Post-Conference Flowers

By Betty Bauer 

After the writers’ conference I sat in the sun in the Kaufmann Memorial gardens off the plaza near the Embassy Suites. It is a private spot for introspection among nature and sculpture. I especially noticed the dahlias and fall reedy plants. When I came home I enjoyed seeing my "cutting" garden in front, the Christmas present from my horticultural daughter last year.

Another day I walked at our local Arboretum. Once again in the beautiful fall splendor, I loved the dahlias.

Today, searching through some family photographs, I ran across one that had a sign on a fence stating "Stover Dahlia Gardens." That was news to me.

My great aunt married into the Stover family in Hagerstown, Maryland. Her four sisters thought it was wonderful to have her banker husband in the family. I inherited some items of their rich life style: monogrammed silver, fine linens, a tatted holder for calling cards, and photo stick pins of both Aunt Ora (Knepper) and Uncle Ira Stover.

I didn't know Uncle Ira’s family also gardened, but my subconscious must have. It took about fifty years for that fact to surface. How many more tidbits of coincidences are waiting up there to be released?

Rubbing elbows with the Wonderful Western Women Writers always releases my creativity...again. I can’t wait for what will be revealed after next year’s conference. Sooner than that, I must remember to put dahlias on my Christmas list!

Whether living on the east coast, along the Rockies, or now in the Heartland, Betty pays attention to life and her surroundings. She observes, notates, remembers, and then writes. Currently she’s publishing Tamika and Friends, a children’s historical fiction book about Ancestral Puebloans in the 13th century.