On Tuesday 6th July we were joined by Jane Ellis, a recently qualified area demonstrator.  Jane created 6 colourful arrangements along the theme of “The Seeing Eye” and in one of them she used some Florigene Genetically modified carnations in ‘Moonlite’ – a lovely shade of strong mauve.  She also showed us some interesting manipulative techniques with Snake Grass and included a variety of interesting other techniques including one that caused gasps from the audience when Jane removed all the petals off some bright yellow sunflowers before placing them in her arrangement!  The results of her endeavours can be seen below.

Lisa Howarth came to Bedford to visit our club on Tuesday 1st June to present a demonstration called ‘We’re going on a Summer Holiday’.  Unfortunately I wasn’t there to see her as I really was on my Summer Holiday but from what I’ve been told she created some lovely arrangements and everyone not only enjoyed watching her but also learned a lot about the care of flowers.  One of our members took some photos of her creations that you can see below.

After a particularly cold day, we all needed cheering up with thoughts of summer – and that is exactly what Barbara gave us – 6 lovely arrangements of bright and cheery flowers accompanied by humerous chatter.  The results of her endeavours are shown below:

We also held one in our series of ‘Your turn’.  This month the title was ‘Recycled’ and we had some lovely floral entries as well as a photograph section.  Some of the arrangements made by our talented members are shown below.  We have another ‘Your Turn’ event next month (June 1st) – why not have a go yourself?

(I should just point out that I moved 2 of the smaller exhibits to fit them into the photo and they had got coins placed beside them in their original position!  The coins are put down by other members to show their appreciation and favourite, last week the tall one with the catherine wheel on the top was the most preferred.)

Tuesday 6th April

Wow!  John Chennell certainly believes in doing things on a grand scale!!  We had a really good turnout on Tuesday evening of both members and visitors to watch John create his stunning arrangements and no-one left disappointed.

For our first demonstration of the new year, we were pleased to be visited by Sharon Badger from Market Harborough. Sharon talked about her forthcoming challenge of designing and staging an arrangement to represent Mauritius at Westminster Abbey for Commonwealth Day next week, as well as her family connections with Bedford, while creating 6 very different flower arrangements – and all this with a bandage on her arm and a dodgy microphone! Sharon didn’t let it put her off, and some photos of the arrangements she created are below.

On Saturday morning, a group of 16 of us gathered at Kempston All Saints Church hall to spend some time creating our own Christmassy arrangements under the excellent guidance of Ann Gray.  We all thoroughly enjoyed having some quality time to be creative and were able to produce some beautiful flower arrangements.  We also had time for a break during which we enjoyed a light buffet with sparkling grape juice.  It was a lovely workshop as you can see from the photos below.

On December 1st Margaret Rumens came down from her home in Solihull to entertain us with her Christmas demonstration entitled ‘Season’s Greetings’.  We had a really good turnout of both members and visitors and instead of our usual plant stall we decided to have a small ‘Bring and Buy’ sale to raise money towards the NAFAS charity of the year – Breast Cancer Care.  We also had a selection of festive fare for everyone to enjoy before watching Margeret create a selection of beautiful arrangements with apparent ease.  Some photos are below of the arrangements that approx 10 lucky ladies were able to take home with them at the end of the evening after being drawn out of the raffle.

On 26th November, 11 members of BFAS went down to Broxbourne in Hertfordshire for the annual Area Lunch which this year was preceded by the AGM.  After a pleasant lunch we settled down in our seats to watch David Fawcett-Ropner create 6 beautiful arrangements under the title of ‘The Magic Of Christmas’.  They were huge and stunning arrangements and after he had finished they were raffled off in the usual Flower Club way.  Our Bedford table must have had some lucky stardust sprinkled on them as Sandra, Ann G,and Anne C all won an arrangement.  In fact Sandra won two but gave the second one to Linda R!  Penny also took home some flowers having won the table centre arrangement.  You may just be able to see Anne behind her prize in the photo below!

The 3rd November was a wet and miserable day but by the evening it had stopped raining and there was a large number of members and visitors gathered at the Addison Centre to see Gill Shanks who was visiting us from her home in Whittlesey near Peterborough.  Gill talked about a wide range of subjects that contributed to her own ‘Wonderful World’ and at the same time created some lovely arrangements with simple flowers but a very artistic eye and pleasing colours.  Some photo’s below show the results of her efforts.

On 6th October, Nick Grounds from Wisbech came along to our club to  present a new dem called ‘Mystery!’.  Nick, a horticultural auctioneer by day, kept us all amused and attentive with tales of his life whilst at the same time creating huge and beautiful arrangements with an autumnal theme.  The seemingly casual ease with which each arrangement appeared before us inspired and delighted everyone there and we were all envious of the 7 lucky ladies who went home with one of Nick’s creations as a raffle prize.  A flavour of the evening is reproduced in the photos below.