On a lovely sunny day 54 members and two visitors attended Lakes Entrance Garden Club’s March meeting.
President Stan Barker awarded life membership of the Lakes Entrance Garden Club to Shirley Bardwell.
Shirley has been a member for more than 20 years and during this time has held
executive positions including president and (currently) vice president.
She was also instigator of the Bushfire Recovery Project, initially to grow on Australian Native plants to be given to those who lost gardens in the March 2019 bushfires in the Bunyip State Park/Tonimbuk area.
After local areas were hard hit by bushfires in summer 2019/20, this project flowed on to help those in Sarsfield, Buchan, Wairewa and Mallacoota areas too.
Shirley has been and still is a tireless worker for the Lakes Entrance Garden Club and the wider community.
Life membership was also awarded to
Ann Bambridge.
Ann has been a member for 13 years and during this time has served as a show
bench steward, a committee member and has been publicity officer for the past 10 years.
She writes the monthly newsletters,
newspaper articles and keeps the members informed of club happenings and other interesting things.
The show bench judge for March was Barbara Horder who commented there were less than usual entries this month – maybe the stormy weather?
First in the photography section was Sheryl MacCubbin with a lovely boab tree.
Second was Shirley Bardwell with a deep red gladioli spike.
An interesting section just for March is three flowers of the same colour.
They have to be different species, just to make it a bit more challenging.
First in an unusual glass vase with white magnolia, alstroemeria and daisy flowers were from Sheryl MacCubbin.
Second from Dearne Albert was in shades of purple – salvia, scabiosa and orchid.
The other entry of rose, dahlia and daisy all in pink was from Shirley Bardwell.
The container of flowers section was a wow, with a mass of bright dahlia mainly red with a pop of white.
First went to Faye Rowe.
Second was dahlia, hydrangea, grevillea and roses in multicolours, along with fluffy foliage from Shirley Bardwell.
Posy of flowers is a special section and only had one entry.
Judges comment: Even if there were other entries – this would have won.
Shirley Bardwell’s entry was a base of hydrangea blooms in mauve tones with
fluffy purple salvia and chocolate cosmos dotted through it.
The floral art section was quite pretty showing off what you can do with only foliage.
First went to Truus Adams with her entry of green foliage from palms, cyperus and ferns with a pop of red leaves at the centre.
Second was Faye Rowe and her entry also had red from coleus leaves, backed by many shades of green.
The best exhibit of the day was from the vegetable above ground section – a Kent pumpkin from Gwen Christopher.
Equal seconds went to Truus Adams and Sheryl MacCubbin, who both exhibited lovely butternut pumpkins.
The guest speakers in March were Cindy and Nathan from Care Finders.
Care Finders provide face-to-face support to help people navigate and access aged care.
Cindy and Nathan usually work separately and meet directly with people either in their home or another place where the person feels comfortable. They work from the Sale
office of Latrobe Health but can help to access
any providers operating in Gippsland, not just Latrobe Health.
Care Finder services are provided at no cost.
Most people who need aged care should first contact My Aged Care by visiting the
web site, or by phone, or visit a Services
Australia centre.
There will be no April meeting of the Lakes Entrance Garden Club as the Mechanics
Hall is being used as a Polling Place for the Federal Election.
The May meeting is Monday, May 19 at 1.30pm Mechanics Hall, (near the library) Mechanics Street, Lakes Entrance.
Visitors are always welcome.
