This afternoon we held the last event, Questions and Artists, for the 2013 Poems in the Waiting Room exhibition, Bellamys at Five.
Clockwise: Janet De Wagt, Peter and Laura Gregory, Pauline Bellamy, Lew Walsh, Kate Fitzharris, Cathy Shemansky, Claire Beynon and Annelyse Gelman
Janet de Wagt chaired the event and with her wonderful down to earth manner extracted some thoughtful and insightful answers to her questions. Standing at the back of the room I observed both audience and artists and noticed the emotions these answers triggered in the audience. As one artist answered I could see others nodding their heads and connections were being made and acknowledged between the artists.
Artists and audience snapped before the event. And the obligatory afternoon tea photo!
My sincere thanks to Janet for generously giving up her Sunday afternoon and also for taking the time to provide the audience with the background to the Poems in the Waiting Room project. Thanks to Peter and Laura Gregory, Kate Fitzharris, Annelyse Gelman, Claire Beynon, Cathy Shemansky, Lew Walsh and Pauline Bellamy for putting themselves ‘on show’ for the audience.
Pauline and John Bellamy have once again been a delight to work with and for sharing their time and Gallery with me I am so very very grateful. To Imogen, Louise, Elspeth, Rosalind, Kay, Noela, Pauline and Laura thank you for your wonderful contributions to the great afternoon teas.
And to all the artists and poets, thank you for taking on my idea of Bellamys at Five, and turning it into the ‘real thing’.
There are a few ideas brewing for next year’s exhibition but I plan to take a break for a month or two and attend to my own writing, my garden, walking, catching up with friends and of course working on the next Poems in the Waiting Room poetry card.
When the next exhibition starts to take on a life I’ll redirect you to the new blog. In the meantime keep up with my sporadic blogging at waitingroompoems.wordpress.com. Thanks for stopping by over the last few months.
Ruth
Bellamys at Five 
Dear Ruth,
This has been a wonderful event and we are so lucky to have taken part. It is amazing how you have managed to bring so many people together with this exhibition, and the delightful montage of photos of the people that have taken part demonstrates this gloriously! You will be needing time in your garden now to rest and recharge after all your hard work, and we hope there is still some of this lovely Spring season left for you to enjoy out there!
We have been involved in some lovely exhibitions in the past, but this one had a gentle and generous spirit to it that is quite unique and beautiful, and we will treasure it in our hearts for a long time to come.
Kind thoughts and great thanks to you, and also to Pauline and John Bellamy, and to all those that made this possible.
Peter and Laura