ASHLAND — Brookwood residents at Brethren Care transformed miniature pumpkins Oct. 7 with cat and owl faces complete with whiskers and owl feet.
Cathy Siwek headed the Art of Gardening community project with her lifelong friend, Barb Stauder of Honey Haven Farm, supplying the pumpkins for the activity.
At Brookwood, Paige Reynolds and Mikayla Kocab, 4-year employees of Brethren Care, assisted Art of Gardening members and Stauder in helping Brookwood residents with their cat and owl pumpkin creations.
Resident John Beck named his pumpkin, “Hoot Owl”. The owls were the more popular projects. Residents crafting owls included Claudia Bland, Shirley Austen, Becky Wickham and Maryann Murphy.
Cat creators were Marlene Shank, Marily Dinges, originally from Mansfield and Rose Smalley, who dressed for the event in a pumpkin sweatshirt.
One of eight children, she recalled, “When it started to snow, my dad took the wheels off the wagon and put on skids.” From Plymouth, Ohio, she has two children. Dinges related that she used to volunteer her crocheting skills at Brethren Care.
Stauder, whose favorite hobby is gardening, is very much in the spirit of the season. Last year she painted 200 pumpkin faces. This year, she said her limit is 130. She can be found at the Honey Haven Fall Festival which includes helping guests find their way through Honey Haven’s corn maze.
Art of Gardening members Ruth Ann Linder, Siwek, Patty Stauffer, Pat Edwards, Kathy Bargar, Skip Cather, Chris Gerberick and Claudia Dunn were in attendance to lend Brookwood residents a hand in their handiwork.
Prior to leaving at 10 a.m. for Brethren Care, members met at Peace Lutheran Church for a short business meeting opened by Edwards, president.
Edwards is pushing for Art of Gardening signs for the two fair boxes located in front of the fairgrounds. She is also thinking that the signs should last her lifetime.
“I don’t think they’ll last another year,” she said.
The fifth year of the “Yard of the Month” summer program has concluded. September winners Valerie Snyder and Kelly Garver of 445 Hillcrest Dr. were awarded for their showy red and yellow window boxes. Snyder was ecstatic to be chosen for this honor.
The gift certificates from the club and Farm and Home Hardware were awarded Snyder at Ashley’s Candy Shoppe where Snyder lends her daughter, Ashley, a hand upon her return from a Tennessee vacation.
She celebrated turning 60 this year with nine of her classmates from Ashland High School.
Members will again decorate the dining room at the Freer Home. According to Edwards, the Freer Home already has Christmas decorations available for the club to use in decorating.
Bargar announced that Pat and Denny Edwards, Sue Kelley and Rosemary Caster cleaned up at the fair. Siwek also “cleaned up.” She was also a clerk helper following the specimen and floral arrangement judges to record scores and comments Saturday, Sept. 19 prior to the fair opening Sept. 20.
A floral arranging program for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays will be held Nov. 4 with Honey Haven’s Stauder.
