You may have heard of slow food, now it's time to learn about slow gardening during a special event with leading garden design author  photographer Trisha Dixon on Friday 5 February at Borrodell on the Mount during Slow Summer celebrations.

Trisha will be the guest speaker at lunch from 12pm supported by Orange City Council and the Central West Writers' Centre. Tickets are $35 and include lunch and a glass of wine on arrival. For bookings call Orange City Council on 6393 8170 or purchase your ticket from Orange City Library.

The slow gardening concept is simply like the slow food one – as life gets crazier and busier, the garden needs to be a place of solace and relaxation, not another 'chore' to be done on the run ….. and who doesn't like the sound of that!
See you there….

And Trisha's books include Little Book of Australian Gardens, Vision of Edna Walling and Under the Spell of the Ages: Australian Country Gardens.

On February 18, 1860, a group of residents gathered for the first meeting of the Orange Municipal Council. The meeting was held in the then Court House and was presided over by the Chairman, John Peisley with Councillors John Woodward, George McKay, William Dale, Dennis Hanrahan and William Tucker Evans in attendance. Crown Solicitor, George Colquhoun was appointed Council Clerk and James Dalton and Patrick Kenna were appointed auditors. A 2010 calendar marking 150 years of local government in Orange will be distributed to residents and is also available at the Library, Civic Centre, Visitor Information Centre and Neighbourhood Centre in Kite Street.
Orange City Councillor Chris Gryllis said the calendar featured historic photos charting the development of the city, historic dates over the last 150 years, key dates for 2010 and council contact numbers. Council is also developing a Wiki to commemorate the 150 years of local government. The Wiki will mirror the calendar design. If anyone can identify people or has information about the photos in the calendar, they can contact Chris Stanger on 6393 8120 with the details. Each month the Central Western Daily newspaper will highlight a theme from the calendar and today's aritlce on page 11 described our Tourism history and was prepared by members of the Orange and District Historical Society. Pictured above is Chairman of the original Orange Municipal Council John Peisley (yes the street is named in his honour).

Now that Christmas is over thoughts of what to do during the school holidays arises. If you live in Cowra the Library is racing the rescue!

Every summer children and young people are encouraged to participate in the National Summer Reading Club. This year is no exception with a theme of “Read on the Wild Side”. So for your chance to extend your horizons, drop into the Cowra Library and pick up some wild reads.
Read on the Wild Side + Board Games will be held at the Cowra Library on Wednesday 13 January and again on Thursday 21 January from 11.00am to12noon. Read on the Wild Side + Jig-saw Puzzles will be held on Thursday 14 January and Wednesday 20 January from 11.00am to 12noon.

Storytime for younger readers will be held as usual during the holiday break. The 1st one will be on Thursday January 7th 11am sharp. Our story will be 'Where the Wild Things Are' plus Summer Reading Club and borrowing from our collected stash of wild reads.

For further information contact Cowra Library on 63402180.

Hands up if you made a New Year's Resolution (NYR). Keep your hand up if it was the same (or similar to) the one you made last year, and the year before, and the year before that! – I thought so, a sea of hands.

Don't feel special, research demonstrates that we tend to make the same resolutions year in, year out and at best we'll stay on the straight and narrow until Valentine's Day (aka Library Lovers Day – 14 February). Investigations into NYR's also show that our good intentions tend to fall into 4 main areas. This year why not let the Library help you achieve your goals. How?

“This is the year I'll get fit” – OK how many of you have said this? The Library has a wide range of resources to help you get motivated and stay that way. These include books, magazines and DVDs and cover areas such as exercise, diet and motivation. Worried that the Library staff will twig to your plan at check out time (they would never say anything to you, or anyone else, professional 'cone of silence)? Remember you can always use the self check.

“I'm going to learn something new” – Whatever the skill it's likely that we'll have something to help you; hobbies, languages, sports and pastimes we've got them covered. We're also a great place to pick up information about courses on offer in town as well as the programs we offer ourselves (eg internet, family history).

'Look out, I'm taking control of my life!” (why does this one sound soooo familiar to me?) – Whether you want to be more organised or take control of your finances check out what we have on offer. Remember too the fabulous range of online databases we subscribe to. You can access these from the Info @ Home button on our home page.

“I'm going to read more” – Are we the place for you! Step on up to see the great range of titles we've got on offer. These come in all formats including audio books and yes, we're exploring e-book readers for you (our first one arrived just before Christmas, we'll report back soon). Come along to one of our author talks, writing seminars or join in with our book discussion groups.

To you all a very Happy New Year, we look forward to working with you.