Poised...After A Fun Evening

We're poised and ready for tomorrow. Above is our multi-purpose room, nicely arranged by Big John (except for that crooked chair, eight back and three in from the right...)., that is ready for our 180 symposium attendees tomorrow morning. It was a crazy day of preparations today and I'm thankful for all the assistance and team effort. Polly has done a nice job preparing the set-up for this event and she and Lori will take care of the food tomorrow. Marianne came in this morning and was helpful all day. She helped prepare some handouts for me this morning prior to going over the the Parker Education Center to lay out our silent auction items, organize lanyards alphabetically (see to the right) and myriad other tasks. She also helped tonight (more on that shortly). Nice shot to the left incidentally of the winter color for 'Angelina' creeping stonecrop (Sedum rupestre). Normally chartreuse in summer, this stalwart perennial has a nice orange color in fall, extending all the way until spring.

Janice ran out to pick up a rental screen for tomorrow and also helped with the "Meet & Greet" tonight. Dick W. came in this morning to continue his woodchipping quest and Pat continued his painting conversion on our tree sale signs. Gary was also in to work on some laser engraver improvements and tweaks and I saw Jean, Cora, Janet and Barb at our Home Garden Tour (July 23rd this year!) committee meeting. Marianne and I went over to Basics Cooperative to set up for our "Meet & Greet" and some staff later took the speakers out to dinner and we all converged on Basics at 6 pm. Thanks to Joy, Marianne and Gary for setting up and greeting attendees. I did a head count and we had 40 people there to enjoy some snacks, beverages and a neat presentation by Doreen Howard on "Heirloom Vegetables." She showed some veggies I had never seen let alone grown or eaten. Nice presentation and both Ed Lyon and Jeff Epping (two other speakers for tomorrow) were there to chit chat with the group too. It should be a fun day and it was nice to see the weather forecast is cold but sunny and not the originally predicted slushy rain/sleet combo that would make travel challenging. Butterfly seven of thirty-four is seen below.