The Team at Clare Florist would like to wish all our friends, followers and customers a happy Qixi Festival.

Qixi is the Chinese romantic festival, like the western tradition of Valentine's Day. It falls on the 7th day of  the 7th lunar month, this year being the 16th August.

The story goes:

A young cowherd named Niulang, came across seven fairy sisters bathing in a lake. Encouraged by his mischievous companion the ox, he stole their clothes and waited to see what would happen.

The fairy sisters elected the youngest and most beautiful sister Zhinü "the weaver girl", to retrieve their clothing. She agreed to do so, but since Niulang had seen her naked, she agreed to his request for marriage. She proved to be a wonderful wife, and Niulang to be a good husband. They lived happily and had two children. But the Goddess of Heaven found out that Zhinü, a fairy girl, had married a mere mortal. The Goddess was furious and ordered Zhinü to return to heaven. On Earth, Niulang was very upset that his wife had disappeared. Suddenly, his ox began to talk, telling him that if he killed it and put on its hide, he would be able to go up to Heaven to find his wife. Crying bitterly, he killed the ox, put on the skin, and carried his two beloved children off to Heaven to find Zhinü. The Goddess discovered this and was very angry. Taking out her hairpin, the Goddess scratched a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever, thus forming the Milky Way between Altair and Vega. Zhinü must sit forever on one side of the river, sadly weaving on her loom, while Niulang watches her from afar and takes care of their two children

But once a year all the magpies in the world would take pity on them and fly up into heaven to form a bridge over the star Deneb in the Cygnus constellation so the lovers may be together for a single night, which is the seventh night of the seventh moon.

We are excited to celebrate Qixi and have a wonderful array of romantic flowers, Tiger lilies and Oriental orchids to offer you; ensuring that your celebrations go the way of the two lovers, bridging the gaps that life sometimes throws at us.

Although our core business comes from our web shop we still get really excited when we get asked to do a bespoke bouquet for a special occasion.
Millie was asked to suggest something nice for a customers Great Grandmother's 100th birthday, her favourite flowers were yellow roses.
So Kerryanne made this fantastic compact bouquet of 100 yellow roses, the bouquet was really heavy to make but looked fantastic.
It was delivered on the morning of the birthday and presented by the staff there to the lady in question.
However she kindly asked for the bouquet to be separated and placed in little vases all round the nursing home so everyone could enjoy them.
Remember if you have a special occasion or design you would like us to do all you have to do is either give us a call or send an email and we will always do our very best to accommodate you.
Here's a picture of Kerryanne holding the bouquet before it was gift wrapped and delivered.

Polly our amazing creative florist has just come back from her Summer holidays way up in Harris.
How fabulous does the scenery look?
Some great Summer images including one of Polly with her boyfriend Chris having a fantastic time.
The first two images are of Scarista Beach which looks more like the Caribbean.
Then the lovely Polly and Chris with matching sunnies!
The great standing stones at Callenish http://www.eyemead.com/stones.htm

Lastly a great sunset view of the Isle of Taransay where the BBC filmed their social experiment of people living on an Island. http://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/taransay.htm

The moonwalk took place in Edinburgh on Saturday night / Sunday morning.
Well done to all you lovely ladies and men who took part. Although I didn't do it - I did sponsor some friends who did, well done to you both!
I did however get up at 7.30am in the morning and cycled to see them finishing it. Here are some great pictures of loads of lovely ladies at the end - see if you can spot yourself.
Afterwards I cycled up Arthur's Seat and had my breakfast, what a gorgeous morning it was. All the colours of the trees and plants coming out for Summer.

Bally and Louise - well done !

Can you see yourself at the finish line ?

Arthur's  Seat 

Nora joined us in February after doing some travelling.
Originally from Hungary, Nora travelled with her boyfriend Donat to USA and worked in the hotel industry whilst improving her English.
Nora and Donat married in Vegas and have now settled in the UK.
Nora has realised she has a natural artistic flair and has picked up how to make beautiful bouquets easily.
She enjoys the fresh flower environment and working as part of a young team.
Here is Nora with one of her special bespoke bouquets.

Ssshh !
Don't tell everyone but it was Barry's 60th birthday last week.
Here is a picture of him with his cake before we all ate it.

I had mental turn this morning, got up early and went a cycle along the canal which was glorious as you can see from the lovely pictures I took on my phone. Take a look at the baby swan signets - they were so cute.
I had a great time and lost track of time so had to rush back.
In my haste to get back to work on time I went flying down a hill and straight over the handle bars, luckily I only skint my knees and hurt my pride, since it was so early no one was around so I could have a wee bubble to myself as I "slowly" peddled back home with that song ringing in my ears "things can only get better...." Best get on with some work now ... Kerryanne

Polly has just come back from her spring holiday. She is lucky enough to have a Dad who lives in Spain, a sister who lives in Wales, a brother who lives in Australia and a Mum who lives in Harris!
So Polly spends most of her holidays visiting family.
Here is a fab picture of Polly and Mum enjoying a wee glass of wine - the question is are they very small people or was that a whopping glass of wine ???

I am just back from a much needed break after all the busy periods we have had.
I took my family to Malta which was very nice indeed! Spent lots of time eating and drinking but managed to do some nice sightseeing as well.
Here are some nice Spring shots of some of the pretty sights in Malta - I have to say it was a bit of shock coming back and finding out it's still winter here! Although the weather is picking up a bit - fingers crossed.
Now that I am nice and refreshed we have been working on a new range of Summer bouquets which we will be introducing over the next few weeks - so watch this space.

Kerryanne

View from my hotel to Valletta and me enjoying the sunshine!

The quirky Bedford buses and Valletta town - how many tiny houses in one space?

Can't resist some flower photo's whilst I'm away....

The Mother's Day rush is now over thankfully! We had a great response to all our new designs which have been received really well by all you lucky Mum's.
Myself and the team worked really hard all week to ensure everything was made in time to be delivered to every corner of the UK.
I have two children who treated me to a cup of tea and a slice of burnt toast with chocolate spread at 8am on Sunday!
Still I suppose it's the thought that counts - looking forward to Easter now so I can help them eat all their chocolate eggs, there goes the diet again!.
Kerryanne