Summer Term Week 1

Back to college for the start of the summer term and the final term of the course, and oh boy what a lot of work is still left to be done. It is going to be heads down and working very hard for the next few weeks - very hard indeed.
Above is a hand tied feature arrangement in a vase, some aspidistra leaf manipulation and I love the colour scheme, well anything with lime green and orange does it for me!! Apart from the top chrysanthemum being too far off to the left I was very pleased with this design.

We finally got our first (and only - although we were promised 3 varied trips at enrolment) college trip to Van Vliet's wholesalers in Northampton. The gripes first - the lack of trips had come up in a feedback session to the head of department and then suddenly a trip was organised - hooray you may say. Well the day chosen was a day which had been planned to do practical assessments so they were cancelled therefore putting further pressure on fitting assessments in later in the course.

My own view has been that a visit to the wholesaler should have happened in the first term because we would get to see a wide variety of flowers and foliages at a time when we need to be learning about them. We would have the opportunity of seeing some items for real when we are never going to get the chance to see or use them in class. We would have the chance to seeing the vast array of sundries that are available which would also fire imaginations when it comes to writing assignments and thinking about putting designs together. And it would happen at a less intense time in the course, at a time when we are learning and not focusing on getting assignments in and assessments done! I had visited several wholesalers by this point but was still looking forward to the trip.

But saying that the trip was enjoyable, if the flowers a little in short supply (can't remember now if it was Mother's Day in Eastern Europe combined with volcanic ash that meant flowers were not as abundant as they often are at Van Vliet). Here are some photos of my favourite bits, lime green bags and baskets for either flower arrangements or planted designs - lovely ....

spider gerbera - I love these ......

a whole section of carnations (dianthus caryophyllus) .....

a lovely selection of tulips (bear this photo in mind for an upcoming blog!)........

some sundries .......

gerbera .....

a wider shot, showing a selection of flowers ....

This was an enjoyable trip.

The staging for the window display assignment has been erected - mine is in a couple of weeks. I am not sure about the positioning as it is in the main entrance to the college - the solid metal barrier is next to the main door and students are likely to be walking past the whole time we are trying to put the display in situ. Wonder whose idea it was to place it there?

Another assessment out of the way above is my planted design in situ. It has to stay there for 6 weeks (it will end up there for 8 so it is there for the External Verifier to see! couldn't be bothered with the hassle of arguing over my bowl, my plants etc etc) This was the other bowl I bought on my trip to Smiths.

I am really angry with myself over this as I ended up with a Merit rather than a Distinction because I wrote the wrong figure down in one section of the cost sheet (I'll come back to this in a final summary of the course as a whole).

I used variegated ivy (hedera helix), spider plant (chlorophytum comosum), flaming katy (kalanchoe blossfeldiana), money plant (crassula) and Easter cactus (Rhipsalidopsis or Hatiora). I was pleased with the design as it was bright and welcoming for the reception desk (the area I had been allocated) where it had to sit for 6 weeks to be maintained which was the next part of the module.

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 10/16 - currently reading Songbird by Josephine Cox