Forest Hills Garden Club Field Trip to the State Fair of Texas - Part 1

Big time fun with the Forest Hills Garden Club, voted best in the U.S. by the garden club girls. Hot muggy day, but we were brave and strong. Note Mary tagging a butterfly. I was taking pictures so not paying a lot of attention, but the guy was saying how these tags weigh almost nothing, of course that's important and contain all kinds of information, even email. Kinda fascinating. This was in the Discovery Garden where butterflies and hummingbirds rule in this beautiful garden setting. Lots of the girls hadn't seen this part of the Fair.

This was before we lost Josephine. The horrible part is we didn't notice for 45 minutes. Every time I think of her sitting on the curb by the coupon booth waiting for us to come back and find her I feel like a terrible mother who lost her child and didn't notice. Course the other girls didn't notice either. We all know I'm flaky, what's their excuse?

New Magnolia Tree

I know it's really hard to see, but this is the beginning of a big beautiful magnolia tree. Cynthia and I pulled 4 starters from under her giant tree. I did my best to graft them together, dug a big hole, put shale, good dirt, compost and all good things I could think of. Took off all the leaves, watered when needed and look closely - each of the 4 stalks has little baby leaves. Can you imagine how much more exciting this will be if it really makes it? The baby leaves made my day and I go out and check for new ones every day. The storm didn't seem to harm it. The big branch that fell in our yard just missed it. So this magnolia is destined to be a favorite mature tree someday.

I took a great picture, or so I thought, of the beautiful maple tree Barb gave me, but you can't see it in the picture for all the other stuff. I'll get another picture for you. The maple is a real beauty.

Rebecca and I went riding around the State Fair today so she could show me new places for sculptures, especially in the Discovery Garden. What a great area for people to see how much sculpture adds to a garden. Saw Jay and Brad's pieces inside the planters and they will really make the plants in the planters. Took a lot of pictures and should have them on the last page of my website - www.lottieminick.com - in a few days. They will be in an album on the last page. If I can upload, of course. Just cause I've managed to put two albums on doesn't mean I can remember how to do it again.