Last week catch up

On Tuesday we were invited to the Civic Hall along with other voluntary groups to a ceremony recognising our achievement.  We had a display and table and a chance to talk to people that I'd never met before.  One thing I found out about was guardianleeds (www.guardian.co.uk) which is where the photo comes from:

We're next to the door!

Here's Linda and Betty collecting the certificate from Angela, who had her councillor hat on:

South Leeds community radio were also there -

Friday was the visit to Greenmount Primary - our first of this round of assemblies.  We had 5 minutes and we'll know how it went when we get the response on the 7th May, because I can't tell.
The children seemed so little after two years absence, but still just as terrifying en masse! Still, without the butterflies there'd be no point.

And of course, Saturday was the Spring plant sale.  The weather was great, the customers were there as soon as we started setting up and we sold steadily for a couple of hours.  As last spring, there weren't enough tomato plants.  I brought half a dozen aubergines home to fatten up for the summer.

What a surprise!

Yesterday, Linda and I went to Cockburn to see Peter Nuttal, who oversees the school's communtity links, and Kath Clarke.  The weather was foul and neither of us had a camera with us so we're going to have to go back and take photos so that we can show you:

• the chickens
• the bees
• the garden ornaments they make
• the mugs they decorate
• the allotment in progress (but it's more of a market garden) with a 64foot poly tunnel green house complete with sprinklers 
• the fruit trees
• the pond with tadpoles
• the raised beds of strawberries and rhubarb

and what would be impossible to capture, the enthusiasm they had for working with us, for us and alongside us!

All over, bar the rest!

Three and a half hours and it's gone - until 14th May when the results are out.  Yorkshire in Bloom is behind us and before is the rest of the year.
Three of us spent an hour or so and got a third of the Cardinal Triangle dug, seeded, raked and watered - no photos of course, cos my camera is not working.  It was a beautiful morning and it seems perverse to wish for rain, but we do.
'The Buzz' - the Beeston in Bloom quarterly newsletter is ready for distribution - if you are on Linda's e-mailing list you will be getting an electronic copy. If you are not, we've distributed paper copies to where we can think of.
'Full many a flower is born to blush unseen' is from Thomas Gray (1716-1761) 'Elegy written in a country church-yard'

Panic NOW!

Today is the day the judges for Yorkshire in Bloom ride round and I daren't leave the laptop incase there are incoming last minute instructions about litter picking. Not true but the fear of letting down the side for one day does seem to have disproportionate weight. 
What is that poem about many a violet left to bloom unseen?

Here's some I found hiding in my greenhouse:

Good luck and fine weather for us all!

Welcome to Beeston in Bloom

This month is a big one for us - not only has spring finally arrived, but we have the Yorkshire in Bloom competition and a plant sale in the next two weeks.  Busy, busy!
Here's a taster of what we've been doing recently:

The Parks Department cleared a patch we call 'the Cardinal Triangle'

We put in phormiums for a permanent planter

Next time you go down the White Rose look left as the road veers right and you'll see the daffs are out.  Next weekend we're planting 'cheap and cheerful' seeds for summer.

It's not all planting - we had three goes at the Russian Vine near the Millennium Garden

No job too small - a planter at the Hamara Centre on Tempest Road