Autumn Newsletter

RECENT EVENTS (Autumn 2015)

MICHAEL COXSON
It is regretted by all members that Michael recently resigned as chairman of the Forgotten Garden, this was mainly due to his wife (Pat) having been taken very seriously ill a couple of months ago, fortunately she is now well on the road to recovery. Michael took the chairmanship seriously and understood the protocol of chairing meetings – often in his comfortable home, he produced many excellent posters and newsletters pertaining to the project. Despite suffering from a bad back, he was always willing to help on work days in the garden.

We will all miss his chairmanship and his zany sense of humour.

PETER WEBB
In the spring Peter (our tree expert) broke a leg after falling off a ladder, unfortunately is was a particularly bad break and he had to undergo many visits to hospital before he fully recovered. I don’t think that Peter will be scrabbling through the woods of the garden in the near future, but I’m sure that he will still be giving welcome advice gained from a lifetime of working with trees.

BBQ AT THE GARDEN
An excellent BBQ was held at the garden on Saturday 26th September 2015, a lovely sunny day which helped attract about 50 people, the new marquee (obtained by Fernley) proved very successful being just the right size; June’s BBQ was put to good use and Brian could hardly keep up with the demand for burgers and hot dogs, refreshments etc were provided by Caroline, Monica, Sue and Ann, £177.10 was raised for the garden fund.

APPLE DAY AT GALFORD
On Saturday 17th October 2015 Fernley and Clair held an apple picking day at Gaulford, despite a cool breeze those who attended had an enjoyable afternoon picking wheel barrow loads of apples from Fernley’s large orchard and taking them to an old stable for crushing and juicing with equipment kindly lent by Martin and Leoni from the Dower House. The amber juice was bottled and “sold” for donations to the Forgotten Garden Fund, and very tasty it was too!. Also burgers were cooked to order on a BBQ, and pop corn and candy floss were provided by enterprising Rachel (who lives at Gaulford)  not quite Goose Fair but a good time was had by all!, and about £150 was donated to the FG fund.

NEW WEBSITE
A new website has been designed by web designer Rees Kenyon (who lives in the village). See “forgottengarden.co.uk “ it is an excellent piece of work full of detail and photos about the project, hopefully members will soon be contributing to it or passing photos etc to peopleWho know how to do such things!.

WORK MORNING
The autumn work morning was held on the 1st Saturday in October 2015, it was the time for a general Tidy up and strimming and the garden is looking a lot better for it – though it do not stop there And further work will be required throughout the winter – mainly path clearing and cutting back Brambles in preparation for the spring flowers. Refreshments were kindly provided by Caroline And June.

JUMBLE SALE
The annual jumble sale was held at the Victory Hall on Saturday 31st Oct, a warm and sunnyday almost like summer. Caroline, Sue, June and Mary provided bacon butties and hot dogsprior to the sale starting, unfortunately most early arrivals brought sandwiches! So the main beneficories  were the helpers – very welcome too!. There were generous donations to the sale specially brica-brac and books, the plants kindly given by Monica quickly sold; a special thank you to Kay Roberts who provided a chicken dinner as first prize in the raffle – won by Alwin Spry. The attendance and takings were slightly down on last year, this was probably because the World Cup Rugby final was on the same afternoon, £253.57 plus anonymous donation of £80.00 was raised for the garden which will be a great help for future projects, thanks to all who helped make it a successful day.