A village wedding, and the absence of some members on holiday, may have contributed to a slightly more modest display than usual at the Garden and Nature Club's flower show on Saturday, and perhaps also a reduced attendance.
There were a few surprising gaps in the schedule, there were no classes for beetroot or plums, for example, despite this being the right season - there was a dearth of exhibits in some classes, especially flowers: amazingly there was not one entry in the dahlia class!
Nonetheless, it was a fine show of fruit, flowers, vegetables, produce, crafts and photos. The Anniversary Cup for the best exhibit, to no-one's surprise, went to a magnificent case of flowers from multiple previous winner Chantal Crawford, back exhibiting this year after taking a break last year to give others a chance!
Congratulations and thanks to chairman Lionel Butcher and his hardworking committee and the judges for their hard work in making the show possible. For those who tried to guess its weight, the pumpkin scaled 16lbs!
West Malvern said an affectionate and emotional 'thank you and goodbye' to musicians Richard Chew and Cheryl Pickering at the Oakdene Centre on Sunday.
Friends, colleagues and pupils from their five-year stay in the village gathered to enjoy a marvellously varied, informal evening of happy and high quality music-making.
Also present were a group of mums whose children were in the Leapfrogs pre-school group with the Chews' children, Thomas and Martha. Works from Mendelssohn to Miles Davis and Rabby Burns to Billy Bragg were performed by Richard and Cheryl and several of their pupils - as well as local-grown works composed and sung by Richard himself and Charlotte Strawbridge.
Richard's colleague, jazz singer Carol Grimes, was a 'guest star' and another highlight was a set of South African playground songs led by Jo-Marie Thorne, who, after St James's sixth form, stayed on last year as assistant to head of music Lynne Lindner.
A fine original painting of the Malvern Hills by local artist Jonathan Taylor was presented to the couple, together with a book of good wishes, signed by all present, for their future based in Adelaide, South Australia.
The village lost one of its oldest native residents this week with the death in his eighties of John Gwynne. John was still living in the West Malvern Road cottage where he was born. He will be missed by village old-timers.
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