Hazelwood Residents' Association
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Judgement Day! Thursday 19^th July 2007

 The judges were met by a number of people, including Committee members and Tony Vellam with his dog.

We started our viewing by walking around the rear of Aspen Close and Sorrell Drive where we were met by Janice, Alan and Edna, along with the two Community Police ladies.  The judges were full of humour.  They said that they thought they were on their way home from school.  They were intrigued by Janice’s squirrel-proof bird feeder and loved the planting, both the pots and the beds.  They admired the planters made by Tony and Michael and remarked on the lampposts which had been painted by Greg and Jeff.  We told them about John in Dogge Lane Croft painting the fence at the bottom of the road. 

They asked us about funding and we told them that we had raised money at last year’s Summer Fête and that we were starting to obtain some money from the Community Chest and they seemed most impressed. 

We showed them the borders that we had planted and the adversity that we had encountered with gritty soil which appeared to have some tar in it and explained about the planting and the fact that we wanted the English country lane look. 

Major Brian Hope was outside his house and explained to them that his garden used to be a bed of weeds which he had removed.  He explained that he had put in a new wall and path plus a beautifully planted rockery just because we were participating in the ‘Bloom’ scheme.  We showed them around the gardens of Clifton House and one lady in there appears to do it all on her own.  They seemed most impressed with Tony Vellam’s new sculpture. 

We walked back down the road and showed them the garden of Joy Knowles who was pleased to show them around and said that some of the original metal railings of the old farm which used to be there were still in her hedge.  They admired John Trigwell’s garden and showed their sense of humour when we remarked  that as his colour scheme was blue and red he must be a Villa fan. 

We also showed them around the back of Hazelwood Court and they were interested in a tree which had been planted.  We showed them Dogge Lane Croft and the Willows, quickly skirting past Fran’s garden which had been neglected. 

Becky Watson was kind enough to bake cakes and she and Cath were kind enough to provide tea, coffee and soft drinks for the judges and anyone else who popped in.  Becky’s dear baby, Emmanuel, was in his pram and was most well behaved for the judges.  Len, as usual, took some super photographs.

We then showed them around Hazletree Croft, some of the gardens of which need attention. 

Sylvia and Bill, along with Margaret Robbins, were sitting in their garden which the judges thought was enchanting and they chatted to Margaret Robbins about the changes in Hazelwood Road – they were most interested that she had lived in the same house since she was born.  We showed them Big Bob’s wall on the corner and told them that we had impressed upon him that it was most important for our ‘Bloom’ campaign and he had been kind enough to create his new wall. 

Upon parting, they informed us that they thought we had done a good job and a report from our contact at their regional office was that they found it to be most interesting.

The presentation of the award will be in Cheltenham on Friday 7^th September 2007.