Herts & Essex Boundary Flower Club (NAFAS)

May meeting “Without Floral Foam” with Amanda Waples
Photos in Gallery

National Flower Arranging Day - Carol, Lorraine & Pearl’s bouquets.

The Hallingbury Show is back
Our members usually participate so watch this space !
New Location this year Great Hallingbury Village Hall and Grounds
Great Hallingbury Village Hall, Church Road, Great Hallingbury CM22 7TY

9TH APRIL
Members Sally, Rosemary, Marigold Judith, Carol, Sue & our Chairman Nicky joined nearly 200 East of England Area members at Jean Crane’s President Day celebration.
The morning started with speaker Linda Scoles and her lively description of her “Journey to Citizenship” From the Cascade Mountains in Washington State to the small Suffolk village of Great Barton.
Following lunch there was a fabulous demonstration ”Unexpected Blessings” with Beryl Cotton.
Jean who is an honorary member of Herts & Essex Boundary Flower Club and always has a special place in our hearts.

April meeting - "WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD"
Lee Berrill is always a delight to watch and last night was no exception.
He started by mentioning that when he created this demonstration and title who would have known how in recent weeks the world showed that it was not always so wonderful!
Lee has kindly given permission to share some his designs.
Lee’s first design was ‘Sunshine’ - All the beautiful yellow flowers definitely brought the sunshine feel, the added structure was made by Lee and was the first of his designs with handmade mechanics.
The 2nd design was about having photographic memories, it was amusing as he spoke about modern phone technology when he brought out onto the stage a black box camera/ tripod.
The white lilies of this design smelt divine.
Lee admitted he is a hoarder of driftwood and just one of his pieces created a beautiful mechanic for another of his designs.
Further designs depicted the wonderful world of travel taking us to Egypt and Asia and the wonderful world of foliage and flowers.
An excellent evening. - More photos in the gallery

Manuden Girl Guides enjoyed creating these colourful posies for Mother’s Day.
23 Guides had a fun time this week creating floral gifts for Mother’s Day. Committee members Tricia Pratley, Ann Godfrey & Sue Holman were on hand to give tuition. Lots of small craft items were provided to decorate jam jars for the guides to make their selections.
Once they had decorated their jars Tricia demonstrated how to create a small hand tied posy using daffodils, tulips and spray carnations with a few leaves round the outside.
With a little bit of help they all completed their posies, cut the stems and placed them in the jam jars ready to take home.

Cambridge Group - Spring Meeting

Flower Club members from Mildenhall, Newport & District, Herts & Essex Boundary, Clare, Biggleswade, Saffron Walden, Little Hallingbury, Cambridge, Brampton & West Essex enjoyed a wonderful day at Cambridge Group Spring Meeting.

The sun was shining everyone was in good spirits as they were greeted with smiling faces and a beautiful welcome pedestal created by committee member Tricia Pratley.

Stalls selling metal and wooden stands & displays, accessories, & greeting cards were well received with everyone enjoying a bit of retail therapy.
The speaker was Jane Malyon from The English Cream Tea Company. Jane was very entertaining and with audience participation on the etiquette of drinking tea and eating scones it was both fun and informative.

Following a delicious salad lunch everyone settled into their seats to be entertained by Stephen McDonnell - 9 times Gold Medal Chelsea winner.
Stephen used quite an interesting selection of mechanics for his demonstration, which included a bedstead, hat stand and part of a temporary dance floor! So many amusing stories as each of his designs were created with amazing blooms of all shapes and sizes.

East of England Area President Sue Brinton gave the Vote of Thanks.

*Photos are in the Gallery

East of England Area Day
There was a real feeling of Spring for the Area Council meeting yesterday, with a glorious welcome pedestal by David Thomson, Chairman Colchester Group, and all the tables decorated with pots of daffodils. Everyone loved the decorative collar, trimmed with buttons, around the yellow pots. They were very popular as raffle prizes as everyone wanted to investigate (copy!) the mechanics for their own club workshops, raffles etc.

Judy Wynn, NAFAS National Judge kindly judged the Inter-Group Competition and before the exhibitor cards were turned over to reveal the names of the designers, Judy gave an appraisal of each to an enthralled audience. This was very interesting and no doubt very useful for our members who compete.
Judy congratulated Yvonne Wagstaff of the Kings Lynn Group on her excellent design declaring it the overall winner. Yvonne was praised for the contrast of texture, good use of enclosed space, appropriate colouring to reflect the platinum theme, a strong rhythm and for being foam-free. Judy said that Yvonne’s design stood out and was in her opinion the obvious winner.
Congratulations we’re given to the other four designers and they were all praised for the high standard of work and Judy concluded by saying how much she had enjoyed the task of judging the Inter Group Competition.
Well done to our new member Lorraine who exhibited on behalf of Cambridge Group.
Photos are in the gallery.

