We just had a board meeting tonight and finalized our plans for 2008. Our February meeting will be a talk & slide show on hardy disease resistant roses (to help folks with their spring orders). The March program features a very talented garden designer from the area - "Design Pointers for Practical, Pretty & Personal Gardens". April has two events - we'll be mixing our organic fertilizer and having a potluck lunch one weekend, and the regular monthly meeting will be a hands-on pruning training workshop. We'll be using our best carpenters for the May meeting - a hands-on session where members can build a trellis or tutour. June's meeting will be held in a member's rose garden and will feature a professional photographer, with the meeting's theme of "Photographing Roses" - we may pair up with a local photography club at that meeting. We are also planning a tentative 2-day field trip to Great Lakes Roses (our last chance before they close) and the beautiful Ford mansion gardens which features many of the Buck roses (from Great Lakes Roses). July is a garden walk in another member's garden, and hands-on work making stepping stones and rhubarb leaf bird baths. August's meeting will also be in a member's garden, who will teach us their tips on composting and building and maintaining a pond. September's meeting, our last member's garden meeting of the year, will include a talk on organic rose gardening. October's meeting will feature one of our own talented members who will be doing a program on Old Garden Roses, the November meeting will be our annual "Show and Tell" where members share their garden photography and projects with the group. The December meeting is our annual holiday party. Each December we have members fill out a survey, including topics they would like to have featured the next year. Our board plans all our programs around those topics. Our group (almost 100 members) doesn't care to exhibit, but loves growing roses and really enjoys each others' company. We put out a monthly newsletter (snail mail or on-line) and have a website: www.tcroses.org (we'll be posting our events for 2008 within the next week or so - 2007 events are presently on our website, so if you wish, you can see what we did last year. Hope these things offer you an idea or two to try. The number one event folks ask for every year are our summer garden walks in different member's gardens. We try to include some kind of a talk or activity at these as well. And we always serve refreshments!

Couldn't find bitter and sweet desserts, but how about sweet and sour? Balsamic Strawberries with Vanilla Ice Cream 1 cup strawberries 1 teaspoon sugar 2 teaspoons reduced balsamic vinegar 2 big scoops of vanilla ice cream 1. Wash and slice strawberries. 2. Pour sugar and vinegar into a bowl with the strawberries. 3. Chill in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to let the flavors blend or if you�re impatient you can skip this step. 4. Scoop up some vanilla ice cream and pile strawberries on top with a drizzle of the balsamic vinegar to your taste. Hint: Balsamic reduction sauce Take a cheap bottle of balsamic vinegar and pour desired amount into a wide saucepan or skillet on medium high heat. Once the liquid has been reduced by about half, let vinegar cool. You should see that the vinegar has thickened a bit, similar to the consistency of maple syrup

Book clubs sound great; I'm sure you'll enjoy it. We have several at our library. One of my best friends belongs to one that chooses books that spark a lot of in-depth discussion. I would call them "difficult" books, although that doesn't quite describe it. Not necessarily difficult to read and understand, but difficult to enjoy--at least from my perspective. I do read for information sometimes, but mostly I read for fun. I can't imagine a book club discussing JD Robb's "In Death" series, for example, one of my favorites. How much can you say about it? LOL I belong to a writer's "club"--a group of five. We meet regularly to discuss each other's writing, which is useful to us, and usually enjoyable as well. Wine, beer, and snacks add to the fun.

Hi Carolyn -- It's good to be remembered. I guess I just got busy. We moved (downsized) in 2011 and yet we still have two storage areas of "stuff" to go through, and, I hope, get rid of. And I waste too much time on Facebook. I still check in here on occasion, though, to see how you all are doing and what you are reading. I'll try to check in more often. Reading books for two book clubs and reading my own choices in between keeps me busy reading. But like all of you, I love it. Sorry to hijack you thread, Paula. Just to bring us back to the topic I will post some of last year's book club reads. :-) 2013 List - It was a pretty good year. CalebâÂÂs Crossing by Geraldine Brooks Heft by Liz Moore Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese Wild by Cheryl Strayed The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen Gone Girl and/or Psychopath Test The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar Blame by Michelle Huneven The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman