For me this folding fork table is a sort of cousin of the shooting stick, a fantastic gift for the person who has everything. Seriously though have you ever found yourself in a garden in serious need of a horizontal surface for a mug of tea while weeding a flowerbed? Natalie Sampson obviously has.

Kiki Ęca Silva, her husband Arie Pos and their daughter Emma live on a Quinta (a small Portuguese farm), in Cete, Northern Portugal. In the 1950′s Kiki’s grandfather ordered some slate from Valongo (a slate mining area in northern Portugal), to build a new water tank. It was only after delivery that they realized that a slate water tank would be far too heavy for the rafters. So three of these great slabs were used to make garden tables instead. The slate was placed on simple steel frames and each leg was placed on a stone, in some cases attached to it. Time has remodeled each table a little differently, rustier legs or less shattered edges, depending on where it stands and how it’s used.

A few years ago they wanted a larger table for group gatherings that was less weather worn and brittle than the existing tables. So Kiki’s brother Luis Ęca Silva, an architect, designed a new 250x100cm slate table. The oil treated slate table-top is supported by steel angle profiles. They form square arches along each edge, stopping just short of the corners .The corners also have an angle profile, which join the arched profiles on each side, creating a beautiful composite leg.(good thing there’s a photo!)

The stripe bordered blue tablecloth is a delightful complementary echo of the table legs. I also love that a potting table figures right along side the new dinner table. The colours and textures of this new table have a similar garden camouflage feel to the old tables. Even the metal is painted in the same shade of green, but without the rust spots.Thankfully these camouflage qualities evaporate when the cakes come out to bloom!