
Saturday morning: destination Girlguiding UK Central Head Quarters, Buckingham Palace Road, London.
Mission: to brief 70 guiding volunteers on the organisation's Centenary Garden at Hampton Court Palace Flower show.
Creating a garden for an organisation that has over half a million members could be quite a daunting proposition. But they are such lovely people to work with and share my passion and enthusiasm for the show garden and are not afraid to help and support at any stage. This, for me, has made this such a wonderful stress-free project to work on as it really has been a great example of team work from members of all ages.
We've got 70 volunteers helping with things from creating the garden to stewarding on show days and dismantling it after the show has ended. Yesterday was a briefing day to talk about the garden, look at the design (we even made a mock-up with strategically chairs), discuss the sort of questions we might get from visitors during show days (don't worry, we know where all the loos and coffee places are!) and look at health and safety requirements needed on site.
We had a really fun day, a yummy lunch and I feel like I have met 70 new friends. Thanks also, girls, for organising the 21 gun-salute and fly past during the lunch break! Tomorrow, Monday 14th June, is the first day of the build and I'm soooo excited about getting this garden ready for visitors in three weeks' time!