The beginning of September or La rentrée in France


is much more than children going back to school it also about fresh starts for everyone, getting yourself sorted out for the winter, taking up a new hobby or learning a new skill.



We have inspiring books to wet your appetites for home renovations and lots of notebooks and journals to help you organize yourselves and your family.



Also new in are fabric sample books from which you can order by the metre. We have swatches from Biggie Best and Suzie Watson Designs.

We have lots of lovely baskets for bringing your harvest home, wire trugs for bringing produce back from the allotment, Pretty baskets for blackberries, flower baskets and even a basket with a walking stick for fungi foraging!

Autumn is a season of rich colours and bounty. My father was a church minister and one of my favourite times as a child was Harvest Festival. The week before, my dad would drive out with me into the Suffolk countryside and we would collect great bunches of rose hips and old man’s beard (very itchy!) to festoon the church.

Local farmers donated stooks of corn and the baker made celebration loaves in the shape of wheatsheaves. On every window sill there were apples, onions, great oversized marrows and pumpkins, and of course vases of dahlias and country flowers. A few days later once the harvest baskets had been distributed to the elderly, the parishioners would gather for a harvest supper to celebrate the lovely the season.

At Thomas and Lucia we are celebrating the season with warm colours, new and exciting garden products and lots of new things to inspire your creativity this autumn.

The Good Life

The hedgerows are full of blackberries, sloes and rosehips; the veg plot is laden with courgettes, beans and squash and fruit trees are heavy with apples, damsons and plums so how about making some Christmas presents. Sloe gin and blackberry liquer goes down a treat as does jam, chutney and tomato sauce.

There are 3 for 2 offers on all jam jars, bottles and le parfait preserving jars. Free recipes are available in store (yes even for my blackberry liqueur!) I also have lovely books ‘Cabbages and Roses guide to Natural Housekeeping’ and ‘Fruits of the Earth’ to help you make the most of your harvest.

Enjoy the Harvest Moon

Once you’ve made your chutneys and cordials why not invite friends to your own harvest supper or beach barbeque. Light the chimnea, sit out with some of our hanging tealight holders (again part of our 3 for 2 offer) and wrap up with one of our new cosy throws and enjoy the harvest moon.