President's Letter - January 2022
Leigh Fabens
Greetings, Garden Friends –
A month ago I wrote about how different our anticipation of the holidays is this year, compared to the prospect of Zoomed family gatherings in December 2020. Well, you know what happened! I wrote that we were not out of the woods yet and should remain flexible…by this point in the pandemic we should all be as flexible as a yoga master. But as you can see by my current photo, very small gatherings with trusted friends – that’s Diana and Gene Strombergs’ Christmas tree – are still possible.
In this newsletter you will find a description of our January meeting, scheduled for the 25th at the Cleveland Botanical Garden. In February we have moved our meeting (Gabrielle Krage, garden design) up to the 15th because The Garden Club of Cleveland has invited us to join their program on the 22nd with photographer Matthew Benson. Keep your eyes open to your email postings for late developments. I hope that we will be able to go ahead as planned! Our December speaker, who had to cancel because her young daughter tested positive, will be in our list for next year.
Coming up: the deadline for submitting proposals to Charitable Projects. We depend on our members to bring proposals from their community contacts. Jane Ellison and Laurel Stack have an article in this newsletter. And please send a donation if you haven’t already!
The GCA is offering virtual judging workshops in late January. Participation is a requirement for the judging program. Registration is open now on the GCA website – check it out. Monday the 24th is Floral Design, Tuesday is Horticulture, Wednesday is Photography and Thursday is Botanical Arts. All are from 11:00 to 4:30.
A reminder: our Standing Rules make it clear that it is expected of our members to maintain membership in Holden Forests and Gardens, and membership in the Nature Center of Shaker Lakes is strongly encouraged. We are entitled to have a meeting for no charge at HF & G if all of us are members, and our percentage is nowhere near that. Please check your records and make sure you are up to date.
Cheers for the New Year, and let’s all hope it’s a safe and healthy one!
Leigh