The plot (I am still developing) is set in the  beautiful, sheltered grounds of my friends’ house nestled amongst trees in the well named Happy Valley. Last weekend, on one of the hottest days of the year, an excellent and joyful fundraising Music Festival took place there, organised by these forever energetic and generous friends. Not wanting the plot to be a sore weedy thumb, I tried to nurture it into more flowery shape before the event. And I nearly got there with just a few small sections here and there not planted up.

Asked if I wanted to run a stall, I was keen to contribute somehow, but thought it unlikely anyone at at a festival starting at midday and going late into the night would want to carry round a bunch of flowers. And then from somewhere came the idea of making and selling floral crowns to raise money for charity. Where this idea came from is puzzling as I have never been to a music festival (perhaps evidence I need to get out more) and I hadn’t the faintest clue how to make a floral crown. So it was agreed, that was what I would do…

For weeks before, I concentrated on developing the plot: weeding, planting, deadheading mulching and then, as the festival got closer, I realised that I would have to face up to the fact that learning how to make a floral crown was crucial. My daughter in sympathetic mode offered to help. A few Youtube tutorials later; a chat to a florist supplies company and an evening with a lovely friend and my lovely daughter practising and we were nearly there. Another kind friend dropped in to make wire and stemtex circles for the crown and surprisingly to me we made some crowns which looked plausible. The short life of the flowers out of water meant we couldn’t make many beforehand and there was only so much room in the fridge.

On the day of the festival we set off wondering whether we would sell any and so started by giving some away, but being by the Gin sellers might have helped as we were pretty busy from 12.00 until 7.00 that evening when we had to stop. By then, my confidently creative daughter had completely got the knack. We had used up the buckets  and buckets of flowers conditioned the day before and  finally there were absolutely no more flowers left to cut on the plot. Lots of time left to dance into the dark. It was a happy day in a happy place and it was good to be a very small part of it.