We had a really good turn out for our Christmas Demonstration from Barbara Collins aptly titled ‘Christmas is Coming’.  Barbara produced a variety of lovely Christmassy arrangements and explained in some detail how the look could be created or adapted at home.  At the end of the evening 8 lucky ladies who had bought raffle tickets were able to take one of Barbara’s beautiful designs home with them.  The rest of us will just have to follow her tips and have a go ourselves…..!  Some photos from the evening are below.

It’s been a busy few weeks with the Area Show, our November meeting and then our Christmas Workshop all following closely on the heels of each other.  It was a new venue for us at the Kempston West Methodist Church Hall on the High Street in Kempston and parking was a little tricky but we all managed and enjoyed watching our course leader Diane Northwood demonstrate her Christmas ideas.  Then it was our turn and the time just flew by.  Sandra organised a huge pizza for us from a local shop which provided us with a pleasant lunch break and then it was back to work to make a second design.  By the end of the afternoon there was a large number of lovely arrangements to be admired.  It was a lovely relaxed day and I think we all enjoyed it.  Thanks to Diane and also Ann g who made it happen.

Way back when we arranged  our November meeting, we booked Amanda Cameron from Corby.  By the time the date came round we got Amanda Punter from Corby.  Same lady – new name!  Amanda had recently married and told us about her wedding flowers as well as passing on helpful hints and tips.  Her theme for the evening was ‘Firework’ and she had put a lot of thought into ensuring the flowers that she used were relevant to the theme.  She quickly produced 6 lovely arrangements which 6 lucky ladies from our audience were able to take home with them.

From 26th to 28th October 2012, the Riding School at Hatfield House was transformed by beautiful flowers created by individuals and clubs from all over the Home Counties area.  The title of the show this year was ‘Equinox to Solstice’ and classes included  ‘Time to Celebrate’, ‘Gleaning and Gathering’ , ‘Fire & Ice’ and ‘Inspired by……’   I’m sure you will be able to work out which photos came from which class title!

Our Open Evening with National Demonstrator Tony Brown inspired us with his wonderful designs.  Although he had recently moved house and had only a developing garden, he used some lovely hostas and ferns and gave us easy-to-understand growing techniques.  Tony also showed us the principles of elements of design whilst entertaining us with his sense of humour.  All in all a delightful evening.

Vikki joined us last week to present her demonstration entitled “Tumble into Autumn”.  At the time it felt as if we hadn’t even had Summer, but after seeing her first couple of designs we soon realized that Autumn has a lot to offer!  Vikki produced 6 very neat and very different designs and 6 lucky ladies went home at the end of the evening each with one of her arrangements.  It was a lovely start to Autumn and a few photos from the evening are below:

On Thursday morning we boarded a coach early in the morning to set off for Lincoln  Cathedral Flower Festival called ‘Dreams of Gold’.  It was an uneventful journey and a few hours later we pulled up just around the corner from the Cathedral.  Ann had organised ‘fast track’ entry tickets for us and as we made our way inside the Cathedral the size and splendour of the venue could not fail to impress, but the flowers just outshone everything.  They were everywhere and beautifully arranged. The sheer size of the Cathedral meant that it took a good couple of hours to complete a full ‘circuit’ but we had arranged a late lunch which fitted in well with our day.  After lunch, some members decided to have a wander round the shops and streets of Lincoln while others returned to the Cathedral to view again the wonderful flowers.  By the time the coach came back for us at 4pm we were all ready for a rest but agreed it had been a lovely trip out.  Thanks to Ann for organising it for us.  A few photos from the day are below – some depicting the Olympics and some drawing inspiration from the Golden Jubilee.

1. The London Eye

2. Sculpture in the Olympic Park

3. Olympic Rings

4. Olympic Torches

5. General view inside the Cathedral

6. Paper Horses

7. Gold & Silver Medals

8. Paralympics

Well! We had a really fabulous evening last week in the company of Philip Wolf, Head of Floristry from Frosts Garden Centre at Woburn.  It was an unusual meeting for us as August is holiday time and we take a break, but this year having missed our June date due to the Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations, we had an August meeting.  Obviously some of our Members were not able to attend – and what a treat they missed!  Philip inspired us with his wonderful selection of flowers – introduced us to some very unusual ones such as Water Lillies as cut flowers and Corcumas in a lovely pale green & cream   and created some beautiful arrangements.  We learned a lot about the Floristry Department at Frosts including just how many flowers they grow ‘in house’ and short courses they run and the lucky ladies who won an arrangement in the raffle went home with some really stunning flowers.  We hope he will come back and visit us again sometime.

With the Olympics just a few weeks away, we were delighted to welcome Laura Leong back to our club to present a very topical demonstration called ‘Going for Gold’.  Laura created 7 arrangements for us, each representing a facet of the games.  Laura also gave us lots of snippets of information about the Olympics while she worked and by the end of the evening the stage was full of a wonderful array of designs depicting the Olympic flame, the 5 rings, the stadium, the flame holder and the gold medals.  Laura had an exotic selection of flowers including some that were new to me – Jatropha which was an orange almost plastic looking flower which gave a lovely representation of fire, a beautiful red and white spray rose called Latino Pompom used in the Stadium arrangement and another spray rose, this time in deep red called Red Piano which she used to depict flames. At the end of the evening the raffle was drawn and  7 very lucky ladies were each able to take home an arrangement, but even those of us who didn’t win went away happy and inspired!  Some photos from the evening are below.

The weather outside was overcast and dreary but inside we were entertained by Fiona Franklin recounting the story of the WI Group who raised funds for a Leukemia charityby posing for a calendar using  flowers to cover their modesty!  There was of course an arrangement made from big bold sunflowers, a recurring theme of the calendar, one depicting ‘afternoon tea’ to represent the photograph where cup cakes were featured, another arrangement represented the glamour of the trip to Los Angeles to appear on a TV chat show and another was exotic and rich.  It was a lovely evening and Fiona used some really beautiful flowers.  The photos below give  a flavour of the evening.