May 18, 2023 Spokesman 

President Arnold Oliver rang the bell and started the meeting at 12:00 pm.  David Hartman led the invocation with a very solemn, heartfelt prayer.  Stacie Cook led the club in a selection from the Rotary Song Book, The Battle Hymn of The Republic.  After a great experience singing, we greeted each other with enthusiasm.

 

Larry Petrash was our only guest / visiting Rotarian today, but as a former member of our club, I just think he never really left.

 

We recognized Marvin Groves’ birthday a couple weeks late, but he enjoyed it.

 

John Deason started chemotherapy today and will have treatments on Thursdays for a bit.  Please remember John when you hit your knees to pray.

 

For our brag bucket we continue to celebrate.  James Hughes’ daughter has won two college scholarships.  Josh Phillips’ son, Gavin, graduates from Abilene Christian University this Saturday.  President Arnold Oliver’s grandson, Seth, is a teacher and coach at Holliday High School and the baseball team is in the playoffs.  Jake Munholland’s sons, Jax and Jett, participated last weekend in a chess tournament for the first time and did well.

 

Dave Hartman introduced Mark Bullitt, Landscape Architect, with his program, The Beauty of Landscaping.  Mark Bullitt spoke while presenting 123 slides to us.    Some of the slides were from when Mark was with the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden.  Mark spoke of The Principles of Design (the rules).  They are Unity, Emphasis / Focal Point, Scale / Proportion, Balance, and Rhythm.  Unity is when everything comes together.  A focal point is where your eyes go when you see the design.  Water is a great way to have focal points, using falling water or spraying water.  Lighting also helps to emphasis a focal point.  Scale and proportion are about balance and balance is about distribution.  Rhythm in landscaping is like rhythm in music, it’s repeating the same thing many times.  One important thing that Mark mentioned was that good form enables the brain not to work as hard.  If the brain is being overworked and you can’t figure it out easily when seeing a landscape design, there may be something that needs to be corrected.  One way might be curving the paths so you are forced to slow down.  That enables you to absorb the beauty.  On the tables were handouts that included lists of trees, shrubs, succulents, perennials, grasses, groundcover, plants for containers and favorite combinations that may improve your landscaping.  We enjoyed the program and learned a great deal, at least this writer did.

 

The speaker’s gift will be a book donated to the library at City View High School.

 

After the Rotary 4 Way Test, President Arnold adjourned the meeting at 1:01 pm.