Vist to The Kings Arms Garden Ampthill

On June 21st, approximately 30 of our members gathered in the centre of Ampthill to visit The Kings Arms Garden, a woodland garden of about 2 acres managed by volunteers on behalf of Ampthill Town Council.  We had first heard of this garden at our AGM in February, when Joan Emsley, one of the volunteers, had visited our club to give us a talk and slides and many of our members had said how much they would like to visit it for real.  The entrance is hidden away down Kings Arms Yard off the old Market Square and it’s difficult to believe that you are in the centre of a town once you are inside.  We were met by 2 of the volunteers, Joan and Bryden,  who gave us a brief talk on the history of the site and pointed out some of the more interesting plants to look out for before we all wandered around on our own.  The threatened rain managed to stay away and we had a very pleasant couple of hours just a few miles away from home.  There were plants for sale which many of us were unable to resist and an opportunity to meet up with other club members beforehand for a drink and a bite to eat so all in all it was a lovely evening.  A special thankyou to Bryden and Joan who made the evening possible and also so enjoyable.

Sue Woodward ‘Give Me Water’

What lovely arrangements that Sue gave us, very cottage garden, and as Sue said ‘ she doesn’t have a wholesalers near to her so she goes to the supermarket’ so it goes to show that supermarket flowers are just as good, telling us stories of her life and how she met her husband , who showed us his love and passion for Scotland that he invested in a Kilt, and what a ‘bonny’ lad he looked too.

 

Susie Barwick ‘ Wild At Heart’

How nice it was to hear Susie telling us stories about Susie’s homeland Zimbabwe, and her extrordanry encounters with their wild life. A good idea just to show what you can do with a £8 bunch of flowers from the supermarket. Thankyou for those who managed to do an arrangement for Your Turn ‘ Darling Buds of May’

Nick Grounds ‘Flotsam & Jetsam’

Well! the night was full of wit and laughter, it is always a pleasure to welcome Nick Grounds back to Kempston, with some rustic designs especially the one in the huge wooden bowl, and as for the one in the tea cup(that cost Nick a lot of money), and the things that he aquires through his job. wouldn’t it be lovely if we could all have a job like that!

Jan Law – ‘Designed to Please’

On Tuesday 1st March Jan came from her home in Essex to present ‘Designed to Please’.  She not only entertained us, but showed us some creative ideas with aspidistra leaves which were intended to inspire us to go home and give it a go!  She made 6 beautiful arrangements and some photos from the evening are below:

Sandy Bailey – ‘Threads of Gold’

Well, What a night! We had wanted something very special to celebrate the Golden Anniversary of our club, and we certainly got it! Sandy pulled out all the stops with a brand new demonstration entitled ‘Threads of Gold’ which she had created especially for us and everyone enjoyed watching her create some beautiful arrangements whilst reminiscing about her childhood in Bedford and the people and places she remembered. Sandy and her helper had arrived at the Addison centre just after lunchtime to prepare for the evening, and for every arrangement that was produced as we watched, another matching or complimentary one was brought out from behind the scenes so that by 9pm the stage was literally full of flowers. All of the arrangements went into the raffle and so lots of ladies were lucky enough to take home an arrangement. Mulled wine and festive food was also available and we all had a truly memorable evening. Some photos are below…….

Jane Fox ~ ‘Bright and Beautiful’

Last Tuesday we were joined by Jane Fox from Rugby who created some lovely arrangements under the title of ‘Bright and Beautiful’.  Jane was aware that our Club is celebrating our 50th Anniversary and so included one arrangement inspired by Constance Spry in the style of flower arranging that was popular in the 1960’s and one incorporating a big golden sun for today.  Her efforts were much appreciated by our members and her flowers truly were ‘Bright and Beautiful’!

50 years young and still counting!

In November 1960, the inaugural meeting of Bedford Flower Arranging Society was held in Newnham School, Bedford. The ladies present on that first evening would have been delighted to know that the club (now Bedford Floral Art Society) would be thriving 50 years later and that on Tuesday the current members and friends celebrated the anniversary in style. The Addison Centre in Kempston was awash with ‘gold’ decorations, accessories, raffle prizes and of course, flowers. There were 50 gold, flower-shaped candles too – not on the cake but on a leaf covered block of florists’ foam! After a delicious meal, the evening finished with a flower arranging demonstration, when local florist Pat Davies produced stunning arrangements on the theme ‘Ancient and Modern Revised’.  It was a lovely evening and a few photos from the evening are below.  If you would like a printed copy of any of our photographs, just let me know.

Julie Woods ~ ‘Let’s Pop Corn’

We had a lovely eveing on tuesday when one of our own members – who is also an Area Demonstrator – entertained us with a dem called ‘Let’s Pop Corn’.  Julie – who lives in Cambridgeshire – used the title to intorduce a Film theme to the evening – and instead of telling us which film she was thinking about with each arrangement, she just provided clues in the form of snippets of information about each film, its stars or its era and left the audience to guess the film title!  Two ladies sitting directly in front of me were clearly film buffs and managed to guess each one correctly before Julie revealed the answers.  Julie finished each arrangemnent by playing us a well known piece of music from each film.  The films were:

South Pacific – yellow and blue arrangement

Breakfast at Tiffany’s – white flowers in glasses

Pretty Woman – red roses in a curvaceous vase

The Last Geisha – Pink lillies and snake grass shapes

Moulin Rouge – tall arrangement with feathers and red gerbera

It was a very entertaining evening with some beautifully arranged flowers.  Thank you Julie.

Contemporary Workshop led by Laura Leong

A message from our Chairman about the Workshop yesterday:

“I just wanted to thank Penny for suggesting that we invite Laura Leong to lead a Contemporary workshop.  What a good idea that was.
I think it is safe to say that we all learned something new during the day and Laura’s friendly manner and relaxed style put everyone at ease.  Linda’s photos show the results of our efforts.  We are hoping Laura will be able to return in November 2011 for a Christmas workshop.
There were 24 participants in Saturday’s workshop, 9 of whom were non-members (including Wendy who travelled down from Birmingham).
It was a ‘snug’ fit in the hall but the hire of the hall and Laura’s fee for attending for the day were sizable commitments and as a club we can’t run at a loss but do always try to offer value for money and keep costs as low as possible so that people aren’t priced out of attending events.  It is worth saying that without the support of non-members we wouldn’t have been able to go ahead.
It is written in our Constitution that ‘The object of the Society shall be to stimulate and encourage the interest in the art of flower arrangement.’   Workshops are fun way of doing that.  Another good reason for offering workshops is that Adult education budgets are being cut and consequently there are fewer flower arranging classes.
As with all events a lot of hardwork and time was involved and I would like to thank Linda P. and Penny for making the day run so smoothly.”

Linda R
Chairman

PS.  As Editor, I would like to add that without the enthusiasm and drive of our chairman, Linda R, there wouldn’t have been a workshop at all and it is therefore Linda that we should all be thanking.