Helen Mirren in The Debt and Garden Club

I think you'll enjoy my latest examiner article:

http://www.examiner.com/gardening-humor-in-dallas/helen-mirren-the-debt-and-garden-club






Other fun finds:


www.lottiekateminick.com

www.lottielogic.blogspot.com

http://eastdallasartgardens.blogspot.com/

www.examiner.com/gardening-humor-in-dallas/lottie-minick

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Lottie-Sculpture-Garden/331434591287?ref=ts

Garden club field trip

Robert Bellamy road trip for the Forest Hills Garden Club. Isn't this a wonderful mosaic? Every thing I saw I wanted to go home and try to do. We all did. We didn't.

Forest Hills Garden Club February meeting

Wow! Great garden club meeting last night. First, Mary and garden girls had great food. I'll be writing an article in Black White Read soon with the foodie details. Mike gave a great talk on growing tomatoes. Kinda complicated, but that doesn't stop us. Mary had parting gifts for us - tomato seeds from the Arboretum. Mike gave me eggs from his chickens, a special gift. I've got to figure out something to make with the shells after eating the eggs. They are beautiful colors. Seriously, aren't we the cutest group?

Dates to remember: March 20-21 Artscape at the Arboretum
May 23 - White Rock East Garden & Artisans' Tour

And send more names for Barbara Dybala's cement mixer.

Forest Hills Garden Club meets tomorrow night

Forest Hills Garden Club meets tomorrow at Mary's. Mike - gardener extraordinaire, will speak to us. Everyone's looking forward to this one. I might consider a touch of heckling, but the garden girls would sit on me. Everyone wants to hear his advice. Mike's also in charge of the White Rock East Garden & Artisans' Tour plant sale (May 23). You'd think now would be the time to get on his good side in hopes of buying some of the plant sale plants before the hordes get there. But no, there's a very strict rule about that one. Add fanatic gardeners with fanatic garden tour organizers and don't be messing with them.

Check out this BlackWhiteRead article for commentary on the first general planning meeting for the tour.

And please go back and read my BlackWhiteRead article on naming Barbara Dybala's cement mixer. I have lots of names I can't put in print. People - I need some clean names! Email me or put them in the comments block in this article. I get them either way.

Remember fabulous prizes given for Artscape at the Arboretum (March 20-21).

And always check out www.lottieminick.com for odd tidbits.

Daffodils

First daffodils/jonquils for my yard this year. I'm most fond of plants I've been givenperennials and plants I've been given than any other. Today was high 60's, but very cold weather is suppose to be on the way. I need to get a new cardboard box to cover the Japanese Maple Barb gave me. The rain kinda melted the box, but I'm pretty sure the maple is happy.

Monday Barb picked up me, Andie and Cynthia for the first Garden Tour committee at Bob K's. This coming Monday is the general meeting at my house. After hosting our Christmas party, Forest Hills Garden Club meeting, Manicure Lecture Series and Monday's Garden Tour meeting, I'll be done hostessing for a while. Can't believe January is over and we're about to be springtime busy.

To to www.lottieminick.com for updates.

Forest Hills garden club November meeting

November Forest Hills Garden Club meeting at Katrina's with guest speaker Irwin Lightstone giving us a great talk on cacti and succulents. Everyone toasted me about my good news - winning the Lottie Lottery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So excited to be able to see Mom every day. Read my Examiner.com article about the meeting: http://www.examiner.com/x-15499-Dallas-Gardening-Humor-Examiner~y2009m11d14-Friday-plant-of-the-week--a-day-late

Forest Hills Garden Club

The Forest Hills Garden Club kicked off the new year at Barb's house last night and we look fabulous as you can see here. Barb and Abbie provided delicious food including Barb's recently won State Fair of Texas blue ribbon salsa made with her giant cucumbers like the one Judy's holding. This was Cynthia's first meeting. I know she wants to be a member, but it didn't hurt her first meeting was at Barb's. She's been hearing about John and Barb's house forever. I graciously invited John to come with me to give the tour of his house. John is only official Garden Club Guy.

