To all my friends at Clophill & District Flower Club - April 2025 NewsletterI hope you had a lovely Easter and enjoyed the sunshine – until Easter Monday!! I always think this is an exciting time in the garden as everything is coming to life and you notice things you had forgotten about and plan for more things to come. Our last meeting 3rd April when we had Arnaud Metairie was a really super evening. He is such a talented designer and is also very entertaining. There was lots of praise for him and I am sure Joan will put him on the list to book again. Next week on 1st May is our Open Meeting with a special demonstration ‘ A Splash of Colour’ by Emily Broomhead from Salisbury. This will also be a super evening. There are still tickets available - £6 for members and £12 for visitors. Please contact Gillian Hill if you need a ticket or one for a friend. The Charity table theme is Lotions, Creams and Cosmetics. 10th May is the Clophill Church and Village Fete and we always have a plant stall to support our charity fund. We would like to have donations of plants, seedlings, cutting or anything for the garden you can spare. You can bring them to the Club, take them to a Committee Member or bring them on the day to St Mary’s Church. Thank you. Area Member’s Day is on 29th April at the Marford Memorial Hall, Wheathampstead when the speaker in the morning is Simone Squire and the National Demonstrator is Alison Penno with ‘Floral Idols’. There will be a buffet lunch and tickets are £25. This should be an excellent day and the venue is easy to get to and the parking is good. I am attaching details of the Area Virtual Competition – Aspects of Summer’. This is an opportunity to do an arrangement your own time, take a photograph of it and submit it to Sue Calver , Area Media Team. See you soon With my best wishes, Carolyn Clophill & District Flower Club ******************************************************* ![]() Home Counties Area of NAFAS A warm invitation to all our members to enter the “Aspects of Summer” Virtual Floral Design Competition This is your opportunity to be imaginative and creative in interpreting the title ‘Aspects of Summer’. Your entry should be no larger than 60cm wide by 60cm depth, height optional Judged to the NAFAS Competitions Manual 4th Edition 2023 Entries should be photographed against a plain background and in good light and submitted to: Sue Calver on [email protected] by no later than 2 July 2025
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To all my friends at Clophill & District Flower Club - March 2025 NewsletterAt our March Meeting we presented the local MND Association with our donation of £700. We asked Catherine Wiles, the daughter-in -law of Julie who is really suffering from this dreadful disease. The money will be used to support the victims and carers in different ways, I have received a letter of thanks from Julie’s son Richard that he asked to be passed on to you all and it is printed at the end of this newsletter. I am delighted to say we the Club have adopted the same charity for 2025. Last weekend some of our members helped with wedding flowers at Maulden and Shuttleworth House. It was a very pretty event with mixed Spring flowers. The money we earned will go into the charity fund. **The theme for the April Charity Stall is: Pots, Plants and Planters. Our next meeting is on 3rd April when we have Arnaud Metairie demonstrating ‘Floral Fantasy’. He is an excellent and very amusing demonstrator and one you shouldn’t miss. We would also like to have a display of Easter arrangements to share ideas and to inspire everyone to have a go! Please bring an arrangement, however large or small, to create an attractive display. Looking ahead: On 5th April is the Houghton Conquest Horticultural Show and there is still time to put your entry form in for the Floral Art Classes. 1st May is our Open Meeting with a special demonstration ‘ A Splash of Colour’ by Emily Broomhead from Salisbury. I have seen her several times and she is one of the top designers and has been selected to demonstrate at the National show in Gloucester in September. Tickets are £6 for members and will be available at next week's meeting, from Gillian Hill or via the contact tab on this site. 10th May is the Clophill Church and Village Fete and we always have a plant stall to support our charity fund. We would like to have donations of plants, seedlings, cutting or anything for the garden you can spare. You can bring them to the Club, take them to a Committee Member or bring them on the day to St Mary’s Church. Thank you. Area Member’s Day is on 29th April at the Marford Memorial Hall, Wheathampstead when the speaker in the morning is Simone Squire and the National Demonstrator is Alison Penno with ‘Floral Idols’. There will be a buffet lunch and tickets are £25. This should be an excellent day and the venue is easy to get to and the parking is good. See you all soon. With my best wishes, Carolyn Chairman of Clophill & District Flower Club ****************************************************************************** ![]() Letter from Richard Wiles Presentation to the MND Association at our March Meeting to Rita Beaumont by Catherine Wiles Dear Carolyn, I'm with my mother now - as you may be aware, she has taken a turn for the worst and has had a tough couple of weeks. She wanted me to tell you that she was so grateful for the donation of £700 for MNDA - she is so appreciative that you chose a cause that is will benefit people in a similar condition to her. Betty had first pick of the flowers after having the first raffle number to be picked out, and donated them to Mum. She was so happy with them - whoever made them did a great job. My lovely wife Cath also made mum cry today when Jan Bird replayed her speech - it was really lovely and I found the words couldn’t have been chosen better. Please can you forward the above to all at Clophill Flower Club, along with her love and thanks. And the same from me, too. Sincerely, Richard To all my friends at Clophill & District Flower Club - February 2025 Newsletter![]() At last, the Spring is showing signs of coming with lots of buds and Spring bulbs appearing in our gardens. When I walked in the woods near Shefford there were carpets of snowdrops and catkins on the trees and the sun was even shining! We had a very good audience at our last Club meeting and I think everyone enjoyed the demonstration by Rachael Borenkova. She was well organised, her designs were varied and there were 14 raffle prizes, so many ladies went home with some lovely