Letter from the Presidents, October

Dear Members,
It was a pleasure seeing so many of you at the first garden club general meeting, and Billie and I are delighted to have the garden club year underway. And off and running it certainly is! Committees are busily setting plans for the year, flower design classes are up and running, and a cuttings workshop has been scheduled. Our holiday bulbs have been ordered, and our fall projects are underway, including the landscape design plan for the Phelps Triangle renovation, planting at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, and organizing for the Christmas workshop to make arrangements for area nursing homes. If you haven’t yet embraced a committee or project, please talk with our committee chairs to learn about the opportunities available for creating, growing, serving our community, conserving our environment and administering our club.

We made a wonderful showing at the annual GCA Zone II flower show, which was held in Litchfield in mid-October, with each of our entries earning ribbons. Please join us in congratulating Vicki Arkins, Isabel Caride, Ann Burrow, Jennifer Radford, Mikey Hirschoff and Helen Davie who earned three firsts, one second, one third and one honorable mention. Many thanks to them for representing us so well and for their creativity, green thumbs and dedication to excellence in flower design and horticulture.

Billie and I thank you for allowing us to represent our club at the zone meeting, where we had the opportunity to learn from and network with nearly 100 women from the 20 clubs in our zone. We brought home ideas from clubs across the region and nation, and we are in the process of sharing many of those thoughts with our committee chairmen. They include initiatives relating to environmental conservation, civic involvement, photography, horticulture, flower design, scholarships, recording our club’s history, meaningfully awarding our members, becoming more computer literate, and improving the garden club experience for members with varying interests and gifts. And last but not least, it was an important chance to observe our Litchfield Garden Club friends as they so capably ran their meeting. We will be hosting the Zone II meeting in 2011, and it will be here before we know it!
Enjoy your garden on these beautiful fall days; fall was late this year but soon will be gone.

But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night.
(After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost)

Sincerely,
Debbie