Posts made in March, 2017

March 2017

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We are looking forward to holding three garden events in the coming period. First up is the Children’s Easter Activity Morning on Saturday 15th April, 10am to 12 noon, with many child-focused activities – Easter Egg hunt, face-painting, biscuit decoration, garden games – plus the ever-popular soup, teas and cakes from the house. Children please remember to bring an adult along!

Greener Sawston are holding a 24-hour Bioblitz event in the garden over the weekend of 13th and 14th May, following the taster event held last October. These events aim to encourage communities to find and record the many different birds, bugs, animals and plants living in their green spaces. Check out the Bioblitz website for more information or see the April-May 2017 Sawston Scene. Do book early to reserve a place for the Saturday evening and Sunday morning sessions.

Our Anniversary Fete is on Sunday 21st May from 2pm. This event commemorates the official opening of the garden on 17th May 2009 by Christopher South of Cambridge News. Come along and enjoy a relaxing afternoon in the garden, entertained by Sawston Steel Band and replenished with teas and home-made cakes served by our excellent MC Teas team.

Work is continuing apace in the house to get the first floor rooms finished to provide extra floor space for our third exhibition, ‘Back to School’. Dates for the exhibition will be publicised when the house is ready. This has taken a long time, but there have been a lot of obstacles, including some unforeseen ones, to overcome. Visitors will also be able to see the restored Edwardian bathroom on the first floor. The Trust office will be up on the top floor of the house – can’t wait! Our thanks as ever to our resourceful builders Ray and Graham and to Tony Fell for the decorating.

We would still appreciate any relevant educational material or artefacts that could be used in the exhibition. If you can contribute anything, please contact us.

At the timing of writing, there are wonderful displays of snowdrops, aconites and crocuses in the garden. Snowdrops seem to be particularly good this year. The earliest daffodils were in flower in late February and should show well into April.

Our honeybees have been very active during mild periods in February and March, which is a good boost for them this early in the season. Looking around, it is striking how much blossom is present on the early-flowering shrubs for the bees to gather nectar and pollen. They clearly enjoy the floral perfumes as much as we do! Our two colonies appear to have come through the winter intact, and should do well this year, provided there are no prolonged cold snaps.

A few more sycamores on the north side of the garden will be removed this spring. We have sourced suitable small trees and low-growing shrubs to replace these, including Euonymus, Cornus, Mahonia, Arbutus, Acer, Malus, Nandina and Amelanchier specimens. These are chosen to give a mixture of deciduous and evergreen plants, with particular attention to early flowering andgood autumn colour. It will be very interesting to watch the development of this section of the garden.

Please note that SUNDAY opening times will revert to the usual ‘summer’ hours of 2pm to 4 pm from 26th March.

Finally, it is very sad to mark the passing of Bryan Howe, who died suddenly on 6th February. Bryan was a trustee for several years and volunteered in the house for the earlier exhibitions. His sound knowledge of local history, and the Challis family in particular, was widely recognised in Sawston. The trust is especially grateful to Bryan for rescuing important documents from 68 High Street, after Mary died, that would otherwise have been thrown out. The trustees offer their sincere condolences to Bryan’s family. Mike Redshaw 

Published in Sawston Scene, April–May 2018 issue. 

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Horticultural Show: Saturday 1st September 2018 2pm to 4.30pm

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September is show time, with our annual Horticultural Show alongside other attractions such as a beekeeping stand, Pimm’s tent, giant games, tombola, morsbags, plant sales and, of course, tea and cakes.

We are keen to get more entries from other villages, and especially from children (seven years old and under, and eight to twelve). If you grow produce, bake, make jam, arrange flowers, make handicrafts or take photos, then there is a class for you. Do have a go and enter something. Entries are judged in the morning, then open to view in the afternoon.

Download an entry form, or pick one up from the Challis Garden summerhouse or Challis House at 68 High Street. Please return to 68 High Street (Mary Challis House) by Thursday 30 August and include age of child in children’s classes.

Classes are: 

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT

All entries must have been grown by the exhibitor

    1. 5 white potatoes
    2. 5 coloured potatoes
    3. 5 onions with necks tied and 2 cms of root attached
    4. 8 shallots with necks tied and 2 cms of root attached
    5. 5 beetroots with necks cut at about 5 cms and roots attached
    6. 5 runner beans
    7. 5 French beans
    8. 5 carrots with foliage trimmed
    9. an exhibit of any other vegetable
    10. 5 tomatoes with short stems
    11. a truss of miniature tomatoes of any variety
    12. 1 cucumber
    13.  1 head of lettuce
    14. 5 cooking apples
    15. 5 dessert apples
    16. a dish of stone fruit
    17. a dish of soft fruit
    18. an exhibit of any other fruit
    19. a vegetable marrow for weight
    20. the longest runner bean
    21. a presentation of herbs

FLOWERS

  1. a miniature arrangement of flowers no taller or wider than 6 inches
  2. a vase of annual flowers
  3. 5 stems of perennial flowers
  4. a single rose bloom
  5. a single bloom of any flower other than a rose
  6. a green arrangement
  7. a buttonhole or corsage for a wedding
  8. a flowering pot plant
  9. a foliage pot plant

DOMESTIC CLASSES

  1. 1 jar of jam made with soft fruit
  2. 1 jar of jam made with stone fruit
  3. 1 jar of marmalade
  4. 1 jar of chutney or relish
  5. 1 fruit cake – any recipe
  6. 1 decorated celebration sponge cake – any recipe
  7. 6 fruit scones
  8. 6 chocolate brownies
  9. a loaf of bread of any recipe or shape
  10. a 1 lb jar of clear honey
  11. 3 eggs, any colour

HANDICRAFTS

All entries must have been made within the last twelve months

  1. a hand-knitted article
  2. a crocheted article
  3. an article of decorative needlework
  4. a sewn garment
  5. a picture in any medium (but not a photo)
  6. a photo on any subject, up to 9 inches by 6 inches, not framed or mounted
  7. an article made of wood

CHILDREN’S CLASSES

(IN TWO GROUPS: 7 YEARS AND UNDER

8 TO 12 YEARS)

  1. a miniature garden on a plate
  2. an animal made from fruit, vegetables, pins and matchsticks
  3. an arrangement of flowers
  4. 6 decorated biscuits
  5. a piece of craftwork.

It is planned to hold an auction of exhibits at the end of the Show to raise money for the Challis Trust. Please remember to make it clear if you don’t want your entry to be auctioned.

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