The Alexandra Blossom Festival weekend may be over for another year but there is still plenty blooming at Central Stories Museum and Art Gallery this week and throughout the school holidays.

The Central Otago Art Society is holding its Annual Blossom Festival Art Exhibition through to Friday (September 29), with more than 160 artworks available for sale as well as to view. 

They cover a broad range of art, with the exception of photography, society president and noted local artist Nigel Wilson said.

There are about 100 members in the society, Nigel said, but not only members are represented in the exhibition.

“We got a lot of work from outside the region also.”

Exhibition visitors are asked to vote for their favourite work of art, and the People’s Choice Award would be announced at 5pm on Friday, he said.

The Heafey Gallery has a collection of art with the theme Bloom, and the museum also has a small exhibition of flower arrangements, operations manager Paula Stephenson said.

Abby Hinson watches as her children Jaxon (9) and Mahli (7) Thompson create sand gardens. The family was visiting from Melbourne, Australia.

Paula said Central stories had been “humming all weekend”, with lots of children visiting for the children’s activities. One of those was to create a sand garden, with flowers provided by Jo of Scrubby Gully, who also judged the resulting arrangements on Sunday afternoon. Prizes were donated by Jean and Russell Checketts, volunteers and supporters of Central Stories.

Winners and runners-up in each category were: 7-14-year-olds - Trixie Winckles (9), Jimmie Taylor (8); Six and under - Chloe Wright (6),Toby Chalmers (3).

A display of Blossom Festival tabletop floats created by Ruma Tahi Alexandra Primary School five-year-olds is also being shown, and Paula said children’s activities would continue throughout the holidays.

These included making Blossom Festival masks, and two treasure hunts - one in conjunction with Central Cinema was a search for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle clues, while the other is a hunt for Blossom Festival clues throughout the museum.

Eily (7) and Zara (6) Paterson of Alexandra show the blossom masks they made.

It was a busy weekend across the road at Alexandra Community House too, where the Central Otago Model Society had set up its annual Blossom Festival display. 

Secretary Steve Hills said the society had 32 members, ranging in age from eight to over 80

.

Steve started making model kitsets when just a boy himself, and he is a little older than that now. 

“I’ve always had an interest in military subjects and when I was eight I got my first model, and I’ve never stopped.”

He remembers the model precisely - a German Tiger I tank.

The group came about by accident in 1999, he said, when someone saw a model kit Steve had sitting on the counter of the garage he then owned.

“We got talking and he knew others who were interested in models and it started from there.”

Of the 10 original members, they discovered that nine had train sets under their beds so miniature railway constructions and tableaux were added to the mix.

The group meets every second Sunday of the month at Community House from 1-5pm, and every third Sunday in the Alexandra Scout Hall from 1-4pm.