At the recent sad occasion of my fathers death I needed to order flowers for the funeral. Not having lived in Folkestone for long I wasn’t sure where to go - but having spent many comfortable hours meeting friends for coffee in the old premises (at the top of The Old High Street) which was part Wild for Flowers and part Wild for Coffee I decided to order the funeral flowers from Wild For Flowers as I had always enjoyed watching the florists working on the floral designs whilst drinking the excellent coffee.

The floral tribute I ordered on behalf of my mother was a traditional design - using orange and mauve which are my mothers favourite colours. And this was achieved beautifully with big marguerite type daisies as part of the design at my mothers request.

I wanted something much simpler - just white and green, and I asked for white calla lilies to be used and this floral tribute was also elegant and lovely.

It is always quite an emotional thing dealing with the death of a close family member but the ladies in the shop were helpful and professional and I would highly recommend their work again and have done so since.

Wild For Flowers (www.wildforflowers.com/) has recently moved to a new premises at: 1b Town Walk, Cheriton Place (near to Sainsburys), the premises is much larger than The Old High Street address and allows lots more space to display and sell a wider range of plants, vases and gifts. I know they have built a busy and thriving business and wish them a very happy and prosperous New Year for 2010.

Wild For Flowers offer a bespoke service - our trained florists create arrangements for each individual order allowing us to work to the clients requirements and budget (however large or small).

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On the issue of the Leas Water Lift - It’s been quite a while now but it appears to have gone quite, so is this another good cause that has been lost because of people putting their own agenda first?

Might it now be best to allow some other group to remove the fittings for re-use else where if this town is never going to get its act together?

There is a common thread with anything to do with heritage with this town, ie. we don’t want it and the big players [names removed] don’t seem to understand what this town has got, and lost, and could stand to lose forever.

There is a large retired, or not working population that could be put to use with a community project such as the lifts and the harbour station - if only people could see the benefit for the population as a whole. The Remembrance Line has just lost its second chairman and members of the committee also and seem unable to concentrate on what they should be doing.

Related article about the Leas Lift: Engineering heritage: down and up

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These pictures were taken in and around Hawkinge during the snowy weather in Jan 2010

From Killing Woods, Hawkinge - looking over Folkestone

Wooded area behind Dragonfly Way

From Hawkinge, view looking over towards Folkestone

Family sledging outing - Hawkinge

Yesterdays heavy snowfall caused chaos on Shepways Roads with many drivers having to abandon their car at the side of the road and continue their journey on foot.

Commuters travelling home from work on the M20 and other motorways would probably have been able to complete that part of their journey - but as they got closer to home and left the motorway onto the A roads they would have slid to a snowy halt.

Many A roads had not been adequately gritted and as snowfall increased into the evening many drivers had to abandon their car at the side of the road to complete their journey on foot. Sandgate resident Richard Grundy who had to pick up his partner from a late meeting in Folkestone said:

“When I dropped my partner off to the meeting in Folkestone at 7pm it was not snowing however she rang me just before 9pm to let me know her meeting had finished and looking out of the window I could see it was now snowing heavily.”

“We live on a steep and windey hill and driving down the hill was a nightmare as I sometimes came close to sliding into parked cars but not being able to turn round in this narrow road I had to keep going. The main road into Folkestone had several inches of snow covering it. After collecting my partner I drove back home but the roads were increasingly icy and although driving very slowly I was unable to negotiate a downhill corner - the car just kept sliding downhill right past the turning. Others cars following me had the same problem and it was clear that it was too dangerous to go any further by car so I pulled into the kerb and parked up. We walked the final mile, through heavy snow, to get home as this seemed the safest option.”

  Pictures of M20 and A roads on night of 6th Jan courtesy of Tom Weatherley

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