October 2015
Download a copy of the October Newsletter here
Madam Chairman's Piece
The Autumn Show is the last event of the WAGS 2015 calendar, and what a lovely sunny day we had (after the early drizzle that fell on those of us preparing our dahlias outside at 8am!). It was lovely to be able to sit out with tea & cake have the band playing in the sunshine, so British!
We hope to have the Dobie’s catalogue in store in October, offering a great discount on seeds, as usual. If you have any ideas for WAGS 2015, I would love to hear from you.
Thank you to all WAGS members for supporting your society; don’t forget to recommend us to your green-fingered friends. I would really like to see membership going up rather than down, so we can feel that all the work we do is worthwhile.
Sandra Halstead
We hope to have the Dobie’s catalogue in store in October, offering a great discount on seeds, as usual. If you have any ideas for WAGS 2015, I would love to hear from you.
Thank you to all WAGS members for supporting your society; don’t forget to recommend us to your green-fingered friends. I would really like to see membership going up rather than down, so we can feel that all the work we do is worthwhile.
Sandra Halstead
The Autumn Show
We had a great show this year, with delicious looking veg and fruit, stunning floral art and crafts, amazing photos, lovely entries by the children and yummy cakes and jams (which I was not allowed to touch, never mind taste!). The warm sunny weather meant we could sit out in the sun with a cup of tea & a slice of cake and enjoy listening to the amazing Roke and Benson brass band who entertained us all afternoon.
A big THANK YOU to everyone who helped with the show, both ‘front of house’ in the show rooms and kitchen, and ‘behind the scenes’, as well as to all those who exhibited; numbers were slightly down on last year, which was a shame, but the standard was high, as commented on by the judges. I would like thank all our judges who give up their time to share their expertise, and to the Mayor Lynda Atkins for handing out the prizes, saying such nice things about our show and helping with the raffle.
Finally a huge thank you to our kind sponsors who support WAGS by covering some of the costs of staging the show; please give them your support:
Our Major Sponsor: Champions
Sponsor of the Floral Art Section: Keri Harvey The Florists
Sponsor of the Children’s Prizes: Wallingford Bookshop
For giving us a discount on engraving for the trophies: Feet First
It was exhausting, but I thoroughly enjoyed the day and hope that all of you who took part, or came on the day, enjoyed yourselves too. Picking out just a few of the highlights: The floral art always amazes me, and the photography & paintings were stunning this year. Tommy Buckingham goes from strength to strength on both veg and flowers, and Peter Willis grew some beautiful Chrysanthemums and Antonio Tele’s begonia was so perfect. Giles Whitehead must be well pleased with his “Best in Show Veg” which also won overall “Best in Show”. I didn’t do too bad myself and was delighted to win WAGS Top Gardener. If the judges would let me eat the cakes & jams I could tell you how amazing they were as well!
My wish for next year is that all those who entered this year enjoyed themselves and come back with even more entries next year, and as always please help the children to enter, they do enjoy it so much and yet so few enter. There is a list of Trophy Winners in this newsletter and on the website.
For anyone who missed the show, there are some photographs in the Gallery, so do take a look. We didn’t capture all the exhibits, so if you have any photos, particularly of winning entries, please can you email them to me.
All you WAGS members out there, I look forward to seeing you on September 10th 2016.
P.S. If you have any ideas or suggestions regarding the show, please do get in touch with me, I would love to hear them.
Sandra Halstead
A big THANK YOU to everyone who helped with the show, both ‘front of house’ in the show rooms and kitchen, and ‘behind the scenes’, as well as to all those who exhibited; numbers were slightly down on last year, which was a shame, but the standard was high, as commented on by the judges. I would like thank all our judges who give up their time to share their expertise, and to the Mayor Lynda Atkins for handing out the prizes, saying such nice things about our show and helping with the raffle.
Finally a huge thank you to our kind sponsors who support WAGS by covering some of the costs of staging the show; please give them your support:
Our Major Sponsor: Champions
Sponsor of the Floral Art Section: Keri Harvey The Florists
Sponsor of the Children’s Prizes: Wallingford Bookshop
For giving us a discount on engraving for the trophies: Feet First
It was exhausting, but I thoroughly enjoyed the day and hope that all of you who took part, or came on the day, enjoyed yourselves too. Picking out just a few of the highlights: The floral art always amazes me, and the photography & paintings were stunning this year. Tommy Buckingham goes from strength to strength on both veg and flowers, and Peter Willis grew some beautiful Chrysanthemums and Antonio Tele’s begonia was so perfect. Giles Whitehead must be well pleased with his “Best in Show Veg” which also won overall “Best in Show”. I didn’t do too bad myself and was delighted to win WAGS Top Gardener. If the judges would let me eat the cakes & jams I could tell you how amazing they were as well!
My wish for next year is that all those who entered this year enjoyed themselves and come back with even more entries next year, and as always please help the children to enter, they do enjoy it so much and yet so few enter. There is a list of Trophy Winners in this newsletter and on the website.
For anyone who missed the show, there are some photographs in the Gallery, so do take a look. We didn’t capture all the exhibits, so if you have any photos, particularly of winning entries, please can you email them to me.
All you WAGS members out there, I look forward to seeing you on September 10th 2016.
P.S. If you have any ideas or suggestions regarding the show, please do get in touch with me, I would love to hear them.
Sandra Halstead
Store News
The Dobies catalogues should be available in store from mid-October. Remember the process is that the catalogue now contains a code that you need to put on your order form. This code identifies that you are a WAGS member. You then simply send your order form and payment directly to Dobies for processing and they deliver to your home address. You will still get your 30% on seeds and 10% on other items, so come and collect a catalogue and place your order.
Potatoes will be available from Saturday 27th February 2016. The varieties are: Arran Pilot; Foremost; Rocket; Charlotte; International Kidney; Cara; Desiree; Picasso; Rooster
Unfortunately, Alec is no longer able to help us in the store. He is sorely missed and we all wish him a speedy recovery. And so we are currently in the process of pulling together a rota of helpers, as we do have to have a second person at all times — if you have a spare Saturday morning 10-12 between now and December, please contact Sandra or Colin to add your name to the list of potential helpers. If there are particular dates you can do, let us know.
WAGS is also still looking for someone to take over the role of Store Manager, if you think this might be of interest, please get in touch with the committee.
Colin Timmins
Potatoes will be available from Saturday 27th February 2016. The varieties are: Arran Pilot; Foremost; Rocket; Charlotte; International Kidney; Cara; Desiree; Picasso; Rooster
Unfortunately, Alec is no longer able to help us in the store. He is sorely missed and we all wish him a speedy recovery. And so we are currently in the process of pulling together a rota of helpers, as we do have to have a second person at all times — if you have a spare Saturday morning 10-12 between now and December, please contact Sandra or Colin to add your name to the list of potential helpers. If there are particular dates you can do, let us know.
WAGS is also still looking for someone to take over the role of Store Manager, if you think this might be of interest, please get in touch with the committee.
Colin Timmins
