I went on training for work and found a new mobile Pizza Kitchen! The Portland Pizza Company is based on Portland but will travel - Tel: 07936-518871 or find them on Facebook. I have not tasted their pizzas but Natasha who works was really lovely.
The drive is now yellow with daffodils and there are great drifts of them in the garden. Clashing wonderfully are the camellias which are now out in full bloom. We just have to pray we do not have a frost for a week or two. Primroses are flowering all round the garden and the iris by the drawing room door are almost all out.
July 2014 brought a photoshoot to Shillingstone House. We feared that all the hard work put in by the journalist Andy Roberts and the photographer Tony Baker had been in vain but last week two copies of Classic and Sports Car magazine - www.classicandsportscar.com - popped through the letter box! Many thanks to Andy and to Tony who sent a disk of photographs.
It was a wonderful sunny day and the chrome on the two cars sparkled. The Ford Consul Cortina had been considered amazing value in 1963 when it went on sale - £683 for the standard version and for an extra £102 14s 6d you could buy the Super! The Singer Vogue was a more expensive option selling at £200 more than the Consul. Both cars were put through their paces in the afternoon when Michael took them to Holwell which boasts a long straight piece of road with verges wide enough to allow the set up the cameras. Some beautiful action shots appear in the article.
We have very fond memories of the day.
Yesterday saw a visit from a couple who are getting married here in August. They brought with them two new suppliers. They were both lovely and we are much looking forward to seeing their teams in the summer
The Tickled Pig have an amazing looking restaurant in Wimborne but they also do outside catering http://www.tickledpigevents.co.uk/
New Forest Bell Tents are bringing twenty tents in August so we will have a wonderful camping city! They are also working with another couple in July. http://www.newforestbelltents.co.uk/
At last the flowers in the garden are starting to bloom and with the sun yesterday I really feel that Spring may be on it's way. Our first wedding in May does not seem so far away now.
Planting seeds has begun, carefully helped by our granddaughter! The pots of broad beans are now being eagerly watched for signs of life.
The snowdrops are better than they have been for years! This may be partly because the daffodils are not so advanced so they are not dwarfed - but they also seem longer stemmed more prolific.
We just wish we could hold winter weddings!
I have just been sent a link to a write up about a wedding last year at Shillingstone House. Here is the link to Rock My Wedding! They are a stunning couple and they are stunning photographs!
You need to go to "real weddings" and then to Grace and Alex.
http://www.rockmywedding.co.uk/
I have just found this wonderful picture on the internet! Taken by local photographer Stefan Osnowski, it shows the Milky Way with the Shillingstone House in silhouette. Stefan is also available for wedding photographs. He took the photographs for one of our weddings in 2015. www.stefanosnowskiphotography.com
An amazing pattern of airplane trails appeared in the sky yesterday, drawing a huge cross in the sky - X marks the spot for the best wedding venue in Dorset!
The first snow drops are pushing their way above ground. Hopefully, soon, the sides of the drive will be white with them - however, crossing fingers that the snow does not come and cover them!
Our wonderful gardener George is also a fantastic artist and we commissioned him to paint a view of the garden for David, who left sadly to take up full time photography last year. He chose to paint the big border as this was the view David had as he ate his lunch under the Chestnut Tree.
The result was amazing!! Thank you George.
With best wishes to all our clients both old and new for a wonderful, happy 2017
A really frost start to the New Year but a very beautiful one.
Christmas does not really start at Shillingstone until a couple of days before Christmas when Michael brings in the holly and ivy to decorate the house. Willow stars are wound in ivy to hang from the kitchen ceiling, ivy and holly are wrapped round the banisters, dried alliums and leaves decorate the table and the Christmas tree. The garden truly comes inside.
The Christmas tree is covered with baubles old and new, with the bottom layer being unbreakable, as they are carefully hung by our granddaughter.
Belinda McCarthy has moved into a studio in the stable block. She took the wonderful photographs of our last wedding in 2016 but she also does studio portraits. Our daughter and granddaughter had a session and had some of them made into canvasses for our Christmas present. They are really beautiful, really natural and relaxed. - belindamccarthy.co.uk
Leaves covered us completely this year - we have never had so many. Michael thought that he would never stop raking! Even our granddaughter helped - shown here with our wonderful gardener George .
Luckily all prepared and plants either wrapped up or taken into the greenhouse. Picture taken through the window so a little fuzzy - too cold to open the window!
Excellent crop this year!
Sadly we had to have the tree surgeons in to work on the big birch in front of the house. They managed to save the favourite perching branch for our brides by taking some of the weight off the top!
(Tree Surgery by Ian Davis from Stalbridge - 01963 363748)
An amazing flower has burst out of the Yucca plant by the stable block. It is so beautiful and there is another one to come!
