‘Taste of Summer’ a talk with slideshow by Tony Cleaver and Peter Mathers
Monday 18th January at 7.30pm with refreshments following the talk
Haworth Road Methodist Church

MINUTES OF THE CLUB MEETING HELD ON MONDAY 18th JANUARY 2016 AT HAWORTH ROAD METHODIST CHURCH

1        In Attendance: there were 45 members and 4 guests in attendance. 

2        Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and wished everyone a happy new year.

3        Apologies – Helen Reynolds, Jean Mouls, Jean Winder, Anita Day, Marjorie Slinger, Sheila Clark, Pat Trueman.  Chair announced the death of a former member Pat Frampton.

4        Correspondence and Notices –

·            A letter has been received from our new area Chair, Mrs Joan O’Brien along with forthcoming dates for 2016 and minutes for the AGM held on 21 November 2015.  These are on the Information Desk.

·            The next NEA meeting will be on 30 January which the Chair will attend.  Chair reminded members that any member can attend these meetings.

·            Christmas Demonstration – Chair reported that this was a great success and gave thanks to Marie Harris and Muriel Spencer-Wilcock for their demonstration.  Chair presented the ladies with a floral tribute as a token of our appreciation.

·            Christmas Quiz – this closes tonight.  Entries to be handed to Pauline Lowes and results announced in February.

·            Area News – Orders for the Area news have to be in by 28 February and members were asked to order their copies from Jean.  The cost is 50p for two issues.

·            Photographic Competition – Yvonne Coppin explained this year’s competition.  Entry forms to be collected from the Information desk.  Chair encouraged members to ‘have a go’.

·            Table Top Sale – Haworth Road Methodist Church has asked us to take a table on behalf of the flower club on 30 January – 10am – 1pm.  There will be a cafe for refreshments.  Anyone who can offer help on the stall or if anyone has anything to donate, please see Pat Rhodes after the meeting.

·            Easter Craft Workshop – we are again holding a craft workshop on Saturday 19 March led by Helen Reynolds and Eulie Henriques.  Members were asked to sign up on the list on the Information Desk.

5        Speakers – Chair welcomed Tony Cleaver and Peter Mathers with their talk ‘A Taste of Summer’.  The two men gave a lively, humorous and informative slide show of their garden visits to Cordoba, the Loire Valley and Amsterdam.

Cordoba – Tony explained how the town has an annual open gardens event which spreads throughout the town.  Slides showed views of small alleyways, small patios and peaceful courtyards with abundant flowers and lemon trees growing there.  They described some of the Roman architecture, the Mosque and Royal Palace with water gardens.

Amsterdam – Here they described the open weekend in June and explained that because of the tallness of the buildings around the canals and lack of a lot of sunlight, the gardens are mostly greenery with splashes of colour in some. 

Loire Valley  – Tony and Peter took us on a tour of Monet’s Garden and explained the history of how Monet had designed his garden.  Next we visited Amboise Chateau which was built by the King for Leonardo da Vinci and where some of Leonardo’s inventions were on display such as the double tiered bridge.  We next visited the Chateau de Villendry with an immaculate potager garden with borders of box trimmed to perfection.  The meeting was left with a feeling of summer, light and wonderful plants and flowers, presented with humour and interest.

Ann Drake gave the vote of thanks.

6                   Flower Dip

1)               Margaret Sanders

2)               Kirsty Hinchcliffe

3)               Irene Relton

4)               Jean Butterfield

5)               Jean Lee

Chair announced our next meeting will be on 15 February when the demonstrator will be Rachel Poole with her title ‘Natural Elegance’.The meeting closed at 9.05 and members were invited to refreshments and wished a safe journey home.