We have made our target !!!

What a fantastic day we had yesterday at Tim and Ann`s open garden day for MND , not only was the weather brilliant but we had a fantastic turn out of people, who all came along to support our cause and enjoy the day ! I must admit I was a little worried when I turned up to lend a hand an hour or so before we were due to open-to find so much needed to be done-having said that I needn`t have worried. I guess our family have a few of these type of do`s under our belt now [ thanks to my brother John, who has opened his allotment for the last 3 years running, and Ann and Tim who are use to putting on the car and flower shows!! ] so we all buckled down on got on with our alloted tasks- I had to smile to myself-our family makes a formidable team !! John and Chris arrived not long after I did,Chris helped Tim set up the gazebo at the main entrance and within minutes it was up and decorated with balloons and bunting- while John helped set up the cake table-Aunty Judy arrived and started buttering the Barabrith-while I did the scones, hubby Ned rolled up his sleeves and was put in charge of the washing up [his hands have never been so clean !! he`s a mechanic by the way ! ] with help from his chief assistants Ellie and Tracie who were collecting and drying crockery.
We managed to stop and have a quick photo call [ L-R Ned,Ann, Aunty Judy and John ] The cakes looked lovely set out on the table - Ann used all of her beautiful and freshly laundered antique lace tablecloths- The cakes were homemade and presented on vintage cake stands-it all looked wonderfully old fashioned

L-R Tim,me,Judy and John

A big thank you to everyone who made us a cake ! we got through 17 of them altogether,a special thank you to Delyth who lost her mum to MND a couple of weeks ago but stopped by Saturday night with a yummy chocolate cake-on hearing we were panicking a bit as to whether or not we had enough [Ann and I were baking until half past ten that night ] she called in Sunday morning with an extra one for us -you are a star Delyth !! thank you !
It was then time to set up the plant stall-Ann made some wonderful strawberry jam with fresh strawberries and homemade marmalade which sold out immediately-John brought some of his free range eggs to sell.
The plants donated by Robert Kingdom [Jacksons nurseries, Trelawnydd. ] looked wonderful .
I just about had enough time to take some photographs of the garden before our guests started arriving..It looked lovely-all of Ann and Tims hard work had really paid off, they really know how to do things well..
It was a lovely atmosphere-one of my sisters friends Ann Jones who came along with her husband has known Andrew for years, wanted to do something to help- so she made up a basket of fruit ,all beautifully wrapped in cellophane with a big bow and proceeded to go round everyone asking them to play guess the weight-she charged everyone a £1 a go-Brilliant idea don`t you think ?
Lots of people sat and relaxed and enjoyed the sunshine- for an extra £3 they had the option of a glass of Pimms with lots of ice , fresh fruit and mint out of the garden. At one point we had over 100 people milling about !! we were rushed off our feet !!
We had to send someone out mid- afternoon to get us some more milk !! Apart from that one hitch it all went very smoothly [Thanks Bill by the way for coming to the rescue !! ] Ann manned the plant sale in the gazebo before her friend Pauline kindly offered to take over for a while allowing Ann to mingle and greet people -while Tim and Chris manned the gate and sold raffle tickets.
Much later after everything was tidied up and packed away we sat in the conservatory and enjoyed a glass of wine while we sat and chatted and counted up the money-we had over £100 in donations to start with from people who said, as it was fathers day they had already made plans for the day so were unable to attend but wanted to support our cause ! We played the usual guess how much money is on the floor game-I was way out !!
I couldn`t quite believe how much we had raised a fantastic £973.00 !!!
Ann couldn`t quite believe it either-she woke up early this morning, worrying that she had miscounted the money somehow -she decided to have a re-count at 7am in the morning sitting up in bed with a cup of tea ! Nope ! it was correct ! In fact we have had a few more donations arriving throughout the day now making our total over £1000.00 which means our grand total is well over our ten thousand pounds target- [ £ 10,165.00] Hmm ! time to up that now -don`t you think ?
A huge thank you to everyone who came along on the day and supported us-we were overwhelmed and very touched with the kindness and generosity shown by everyone and I can`t begin to tell you how much we appreciated it !