Flowers For Church ...

For this week's Sunday Challenge for which the subject was walls.

This is a section of the outside wall on St. Andrew's in Starbeck, Harrogate, which had been decorated with hundreds, if not thousands, of these little crocheted flowers as part of this year's Starbeck In Bloom competition.

Although I went relatively close so as to also capture the lovely old stonework there were as I've said many, many more of these flowers attached to large areas of the church exterior.

And there were similar displays and beautifully crafted flowers attached to several other buildings along the town's High Street as well as to fences and railings.

Starbeck in Bloom was formed 19 years ago after a spate of vandalism had reduced morale within the community and a small group of people and businesses got together determined to make improvements in the town.

They decided initially to brighten the shopping environment by putting some flowering tubs along the High Street and then they entered the Yorkshire in Bloom gardening competition competing in the Urban Category. Within a couple of years of entering this regional competition they were starting to win awards for their efforts and that success has continued to grow as has support for the initiative.

So much so that this year, after many years of winning Gold awards in Yorkshire in Bloom, they were asked to represent Yorkshire by competing within Britain in Bloom, the much respected community gardening competition organised by the Royal Horticultural Society.

In addition to the efforts to brighten up the main shopping areas there are a wide range of events held throughout the town and the flowers you see here were created as part of the Starbeck is Special community art project which involved making flowers out of trash to decorate the High Street.

www.starbeckinbloom.co.uk

www.rhs.org.uk/communities/campaigns/britain-in-bloom

Also for Sight and Sound ... how about Peter Gabriel and "Wallflower" - enjoy:

youtu.be/D04KqzH8480

youtu.be/wOHBjpjDsio