St John's Church Flower Festival  2009

The festival took place from Friday 25th September 2009 until Sunday 27th.  We were blessed with good, if not sunny, weather, and lots of wonderful visitors.

The theme of the festival was "We plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land".

Speaking of land, we were most grateful to the Fell family, of Chapel Farm, for the use of a large field as a car park - without this the many visitors would have had to negotiate the blind bends of the A591.

As well as the wonderful flowers, which you can see in the photographs below (click on a thumbnail to see it in the big picture), the ladies of Bassenthwaite provided home-made light refreshments in The Church Room thoughout the event.  There was also a Flower Quiz which was well supported with 137 sheets sold - the answers are now available here.

Although this event was staged to raise funds for the church, it was notable that the whole village was very supportive - indeed flower arranging, catering and visitor welcoming was shared by the whole community in a happy and mutually supportive manner.  Much of the success of the event was down to the signage provided on local roads by Mr Brewis.  The event as a whole was organised and managed by Mrs Mattinson in her usual efficient, friendly, but irrestistable manner.

The Reverend Stephen Walker, Team Rector, has provided these additional photographs.  I'm reliably informed that there are to be some professional photographs of the event on the Eden Online News site.  If you have good ones that you'd like to share please send them, or send a link to them if they are on the internet.

On the evening of Friday 25th September, a free concert was given in the church by local band "Travelling Light" led by Gordon Pickering, with soloist Fiona Weakley (soprano).

On the morning of Sunday 27th September, the regular congregation of St John's was joined by the Methodist Chapel and many visitors, when the Reverend Peter Streatfeild, Team Vicar of the Binsey Team, led an ecumenical service of Songs and Readings for Harvest at which the Preacher was The Right Reverend James Newcome, Bishop of Carlisle.  +James spoke on Psalm 8, one of the scripture passages of the day, and gave the blessing.