Garden Club met for its third annual summer tea
On a perfectly lovely summer morning several dozen members of the Cornwall Garden Club gathered on the grounds of the Sands Ring Homestead to talk about the history of their group. It was their third annual summer tea.
Co-president Denise Nichols welcomed the club’s members — many of whom would return to the site the next afternoon when the Club hosted District 10 of the state’s Federated Garden Club — and she introduced Assistant Archivist Sabine Moran who was about to speak about the history of the club.
On the back porch of the homestead, there were photo albums, old newspaper clippings and other memorabilia on display for members to look at.
The two have been working on the Club’s “helter skelter” records, Nichols said, but need help. They are using the Cornwall Library’s microfiche to look up some of their memorabilia, “to get some questions answered”.
Moran started her comments saying that her partner in putting together the Club’s history, Brigid Flynn, was unable to be at the meeting, and she called her “the member who knows the most”, and called herself “the assistant”.
Moran asked that when looking through the albums if they knew any of the names of the people in the photos, or unidentified locations, to name them, Post-it-Notes were provided.
She also asked that anyone who has historical items pertaining to the Club to bring them to a meeting and they “will be added to our archives”.
Co-President Virginia Scott thanked Moran for her presentation, saying she knows it is a lot of work to try to make sense of materials that are decades old.
Moran said it has actually been “a lot of fun”.
Following the history presentation and refreshments served in the area where the Club maintains herb and flower gardens significant to the period of the Homestead, the club members had their monthly business meeting.
Coming events for the Club include:
August 23- A 6:30 p.m. Master Gardener class called ‘Let’s Learn Something New’, at Munger Cottage.
September 21 – A 6 p.m. event at the Cornwall Library called ‘Botanical Mayhem and Murder’
October 25 – A potluck lunch and program called ‘Bulb Planting and Growing Tips’ at the Cornwall Yacht Club.
November 15 – A 6:30 p.m. ‘Home for the Holidays’ workshop at Munger Cottage.
***********
The Garden Club has a Facebook page: Cornwall NY Garden Club. They offer helpful gardening tips, highlight club activities, and have even been known to answer a question or two about local gardening issues.
For more information on joining the Garden Club or the programs contact Eileen Wood (woodkeb@frontiernet.net) or Lisa Morasse (lisamorasse@gmail.com).
The club currently has 56 members, 38 are active. The group’s activities include visiting and maintaining private and public gardens; learning from horticulture talks, horticulture exhibits, and design exhibits; providing scholarships for young people who are interested in the conservation of the environment; and planting trees, flowers and bulbs in public community areas.