flowers. At the meeting I announced that the Club had raised £700 for the local Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) and that a cheque will be presented to a representative from the MNDA at our next meeting. I have invited the family of one of our members who is suffering from this dreadful illness to come to the meeting too. On 6th March we have Theresa Rodrigues coming to entertain us with ‘Anything Goes’ – not the song, but the title of her demonstration! If you didn’t manage to come in February you will have the opportunity to vote for the charity for 2025, but we are having a another collection of items for Baby Basics at this meeting. Baby Basics is a local charity that supports disadvantaged new mothers with vital equipment and clothes. We would like donations of new or second-hand items, both large and small . They always appreciate hand knitted items. Also, please remember to bring a mug for your tea/coffee for your refreshments at the meeting. Area Member’s Day is on 29th April at the Marford Memorial Hall, Wheathampstead when the speaker in the morning is Simone Squire and the National Demonstrator is Alison Penno with ‘Floral Idols’. There will be a buffet lunch and tickets are £25. This should be an excellent day and the venue is easy to get to and the parking is good. Club Subscriptions can still be paid at our March and April meetings, either by cash, cheque or BACS. We have an excellent programme for this year giving you great value for money. See you soon. With my best wishes,
Carolyn To all my friends at Clophill & District Flower Club - January 2025 NewsletterWishing you a very healthy and peaceful New Year full of fun, friendship and flowers. I hope you had a lovely Christmas with friends and family. It seems a while ago as all our decorations have come down and the house looks quite bare. I must go out a buy some tulips and bring the hope of Spring. We had an excellent Christmas demonstration by Lucy Ellis and I hope you enjoyed the evening if you were able to be there. Lucy said what a really friendly and lively Club we are and how much she enjoyed visiting us. We now look forward to our 2025 programme that Joan has booked for us. It is full of super demonstrations by some familiar demonstrators and some exciting new ones. One highlight will be in June when our own Doug Howard gives his Special Retirement Evening with ‘A Man for All Seasons’. Doug has been an area demonstrator for many years and has decided to ‘hang up his scissors’ with his last flourish!! The first meeting of the year is on Thursday 9 January when we hold our Annual General Meeting. This is a social meeting when we review the past year and our successes and then plan for 2025. We always like to have suggestions from members on how to improve the Club so we welcome anyone who would like to come. The Treasurer will present the accounts and we will hear how much our charity stall has made for our 2024 charity: Motor Neurone Disease association. We plan for it to go to the local branch as one of our members is really suffering with this horrible disease. Thank you to all who have supported us and to Julie and Jean who have organised the stall throughout the year. We would like nominations for charities for 2025, so please let us know if you have a suggestion and we will ask members to vote at our February meeting. Julie says the theme for the Charity stall is Unwanted Christmas Presents – make sure the person who gave it to you isn’t with you!! On 6 February we have Rachael Borenkova – ‘Let’s go to the Flower Shop’. Rachael is new to our club but has been highly recommended. Subscriptions are due again. It is £45 – the same a last year – you can pay by Bank Transfer, cheque or cash. As agreed previously, the committee will be prepared to accept the subscription in staged payments over three months if this is helpful for members. See you soon,
With my best wishes, Carolyn Chairman of Clophill & District Flower Club To all my friends at Clophill & District Flower Club - October Newsletter This week I returned from a super holiday with John on a road trip all around the North of Scotland. The scenery and landscapes were beautiful and we had lots of walks on silver beaches, along gushing rivers and through woods that were full of Autumn colours. It was very relaxing - just what I needed! Last Wednesday it was the Area Education Fun Day that eight of our members attended. It was a fun day with a demonstration by Gill McGregor on foam- free mechanics, talks and practical activities on many aspects of designing without foam and competitions. There was a competition class that was judges by the Area judges and also the attendees. Doug Howard came 1st; Linda O’Toole came second and Lesley Sturdy came 3rd. I was very proud of them all! Our next meeting is Thursday 7th November when we have Barbara Collins, one of our favourite demonstrators, with ‘Floral Moments’. As we are now into Autumn it would be great if members brought a seasonal arrangement to create a display to inspire everyone with lots of different ideas, with the title ‘Autumn Glory’. Please have a go!! Our charity table will be ‘Anything Christmas’. Our Christmas Demonstration is on 5th December. Unfortunately, Katherine Kear is unable to come as she is having an operation on her hand so we have been lucky to book Lucy Ellis, another National Demonstrator from Wiltshire, who will be coming instead with ’The Colours of Christmas’. I am sure it will be a super demonstration and the tickets are the same price and will be available at next week or from Gillian. There will be our usual delicious mince pies made by Joan and a glass of mulled wine. The Area AGM/lunch/Demonstration is on Wednesday 13th November. It will be held at the Marford Memorial Hall, Wheathampstead from 10.30am. This will be my last event as Area Chairman, as I hand over to Anne McPherson. I have really enjoyed the past 2 years and have made a lot of new friends in ‘the flower world’ of NAFAS. There will be a buffet lunch and a demonstration by Margaret Rumens ‘Betwixt and Between’. Tickets are £25, available from Celia Thompson. The Flower Arranger magazine. If you would like to order the NAFAS magazine that is always full of ideas, designs and news Kate will be taking orders/subscriptions next Thursday. As a member of NAFAS, you can have it at a discounted price of £16.50 for 4 seasonal issues. See you soon, With my best wishes,
Carolyn Chairman of Clophill & District Flower Club Wednesday 13 November 2024 |
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