MARCH MEETING
Helen Bird was our demonstrator this evening with her title ‘Take A Blank Canvas’.
The stage may have started as a blank canvas but by the end of the evening it was a perfect picture.
Helen used an array of interesting foliages from her garden, enhanced by her selection of beautiful flowers. Permission given to share two designs.
Lots of interesting tips and we also learnt the pros & cons of arranging using Agra Wool and Wire in two #withoutfloralfoam designs.
Our competition was “Artist’s Impression”. The quarterly cup (The design the judge would most like to take home) was won by Beverly Moore for her interpretation of Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl with A Pearl Earring”.
Well done to everyone who took part, particularly Naomi who was one of two new members joining this evening.
****************CHECK OUT PHOTOS ARE IN THE GALLERY*******************

Pat Bryceson a member of Herts & Essex Boundary Flower Club celebrated two milestone recently. Her 100th Birthday & 50 years a member of the Flower Club.

Back in 1972 during lunch breaks at her workplace, Pat started to attend flower arranging classes and that is where she heard about Nafas & their Flower Clubs.

In those days Herts & Essex Boundary Flower Club met at Great Havers J.M.I. School in Bishop’s Stortford & Pat recalls fondly how the chairs were those that the children used and were quite small and low for many who attended.

1976 Pat joined the Committee, in 1977 she was Honorary Secretary until 1985. Pat then continued as a valuable member of the Committee until 1992 and was elected and served her 3 year term as President from 1993-1995, becoming an Honorary Life Member in 1997.

During that time she was a keen exhibitor at many Flower Shows and proud to have received Best exhibit in Open Individual Classes for the Essex show (at Peterborough) in 1984 and. She boasted the Challenge Cup in her sitting room for a year. Jean Crane was responsible for urging members to try their hands at competitive work, no fewer than two entries. Pat went on to gain many awards over the years.

A regular & supportive attendee at Area & Group events, the Club’s monthly meetings & events & often hosting garden parties which everyone enjoyed.
In the photos at our Emerald Anniversary celebration Pat was proud to be with other honorary Presidents and in our Diamond year shecan be seen enjoying looking back through the club’s archives at our 60th anniversary Coffee Morning.

Pat is a very knowledgable & keen plantswoman and still enjoys pottering in her garden whenever she is able to.
Boundary Club members enjoy taking part in competitions and members are always proud when they receive the silver plate donated by Pat for “Best Use of Garden Plant Material”, as you will see from the photo.

The internet is perhaps something that may not come easy to some centenarians but not for our Pat, she keeps up to date with what is happening in the Nafas world online & on YouTube and enjoys the regular information that is shared on the club’s website.

From all her Nafas friends we wish her A Very Happy 100th Birthday and Happy 50th Anniversary as a member of Herts & Essex Boundary Flower Club.

February 1st AGM & working evening.

The first meeting of the year was our AGM, President Marigold Hodge led the meeting with reports from herself, retiring Chairman Tricia Pratley & retiring Treasurer Sue Holman. Tricia was presented with a beautiful garden planter.
Despite a difficult challenging year our club has come through it and we look forward to welcome ou members back for a full programme of demonstrations, working evenings, outings and more in 2022.
New Chairman Nicky Thompson received her chairman’s badge.
Betty Deeks stood down from the committee, she received a gift for all her hard work as a committee member over recent years.
Our newest member Lorraine, who only joined the club in September, has joined the committee.
Usually we present cups to the competition winners but as we only had 2 competitions members received award cards this year.
Business complete, it was time for a cuppa before Amy Louisa Fuller, local florist, (My Fair Lady’s Flowers) demonstrated how to create a hand tied bouquet.
Members had sourced a great variety of flowers and foliage giving a very colourful selection of beautiful bouquets.
It was lovely to welcome three visitors, all who took part & enjoyed creating a hand tied bouquet to take home and we hope to see the again at future meetings.
Amy’s design was raffled at the end of the evening along with other prizes donated by the committee.
A lovely evening enjoying friendship through flowers.

***********Check out the photos on the gallery page*************