The Bethlem Sun Fayre

Bethlem royal hospital has an annual sun fayre where the on site gallery and  OT departments get together to put on a community event in the green and shrubby gardens. It's been a relatively low key event when I've been with E in previous years but we thought it would be a fun and positive venture to run a craft stall to raise money for charity. As everyone remarked it seemed most bizarre that E and I had never done this before despite our crafting ventures over the years.

E managed to recruit some other  contributions from  Tyson West 2 ward and with a beautifully old borrowed stripey gazebo, rickety wallpapering table covered in an old blue tablecloth and a set of camping chairs it looked like the real thing. A complex network of string allowed us to hang a pained blue sign and E's exquisite knitting. We managed to produce a range of crafty things over weekends in June - blue Haiku bowls ( paper bowls made from strips of newspaper with a special haiku written by T in Cambridge on the bottom in torn letters) , wash bags, patchwork cushions, appliqué cards, button and bead jewellery, friendship bracelets and broaches from Ay. I brought a huge bucketful of Somerset flowers to make into posies of wildness, and a tray of seedlings. 

The day was showery so it was an exciting event with us sheltering from rain in our little tent, the stage at one end of te gardens producing a range of music and ramblings, other stalls with bric and brac and tombolas, and the art collections of Terrence and his colleagues in the gallery's tents.

We were pleased to raise just over £100 for charity - all but about £18 going to BEAT ( beat eating disorders) and the remainder to the Royal Marsden hospital in London . Thank you to Bry and Ay for helping us run the stall and face painting so continuously, and to all those who supported us.