Harvest 2015

Harvest isn't quite the same now, as it was when I was a child...

I remember Mum covering three shoe-boxes (one each for me, my brother and sister) in crepe paper and filling them with a few tins and lots of home-grown veggies to take up to the front of church during the first hymn. The church would be filled with fresh produce, jams and cakes which were given to folk afterwards (I always wondered who used to get the enormous marrow that was always - ALWAYS - there, and what on earth they did with it...)

Nowadays, 'harvest' has changed - for the last few years we've tended to focus on supporting our local food bank, and ask specifically for non-perishable items to be donated. And in the spirit of continuing to share our good fortune with others, we make up lots of small posies which are taken out to people who might have been bereaved, or are ill, or have experienced some other difficulty. Church decoration therefore relies less on flowers and more on displays of tins and packets.

This year has been a little different; we had a wedding on the Saturday before, and although the bride was happy to get married in a church decorated for Harvest, we (the flower team) thought she should have some 'wedding flowers' as well. So to tie in with her theme, pink flowers were arranged in the porch, on the altar and on the gates, but the windows and altar window in the body of the church had 'harvest' arrangements...

At the altar window - first time we've ever had veggies on there!
(Spot the brussel sprouts...)

Porch - a little bit of harvest and a lot more wedding...

Donated food , flowers and flags...

The flags are made by a women's project in the slums
of Calcutta from old sari material - something we heard about
at the All-Age Harvest Service