Garden club selects new officers

By Jackie Eichelberger

At the end of May each year, the Fleur de Lis Garden Club members get together for lunch to finish up the monthly winter meeting schedule.  Lunch was held at Siciliano’s Taste of Italy Restaurant in Garland on May 26.  We ordered and enjoyed our favorite Italian dishes before getting down to the business of welcoming new officers for the 2015-’16 season set to begin Sept. 28.

Second Vice President Pat McMillan began the installation program by thanking Patty Frost and Jackie Eichelberger who are stepping down from the positions they held this year.  Pat continued by welcoming the new slate of officers and presenting each with a small gift representing the duties of the office they will be assuming.

Penny Broaden will serve as President; Kathleen LoSapio, First Vice President; Pat McMillan, Second Vice President; Dianne Lockridge, Secretary; Cheryl Bower, Treasurer; Beverly Grindele, Parliamentarian.  Committee chairs for the new season were also recognized.  These positions are Scrapbook, Pat McMillan; Sunshine, Beverly Grindele; Telephone Contact, Cheryl Bower; Reporter, Jackie Eichelberger.

Pat presented an idea to design a certificate to recognize members who have served in office over the years giving of their time and talents to help make the garden club a success.  Her idea is to give each future outgoing officer and committee chair a certificate as they step down from their positions.  Club members all agreed this was a good idea and a thoughtful way to thank those who serve.

We all wished each other a happy summer and successful gardening until we meet again in September.  The luncheon table was decorated with small pots of colorful flowering annuals that ten of us were lucky enough to win as door prizes.

There was a lot of talk during the luncheon about all the abundant rain this spring and the soggy conditions in our yards.  We all have a lot of cleaning up to do in our flowerbeds and gardens.  Sometimes too much rain is as bad as not enough.  These frequent almost daily “frog stranglers” and “gully washers” can really make a mess washing mulch out of flowerbeds and such.  Standing water and squishy conditions on lawns make mowing a hazard.  We’ve even seen ducks swimming in puddles in neighborhood yards!

The only good thing about saturated lawns is that it makes pulling up weeds almost fun.  Most will come up roots and all.  I don’t think we’ll have to worry about water restrictions for a while or watering our house foundations.  After three years of drought, I hate to complain about rain, but this is just about enough for a while.  Hasn’t it been forty days and forty nights yet?