Grow, grow, and grow!

That’s what our village show does! Officially the ‘Wellesbourne and Walton Horticultural Society Autumn (or Spring) Show’ (what a mouthful!), it continues to attract new exhibitors twice a year in the Village Hall. And we need help in running it.

It’s just good fun – never taken too seriously – but seriously enough that people give the time and effort to result in a good show. More than anything, it provides another way for us to get together in the village and enjoy each other’s company, with good-natured competition and humour.

How does it all happen? Through the efforts of a small group of people, whose dedicated hands are beginning to grow tired or a bit infirm after (for many of them) literally decades of commitment and effort.

And now we’re critically in need of additional hands, so we want to tell you more about how it works – and invite you (‘encourage’ you? ‘implore’ you?) to be a ‘helper’ or committee member.

The committee’s main purpose is to run the shows. We meet three evenings a year: in January and June to plan the shows, and in November for our Annual General Meeting (a brief event!). There are some elected ‘officers’, and the rest of us (about seven more) pitch in as we can.

We have recently welcomed a few ‘helpers’ and are extremely grateful for your cheerful help. We invite you to join the committee as well.

Tasks range from booking the Hall and judges to growing plants to sell at the shows. We contact local papers (including this one!), take pictures, set up the hall and clean it all again. We design and print the schedules, getting them on line and in the shops. We collect your money (!), keep track of it, and make sure the books balance. The list goes on – and the number of hands doing it all is reducing. Help!

If you have time to offer, we’d love to hear from you. We are happy to discuss your interests or skills. For example, are you a dab hand on the PC and willing to produce the schedule? Good at keeping records straight?

To contact us: use the show’s entry form (in shops and here), contact any committee member or Paula Kerr on 07710 198552 or paula@paulakerr.com or sign up at the show.

Please help keep us in business!  Many thanks.

Wellesbourne in Bloom

This month has been very hectic. "St Peter’s Church Wildlife Project" a joint project between Wellesbourne in Bloom, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and St Peter’s Church and funded by the National Lottery "Community Spaces Programme" is nearing completion. Our big launch will be on 24th September at the Church Centre from 10am until 3pm with lots of activities to do and refreshments provided.

The Probation service has been clearing, laying down weed matting and barking large areas in the church centre for us. The herb garden along the wall has provided the pre-school children with plenty of aromas to explore.

The art work has arrived and Andrew McKeown the artist arrived with his magnificent dragonfly sculpture and the "Nature's Stained Glass Window" sculpture all the way from Durham. It was a lovely moment seeing them installed.

This project was first started by an e-mail 4 years ago and it has taken a lot of people a lot of work to get this far so we are all very excited. The new church gates should be going in soon, the new bench is due to be erected by "Natureforce" volunteers and the final touches completed before the launch. Please come along and support us.

Heather Sims, Chairman, Wellesbourne in Bloom