2026 PROGRAMS & ACTIVITIES
Links to flyers & event summaries that have taken place throughout the year
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06/12 CLUB FIELD TRIP National Park Home & Garden Tour
06/25 COMMUNITY PROGRAM Protect Lake Water Quality
07/10 CLUB FIELD TRIP Distant Hill Gardens & Nature Trail
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07/23 COMMUNITY PROGRAM Bill's Native Bees
07/00 COMMUNITY FUNDRAISER Music in the Meadows
08/14 CLUB FIELD TRIP Phlox Fest Field Trip
09/11 COMMUNITY PROGRAM Amelia's Honey Bees
10/09 PROGRAM TBD
10/16 CLUB ACTIVITY Member Appreciation Party
11/00 CLUB FIELD TRIP Christmas at the Fells
11/13 PROGRAM TBD
12/00 COMMUNITY ACTIVITY Breakfast with Santa
12/09 CLUB PROGRAM Evening Holiday Workshop
12/10 CLUB PROGRAM Morning Holiday Workshop
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JANUARY – Morning Program
The Bountiful & The Beautiful
Chelsea & Emma
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At our Annual Potluck Brunch, on a surprisingly mild January morning, we were treated to an array of home-baked dishes, savories, and sweets served up by our club members.
If this wasn’t enough to satiate the soul, we then watched in awe and delight as our guest speaker, Chelsea Brown, of Brown’s Petal Co., transformed seemingly random stems, leaves, and blooms into two artful and beautiful bouquets! We were amazed and inspired by Chelsea’s knowledge of floral design and creativity in arrangement. Among other things, we learned to rotate the container as flowers and greenery are successively placed in them. For smaller flat containers or baskets, Chelsea recommends selecting fluffy flowers like hydrangea, stock, phlox, football mums, and wax flower, with ruscus or other leathery or textured leaves as a base.
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Strikingly colorful and tall flowers, such as lilies, delphiniums, peonies, Gerber daisies, and roses are excellent eye-catching focal flowers for taller vases. Chelsea demonstrated using secondary flowers to fill in the gaps for dimension, texture, and color. Secondary flowers might include yarrow, astilbe, phlox, lavender, butterfly bush, and bee balm. Chelsea told us that additions such as seed heads, ornamental grasses, cattails, winterberry, or other berry branches, can add some whimsy.
While odd numbers such as 3/5/7 of the same flower can provide structure and create visual appeal, Chelsea doesn't feel constrained by this and will add an extra flower if she spots a gap that needs to be filled.
You likely already know that the long stems in a vase should be removed, re-trimmed on an angle, and placed back into fresh water every 2–3 days, but do you know the right technique to use so your bouquet won’t fall apart in the process? Chelsea demonstrated how to grab the bouquet near the top of the stems just below the flowers so you’re pulling out the entire bouquet when you need to trim. Her tip is to have a second vase handy to temporarily hold the bouquet while you change the water in the first vase.
You likely already know that the long stems in a vase should be removed, re-trimmed on an angle, and placed back into fresh water every 2–3 days, but do you know the right technique to use so your bouquet won’t fall apart in the process? Chelsea demonstrated how to grab the bouquet near the top of the stems just below the flowers so you’re pulling out the entire bouquet when you need to trim. Her tip is to have a second vase handy to temporarily hold the bouquet while you change the water in the first vase.
Mike Simmons and Rebecca Rogers were the two very fortunate members who won the drawings for Chelsea's basket and vase arrangements. Note her lovely floral choices and the creative ways she arranged the flowers!
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Our thanks to Mary Jane Acito-Crenson, Hospitality Team Leader, for organizing our scrumptious potluck brunch & Emma Kalaidjian, Program Team Leader, for making the arrangements for Chelsea's floral presentation & preparing this program summary. Our photos were taken by Terri Munson, Membership Team Leader.
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Arranging your Summer Blooms by Chelsea BrownStep 1: Creating your base
Step 2: Secondary flowers for color & texture
Step 3: Focal flowers
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FEBRUARY – Morning Program
What Birds are in My Backyard?
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The Club had a record turnout for its February Meeting! All were excited to learn about 39 years’ worth of data collected through the NH Audubon’s Annual Backyard Winter Bird Survey. Happily for Audubon and for those in attendance, the 40th survey was about to take place over the next two days, Saturday and Sunday, February 14 and 15. Good timing!
Grace McCulloch, NH Audubon’s Senior Biologist and Community Science Project Leader, encouraged us to participate in this year’s survey. She taught us how to count and identify 20 of the most “usual suspects” found wintering in New Hampshire. The top five most seen backyard birds are the Dark-eyed Junco (most common), followed by the American Gold Finch, Black- capped Chickadee, Mourning Dove, and the Blue Jay.
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Sometimes it’s easy to confuse certain commonly seen species. Grace quizzed us while showing side-by-side pictures of bird species that can be mistaken for one another. Clues to the differences may include the size and shape of the bird, coloring, length of bills and tails. Two easily confused birds are the Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. The size and length of their bills relative to their head size can help correctly distinguish one from another. In the case of the Downy Woodpecker, its bill is about equal to the length of its head, whereas the bill of the Hairy Woodpecker is shorter. Speaking of woodpeckers, Grace stated that the Pileated or Red-bellied woodpeckers are often erroneously referred to as Redheaded Woodpeckers, which are actually extremely rare in NH.
