The kitchen.

President’s Commentary.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone who attended the Jan. meeting and auction. We had a very good turn out and as always we did great for "The Richard K. Degenhardt Scholarship Fund."

Thanks to Therese Cox for her talk on Iona Crystal. She met the owner while she and Jim were waiting for their plane home after the April 2007 Belleek Convention.

I showed some of the new Belleek pieces that were released for this year through Cash's mail order catalog and some QVC pieces. I have already received some of these pieces.

John, with everyone’s help, has done a fine job of bringing our chapter to where it is today.

In July of 1999 John considered starting a Florida Chapter for Belleek collectors. He and I contacted the Belleek Collectors’ International Society who initiated the contacts to its Florida members who responded to our call. In October 1999 the first meeting of the Sunshine Chapter of the BCIS was held.

Over the past nine years, John Miller, has lead this chapter to some interesting accomplishments. The chapter has held 48 meetings averaging 13 members per meeting.

Angela Moore, President of the BCIS joined us for our January 2004 meeting as did Linda Beard at our January 2006 meeting. As a chapter we have come together as one to support the efforts of the Richard K. Degenhardt Scholarship Fund donating over $9,000.00 over the past 6 years. Our member ship has totaled as many as 49, and is currently at 39 members.

We owe much of this to John’s leadership and guidance. We have a very vibrant group and I hope that it will continue under our new leadership. John deserves a rest.

The next meeting will be held at John and Pat Miller’s on Saturday, April 19, 2008 at 12:00p. Directions will be coming.

Set up for 18 members and guests.

Secretary’s Report

The January gathering of the Sunshine Chapter started in Maitland with a lunch of Shepherd’s Pie and Bangers & Mash at about 12:15pm. Eighteen collectors and their spouses sat around three tables and the quarterly social began. The lunch was completed with Michele’s carrot cake and Pat’s Chocolate éclair cake. (The recipe is located later in this newsletter)

Ready for the auction.

About an hour and a half later Vicki called the meeting to order. She reminded members that the limited edition of the “2008 Figure of Erin” as seen on the Belleek website is still available. She also verified that everyone had received the 2009 convention survey from the North Jersey Chapter which will be the host.

The January meeting is usually the Richard K. Degenhardt Scholarship auction meeting and this year was no exception. Twenty three items were offered from the membership for auction raising $312.50. A motion was made and passed to add matching funds from the treasury. Counting individual contributions to the chapter for the fund received since the last auction, we will be able to donate $845.00 to the fund this year.

Considering that in 2007 many of us attended the Belleek Pottery’s 150^th Anniversary celebration in Ireland and we had our 2007 RKD auction in July I think that this was a wonderful effort showing our desire to help keep the Arts programs going for the next generation.

More cake was served and the meeting was over about 2:30.

From our membership

I had asked Dee to tell us more about her love of horses and the horses that we had met at her and Tom’s home last meeting. Here’s her story.

Our family relocated to Geneva, Florida in July of 1993. Tom was transferred from Clifton, VA after his job was transferred to the Central Florida area. We settled into our new home with our four horses, three dogs and children. Our real estate agent graciously gave us two free cats we named Rocky and Tux. After taking them to the vet we soon discovered there is no such thing as free animals. The cats are called Tuxedo cats because they are black and white, which I am told are quite common here in Florida. The weather was typical of Florida at that time of year, HOT! We slowly got the house organized and began trail riding on our 22 miles of trails in Seminole Woods with our new neighbors.

Dee with one of her fine horses.

The horses are a mixed lot, a Thoroughbred gelding named Misty, a thoroughbred mare named Rapid Anna (we named her Dana). Dana was bred to a Quarter Horse stallion named Skeeters Iron Man and we named the filly Lady Dani. Several years later we bred her to Martini, a Trakehner stallion who was the number one Dressage stallion for many years. Dana delivered a colt Tom named Royal Tangueray Bay in honor of his “Martini” lineage. We have shortened that to Tango. I also had a grey Thoroughbred mare named Ashley who I bred to a Hanoverian stallion, sadly she coliced* six days before delivery and we lost both foal and mare after surgery and a valiant effort on the part of the University of Florida Veterinary center staff in Gainesville. Misty lived to be a ripe old age of 32.

