by Earl Ekman

We are approaching a very exciting and busy time of year. Late winter and early spring bring a wonderful variety of events in which to participate.

The February meeting will be held at Bon Air Library on Tuesday the 14th at 7 PM. We will be showing a variety of bonsai videos and sampling a number of members' desserts. We have a selection of videos in the club library and members will be viewing these. If those attending will bring a small dessert, we will have quite a selection of treats to enjoy. If you have an interesting tree or workshop pot, please bring these to share with the club. Our plans are to also have a tree or pot to raffle at the meeting. On Saturday March 4th, we will be having a very interesting demo/workshop using Saunders Boxwoods. This event will be held at Bon Air Library starting at 10AM. The cost is only $15.00 per tree. Quite a bargain for a workshop. Tommy McCurry will be conducting this workshop, and I'm certain you will get a lot of information and have a lot of fun. There will be more extensive information regarding this in the March Newsletter.

Big change in April plans. Due to a short supply of cash in our treasury, we have had to change our demo-workshop in April. We will still have a great demo-workshop on April 15th at Bon Air, but our guest lecturer will be Matt Ouwinga from Chicago. He is an expert on trident maples and Japanese maples, and his demo will be on a trident maple. This is a bring-your-own-tree workshop as he works on all types of trees. If you want a nice field grown trident to work on, you can participate in a dig at Tom McCurry's nursery on Knopp Ave (tree prices vary). We will meet to dig our trees on Saturday April 1st at 10 AM. Tommy has a lot of tridents and I'm sure you will find a good one. The cost of Matts' demo-workshop will be $20.00. This is a terrific bargain.

35 YEAR LOGO DESIGNS

After talking to a number of older members of the club, they made it clear they did not want to change the club logo. The current logo tree was styled from a black pine owned by Dr. John Doyle, one of our founding members. I am in agreement. The design should not be changed.

This is our 35th year as a bonsai club and I think we should do something to recognize this milestone. I have quite a few suggested designs which George is publishing in this month's newsletter (page 3). Please call me and let me know which design you like best. The winning logo will be used this year to commemorate our 35th year. I am planning to use this logo on a pin, T-shirt, and possibly a hat. Please let me know as soon as possible.

SPECIAL REMINDER - Dues for 2006 are now due. To continue receiving this great newsletter and participate in all our events, please send in your $35.00

Best regards and Happy New Year, Earl