When winter daphne blooms, you know spring is in the air. Native to China, winter daphne (Daphne odora) forms a dense, tidy mound 3 to 4 feet high and wide. Its handsome evergreen foliage consists of slender, glossy leaves about 3 inches long. While the straight species has solid green leaves, variegated selections sport leaves edged in creamy white or yellow. Boutonniere-size clusters of small, waxy flowers appear atop the foliage for several weeks in late winter, at about the same time that camellias bloom. The flowers are pink in bud, then open to either white or pale pink. So powerful is the scent that youll often smell a daphne in bloom well before you see it. If it drives you nuts to constantly battle rank and unruly shrubs, youre going to love this one. Well-behaved, slow– growing, and refined, it seldom needs pruning. Take advantage of the fragrance by planting it near sitting areas, entryways, porches, and paths. Or use it in foundation plantings and rock gardens. Selections include Alba (green foliage and white flowers), `Aureo-Marginata (yellow-edged leaves and blush white flowers), and Leucanthe (green foliage and light pink flowers).
Junk shop chic is the creed, and After Noah the name that husband and wife team Matthew Crawford and Zoe Candlin chose for their shop - they liked its suggestion that they would sell absolutely anything post- diluvian. Upper Street, Islington - the Kings Road of north London - was where they decided to found their business. Success came swiftly, and earlier this year they opened a second shop on the real Kings Road in Chelsea. Down a steep staircase you can find anything from a Twenties coat button to a kitsch decorated rubber washing-up glove as used today. After Noah brings a whole new meaning to eclecticism. But, of course, it would not have been enough simply to house a lot of junk, no matter how desirable. After Noahs popularity is the result of a meeting of two canny business minds, both with strong artistic bents and very different talents. “When we opened After Noah we wanted to combine our talents,” explains Matthew. “We both have a strong idea of our individual styles and managed to merge them well.” Matthews background as a cabinet maker and furniture restorer ensures that whatever comes in for sale can be lovingly restored and beeswaxed back to health. His apprenticeship to his grandfather more than a decade ago means that he now boasts a workshop of 12 years standing, trusted by the likes of English Heritage, Kew Gardens and even one or two embassies. Zoe is an artist and mosaicist with an unerring eye for consumer delights and a nice line in mosaic table-tops, which are now one of the shops most popular lines. The balance of old and new pieces is about 60-40, but youd never know it. A handmade steel bed may resemble the one your granny owned, but its available from the workshop, starting at pounds 595. Conical chocolate cups at about pounds 4 apiece look as if they are the last batch of a Thirties consignment. But dont worry - there will be a huge delivery of more next week. If there is one thing After Noah has achieved it is this balance of old incidentals and the ultra new, such as Tumbler cups -vessels with a rocking bottom -and the vinyl vase - a strip of plastic sleevelets which you fill with water for single stems and attach to your window. A price range stretching from pocket money to Fort Knox ensures that After Noah is relied on heavily by gift hunters: bored with the mass of glossy shops all offering similar goods found in every city centre, they troop in here knowing that they are always likely to find something a little different. The philosophy of After Noah is simple: keep it basic, keep it functional. There is almost a puritanical streak running through the choice of merchandise in the shop, made doubtful only by the chaos: you may bang your knee on a stool and collide with a spray of dried flowers, both at the same moment. After Noah is like an attic. Its your attic, my attic - different contents, but the same mania. So perhaps there is a little bit of all of us that responds to what one of Matthews assistants calls “disorganised comfort”. “People dont live in museums,” pronounces Matthew. “They acquire things over a period of time. Some are good quality, some are not, but overall there is a look, a cohesiveness.” Is it perhaps a look which is simply a home from home, or do they, Jekyll- and-Hyde-style, live in high Napoleonic splendour? “I think the shop is probably nicer to live in,” Matthew confesses with a little laugh. Recently an advertising campaign has raised the profile of After Noah, which has prompted the couple to open a second outlet on the Kings Road in Chelsea - some would say, the Upper Street of the South. After Noah, 121 Upper Street, N1 (tel: 0171-359 4281) and 261 Kings Road, SW3 (tel: 0171-351 2610)
Lavender Harvest by LOccitane Ask any aromatherapist to name the most useful and multi-purpose essential oils, and the answer will probably be lavender. It is wonderfully therapeutic on sensitive and problem skins, and soothes tired, achy muscles. Also, the scent has an instant mind-calming effect. The new range from LOccitane is made with natural essential oils from Provence: try Lavender Soap, pounds 2.60, Shower Gel, pounds 10.95, Solid Perfume, pounds 5.95 or Lavender Body Mist, pounds 10.95. You can pick a shower gel to match your mood with the Body Shops new Juice It range. There is cleansing and invigorating Juice It Ginger Lemongrass. Or, try the energising Lime Mint, with extracts of guarana and spirulina instead. Both of these will soon get you going first thing in the morning. Before you go to bed, try a more relaxing shower experience such as Juice It Wheatgrass Camomile, or Fennel Honey. A snip at pounds 3 each.
Solid Perfume
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