This weekend saw us pop up to Norfolk for the first time in a long while. We arrived eventually after one of the worst journeys through gridlocked South East London ever! Which meant we were way too late for even a sniff of any fish and chips... Next time...

On Saturday morning I was roped in/volunteered to help Mum with her flower arrangement for Sunday's Harvest Festival. I'm not sure who was most worried, as I think it's fair to say that we're more at the "plonking in a vase" end of the scale of flower arranging...

But one of the ladies from the Church had provided a flower arrangement receptacle so we thought we'd better have a go at filling it up!

After a scout around the garden we found these, which included geraniums, dahlias, olive branches, some grasses and some berries.

It took us a while, but it didn't turn out too bad - even if it was a bit skew-whiff on the base! It wasn't until we'd finished that Dad offered some of his pinker dahlias, which would have been a dead giveaway to the flower arranger's identity - but we were done, and happy with our reds.

So our next job was to deliver it safely and in one piece to the Church - St Edmunds in Hunstanton - and place it in Mum's designated spot. Once there, we shuffled some baked beans and mandarin segments to make room for it and stepped back to admire our masterpiece!

It actually looked OK - I think we were both relieved!

I think ours was probably the last flower arrangement to be added, and the Church was already starting to look good with its harvest displays. And as you'd expect for harvest there were lots of reds, yellows and oranges.

I was pretty taken with this sunflower arrangement, and the clever use of allium seed heads (we could have done this, if we'd had some alliums and thought of it!)

And this one which had incorporated apples (which is way too advanced for Mum and I!)

On Saturday lunchtime this marrow was looking a little lonely! But it reminded me of Harvest Festivals when we were growing up when we'd each decorate, I think what was a cardboard mushroom box (with a handle too!) from the market behind Mum's work, carefully arranging the produce available before carrying them to church on Sunday morning and joining the procession along with the other children to hand them over.

It's strange how one marrow can trigger memories from my childhood. Usually marrows trigger the stuffed marrow kind of memory so it was a surprise for this one to prompt something different!

St Edmunds is a grand looking church which opened in 1866 and here's a picture of the inside. If you're ever in Hunstanton and are looking for a church service be sure to pop your head round the door of this one, I'm sure there'll be a friendly welcome.

What memories do you have of Harvest Festivals? And did you take part in a Harvest Festival this weekend?