After business part of the program Barb explained how she preserves flowers and leaves and showed us examples of her framed and in progress pieces. She even makes cards with pressed flowers. One, a large caladium leaf looks almost antiqued.

Maggie, first on the left, visited because she wants to start a garden club in her neighborhood. along with our Animal Alert program, I guess we are becoming a prototype for garden clubs, too. As Barb, our heart of the garden club says, "We're not your mother's garden club."

A little Malibu, a little Santa Monica

A little Malibu foliage mixes with Santa Monica rehearsal dinner at Valentinos. Each of the pots at Dan's house, inside and out are little artscapes in themselves. Each group of guests at the rehearsal dinner were little pockets of "so glad to be with you again".

The orange and yellow flowers on the ground in the first photo didn't just rebloom every morning - they came on stage. Their colors are so vibrant in real life. I'd love to bring the Forest Hills Garden Club to Dan's for an afternoon tea. This would be better than our field trip to Robert Bellamy's. We'd bring Robert's Staci as our personal guest. Even though Dan's sold his restaurant - imagine him catering our tea with his house, mountain and ocean setting. Oh, my, a perfect afternoon for the garden girls.

And a perfect evening, thank you, perfect rehearsal dinner hosts, Pam and Ronnie. Did I mention the appetizers and drinks while we were in the private room before dinner were enough for dinner for me? Some kind of shrimp on a kabob I could eat every day forever. Visited with Kim (blue dress) a while. She's delightful, lucky Brian.

Forest Hills Garden Club - Cutie Pie Garden Girls

Cutie Pie Garden Girls - kinda says it all, doesn't it? But the Tomato Lady outshines us all.

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

Meetings this week. First the Forest Hills Board meeting, (the last picture), next the White Rock East Garden and Artisan's Tour (the one with the lamp) and this morning Forest Hills Garden Club, with the fabulous Tomato Lady. She wowed the crowd.

The two meetings not at my house blew away my little cooking adventure. Donna had home made dips, pigs in a blanket, rollups, home made brownies, a lemon square dessert and all kinds of other foods. I think everyone attends the tour meetings for her food. When I have the meetings at my house, turn out is LOW say the least. A date was decided on - May 17, so mark you calendars now. Andie's yard is one of our gardens this year and she came with me to the meeting. She walked in and knew nearly everyone there. I'll be at her house as close to her big dinosaur as I can. Wait, maybe not, her dinosaur will make my metal pieces look insignificant.

Hard to get up this morning in time for the Forest Hills Garden Club meeting. I stayed up half the night with my new James Lee Burke novel. The setting for this one is not New Iberia, but I don't care, still has our hero and his wife and friend. You must realize for someone like me from a very small town in Louisiana, I was amazed when I opened his first novel. Our Hero is sitting in the New Iberia Parrish Courthouse parking lot waiting for the pouring rain to stop so he can take his prisoner inside to the jail. If Our Hero would turn his head to the left he would be looking at my Aunt Rita's house where I spent half my childhood. How can I put down a Burke book? Worth staying up all night to read them.

Jumped out of bed, brushed teeth, threw on clothes and to the Forest Hills Garden Club with our featured celebrity speaker, The Tomato Lady. She was terrific. We love our "gentle giant" oak trees, but they do make growing any plant who needs sun a challenge. Great hat. She says she also has an herb hat and other plant hats. What's not to enjoy about this lady? Barbara, our hostess, had a wonderful spread of food all gluten free. Delicious and her home is wonderful. A good time was had by all.

Forest Hills Garden Club

Finally on the East Dallas Art Gardens blog I have gardening news.

The Forest Hills Garden Club was a small gathering this month at Katrina's house, but we are cute.  Jane left before I remembered to ask Mark to take our picture.  Jane may be one of the most gracious women I know.  Here's Barb, Josephine (brand new member and my back yard neighbor), Mary, me and Katrina.  Why we didn't put Jessica in the middle I don't know.  Jessica is Katrina and Mark's darling baby girl and I think we should make her our official mascot.  Katrina's home looks like she's ready for a photo shoot for Architectural Digest.  

