VENUE: Swan Coach House

DATE: November 19, 2019

HOSTESSES: Maysie Beeson, Elizabeth Spalding, Aimee Nix and Sissy Davis

WELCOME & CALL TO ORDER: Karen Brown
Karen called the meeting to order and thanked Maysie, Elizabeth, Aimee and Sissy.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Karen Brown
The October minutes have been posted on the website for approval. There was a motion to approve and a second; all voted in favor. The minutes stand approved as presented.

ANNOUNCEMENTS & UPDATES: Karen Brown
Karen shared some funny recipes and stories and announced that for the May meeting, everyone should pick a recipe from Mimosa’s cookbook from the 1970’s.

Mary Huntz sent a photograph to share: Thanksgiving Fun with Flowers.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

Vice President – Terri Alston, Hostess chart.
Terri Alston reported that the Hostess Chart needed some tweaking. There was a shortage of hostesses. Four members host a meeting, (five may host if family). Members host every three years. We are asking for flexibility with hosting, especially if you have a large number of family members. Twenty-eight members are due on the list to host the eight meetings in 2020-21. For these eight meetings, each with four hostesses, we need 32 hostesses.

Membership and Dues – Jessica Brown and Rae Knox
Dues are $50 until Dec. 1st, and after Dec. 1st, the dues go up to $75. Checks may be handed or mailed to Rae, or pay via PayPal on the Mimosa website

Program Chairs – Jennifer Hill and Mary Ella Hill Nothing to report.

Speech School – Aimee Nix and Caroline Davis
The Kenan Preschool loves to use the Mimosa Garden for special events, including an event they call “Courtyard”. The Parents’ Council plans one Courtyard in the Fall and one in the Spring. These events are hands-on learning experiences that relate to science, nature and the classroom’s current curriculum. During nice weather, this area provides the perfect place to explore nature and have fun with messy craft projects.

The Mimosa Garden is also the beautiful lush backdrop for school photos in the Fall. Russ Chism, our contact at Solterra, said that everything looks great. I’ll work with Russ to plan our workday in the spring.”

Quarry Garden – Blain Allen and Shelby Drinkard
We are managing our collections in the arctic blast as best we can! We have purchased a little over 5,000 plants for the new entrance gardens being installed in front of the Cyclorama, Texas and Souper Jenny. We’ve had to cover the ones ordered from Florida with frost blankets, but they look fine. Hopefully our irrigation system survived unscathed as well. The new gardens will be about half native plants, a major expansion of our native plant collection.

The main news right now in the Quarry Garden, is that it’s main steward, Senior Horticulturist Rosemary Bathurst, fell and broke her right knee!

She was not gardening at the time, but up in the ballroom at a staff function. She’s at home recovering, but will likely not be back for a month or two at least. In the meantime, all our other staff are taking turns heading down into the Quarry to blow the falling leaves off the trails and lead volunteer workdays pulling the cool-season weeds. We have several hundred small plants to put in this fall as well and are hoping for Rosemary to be back and participate in that planting with us. There are Christmas ferns, yellow woods poppies, evergreen sedges and cardinal flowers amongst others.

The Quarry looks beautiful in it’s fall color finery, as it does every year. The hickories are abundant, all golden yellow, and the sourwoods are a pinky-red. It’s a great time to visit!

Flower Show – Jennifer Euart and Mary Ayres Griggs
Flower Show is at the Atlanta Botanical Garden February 21-23rd.

Treasurer – Jo Phelps: No update.

Oakland Christmas Project – Lisa Hinson and Sophie Mason
On December 13th, Mimosa is decorating the Jacobs Mausoleum. Sending around sign up sheet.

PROGRAM: Judy Nolan, “Leave Nothing Left Unsaid”.
Jody Nolan presented her book “Leave Nothing Unsaid”. Jody shared how important it is to write a letter to those we love. She shared some heart wrenching stories how hard things happen to wonderful people and that life is not fair. Affirming someone in writing is a gift that we can give them and ourselves. She asked “Why would you wait to tell someone you love them”. It is important to speak life into those we love. Many people don’t know where to start, so Jody created a workbook to guide people through a step by step process of writing meaningful letters to those we love. She stressed the importance if doing this now. We all have busy lives and urgent tasks, but we need to do this now and tell those we love exactly how we feel because there is no guarantee of tomorrow. You may find her at book here: www.leavenothingunsaid.com/blog/when-life-doesnt-tie-pretty-bow

ADJOURN:
Next meeting is January 21st at The Agape Youth and Family Center. The meeting was adjourned, and lunch was served.

Respectfully Submitted,

Kyle Wilcox Garges