24/04/2009 by Stew.

If you’re thinking about ordering flowers online, you’ll find a wide range of bouquets and arrangements to choose from. 



Many of the cut flowers that we find in florists and supermarkets are grown abroad, in countries such as Holland and Kenya, but there are also many flower farms in Britain. By buying British flowers, we can help to support our own commercial flower-growers, something that it is particularly important in the current financial climate.

Britain has an excellent flower-farming industry and some parts of the UK have gained great reputations for producing beautiful, sweet-smelling blooms. One of the primary regions for flower-growing in the UK is the Isles of Scilly.

The Isles of Scilly lie about 28 miles off of Land’s End in the South-West of England. They consist of five inhabited islands (Bryher, St. Agnes, St. Martins, St. Mary’s and Tresco) together with many uninhabited islands. The proximity of the Gulf Stream means that the Isles of Scilly benefit from warmer winters than the rest of the UK and rarely experience frost or snow, whilst also having slightly cooler summers than the rest of the country, making them the perfect location for flower farms.

Flower farming first began on the Isles of Scilly during the late nineteenth century and flowers quickly became one of the islands’ main exports. During World War II, the industry began to suffer, as it became much more difficult to transport the flowers to the mainland, but Winston Churchill is said to have intervened in order to ensure that the flower farmers had access to fuel and transport after having been sent a bouquet of flowers from a flower farmer in the Isles of Scilly whilst he was in hospital. Since then, the Isles of Scilly flower industry has grown and is vital to the local economy. Flower farms on the islands are still very much family businesses, with many of them having been handed down through the generations

The flower farms on the Isles of Scilly are best-known for growing narcissi. More than 25 varieties of narcissi (a genus of flower that includes daffodils and jonquils) are grown on the islands. Narcissi are usually white, yellow, peach or pink and many varieties are scented.

British flower farms also produce many other types of flower, including tulips and peonies. Tulips were originally found in the Middle East, but began to be grown commercially in Europe during the sixteenth century, particularly in Holland. Today, many tulips are grown on British flower farms. In Britain, tulips are usually harvested between January and April, so herald the start of warmer weather, and they are available in a wide range of varieties and colours.

Peonies are both beautiful and fragrant flowers, and you can find them in many shades, including white, pink and peach. Peonies traditionally symbolise luxury and indulgence, and are popular flowers to give as a gesture of romance. They are available from late May until early June.  

You can order British flowers from a number of online retailers, including Marks and Spencer.

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24/04/2009 by Stew.

Your sofa is one of the most important pieces of furniture in your living room. 



When you’re buying a new one, it makes sense to take some time to choose exactly the right sofa for you. One of the most important things to think about when choosing a new sofa is the size that you require. Here are some hints and tips to help you to choose the most appropriately sized sofa for your home.

Choosing Sofas – Measuring Up

The first thing to do when choosing a new sofa is to measure up to see how much space you have available. However, it’s also important to ensure that your new sofa will fit through your front door, your hallway and any connecting doors as well, so don’t forget to measure these too. If you aren’t sure whether or not a particular sofa will fit in your living room, or you would like to try positioning your new sofa in a different position from your old one, you might find it useful to use a large piece of paper or cardboard and cut it to the dimensions of the sofa that you’re considering. This will allow you to see whether or not the sofa will fit in different places in your room.

Choosing Sofas – Sofa Sizes

Sofas come in a number of different sizes, from small two-seater sofas that are perfect for people with limited space in their homes to large three-seaters for family homes or for people who like to really stretch out, so you will need to work out which type of sofa best suits your household. It’s also important to think about the rest of the seating in your living room as well – do you want one main sofa or two smaller sofas? Would a small sofa with matching chairs be more practical than a large sofa? If you live in a small house or flat, a sofa bed might allow you to make the most of your space whereas, if you need a lot of seats, you might find that buying a corner group is a more suitable solution. It’s not just the length of a sofa that can affect its comfort – the depth and height of the sofa is also significant. Deeper sofas are usually more comfortable for tall people, whereas shorter people may find that shallower sofas suit them better.

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09/04/2009 by Dave G.

With the increase in petrol stations being offering to fuel and fast food it has come to our attention that the most readily available pasties are mass produced poor immitations of the proper job.

Proper Jobs

Time to take a sanity check on the state of pasties in Devon.

The recruitment of a proper pasty muncher was required and would invlove sending someone deep undercover to expose the real state of Devon pasties.

Devon Pasties - Uncovered

We sent our undercover mystery shopper (in the guise of a go ahead business woman) to check out what was hot on the pasty front and are sad to report that ready to go pasties and pies leave a lot to be desired.

Pasty Munching is for some the ideal job - and has been included on the list of top jobs in a recession however the suffering that our researcher undertook must not be overlooked.

After only three days of work our mystery shopper decided that she’d had her fill of crap crusts and nasty fillings and decide to look for jobs elsewhere.

Jobs in Lingerie

The last we heard she had landed a fantastic job with and agency that supplies models for high street fashion shops and had recently returned from a lingerie shoot in california where coincidentally she discoverd that “pasties” in the US has a very different meaning to the word in the UK.

Modelling lingerie - even from high street lingerie shops is high up there in top jobs for women who get the thrill of being photographed wearing the latest lingerie fashions  and often enjoy the perk of keeping the stylish undies when the job is finished.

Here’s a couple of videos for you to enjoy - GMTV recently ran a full feature on top high street lingerie that explains that sales of lingerie are soaring even in these cash strapped times.

The next is one of many “how to videos” and staying with the lingerie theme expalins how to get out of a car showing no knickers!

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