Master Gardener Book Club Selection Inspired Me
I started reading Margaret Renkl’s The Comfort of Crows, A Backyard Year for the recently formed Michigan Master Gardener Book Club and it’s inspired me to get back to blogging and to keep a journal of what I see around me.
Today it’s in the 40s, sunny (a rarity for February in Northern Michigan) and the drip from the icicles hanging from our roof is steady.
I gaze out my window to look out on Grand Traverse Bay. Two miles out is Bellows Island, locally called Gull Island for its inhabitants. Years ago there was a home there but now only two chimneys stand. I can see them but they are gray while the white of the snow on the island glistens. It’s such a reminder of life changes and weather changes and the climate we must all worry about.
Meanwhile I bury myself in Renkl’s book which reminds me of a childhood spent outdoors. It was a time when I once tamed an injured crow who became my companion for the summer. Thanks to Renkl her words have brought back wonderful childhood memories.
In addition to inspiring me to write, Renkl’s inspired me to get started on garden planning for this year. It will be a while before our snow diminishes so a bit of indoor gardening, a start on seed raising and rooting a few plants for indoors/outdoors will be my focus now.
If you’d like to read Renkl’s book you can purchase it at the MMGA Bookstore. Know that I don’t get any type of compensation for linking to it but if you buy here you’ll get the good feeling with knowing your supporting a good gardening cause.
Creative and targeted programs that make an impact are the hallmark of experienced marketing professional Ruth Steele Walker. Focusing on results that improve the bottom line, she accelerates projects from conception to implementation with a mastery of writing, production, placement, budgeting and coordination.
During more than 25 years with Foremost Corporation of America, the nation's leading insurer of manufactured housing and recreational vehicles, Walker consistently produced effective communications programs that resulted in increased net written premium. Her expertise in crisis communications was a vital part of Foremost's exemplary customer service in the wake of hurricanes, floods and earthquakes. Walker specializes in communications targeting the 50+ demographic, with an emphasis in communications for the 65+ segment.
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Earlier in her career, Walker was a newspaper reporter, a TV and radio producer, and worked in national sales and traffic at network TV affiliates. Walker earned a BA in journalism from Michigan State University and an MS in communications from Grand Valley State University.
She and her husband Scott operate a small vineyard in Michigan's Leelanau Peninsula, producing premium vinifera wine grapes. The vineyard has been the largest local supplier for Suttons Bay wine label L. Mawby, recently named one of the world's top producers of sparkling wines.
