As
we celebrated the 20th anniversary of Friday Forum, some
time-honoured members shared their reminiscences.
Celia
Latham Brown, herself a stalwart member, read out from notes supplied by Gerry
Vernon, who set up the group.
We
learnt about the origins of Friday Forum.
It was at the time that the television programme “The Good Life”
resulted in a rise of the popularity of gardening and it was thought that such
a group could help new gardeners.
Margaret
Denton, first Chairman of the group recounted a visit to Prince Charles garden at
Highgrove. Stringent identification and
police checks were carried out, visitors were counted on and off the coach and
tea was served in china cups accompanied by Highgrove biscuits. Nobody has admitted to taking any cuttings!
Margaret’s
husband Carl was the first treasurer and we can see his careful bookkeeping.
The
celebrations continued with a cream tea
The Bring and Buy Sale was a success; bric-a-brac, plants and other produce were snapped up including Marjorie’s scrumptious Peanut Butter Cookies, for which she has kindly given us the recipe:
Peanut Butter Cookies
3oz margarine
1oz lard
6oz plain flour
3oz brown sugar
1 egg
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp bicarb
3oz peanut butter (2 good
tablespoons - use the chunky peanut butter)
Cream the marg, lard and egg, add
sugar, peanut butter then the rest of dry ingredients.
Take a teaspoonful of the mixture
and form into a ball.
Press down a little onto a baking
sheet.
Bake at gas mark 5 for about 10
minutes.
Wild about Gardens Week
It's RHS Wild About Gardens week from 25 – 31 October. Have you made your garden more wild-life friendly? If you would like more tips to try this website: http://www.wildaboutgardensweek.org.uk/
Links
Wild about Gardens Week
It's RHS Wild About Gardens week from 25 – 31 October. Have you made your garden more wild-life friendly? If you would like more tips to try this website: http://www.wildaboutgardensweek.org.uk/
I
have added links to a few of my favourite gardening blogs to the Blog
List. Do you have any to recommend?
Dates
for your diary
The
next meeting of the Friday Forum will be on 1st November. We welcome a return visit of the entertaining speaker Tony Cleaver who is
giving an illustrated talk on Yorkshire Gardens. Non-members and members of other Paxton groups are cordially invited.
Friends
of Paxton will meet on 4th November at midday. Volunteers to assist with the maintenance of
Paxton Hall are much appreciated.
The
Friday Forum meets on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of each month at 1.30pm at the
Paxton Hall. Paxton Horticultural
Society is located at 186, Kirkstall Lane, Leeds LS5 2AB. The
meetings are split between hands-on sessions, guest speakers and garden visits.
A regular feature is the "Plant Table" where members are invited to
bring their plants for discussion and advice.
Another feature is the "Sales Table where members bring plants and
cuttings and produce they have grown to sell at a small cost to help the club
funds. For further information, please use the comments box or log on to https://sites.google.com/site/paxtonhorticulturalsocietycouk/Home
