AT our last meeting on October 4 we were enthralled by the floral skills of Mrs Emma Remington - with her demonstration entitled ‘As We Go Down To The Woods’.

Not only did Emma put together some beautiful arrangements, she also entertained us with stories of her family members - in particular her two daughters when they were young.

Emma originally worked in textile design, though she is now part of a creative team at Althorp House, Northamptonshire, helping to create their floral designs - having retrained in this career following the birth of her first child.

We were treated to five entirely different floral arrangements; the first being set at the top of a tall cylindrical container which had lengths of silver birch inside - over-spilling down with an assortment of Calla lilies, cymbidium orchids and quince.

This was swiftly followed by an L-shaped design of Liatris, sedums, Passion Flower leaves, spray carnations and freesias - arranged within an assortment of bark to show the shape to its’ best advantage.

Emma’s third arrangement depicted a row of Georgian houses in London, with tall spires of Choisya and myrtle to represent the trees, and with lime green gladioli, Chinchincheree and green Hypericum berries.

Next was an arrangement which reminded Emma of her daughters - she entitled this one ‘Muddy Puddles’ - offsetting an arrangement of Japanese anemones, mahonia, gerberas and snowberries with a pair of yellow wellingtons which had belonged to one of her daughters. All this together with a description of their walk in the woods! It was so amusing!

Finally, a circular arrangement Emma had called ‘Here and Now’ - a circular arrangement in sot blues, purple, pink, white and green - including in it some white agapanthus, clematis and streptocarpus. Emma told us she regularly used this design in the entrance hall at Althorp House, as it was such a popular shape for use by them.

There were some delighted people within the audience when they discovered they had won one of Emma’s arrangements!

Our own floral competition was not so well supported this time, however. We do need more people to take part - please do give it some serious thought! Our Club does require your involvement, as otherwise all the work involved in keeping it alive will be wasted. No-one would want that to happen!

The next Club meeting will be taking place on Wednesday, November 8 - as usual from 7.30pm in Offenham Village Hall. There will not be a competition this time however - though in addition to a ‘Pandora’s Box’ evening taking place, we will be delighted to have with us the son of one of our late Club members.

Mr Tim Lewis and family have set up a Charity (Jean the Bean FU Cancer Fund) in memory of the late Jean Lewis, who was much loved by us all. Jean did so much for the Club and she is sadly missed.

Tim will be with us to let us know how they are raising funds and what has been done so far. He will also have an assortment of vases for sale at our meeting - so please do look at these to see if you are tempted to buy.

Do join us. We are always delighted to have new people attend one of our evenings; it is a pleasant social event, and it would be lovely to see some new faces.

Membership remains at £20 per year, with an additional monthly cost of £1 to cover tea/coffee and biscuits. Visitors pay £5 per visit.’

LESLEY KAY