The Drawing Room Shuffle

THEY love having friends for the weekend.

Instead of a rushed dinner or lunch, guests usually arrive Saturday afternoon around tea time (SHE'S not very good at cooking but can manage a lemon drizzle cake).Then theres a walk around the garden and or a rest with a pile of books - followed by a big hot bath (we have plenty of our own rain water); then drinks in the drawing room before dinner.

This past weekend THEY had a great friend of Aunt Nano's from NZ, John Leaning, enroute to his flat in London where he lived for years. Sarah Walter was also visiting, being on a working holiday from England. They are both in the decorating game, John on his own, and Sarah as an assistant to Emma Burns at Colefax and Fowler. 

After a lot of house chat John suggested a change-around in the drawing room: all hands on deck with sofas and tables whirling helter skelter all over the room to settle in new and much happier positions.

Of course they do rely to some extent on my eye - here's me deciding where the Pembroke table should go.

All the changes were complemented by the first of the tree peonies.

It feels altogether more comfortable. 

This is only the first of the peonies - there will be lots of colours to come.

All this moving the furniture is very tiring - here's me having a little rest on Nano's bed after the drawing room re-shuffle