California Gardener of the Year!

My garden club submitted me into the pool for Gardener of the Year at the State level. The state has 22,000 club members and over 350 clubs. I knew they had submitted my nomination that gave me goose bumps and tears to read and I didn't realize how far reaching my every day activities went. The nomination was an award itself for me.


June 4 was the California Garden Clubs Inc. State convention in Westlake Village, CA.
Well, I was honored as California Garden Clubs, Gardener of the Year, for contribution to Club and Community!
This photo is 1am, after the ceremony, in our room with flowers my dear friend Sheila had sent.

They had alerted Mike about the award a month before the ceremony and he let our kids know, just in case they would like to attend.
I was absolutely BLOWN away when they all appeared through the door at the banquet, the moment I was receiving the award!
Here we are moments later. What they did to be there was unbelievable...driving 3 hours, coordinating child care, fighting Friday night traffic...I could not hold back the tears...

This is a photo of the garden clubbers that drove the 2 hours from San Clemente to attend the ceremony. This is before the awards were announced.

Big Bear activities

We spent the Memorial Day weekend at the cabin. Michelyn, Nicole, Aubrey and Garrett joined in the fun. Here we are swinging the hammock, listening to the birds and watching squirrels.

Us gals got a some exercise raking up bags of pine needles. We were really improvising as we did not have the proper tools. Nicole and Michelyn took some home to add to their compost piles. I am so proud that they are composting!

We celebrated Garrett's 4th birthday cabin style. Michelyn found out baking a cake is different at 7000 feet.

Memorial Day weekend is garage sale weekend for the entire mountain. Everyone puts their stuff out and that is one time of year we hit the sales. We were looking for some deck furniture for the cabin and found this beautiful set on the first day. There are 3 more chairs on the other side of the deck. Lots of room to sit outside and enjoy the beautiful mountains.