29/01/13 Millennium Arch

Yesterday Linda, Angela, Pauline, Susan and some of the parks department team met in Cross Flatts Park for the installation of our new Arch.

I aquired the photo from facebook where the accompanying text reads:

'The arch is part of a package of improvements that the group are installing in the area using funding from Community First and Aviva insurance. A pub style sign is to be put up on Dewsbury Road at the “Cardinal Triangle” welcoming motorists to Beeston. Information boards will join the arch in Cross Flatts Park’s Millennium Garden with details of the plants in the four raised beds.

Linda Stanley, Secretary of Beeston in Bloom said:

“We are delighted with this latest addition to Cross Flatts Park. We hope in future years that roses and other climbers will decorate the arch.”

The group are always looking for new volunteers. Contact them by email, or come along to their next Work Party on Tuesday 5th February on St Anthony’s Drive at 10:00am.'

Although it was quite wet and windy they all seem happy. The arch looks great don't you think?

Sara

12/01/13 working party

Finally I am something like caught up. We had our latest working party in the Millennium Garden, doing some tidying up and pruning so the new growth [which is just starting to peek through the soil] has room to flourish.

Angela and Susan sorting out the long border.

Vivienne hiding behind a raised bed.

Judith, with Angel's help, pruning one of the rose beds.

Jim [I have turned the photo, edited it and re-saved it and rotated it again and it still loads sideways - sorry] sweeping the paths.

And Linda collecting leaves to make leaf-mould. I did do something I'm sure - probably got in the way.

We were supposed to have a pruning lesson on the 19th but it was postponed due to the weather - it was re-postponed from the 26th for the same reason. It may be on the 9th of March if nothing else happens [given the way our weather is going we might have a drought by then].

Sara

08/12/12 Angela’s Party [catching up]

Angela had her 60th birthday party on the 8th at Holbeck Working Mens Club, as on her actual birthday she was busy selling jam at the Holbeck Gala.

We had a great time chatting and dancing [unfortunately as it is now the end of January I have forgotten most of the detail - sorry - I was a bad blogger].

I didn't take any photos but Vivienne sent me this one of our corner - not sure who took it as she is in the photo.

Sara

01/12/12 holbeck gala [catching up]

Linda, Judith and I had been busy making cards and boxes for our stall at Holbeck Gala. We only had a small table so it took some arranging. Vivienne also brought us some plants to sell. Christine had been making draught excluders for her stall and Angela had made loads of jams and chutneys for hers.

We had quite a good day and raised about £80 towards next years plants.

Vivienne even managed to sell one of our Beeston in Bloom calendars to our local MP Hillary Benn.

Sara

20/10/12 working party [catching up]

We had a working party in the yard near the Millennium Garden to plant up the troughs for the Tommy Wass barriers.

We tried to plant matching pairs of troughs and eventually [after quite a lot of 'negotiating'] we finished - it took quite a while even though lots of us turned up [you can't tell from the photos as I only managed to catch Linda, Angela and David on film] as there were a lot of troughs to do.

Sara

15/09/12 Working party [from the archives]

We met for our regular working party at Millennium Garden and did some weeding and pruning. I left the technical pruning to the better gardeners and I concentrated on pulling arms full of bindweed/morning glory out of the far border. There wasn't any point in taking photos of that as you couldn't see any real difference after I had done it. Pauline did a great job with the lavenders but I forgot to take a photo - Linda took some so she might send them to me.

Last night quite a few of us went to Vivienne’s 80th birthday party. She put on a great do, with good food and music and loads of friendly guests. Here are a few photos I took [although it was not strictly a Beeston in Bloom activity I don't like to do posts without photos].

Her cake was fantastic with a representation of Beeston in Bloom on one side and the Adel Players [her other great enthusiasm] on the other. She had also put an interesting photo album together of her life for us to look at.

Sara

03/09/12 Cardinal Triangle [from the archives]

Instead of having a meeting this month we decided to have an extra working party while the weather is still good and the evenings not too dark. The Cardinal Triangle looked fine from a distance but when we started weeding and pruning back we took an amazing amount out of the beds without making most of it look too bare [there are a few empty patches].

We had 3 car boots and back seats full of black bags containing weeds etc which we took back to compost at Cross Flatts Park.

Sara