We appreciate that AGMs are not the most fascinating events, so Pat and Joan had prepared some other fun activities to make the meeting a bit more enjoyable, including mystery objects in bags and a Word-search. These seemed to go down well and definitely helped break the ice for visitors joining us for the first time - always a bit daunting when confronted with a roomful of people you've never met before! Trying to guess the contents of the mystery bags certainly helped to get people talking and laughing!
Earlier this month, on February 9th we had our AGM and it was great to have such a good attendance and to welcome several new visitors!
We appreciate that AGMs are not the most fascinating events, so Pat and Joan had prepared some other fun activities to make the meeting a bit more enjoyable, including mystery objects in bags and a Word-search. These seemed to go down well and definitely helped break the ice for visitors joining us for the first time - always a bit daunting when confronted with a roomful of people you've never met before! Trying to guess the contents of the mystery bags certainly helped to get people talking and laughing!
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Last Thursday's (12th Jan) meeting was a talk by Roger Dungey about his experience of exhibiting at Chelsea in 1997, meeting the Queen, and winning a gold medal!
Roger's company had one of the smaller garden plots at Chelsea, themed as a country garden, which apparently was not on the Queen's usual route round the exhibition. However, that day she varied her route and stopped to view his garden. He was obviously very pleased and the moment was caught on camera by a professional photographer in the next exhibition garden. It's a great photograph with the Queen smiling and looking as though she's really enjoying the encounter. Roger explained how complicated the logistics of exhibiting are - the precise time slots given to unload all the plants, and how the rules require all the plants to be in full bloom (not in bud), with more plants ready to replace any that go over during the exhibition period. And then there's the final day, when everything has to be sold so that they don't have to load it all up and take it back again! Roger's second name is Harvey, and he named his company Roger Harvey Garden World. which is the name on the medal and award certificate. This was a really interesting and revealing 'behind the scenes' glimpse of what exhibiting at Chelsea involves. Roger was happy to answer all our questions and members obviously really enjoyed this meeting. This is a VERY belated post about our Christmas Tea on 8th December!
This was our first Christmas in the new venue and it seemed to go very well. As usual, our members contributed very generously to create a magnificent spread - see Pat's photos below. It was great to see so many members as well as several visitors. Doreen organised a Musical Bingo game which we've enjoyed in the past (pre-Covid!) and a new (and hopefully a fun) experience for some of our more recent members who were playing this for the first time! We also had a raffle and then tucked into a a very tasty tea! Last Thursday (10th November) was a smaller meeting than usual, with several members not able to make the meeting due to other commitments, ill health, or in the case of two of our members, falls resulting in injuries. We wish them well and hope to see them all again soon.
With no speaker this time, it was a nice informal meeting which gave new members a chance to chat and get to know others. Pat chaired the meeting and had set us a quiz based on the names of flowers, and then gave a short talk about oak trees and acorns! She then distributed packets of acorns she had gathered, with advice on how to cultivate them till they grow big enough (in about 2 years!) to be transplanted to sites in the borough that want to increase their tree population. A long term project - but she'd recently discovered that unknown to her, an acorn had taken root in her garden and had already produced a sapling, so she's well on the way with her result. Joe Studman gave us an interesting talk on Barnsbury, Leafy Gardens of Islington. There didn't actually seem to be that many leafy gardens, but the social history of the area was very interesting.
We were very pleased to welcome three new members this time: Jenny, Irma and Anne, as well as 4 more visitors. Many thanks from all of us to Philomena, who has organised our teas/coffees for so long, and has done such a good job, but has now decided to hand over to someone else. Apologies that this blog is so late! However, at the September 8th meeting we were delighted to welcome 4 visitors to the meeting - 2 of whom, Jenny and Irma, were back for a second time, so couldn't have been too put off the first time!
The speaker Nick Dobson was really excellent! Nick spoke about The World Of Flowers: dahlias, perlagoniums and fuchsias. He was such a clear and interesting speaker with a very good selection of slides and very helpful about instructions for propagating, which members were interested in. So Nick emailed us his A Quick Guide to Propagating Fuchsias and his Dazzling Dahlias booklet which was a comprehensive history of dahlias with lovely photos and illustrations. We've invited Nick back in May next year to talk to us again and we're very much looking forward to that! Last month we asked if anyone had a screen for projecting slides onto, that they weren't using any more and wanted to get rid of, and both Linda and Sylvia responded. Thanks to both of them we had a screen for Nick to use, plus a handy spare! Thank you Ladies! Our first meeting here took place on one of the hottest days of the year, so we expected a few absences, but were delighted with the turn out, and were very pleased to welcome three visitors, who seemed to enjoy themselves, so we hope they come again!
As none of us were familiar with this hall, it was a bit of an acclimatization experience for all of us. So we had a little gentle quiz, some announcements and then tea/coffee and a plant exchange with lots of chat. The hall seems very nice and many of the tables are smaller than we were used to at Highlands, and much easier to erect and fold down again - so that's a bonus! The kitchen is roomier, but we thought we'd need to supply more cups as they seemed to be catering for smaller groups than ours, but have since found out that there were lots more ready to use in the dishwasher. We're still working out which area will be most suitable for projecting speakers' slides onto. Highlands had white walls, but Holy Trinity doesn't. We may be able to project onto the pale window blinds, but if anyone has an old projector screen in their attic that they'd like to loan/donate, please let us know. I, like many other people, had one many years ago, but who knows where it is now! On 14th July we had our last Mini Show & Strawberry Tea in the Highlands Village Hall.
Sadly several members could not be there for various reasons, but despite that we did have a very good show with lots of entries. The biggest gap was in the Vase of Mixed Flowers section where we had only two entries, because the extreme heat had left very few usable flowers for members to work with. This also made it more difficult to find a good Single Specimen Flower, but we did have 8 entries for that category. The Craft category was new this year so not a lot of entries, but Pat's quilt was spectacular and a worthy winner! Rita entered some lovely watercolours of flowers, I entered a small rag rug wall hanging and Gerald's Meccano big wheel with little people in the cradles was a very original addition! Unfortunately, this is the first year that I totally forgot to take photos - so sorry about that! So I've relied on members emailing me any photos they have of their exhibits. So far only a few, but here they are: The Minchenden Oak (formerly the Chandos Oak) is in the Garden of Remembrance by Christchurch in Waterfall Road N14. It is estimated to be around 800 years old.
We had a mention of it in one of our newsletters last year. The first photo was taken in February last year and showed the leafless tree looking rather battered with drastically truncated branches after various necessary prunings over the years. The second photo was taken this May and you can see how this old tree is still thriving despite everything it has endured. Jill Wright came to us yesterday (9th June) to give us a talk about her trip to Costa Rica.
She's obviously a very experienced and adventurous traveler. Her photos of the exotic wildlife of Costa Rica were amazing; hairy, languid sloths; all sorts of birds in vibrant colours; butterflies, lizards, iguanas and an enormous spider! It was interesting and wonderful to learn that this small country is so environmentally aware and protective of its wildlife. Jill's trip culminated in a kilometer long zip-wire run - she was one of only three in her group who volunteered for the zip-wire experience and the only one to do it 'Superman' style - i.e. not suspended in a harness in sitting position, but suspended from the back so she zipped down horizontally, with arms spread out, Superman style! We look forward to having Jill back again to tell us about some of her other experiences! |
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