20th August 2016

This year the event was held in Suffield, near North Walsham on 20th August. Because of concerns about the weather we had taken up our contingency plan of serving lunch in the very pretty little village hall, next to the field where we were parking the cars.

Members were greeted with a cup of tea or coffee, with time to exchange news with friends and acquaintances before sitting down for lunch, either in the gazebo or inside the hall. The weather was breezy but bright all day, except for one little flurry of rain just at the end.

Lunch had been provided by the committee. The highlights were Sue Thurman's wonderful raised pies and Andrew and Cathy Lawes' wonderful confection of chocolate and cream and black cherries. These had a supporting cast of quiches, ham, cheese, salads and pickles and bread rolls, followed by meringues with cream, cheese cakes, mousse and yet more cream. There was also a choice of the usual pale yellow, or the rarer pink elderflower cordial.

Members then walked round to Helen and Peter Burtenshaw's garden, ( or were driven by car, where required) where Len was selling raffle tickets and Colin was selling plants as fund-raisers.

Helen's garden absorbed members' interest as they examined rarities and novelties in the gravel garden, borders, pond and in the ferny shade. Their gasps were rewarded with a soft drink. A quiz had been arranged to see how many plants members could identify, or guess, listed alphabetically. These were marked on their return to the village hall for a last cup of tea or coffee. The plant nobody knew was Dietes bicolor, a not-very-hardy bulb!

A number of members made a point of thanking us for the day, and others wrote emails afterwards.

We were immensely lucky with the weather, and the arrangements were a good team effort, headed by Sarah and Barbra, new committee members this year. Well done to both of them.

Chris Davies