Page 70 - Phonebox Magazine August 2016

Sherington Flower Festival
With Open Gardens and Scarecrows
Aflower festival with open gardens and scarecrows was held in Sherington on Saturday 25th June and Sunday 26th June in aid of St Laud’s Church.
The theme was ‘poetry’ so 24 flower arrangers with helpers turned up from Thursday to set up floral displays depicting a wide array of poems from the traditional ‘My Love is like a Red, Red Rose...’, To the up to date ‘When I am an Old Woman I shall wear Purple’. By Saturday morning the church was filled with flowers, their perfumes and colour but the star of the show was ‘Katie’ the cow. Created by the children of Sherington C of E school depicting the poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. She welcomed visitors in the church porch with her long lashes and beautiful crocheted pink udders!
Nine gardens were on display with some offering tea and scrummy cakes. Pimms (or lemonade) in a garden shed was also there for the tasting.
Not forgetting the many scarecrows at every turn and nook and cranny, the visitors to Sherington had an enjoyable time and as a result of everybody’s efforts, over £1,300 has been raised for St Laud’s Church.
Thank you to all who made the weekend such a success.
Olney Open Gardens
TA successful event
Everyone gets roped in
he first Open Gardens event for a number of years proved very successful, due in part to the sunshine, after the dullest June ever recorded by the Met Office for this part of the country. About 500 people bought tickets and visited
what was a very busy Olney. Many positive comments were received about the gardens and the town, people from outside the area being particularly complementary. The money raised amounted to over £3,600 which will be divided between two local charities, in addition a further £400 went to the museum as the refreshments were served there. The Kitchener Centre and The Friends of Cobbs Garden Surgery. We would like to thank the following sponsors, who were confident to invest in the early stages, without their support it would have been difficult to promote the event.
Allen’s of Olney for sponsoring the advertising and the tickets; CT Wilsons and Son for their generous sponsorship and selling tickets; Stephen Oakley for providing the numbered boards for the gardens and a donation; Desmond Smail, Heather Claridge of Olney Pilates Studio and Davis Optometrist for donations; Signs Express for providing the colourful banners and The Olney Delicatessens and Beeby Hair for providing raffle prizes.
Jane Stuart and Mary Crouch organisers of Olney Open Gardens presenting a cheque to Trevor Yorke, Chairman of The Friends of Cobbs Garden Surgery
Thank you to all the brave people who agreed to open their gardens and then worked long hours fighting the variances of the weather, the hard work paid off, the gardens looked amazing. Thank you to the Museum for selling tickets, opening the garden and for providing the facilities to serve refreshments, a total of 248 drinks were sold on the day. Thanks to all the people who made cakes including Donzellas, served teas , checked tickets, sold raffle tickets, grew and sold plants. A further thank you to the lacemakers, the horticulture advisor, the a Capella singers and the artist, Colin Veitch, for his demonstration. Hopefully we have included everyone, it is this willingness to take part that made it such an enjoyable day.
70 Phonebox Magazine | August 2016