The AllSorts banquet chefs

Our friend Camilla invited us to join in a small banquet being cooked by her, her niece Seren and her friend Emma.  She was organising it as a fund raising event for AllSorts, a local charity for families who have children with disabilities or additional needs.  Camilla's sister Rachel is the manager.

I said I would take a few pictures that they can use on their website which might encourage other people to hold events like this.  The ten guests all paid for our three course vegetarian meal, which was really good value, and included sangria to make us all merry. I am now rather tired and Helena wasn't feeling too well all day so we were the first to leave as dusk approached.  

This afternoon Helena and I walked about a hundred yards round the corner to the small park called Daisybanks, which is an old and much loved play area for the Horns Road area community.  As the local ward councillor I was involved a couple of years ago in helping some local parents start a community group which wanted to improve the facilities of the small children's play area inside Daisybank.

They became very active and particularly effective and now have very good relations with the town council who work with them to upgrade the facilities.  Today they held a fund raising event they called 'Daisy Day' to start to raise the £5000 needed to replace the roundabout which was vandalised and set on fire a few years ago.

Hayley, one of the key organisers, said that about five hundred people had visited there today, which is a fantastic turnout for a small community park. But it is a wonderful spot and a great favourite of many families, some of whom come a long way to play there and to sit and picnic looking out over Stroud and its valley leading out to the Severn vale.

I will be buying a couple of their new commemorative mugs next week and will almost certainly blip them.  I have added a picture of the play area at Daisybank with people gathered in the background and views across the valley