Our Fall Picnic.

Hello Daylily Friends,

This past Saturday afternoon our local Cobb County Daylily Society had its annual Fall Picnic.  Wow, what fun we had.  I asked our President, Mark Franklin, if we could get a group photograph just to affirm our time together.  Since I had cut down so many trees, we decided to have our picture taken on the deck.  We got everyone in the picture, and we all did our best to have at least our faces seen in the photo.  Here is the picture.

After we had our picture taken, we all began to go through the dinner line to sample so many casseroles, and to get plenty of "fried southern chicken."  As Grandpa used to say on He Haw, "Mmmmmm, Mmmmm, Good!"  There was plenty of food for everyone, and for many, like myself, who went back for second helpings.  Then, finally, there was the dessert table.  Oh my goodness.  Caramel cake, Carrot cake, pies, brownies, fudge, just everything you could want.  It is a good thing to be a member of an active Daylily Club!

After supper was over, we all got together and watched our fine Auctioneer, David Bishop, as he sold the many plants that we had for sale.  Actually, the plants were mostly sold for "earned points" members accumulated as they worked on projects for the club over this past year.  Of course, money could still be used to purchase the plants, but it is hard for "cash" to beat hundreds of earned points.  Little Annie Mitchell was fun to watch as she listened to Auctioneer Dave sell the daylilies.  Annie is the beautiful daughter of Brittany and Keith Mitchell.  You can also see in one picture that everyone really enjoyed the sale.

Several other daylily events that Diana and I have been privileged to participate in over the past ten days, include meeting with both the Albany Hemerocallis Society and the Henry County Master Gardeners.  It was good to see Ron Bonner in Albany, and to also see Jim Parks at the Master Gardeners program.

Here in our gardens we are still very busy trying to clear beds to plant our seedlings.  We go as hard as we can, but progress is slow.  Nevertheless, we cleared the bed where Diana has grown her tomatoes for years, and friends the soil is "first class."  Just perfect soil.  Diana has added so much mulch over the years for her tomatoes, and the soil is twice as good as anything that could be purchased.  Also, I've cleared four other beds, and one row has been partially planted with seedlings.  I plan to get two more long rows finished, then get the seedlings planted, and try to do all of this before the middle of October.

On Thursday afternoon Diana and I are going to begin a journey to go and visit with the Richmond Area Daylily Society in Richmond, Virginia.  The Club has been gracious to us, and has asked us to come and speak about our program.  It should be a wonderful trip.  The one problem that I have is that I wanted to visit several Civil War battlefields, but with the Government being shut down, this is not possible.  One would think that with the weather so perfect this time of year that those in the House would put aside their differences and keep the government active.  I really wanted to see the battlefield at Second Bull Run.  Oh well.  Still, we're happy to be going to Virginia.

I have to show two pictures of Little Lily Rae.  In the first picture she has put my hat on her head, and I took her picture.  As you can see from the picture her eyes are just beautiful, beautiful brown.  I now sing to Lily Rae the song about "Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes."  She just loves the song.  Then, this morning, Little Lily Rae was trying to wear Grandma's black shoes.  Again I took a picture.  Someday she may like seeing these pictures.  She is just such a Brown Eyed Princess!

Bill