I am not standing next to Mary in any more pictures.  She makes me look 3 feet tall.  

All of our gardens will look better after today.  We've had light rain for quite a while and can only hope it lasts several days.  The girls were talking about continuing to water for the trees all winter.  I always take a tip home from the meetings.

My across the street neighbor had a tree cut down Friday.  I was out back welding and the constant of the chain saw noise all day gave me such a headache.  I wanted to go over there and tell them to just stop.  Of course I did go over after an inspected the logs.  Glo will question me on whether the tree needed to be cut or not.  I didn't see any obvious problems, but I'm not a tree specialist. I have volunteered to be handcuffed to a tree if a developer is cutting it down for no reason.  I'm not afraid of developers.  I proved I can stand them down when I stood in front of that electric company man's front loader.  No monk parrots lost nests that day.

But when it's a neighbor, how do you go over and act like the tree police?  I want to, but I'm a gutless wonder.  Maybe if Glo and I went together.  We will deserve our reputation "crazy tree ladies" in the neighborhood.

The name of the neighborhood is FOREST Hills.  Takes trees to be a FOREST, for goodness sakes.  Well, off the soapbox for now, good night.

More State Fair sculpture pictures

More State Fair photos. Let's begin with Richard's blue totem tribute to his rooster Rudy, really a great piece. Then Staci's mosaic's flamingo in a shell. You have to get very close to her piece and see all the interesting little pieces she's mosaiced with. I see something new each time. Last is Tanya's totem. Bob and I were at the garden the other night and we happen to walk in front of her piece. There was a street light behind it making the face shine. Went to the Fair with the Forest Hills Garden Club Thursday. Saw the face on Tanya's piece with the sun behind it making it shine on it's own. Too cool. Dolores, a landscape designer, was impressed with the show as were the garden girls.

There was a lady weeding a landscape bed while we critiqued it. Oops! We were going on about how some plants should have been planted in the shade and other little comments. If there was an academy award for saying the wrong thing when the person is standing right behind you - I'd be the yearly winner. And what do I know about what plants to plant when or how?

Oh, but mosaics I do know a little about. When Bob and I went out to walk with BlackJack this morning we noticed a bunch of boxes on the curb by the newest closest McMansion to us. When we walk in the mornings I always make disparaging remarks about that house. Anyway, in the boxes were plates - colored plates, not just white plates they'd thrown out. Cool for mosaics. Then they threw out some bowls, great for mixing thinset and grout. Jackpot! I might have to quit grumping about that McMansion. NOT! Darling Bob carried most of the stuff home while 65 pounds of BlackJack was staining at the leash he was holding. So nice to be married to someone who'd not embarrassed I'm a curb shopper.

New Welding Helmet

Since last I wrote I've been to the preview party for the Arboretum's Artscape at Larry and Marilyn's home.  Beautiful house and spectacular yard.  I told Marilyn the Forest Hills Garden Club would love a field trip and she said we'd be welcome.  I forgot my camera.  

Last night was the press party for the White Rock Lake Studio Artist's Tour.  I did bring my camera and will post pictures tonight.  The party was at Robin's and as always she made everyone feel so welcome.  Her home is incredibly beautiful with views that take your breath away.  Of course all the artists were in awe of her studio.

So today I have to brag about my new welding helmet.  You can't appreciate it unless you know about the old one.  Hence, both pictures.  

Well, let's talk MAKE MY DAY.  First the see thru window is not all scratched up and I can see.  Maybe my welds will look better now.  I had to duct tape the old helmet insert so it didn't lift up and down any more.  You know how that goes, you have to keep duct taping.  Finally there was so much duct tape gunk every time I took the helmet off it took chunks of my hair with it.  I do not look good with bald spots.  No duct tape on the new helmet - so the bald spots on my head are growing back.  And finally it's automatic darkening, pretty special.  I will admit Miss Cheapo got it on sale and used a coupon.  Can't take the "cheap" out of Lottie.  Oh, one last thing, even though this picture is blurry, I look fabulous in the new helmet!