by Earl Ekman

On Nov 9th at the Bon Air Library, we will be having a video and food extravaganza. Please bring any interesting bonsai videos you have and if you have a video or DVD player bring it along so we can watch several different sets at one time. I have a video I made in April at Dan Robinsons’ Elandan Garden. I know we have a number of club videos featuring various artists. We are asking each family to bring a small dessert of some kind. The club will furnish the utensils, plates, napkins and drings. This should be a great evening of bonsai. Also, I will have some of the pots we fired at the pit firing.

This year we will have the Christmas party at the King Buffet, 1801 Priority Way, Tel. (502) 266- 8886. We will have a private room that seats approximately 50 people - and the ability to expand if more people attend. The room has been reserved from Saturday December 4th from 6 PM till close. It will be a lot like last year, only a different location. For those who get there early, there will be drinks and door prizes. You will receive mo r e informa t i on (including directions) regarding the party in next months newsletter.

I want to thank all those who helped make the bonsai pot firing such a great success. Linda Kossmann worked all day firing the pit and it was hard, hot work. Thanks Linda! In addition, I want to thank Tom McCurry for styling a Scotts Pine and building stone tops for bonsai stands, Earl Cormney for the die grinding demo, Lee Hatcher for the Bald Cypress discussion, John Callaway and Amberly Stitzel for their Phoenix Graft Demo, George Buehler for his shohin discussion and Charlie Johnson for cooking the hot dogs and brats. Mostly I want to thank my wife Sandy for all her hard work helping me put it all together.

Gene Sewell, you did another great job of putting together the Green Tree Mall Show. I also want to thank those who brought trees for the show. Gene signed up 14 or 15 people for a beginner workshop, and he sold enough raffle chances on a raffle tree to make a nice profit for the club.

This has been a fun year and the club continues to grow. I can hardly wait for next year.