising some of the British-grown produce that I can get my hands on. First up is a new staple of mine that’s I’m sure I’ll be whipping up all through the summer, too: a warm potato salad studded with pickled radishes and capers with leaves of glorious red chicory. It pairs beautifully with my leek and camembert tart made with crumbly walnut pastry.

Now there’s no shame in buying ready made pastry - I usually do, but if you have the time it’s well worth the effort of making it yourself. So much more satisfying to eat, too! I’ve included some pictures here of my brioche custard tart, because it looked so pretty scattered with colourful violas and pansies, but the truth is that the pastry was rock hard and it had quite an unpleasant taste - this one is a work in progress and I therefore I won’t be sharing the recipe! The others you can find here.

During the colder months, I’ve also found the time to practise arranging flowers in some of our bowls with the aid of our new Niwaki kenzan metal flower pins. We now stock them in two sizes (small and medium). I find the medium to be most useful when making a bowl arrangement. The effect I’ve been looking for is one of casual, understated wildness, which is not at all as easy to achieve as it sounds! I found adapting the ikebana principal creating three distinct parts, or heights, of the arrangement helps, as does having some grasses, which are so much more forgiving when you’re trying to achieve interest in the height section of the arrangement.

I had some giant quaking grass, which was perfect. I also used some chrysanthemums from some letterbox flowers I’d had delivered, along with camellias from my garden, which gave a lovely pop of colour. For the rest of the table, I gathered together some of our oatmeal plates, my stone linen tablecloth and palest pink napkins, together with our Isabel crackle jug, soft, chalky white Hilda candlesticks and coral Devon bowls.

The vintage cutlery is tied together with some twine and simple bunches of white ruscus, dried craspedia and oat grass. We shot in the afternoon to capture the softest light, which quickly turned to dusk as inky rain clouds rolled in. As I rushed to light the candles, the sun emerged again, its dappled light gentlly reaching through the branches of the trees. As the rain began lightly tapping its fingers on the window panes, I was reminded once again that spring is on its way.