Palm Society of South Texas (PSST)

Welcome to Ruth's home

Ruth's driveway leading up to the front of the property....

Joanne Echevarria and Ruth Merrill (14132 bytes)

Joanne Echevarria with our hostess Ruth Merrill....

Around 12 noon, PSST members arrived at Ruth's beautiful home and garden in Bayview for our annual Christmas party and meeting. Nearly all of the 50 guest showed up with presents in hand for the gift exchange.

Ruth's beautiful Christmas tree (14132 bytes)

The Christmas tree with all of the presents to be exchanged...

As members continued to arrive, those on site toured the grounds and did some socializing with other members. Ruth has a magnificent garden located on a resaca. The views of her garden as well as from her garden are fabulous.

Views of the garden...

(Note: Placing the cursor over the picture gives you some info on it....)

a relaxing deck (15069 bytes)

a peaceful view of the pool area (15069 bytes)

another view of the pool (15069 bytes)

A grouping of palms

Livistona Chinensis in seed (15069 bytes)

Evegaldes palm in seed (15069 bytes)

A vine covered Sabal Mexicana (15069 bytes)

Soon it was time for all to gather and enjoy a wonderfully prepared meal. As always there was much more food than necessary, with most of us eating a bit more than we probably needed.

Member pics...

members talking (15069 bytes)

members socializing (15069 bytes)

getting to the food (15069 bytes)

enjoying the Christmas meal (15069 bytes)

After the meal, we held a quick society meeting quickly covering the need to replace Van as our Valley Vice Chairman, the treasury report and upcoming meetings. Then we got down to business with the gift exchange. As usual many unique palm related gifts were presented. Once again I truly believe all had a great time and enjoyed the present they picked. After the gift exchange, the society had a drawing for 3 free memberships for 2004 dues as well as for a grand prize which was an autographed copy of Robert Riffle and Paul Craft's new book "Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms". Once all drawings were completed the members gathered to renew memberships and collect the first ever PSST members garden calendar.

John Volk reads the winning ticket (15069 bytes)

members gather to get their 2004 calendar (15069 bytes)

Once all the activities at Ruth's house were completed, nearly all of the members went across the resaca to Jim and Evelyn Sommerfrucht garden. Jim had invited all to come and savor the varieties of sub-tropical fruits he is growing in his orchard/ Of course we also took in his palm-laden yard... you can see pictures of his yard by clicking on the link below..

Palm Society of South Texas (PSST)

December 2003, Meeting in BayView

To Jim's yard....

Meeting summary and photos by John Volk.

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