On Wednesday, May 10th, we held our annual President’s Meeting at Forest Creek Country Club. We had a lovely brunch with a very interesting program on Orchids. We actually held two meetings back to back, because we were to have elected officers in April. However, we had no quorum. As a result, we had a short meeting to receive the presentation of Dolores Muller on behalf of the Nominating Committee. The Committee’s recommendations to bring back our 2022-23 board for a second term were supported by the membership and that meeting was adjourned.

Following that brief meeting, we came to order and enjoyed an interesting program on Orchids, presented by Jason Harpster, who was standing in for his wife. He did a terrific job, and invited anyone who would care to visit their greenhouse to do so.

On April 12th, 18 of our members carpooled to the Sarah P Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham. Before heading into the gardens, we enjoyed a fabulous lunch at the Nasher Museum of Art, which many of the ladies also toured. We then walked up to the gardens for a tour with docents who divided the group and led us on an hour and a quarter walking tour of the Gardens. What a treat!

We apologize that we don’t have pictures from this meeting. Blame it squarely on your editor. We have been so fortunate to have had Dolores Muller capturing our members activities in pictures, for which she never got enough credit.

We also celebrated the birthday of our Membership Chairwoman – Char Rohr. As one of our members said, Char has personally recruited so many of our members and we’re very lucky to have had her managing Membership! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHAR! She is pictured here from our May meeting with Meredith, Jocelyn, Pat and Sharon.

Dr. Simpkins shared his background a an Emergency physician. He regaled us with stories about his family’s temporary move to New Zealand and his admiration for that country and its people. Dr. Simpkins stressed that a plant-based diet leads to longevity. A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of plant-based foods. Plant-based diets encompass a wide range of dietary patterns that contain low amounts of animal products and high amounts of plant products such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. They do not need to be vegan or vegetarian, but are defined in terms of low frequency of animal food consumption.

He shared handouts on how to begin adding plant-based items to your diet and suggested adding 10 items to begin, adding another 10 and eventually having 30 items. Starting slowly was deemed to be easiest. His resounding message was “How long do you want to live?”

Our April meeting will be a field trip to the Sarah P Duke Gardens on the 12th.