All,

When Martin Motes came to speak at a recent meeting, he brought with him a
number of copies of his wife's new book, including an autographed copy for
me (which was very thoughtful). It's called Orchid Territory.

I'm reading it now. I thought it started off slow and almost put it aside,
but I'm glad I didn't. The cast of characters is made up of folks we all
know in the orchid community. The sections dealing with society meetings and
setting up displays and show space had me LOL.

This would be a good addition to a society library, or just a personal
purchase.

You can contact Martin and Mary at . While you're at
it, you might want to ask to be added to their monthly e-letter. They send
out a culture letter at the beginning of each month, and they are more than
happy to add people to the list.

Speaking of libraries, it is likely that our society has lost ours. Days
before Christmas a fire broke out in the Yacht Club building where we meet
and basically destroyed it. We have arranged for another space for meetings,
but all our books, etc. were in the building, along with other stuff. We
haven't been allowed in to see how things stand, but I'd be amazed if we
didn't incur both smoke and water damage. Fortunately, I am pretty sure that
our Awards Quarterly issues are safe with our show chairwoman.

Diana