I have done competitive trail riding in the past and many miles of trail riding here in Florida. I also took an instructional class at Cazenovia College near Syracuse, NY to teach horsemanship. My present interest is in Dressage and I am now working toward accomplishing the many intricacies of this discipline.

Tom and horse with Judy looking on.

We had four dogs, three German Shepherd’s and a mixed breed which I rescued from the side of the road. The Shepherd’s were bred in Maryland and are from the Reinhart Kennels where the US Secret Service dogs are bred and trained. The dogs are ¾ German and ¼ American, and sadly we are down to one dog but will probably never be without a wee canine critter for any great length of time.

Tom’s interests are trains and sports cars. We have a collection of many assorted scale model trains of all sizes (gauges). The largest scale is G gauge and Tom likes to put out his German LGB Christmas Train around the tree. We also have a sizable collection of O gauge (Post-War Lionel), S gauge (Post-War American Flyer) and an assortment of various brands of HO and N gauges Tom says that the only reason he gets up and goes to work is because he has a great 30 minute drive each morning in his 98 Porsche Boxster. He also claims that some days you just “feel like a V8”, so he has been looking at various years of Corvette, but has not settled on any particular year yet. Our guess is that it will be a brand new one since the technological improvements since 1954 just keep getting better.

Tom is looking forward to retiring at the end of the year and we look forward to where our next adventures take us.

*Horse colic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_colic

Colic in horses is defined as abdominal pain, but it is a clinical sign or a symptom rather than a diagnosis. The term colic can encompass all forms of gastrointestinal conditions which cause pain as well as other causes of abdominal pain not involving the gastrointestinal tract. The most common forms of colic are gastrointestinal in nature and are most often related to colonic disturbance. There are a variety of different causes of colic, some of which require surgical intervention and can prove fatal. Colic surgery is usually an expensive procedure as it is major abdominal surgery. Among domesticated horses, colic is a major cause of premature death. The incidence of colic in the general horse population has been estimated between 10 and 11 percent on an annual basis. It is important that any person who owns or works with horses be able to recognize the symptoms of colic and determine whether or not a veterinarian should be called.

Feedback from our website

Gillian Hall Sent the following notice to our web site.

I am contacting you because I have decided to sell my Belleek collection at the Bonham's sale in Knowle, Solihull, West Midlands, UK - which I believe is taking place on 22 April 2008. I am not a dealer, I inherited some lovely pieces from my grandmother, but do not have room to enjoy them.

Included in the sale are the following:

A rare 2nd period/2nd black mark Victoria creamer,

3rd black period Neptune Teapot with green tint and gold,

Shamrock baskets, Shell and Shamrock Salts,

In all, about 30 pieces.

I am told it should all go online about three weeks before the sale.

With best wishes

Gillian Hall

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=Eur&screen=Knowle

The Old House

Station Road

Knowle, Solihull

West Midlands

B93 0HT

Opening Hours:

Monday - Friday, 9:00-17:00

Saturday, 9:30-12:30

From the United States, dial:

Tel. 011 44 1564 776151

Fax. 011 44 1564 778069

Bonham’s salesroom in Knowle is housed in a 16th Century converted farmhouse of some considerable character, located at the heart of England, ten minutes from Birmingham International Airport and Railway Station.

They hold regular sales of Silver and Plated wares, Ceramics, Glass and Oriental wares, Decorative Arts, Antique Maps, Paintings, Furniture and Works of Art, with an additional program of specialist sales unique to this saleroom.

Happy Easter everyone

As promised:

CHOCOLATE ECLAIR CAKE

Grease a 13X9 utility pan. Line with a single layer of whole graham crackers.

In mixer beat 3 1/2 cups milk with 2 small packages of French Vanilla Instant Pudding mix.

Fold in 1 carton (8 oz) Cool Whip.

Pour 1/2 pudding mixture over crackers.

Make another layer of graham crackers.

Pour the other half of pudding mixture over crackers.

Top again with a layer of graham crackers.

Refrigerate for several hours.

TOPPING:

T = Tablespoon

t = teaspoon

Melt 3T margarine with 2 oz. baking chocolate (2 squares).

Add 1 1/2 cups 10X sugar, 2t vanilla, 2t white Karo syrup, 2T milk*.

Beat until smooth. Pour over top of last layer of crackers.

Refrigerate for 24 hours before serving or at least 4 to 5 hours.

* It may be necessary to add more than 2T of milk.