It's the Shops First Birthday! ...but is it all Pooh?

“Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”

— Winnie the Pooh

Today is my shops business birthday. A year ago today I opened my doors of the little blue flower shop on Mill Street, Bideford. 

To be honest I feel a little like Eeyore on his birthday. Little bit sad, little bit forgotten. No cake, no candles no “whoop whoop”   A gift of an empty honey pot and a popped balloon would be fab but instead I’m in the shop bleach cleaning buckets. 42 of them so far. It’s a glamorous life!

Of course I would have to have been bleaching buckets even if I was open - it’s not a self punishment thing. But hopefully it would have been in-dispersed with customers and at least been in a shop full of fresh flowers and glorious plants everywhere. Because that was the vision when I opened a year ago. 

“What’s wrong with knowing what you know now and not knowing what you don’t know until later?”

— Winnie the Pooh

Oh the dreams and the plans. The Pinterest board and the books full of ideas. It was all there. But of course the world changed. It was changing as I opened. A glimmer of gloom on the horizon. I think we were all in optimistic denial. And then “BOOM” 8 days after opening we went into nation Lockdown 1.0. 

“Could be worse. Not sure how, but it could be.”

— Eeyore

Except we didn’t know it was Lockdown 1.0 - to be followed later that year with Lockdown 2.0, the sequel and then Lockdown 3.0 the dire unwanted further sequel. 

So a year of having the shop has been more stop and start than the number 73 bus in central London. But those times I’ve been open have been great. I’ve loved it, you’ve loved it - the dream was real. So yes it was heartbreaking every time that got taken away from me, but I’ve tried so hard to hold on to that dream, to keep it going and to dream bigger for when we start to move forward again. 

“If the string breaks, then we try another piece of string.”

— Owl

I’ll concentrate on the positives - it’s so easy to be an Eeyore and be full of gloom. I already spoke in my previous blog about the thanks I have for the people who have continued to support me during the last year. Local deliveries have definitely kept me ticking over in the lockdown months. 

“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

— Winnie the Pooh

But the other bonus it has given me is time. Time to stop and think and plan. To fully asses the times I was open and see what worked and what didn’t work. What sold well and what else I could sell. Moving stuff around - changing my merchandising. 

“I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I have been”

— Winnie the Pooh

Would I have had that opportunity if I’d been trading 6 days a week, week in week out?Would I have just have been working rather than planning? Who knows. But I have enjoyed the time to plan, to dream, to dream bigger. 

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”

— Winnie the Pooh

So as we hopefully enter the last few weeks of lockdown I am continuing to build on my ideas but with the added advantage of a little bit of experience. There is new stock lines ordered. Some new products and plenty more of what there was before. A little shop shuffle and a lot of cleaning! 

Then a deep breath, feel brave and get those doors open again so hopefully this time next year I can be properly celebrating another business birthday. 

“You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.”

— Christopher Robin

Thank you.

“Well, there’s not a day goes by when I don’t get up and say thank you to somebody.”

— Rod Stewart

I think we’ve all been more thankful than usual these last few months. Some of it very vocal and well deserved - the clapping, banging, saucepan rattling - for the NHS and other key workers. And some of it more silently for the glorious weather which has surely helped with the strangeness of lockdown. 

Others of us may have been thankful for their garden, their community, their health, their family and all the other personal touches that have buoyed us along these last three months. 

Yes, I am endlessly thankful to all those key workers who have got out there day after day and kept everything going for the rest of us. I’ve been thankful for the weather as I love a bit of sun and it has helped our little family unit enjoy spending so much enforced time together. Gardening, trampolining, tree house building, marshmallow toasting - all much enjoyed activities over the many warm sunny weeks. And I’m also very thankful we live near the coast so we have had a couple of evening outings to feel the sea and sand between our toes. 

But there are a few more ‘Thank yous’ I want to share and put out there. The ‘Thank yous’ to the people that have helped Church Park Flowers stay afloat and rally through some choppy unchartered waters. 

My previous blog spoke of how the business had to adapt and change to the change and adaptions around it. But it couldn’t have done it alone - it needed support, and that support deserves to be recognised. 

So in true Oscar speech fashion, here goes:

I’d just like to start by saying ‘thank you’ to my customers. Over the last eight weeks I have been doing deliveries of bouquets in the area. I’ve had so many more orders than I first anticipated so a huge thank you to those who asked for flowers to be sent. There were ‘thank yous’, ‘thinking of yous’, anniversaries, birthdays and ‘miss you’s. All sent with love and all sent with feeling. Most were from family and friends from afar who wished to be there but couldn’t. But I could. And as much as they were thankful to me I was equally thankful to them for putting their trust in me to portray their message not just in words but in flowers. Thank you. 

Thank you to local funeral businesses and their customers. My previous blog covered that with weddings currently off the agenda I had more time to put to funeral and farewell work. I enjoy funeral work as it is the most personal of all floral creations. So it goes without saying that a heartfelt ‘thank you’ goes to the families that again put their trust in me to create was was needed. Times like this when words are so much more difficult to find and say but colours, scents and combinations can speak volumes. Thank you.

Of course none of the above would have been possible without flowers, and as my cut flower patches have just started to produce some beauties I have needed some extra beautiful British blooms. My supplier did not disappoint. Week after week I would be couriered boxes of wonderfully packaged British grown blooms. Stocks, snapdragons, tulips, alstroemerias, cornflowers, Cornish pinks - all locally grown and in beautiful condition. Thank you. (and thanks too to Ian - the FedEx driver that came every week to my gate carefully delivering my precious boxes!)

But it’s not all ‘thank you’ to those in the physical world that have ordered and enjoyed my real flowers. I don’t need to tell you how important the virtual world has been these last few months. We have all relied on it and you’re reading this now! 

Back in the beginning of lockdown at Easter (I know it seems so long ago!) I put together my first blog and insta story on creating your own spring centrepiece. And so many of you got on board and created and shared your floral arrangements. Thank you. The blog was also shared by local businesses- namely Johns of Instow and HomeSweetHome in Barnstaple - and as always I’m grateful for that support. Thank you

With no weddings and little else going on there has been less to share and shout about on social media. So I dug deep and found a few images I hadn’t shared before. I tried, and failed, to take decent pictures of my bouquet deliveries to share and keep those channels of communication open. So again, thank you to those who liked, commented, shared or even just looked at (just press ‘like’ next time!) because in the words of a big business that resonates to a small business “every little helps”. Thank you. 

Again in Oscar speech style, I should thank my family. You note I said should as I’m not sure how much support there has been amongst the constant feeding, teaching, “mum I’m bored” yells etc etc but I did manage to escape every now and then to the workshop and get a few five minutes peace!

I will leave my final thank you to my brides and grooms of 2020. To all those who have put their wedding plans on hold. Thank you, for being strong and brave. Thank you, for being patient with the world. Thank you, for being patient with me when I forgot to reply to your email! Thank you, for continuing to be a Church Park Flowers bride even if we have to wait that little bit longer.

And then we are back to Rod Stewart to sum up my thoughts on these last few months:

“…fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness, ease my troubles that’s what you do.”

Thank you. 

(Next chapter coming soon!)