Would you be-leaf it - The Gruffalo made of foliage at Dersingham's Flower Festival!

From Shakespeare to Dr Spock, and War and Peace to The Wind in the Willows, the theme was all about books.

St Nicholas Dersingham was filled with the colour and fragrance from thirty different exhibits all around the church, each lovingly prepared by members of the church and local community.

Buckets of flowers and foliage were carried into the church on Monday 8th, and arrangers completed the displays on-time for the opening of the festival on Thursday 11th.

Romeo and Juliet

Rev Mark Capron praised the arrangers for their innovative ideas and admitted he'd taken a selfie with the Gruffalo, one of the world's best-loved monsters saying, "it's an amazing piece of creativity." 

This is the 30th festival at the 14th century church of St Nicholas for co-ordinator of the event Yvonne Fuller, a retired florist, who also completed some of the displays and is the architect of the Gruffalo. "Getting him here was an adventure in itself." she said, "we had him on the back of an open truck and as he travelled through the village people stopped and stared in disbelief."

Yvonne (right) - working on one of the arrangements on Monday

The Kite Runner (left) and The Thirty-nine steps

Visitor to the church, Angela said; "This is the first time I've been to a flower festival and I'm blown away by it, how people think up these beautiful displays is beyond me." Another visitor Jackie said, "I think it's wonderful, wonderful displays all of them; I haven't got a favourite, I wouldn't know which to choose."

Dr Spock

Dyslexia

Grimms Fairy Tales, Rapunzel and A book for everything

Gathering in the choir, the Children's Activities on Saturday afternoon saw performance artist Amy Scott Robinson telling stories, singing songs and introducing one of her puppets to the children (with a fair number of adults enjoying it all too!). 

Throughout the festival the catering team led by Katrina were kept very busy with the hundreds of visitors coming though the doors. More cinnamon twirls were being made as the photograph below was taken.

From left: Rose, Lynne, Dorothy and Katrina

The festival closes at 4pm today, 14th September.

Room on the Broom