Holiday Delights Abound
At this time of year when we focus on the Holidays, I’ve been reflecting on what I’m grateful for. Certainly, one thing is you, the members of the Laguna Beach Garden Club!
At the November meeting I asked if anyone wanted to go in with me to purchase a bike and wow, 16 of you said yes! Because of your generosity we can provide 7 kids with 7 bikes and 7 helmets. I’ve no doubt that at the December 8 meeting many of you, our members, will bring unwrapped toys for the Spark of Love toy drive – I’ll warn the LBFD to bring a really big truck. Often the older kids are overlooked so consider sports equipment like soccer balls, footballs, basketballs, baseball gloves; games like Clue, Sorry, Monopoly and Legos are all great ideas. And science kits! And art kits! Let’s go a little crazy this year and bring delight to as many families as we can.
Let’s delight our local merchants by shopping local this holiday season to help the merchants who support us all year long. Laguna Coast Pottery is always incredibly generous donating gift cards for our raffles. They never say no! So say YES to Laguna Coast Pottery at the corner of N. Coast Highway and Jasmine and check out the beautiful pots, plants, wall art, fountains and metal sculptures they have for sale. If you show them your California Garden Club membership card they will give you a 10% discount. It doesn’t get any better than that!
This past month many of you shared your delights with me. Thank you to Mary Koebler for sharing photos she took at the Mary Hurlbut Green Thumb photo class. And to Linda Richardson for sharing the article about a young woman in Iowa who grew over 7,000 lbs of fresh produce in her garden to donate to her local food pantry. (See related article in this month’s Weeder’s Digest about our generosity to the Laguna Food Pantry).
I was delighted to spend time with so many of you along with residents of Glenwood House (now that’s definitely a delight!) helping remove some of the invasive English ivy at the Doheny butterfly garden. It was fun to get to know the Doheny park staff and make a dent in this very big project. One ivy root was about 4 inches in diameter! Scott Tibbey, State Park Superintendent III Orange Coast District, was there working right along with us. No doubt they will need our help again and I’m sure many of you will answer the call. The fun will really begin when the ivy is removed and the pollinator plants can be planted and the Monarchs begin to appear.
Cheers to each of you from me as you finish out 2023 with family and friends. Enjoy your time together and remember to look for delights and share them with others (including me) every day.
– Jane Leary