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Different species of Finch are also often confused. The Purple Finch, which is the NH state bird, is almost raspberry in color, whereas the House Finch is more red. The females of these species can be confused as well. The Purple female has a long white line over her eye. Grace encouraged everyone to visit the NH Audubon’s website to view photos that will help you with your identifications as well as other helpful information and resources.
Grace reported that last year saw a record number of observers, mostly in the southern tier of NH. Surprisingly, 78 species of birds were identified during the 2025 survey, including a record 10,490 Juncos were spotted. The number of participants submitting their counts to the Survey has significantly increased over the last 39 years and the data collected over the last four decades has shown some interesting trends, such as an increase or decrease in species sightings related primarily to weather, climate, available food sources, available habitat and disease, or a combination of those. Reforestation has improved habitat for the Red-bellied woodpecker, for example, that nest in tree cavities. They have been slowly moving north into NH. However, they are susceptible to colder winters with consequent dips in sightings since 2015.
Disease caused dips in sightings of House Finch particularly in 1995, with an outbreak of conjunctivitis, reducing the population in the eastern U.S. by more than half. However, the winter trend has been stable and rising in NH since 2020. Conversely, the 40-year cycles of pest spruce budworm outbreaks in spruce and fir trees provide an increase in food supply that bring Evening Grosbeak from Canada to NH. While providing food, the budworm also damages and destroys tree habitat. Evening Grosbeak numbers are otherwise in significant decline in NH and elsewhere and have been designated vulnerable. The Black-capped Chickadee are declining at a rate of about 2% per year that may be due in part to climate change and extreme weather, diseases and loss of habitat. They too are considered vulnerable.
Climate and weather also affect other populations. There was a big dip in wild turkey sightings in 2023 as many young chicks did not survive the wet, cold spring. With warmer winters the “talkative” Carolina Wren has moved north into NH in significant numbers since 2020, with a few dips in recent colder winters.
“Winter irruptives” that come south in winter from Canada such as Redpolls, Pine Siskins, American Goldfinch, and Red-breasted Nuthatch rely on pinecone and birch seed crops. If abundant further north in Canada, they’ll not be seen too much in NH, as has been the case in the past two years. Their numbers may exhibit a “biennial pattern” related to seed production cycles. For example, Red-breasted Nuthatch were prolific in NH in 2021 when food was not sufficiently available farther north.
We can help support our winter birds by providing appropriate seeds, planting winter fruiting trees and shrubs such as winterberry, juniper, holly, and seed-bearing native perennials. Leaving leaf litter on the ground over winter provides great spots for birds to find insects to eat. We can all do our part to protect birds by avoiding using pesticides and herbicides on our properties. and protect birds from domestic predators. There are a host of recommendations for helping to conserve NH birds on the NH Audubon website at Conserve NH Birds - NH Audubon.
Disease caused dips in sightings of House Finch particularly in 1995, with an outbreak of conjunctivitis, reducing the population in the eastern U.S. by more than half. However, the winter trend has been stable and rising in NH since 2020. Conversely, the 40-year cycles of pest spruce budworm outbreaks in spruce and fir trees provide an increase in food supply that bring Evening Grosbeak from Canada to NH. While providing food, the budworm also damages and destroys tree habitat. Evening Grosbeak numbers are otherwise in significant decline in NH and elsewhere and have been designated vulnerable. The Black-capped Chickadee are declining at a rate of about 2% per year that may be due in part to climate change and extreme weather, diseases and loss of habitat. They too are considered vulnerable.
Climate and weather also affect other populations. There was a big dip in wild turkey sightings in 2023 as many young chicks did not survive the wet, cold spring. With warmer winters the “talkative” Carolina Wren has moved north into NH in significant numbers since 2020, with a few dips in recent colder winters.
“Winter irruptives” that come south in winter from Canada such as Redpolls, Pine Siskins, American Goldfinch, and Red-breasted Nuthatch rely on pinecone and birch seed crops. If abundant further north in Canada, they’ll not be seen too much in NH, as has been the case in the past two years. Their numbers may exhibit a “biennial pattern” related to seed production cycles. For example, Red-breasted Nuthatch were prolific in NH in 2021 when food was not sufficiently available farther north.
We can help support our winter birds by providing appropriate seeds, planting winter fruiting trees and shrubs such as winterberry, juniper, holly, and seed-bearing native perennials. Leaving leaf litter on the ground over winter provides great spots for birds to find insects to eat. We can all do our part to protect birds by avoiding using pesticides and herbicides on our properties. and protect birds from domestic predators. There are a host of recommendations for helping to conserve NH birds on the NH Audubon website at Conserve NH Birds - NH Audubon.
MAY – Field Trip
On Friday, May 1st we traveled by coach bus to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) for their annual ART IN BLOOM exhibit of spectacular floral arrangements on display throughout the museum. We also enjoyed their special exhibit, "Framing Nature: Gardens and Imagination", which brought together art from across the MFA’s global collection.
JUNE – Field Trip
06/12 Marsh-Billings-Rochefeller National Park - Home & Garden Tour
JUNE – Evening Program
06/25 Protecting Lake Water Quality
JULY – Field Trip
07/10 Distant Hill Gardens & Nature Trail
JULY – Evening Program
07/16 Bill's Native Bees & Member Show & Tell - What's Growing in your Garden?