The Bend-Chappel Extension Education Club met in the home of Ginger Underwood on Monday, March 8, 2010. The meeting started with a program given by our own multi-talented member, Phyllis Poehlmann of Lometa.

Phyllis had members participating in the making of seed cakes. Seed cakes are made of newspaper soaked in water until they turn to mush. Then the mush is pressed into cookie cutters. When most of the water is removed the paper can be brushed with acrylic paint. After giving a tint to the otherwise gray paper, flower seeds are pressed into it. The next step is to let the paper dry and you will have a pretty butterfly, heart, rabbit, etc. that can be glued onto the face of a greeting card. When the recipient receives one of the cards they can pull off the seed cake and plant the whole thing for a nice gift of flowers to enjoy.

A San Saba native and friend of Malissa Lemons sent her a sack full of tropical seeds for us to use. Milton Sellers who graduated from SSHS now lives in South Texas and grows wonderful tropical plants. Thank you Mr. Sellers for the seed and your thoughtfulness.

After making the seed cakes President Mary Jane Dennis made us get down to business. She reported several upcoming events which we need to remember.

The Rylander Library will be the place to go on Thursday at 10 a.m. to help work on the council raffle quilt. So if you are a quilter they need your help.

On March 23rd there will be a Lunch and Learn program at the San Saba Civic Center. It is a free program and the topic will be ‘Low Maintenance Landscaping’.

The Annual Spring Fling will be held in Hamilton on March 29th. Every year Hamilton Extension Clubs outdo themselves by having tons of food for lunch as well as nice and informative programs to enjoy. There will also be booths set up selling all kinds of neat items from handmade to homegrown.

Our annual May Event is in the making and will be held at the San Saba Methodist Church on May 12th. It is an all day affair with a luncheon. Don’t forget the cultural arts exhibit and judging. There will be programs for everyone to enjoy as well as door prizes and a silent auction.

Linda Bryce, a ‘cowboy’ poet will give her program, the quilt shop from Brady will have some good quilting information as well as sewing notions and Cathy Ledbetter will have an inspirational program. Cathy has many irons in the fire so you should leave with all kinds of plans and ideas to get more out of life as well as give more of yourself.

There were 11 members present for the March meeting and we welcomed a new member, Amy Vickers of Cherokee. If you are interested in becoming a member of any of the extension clubs in San Saba County you may inquire at the Extension office in the courthouse.

The next meeting will be April 12th at 2 p.m. at the Bend Methodist Church with Mary Jane Dennis and Lewvon Hicks hostesses.

After a bountiful table of snack food hosted by Ginger Underwood and Edna Machen everyone put on their shoes and waded through the mud and water to their vehicles. But nobody complained of the wet weather because the wildflowers will bring a beautiful spring and summer.