Bringing the outdoors in

You may have noticed that I've added the link button for Nature in the Home. It's something which I've always done, being an essentially outdoorsy person. The best walks always entail bringing something home with me.

My grandmother on my dad's side always used to have a vase of fresh flowers in the house. It was her one treat, not being a smoker or drinker or someone who was particularly extravagant. I always remember her having the tiniest kitchen (and it housing a mangle), and there always being a bottle of pale pink Oil of Ulay on her dressing table.

I'm partial to flowers too. I don't always go for fresh either; dried are just as appealing to me. Not the dusty variety you see in arrangements, all crispy and faded, but those which are interesting to look at. Poppy seed heads, hydrangea, eryngium.

The hydrangeas in the picture were on my little table at Bond Street. I actually pinched them from the empty house next door. The front garden had a bush full of deep pinky-red blooms. My garden had pale blue ones. I wished I could swap them around. Instead I just leaned across the wall one day and casually snipped some stems off.

At the moment we have the pussy willow (still going) I bought a few months ago at a farm shop, and some dried allium heads from two summers ago. I love their structural look and the way they tie in with the mid-century furniture in the living room. Maybe this year I'll grow things with a mind to how they'll look dried. There are some echinacea planted already (signs of life still to appear). Nigella could work too.

Any other suggestions would be very helpful!