Spring rides no horses down the hill,
But comes on foot, a goose – girl still
And all the loveliest things there be
Comes simply so, it seems to me.
Edna St. Vincent Millay
And with what joy we turn to our gardens and our seed catalogs and our local farms and nurseries. My mother Vassar ‘1916 became a fan of Edna St. Vincent Millay who was in the class above her. The Goose-Girl remained a favorite, and each Spring as we planned our garden, she would quote these lines. So to you I quote them, and start by congratulating the Rochester Branch for its lively newsletters which are full of activities and opportunities geared to its members. Their Pre –K Planting Project is such an important one. We all must teach our younger people the value of gardening…value that is Green and of money saving. Do you remember who taught you to plant seeds? Do you remember who showed you how to hoe, how to tell a weed from a watermelon seedling? I am sure that memory is a dear, cherished part of your childhood store of “growing –up” and a subconscious pointer to WNF&G membership.
Also in the Rochester Branch newsletter, under special projects there is a Beekeeping Student, Brian Oeterson, Musson Elementary School. The minute I saw that I talked to Temple Ambler about their having a course on beekeeping. There was such a course back in the time of Jane Haines.
Another point about the Rochester Branch from which some of us can learn. It is very clear about membership. It sends a form listing dues, categories for committees and social events among the opportunities it offers. That is a most helpful sheet, especially for new members.
So far we have received a great deal of help and interest in our handkerchief project to augment our income. Kathy Beveridge will have a beautiful bee design I ‘m hoping, in the forthcoming magazine by an artist from the Keystone Branch and the Mayflower Branch has submitted designs featuring a dogwood bloom and another with bees and honeycomb edges. There is more to do before these materialize but the prospect is pleasing and Hazel Herring shall be given the first one “hot off the press” so to speak for her tireless work on the Ambler WNF&G Home and Head house fund.
Barbara Hochstettler, who has envisioned and given us so much important form and focus, has an article in the upcoming new magazine about our focus endeavors. We must not loose sight of method and meaning. Kathy Beveridge continues to make our magazine beautifully readable and sumptuously colorful in its covers. How lucky we are to have her expertise.
And Mary Bertolini’s expertise. She has contracts well in hand and being a consummate businesswoman, she is still making adjustments in our favor. Boston should be a memorable “learning vacation” from intellectual luncheons (Harvard, and author Allyson Hayward) whacky and possibly wet Duck Tours filled with historical facts and stories, to a Down East clam bake in a tent on my front lawn, put on by a well-known Maine caterer.
So…You’ll ride no horses down the hill
But come by bus…and I’ll be your goose-girl still.
Faith
