It’s ten days since the garden trail, and I hope we have all recovered from the weekend. On behalf of the committee, I would like to say a huge thank you to all those involved. To the organisers, especially Ian and Bridget, and the car parkers; the leaflet and sign distributers and the catering teams; ticket sellers and street sweepers… and to those undertaking the many other tasks that I haven’t mentioned – thank you. To Mr & Mrs Maycock for generously allowing us to use their field for the car parking – thank you. And last but certainly not least, to those who opened their gardens, without whom we could not hold such an event, many, many thanks.

The final numbers aren’t available yet, but I believe we took over £3000 in ticket sales, with somewhere in the region of 600 people attending. As usual, attendance was considerably higher on the Sunday, perhaps helped by the better weather.

The refreshments in St Peter’s took somewhere in the region of £500 for the church, and the Courtyard café, another couple of hundred towards Thorpe in Bloom funds.

As was the case last year, the scarecrow competition was a great success, with the winners being as follows:

Family section
1st Angelina Ballerina Alexandra and Isabelle Somers
2nd Alan Crowmarsh Daniel Daines

Teenagers sections
1st Seventies Steve Millie Chesters and Mollie Garfit

We’ll do the official prizegiving as soon as we have the plaques ready. Our thanks to Maureen Sheety for organising the competition.

As yet, we haven’t decided exactly what we will spend the money on, but we are very aware that we need to do some remedial work in Coronation Garden, as the trees there took a battering in the snow last winter. And who knows, we might even get a watering system for the planters alongside Sorby Field.

However, if you have any ideas that would benefit our beautiful village, please contact any of the committee members. We don’t dismiss anything, no matter how off the wall it may sound.

And in a moment of madness, we have already announced that next year, we will hold the garden trail on Saturday & Sunday 21 and 22 July, and the scarecrow theme with be something related to the Olympics. We have never been so organised!!

As ever, comments, ideas and new faces are more than welcome, so do feel free to be involved… we are just a bunch of people who want to make Thorpe Salvin look good for all, and everyone is welcome to play a part, no matter how small.

Lesley Hayes
Chair, Thorpe in Bloom
2 August 2011