In addition to her lifelong interest in and appreciation for dogs, Rosanna has a few hobbies and skills. Many of these predict that she will be a good Secretary for the United States Lancashire Heeler Club. What follows is a tightly curated list of them.
Wildflowers and wildlife
When she moved to her current home, Rosanna wanted to learn about the plants and wildflowers that grew there. At the time, she was unfamiliar with the mostly native steppes outside of Billings, Montana. She became involved with the Montana Native Plant Society to learn from others. Over time, she developed enough knowledge that people seek her out for her expertise. To identify Montana wildflowers, one must be methodical, attend to small details, and have acquired a database of knowledge.
In the late 1990s, she helped to publish a respected guide to the native plants of the Pryor Mountains. This special area, just a short distance south of her home, is unlike any other landscape in Montana.
More and less common
One of Rosanna’s more unusual hobbies revolves around her love of statistics. As a form of recreation, she enjoys interpreting and representing data. These are useful skills for someone involved in a parent club where data are often an important part of club business.
More conventionally, Rosanna is a talented hobby baker, food stylist, and cook. These hobbies speak to her attention to detail and sense of craftsmanship and aesthetics.
Books, newsletters, and type
Rosanna can intelligently select a single typeface or font family for a given purpose. Even among printers, her skills in typesetting and graphic design are well-respected. A current project involves the design, layout, and typesetting for a 300+ page non-fiction book about a pioneer civilian aviator. She also produced a trio of books of poetry. These books feature poetry written by high school students from around the region and teens in detention.
Rosanna was instrumental in creating the USLHC newsletter, the Happy Heeler, and has produced every issue published. Before this adventure, she produced newsletters for other nonprofits with which she has been involved.
Web design
Rosanna designed and built this website as an example of what she can do. Her web experience began with the beginning of the public availability of the internet. She started designing websites in the mid-1980s and continues to do so today. She designed and managed the website for a San Francisco-based interior designer. One of the most important Western artists in the United States approached Rosanna to design and help maintain her website. Also in her portfolio of current websites are sites for an internationally respected dog breeder and a regional dog sports club. This website you are now looking at is another one of hers. Additionally, she contributes to managing a website for a local co-op bookstore. She also volunteers for the bookstore as the graphics department producing print-based and web-based advertisements.
Gardening
Rosanna has long been interested in tending her garden. Since a young age, she has filled her home with blooming plants in the winter. In spring, summer, and fall, a parade of flowers surrounded her home. This is no small challenge. Our present home poses quite a challenge to a gardener. Precious few books, magazines, websites, or other sources offer a how-to for gardening at our location. The combination of soils, winds, intense sunlight, lack of water, and browsing wildlife and insects are unlike conditions in most places. Rosanna developed this knowledge herself and applies it artfully to her garden plan for this high plains desert. Garden centers offer few suitable plants. She wildcrafted most of the flowers and some of the shrubs. This speaks to her resourcefulness when faced with scarcity.