Children's flowers set tone for festival (From Dorset Echo)

Children's flowers set tone for festival

11:14pm Monday 27th July 2009 in

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A HIGHLIGHT of this year’s patronal festival weekend at St. Osmund’s church was the delightful range of floral arrangements throughout the church, created by the children of the parish.

Sadly our unreliable July weather put a severe damper on the picnic cream tea in the garden of The Old Vicarage on the Saturday afternoon, but the rain did not discourage the children who came to the church with bunches of flowers from gardens and fields. Under the guidance of Carol Sutton and ladies of the regular flower arranging group, the junior team filled the church with a colourful collection of displays, culminating with an especially spectacular arrangement filling the old stone font.

The decorations made a joyous and colourful setting for Sunday’s choral evensong, at which a combined choir from St. Andrew’s and St. Francis’ churches led the music with some excellent singing.

There was also a warm welcome for the benefice team’s new curate, Daile Wilshere, who preached here for the first time.

• THE first phase in the Osmington Community Plan consultation process, that of designing the questionnaires for the survey of community needs, is now in its final stages of development by a team of volunteers led by Mary Kempe.

A limited trial of the questionnaire and of the proposed means of analysis is to take place over coming weeks, with a view to commencing the survey in September. At that stage more volunteers from the community will be drawn in to the process.

• AS we all know, the Osmington White Horse is in a state of disrepair. Despite great efforts by volunteer weeders, its outline is ill-defined and suffering from plant encroachment. Inappropriate Portland limestone chips cover the figure and are migrating downhill. This year the Osmington Society chose the restoration of the White Horse as a major community project, and a partnership was formed comprising the Osmington Society, Dorset AONB, Dorset Countryside, Dorset County Council and West Dorset DC to take this project forward.

Two meetings of this working group have already taken place, and much work has been done to define the extent of the task. This includes examining methods by which it might be tackled, and the labour that will be needed from both professional and volunteer sources.

It is hoped to hold a meeting in Osmington Village Hall in the autumn to report progress and to involve the wider community in this venture.