Friday, June 17, 2005

Books and More about Gardening

This morning I got up and started producing more things for the garden tour. One of my former board members allows me to copy at his office for free, and since I produce 800, 32 page books for the garden tour, that's a ton of copying. That would be 12,000 actual copies, which at 6 cents each that is sort of the going rate - a total of $720. Because of his generosity, I'm able to do it only for the cost of the paper - less than $50. I did some yesterday afternoon and finished this morning.

Volunteers came this afternoon to help me get the books assembled, stapled and folded. I had asked for six people - had four, plus me - but we got it done. Unfortunately, I had hoped to do some other things while they were doing books so now I'll have to do that tomorrow. But, at least the books are all done.

They are nice - not exactly as I would have liked, but being sick two of the days I had set aside to produce it means it's just not the way I would have had it ideally. But, probably only I will know the difference, and it looks nice - has some good looking ads that I think are probably well-targeted to this audience.

As soon as the books were done, I ran to the bank and to the printers to get some things cut. I stopped in to Diana's to say hi while the printer was cutting my forms - they're on the same block.

Teresa was in Diana's store visiting so I got to see her. And Jocelyn was in the back giving a Reiki treatment. I stayed at the store while Diana and Teresa ran down to Smith's market - a wonderful little fruit and vegetable market we have here.

Greg and I had planned to have dinner, but he was so tired he decided to go on to bed - he had been up all day after being up most of the night. So, Jocelyn and I had dinner with Lauren, her granddaughter.

Lauren discovered for the first time tonight that I have long hair and wanted me to fix it like Cinderella. Unfortunately, I don't know Cinderella's hairdo, so that was a bit of a problem. She played with it a little bit and I'm guessing we'll be doing that again in the near future. She's three - almost four - and about as adorable as they come.

I ran right to Lowes after eating, to get some flowers.I went and looked the other night so I could buy them pretty quickly tonight.

I think the weeds in my front flower bed are finally dead - I hope so - because I just invested some serious cash in flowers to go in it. I planted four of them tonight but it was dark by the time I got home. So, I'm going to try and get up early in the morning and do it. It will be far too hot later in the day to be messing with it.

I can already see that I'm lacking some different kinds of plants - I have purples and yellows and I need some other colors and also some with long, skinny leaves. I know that's not very sophisticated for those of you who are gardeners, but I'm not that knowledgable. I just want it to be flowers instead of weeds.

I have some volunteer morning glories coming up so I need to get strings out for them to climb. I love morning glories. I also planted a honeysuckle last year - had forgotten about that until it started looking like a honeysuckle. I know some people think they're weeds but I love them - viney things going everywhere really appeal to me.

I wish I had taken pix before I started killing the weeds and then with them dead but still in there, but I didn't. So, now I'll just have the flower pix, but so it goes.

I'm going to try and be diligent about keeping track of what is planted where. I have no excuse now that I have a digital camera.

Well, I must go bathe. The mosquitoes have come in full force in the last couple of days. I'm not sure why, but I swear they are the size of small birds. The little blood suckers just love me, so I doused myself in spray before I went outside but now I'm really wanting to get it off of me.

Nose to the Grindstone

I'd had my nose to the grindstone the last few days. The garden tour is Sunday and I've been producing the ticket brochure (32 pages) and such the last couple of days. I copied this afternoon and have to go in the morning and finish. I have volunteers coming to help tomorrow afternoon, but unfortunately, not enough to get the job done, so I guess I'll be finishing it on Saturday - not something I'm especially thrilled about.

It will be curious where they will all park since we have a major construction project going on downtown now. It is going to be nice when they get it all done - it's a beautification project and they're adding in some nice pieces. I snapped this out my office window this afternoon.

I had the camera out because I tried to take some photos of the pendant we're raffling off during the garden tour, but the pix didn't turn out well. It was designed specifically for us by Richard Westphal, a local jeweler, who has won a number of national design awards.

He's an incredibly talented man - very creative - and one of the kindest people you would ever want to meet. His store is right across the street from my office so when I look out the window I can see his store - it always gives me a warm feeling.

We discovered one day when we were just chatting, that we used to live in another town at the same time. I went to school at Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky for one year. He was a jeweler there at about the same time. Just funny how those things work out. I grew up about an hour from Murray, and went there for their music program, which is exceptional. I quickly learned I did not have the necessary talent or dedication to be a music major, but I have always valued the experience. Life just turns out the way it's supposed to be.

Dick was instrumental in helping us get the office space we have now and it's wonderful. Greg Payton owns the building and is the most amazing landlord I can imagine. He is so good to me. Very kind and very generous. He owns the optical company that's next door to the building I'm in. He has done wonderful things for Hutchinson and I fear he is under appreciated.

He, and my friend, Martha, were the ones who really got the Fox Theatre restored and we are so fortunate to have it. I could go on at great length about the Fox and how beautiful it is, but it's best to just let you see for yourself. You can see their photos - where this one came from too - from various times over its history at http://www.hutchinsonfox.com/gallery/index.htm. I just pulled this one off to illustrate one small feature. The lights are incredible inside. It is gorgeous and we are so blessed to have it. Martha and Greg really made that happen. My friend, Andrea, was its first Executive Director. It's a wonderful facility.

Greg and another local business man have redone a number of downtown buildings, including the one Greg's store is in and the building I'm in. They are a big part of the reason our downtown is as nice as it is.

Well... I didn't intend to write about Downtown Hutchinson tonight, but I guess I did. And it's a fine subject, really. I will try to snap some more pix in the next few weeks and share them here from time to time. I wish now I had been taking snaps out the window all during the construction project but it didn't occur to me until today. They're making pretty fast work of it.

I'd best turn off the computer and get about other things. We are getting more storms tonight. Again. We had a major storm last night. Hutchinson had 80 mph winds - lots of trees down and some power lines too - some cars crushed by trees - the usual bit. Both my neighbors have tree parts down. Since my only tree is about four feet tall it wasn't a problem for me.

Thankfully, my lawn guy came day before yesterday. My lawn was getting really nasty and it looks like he came just at the right time - between the storms. It's supposed to be nice all weekend, so that will be good for the garden tour.

I have a lot of house stuff I need to get done. I'm sorry to say that the new kitchen ceiling tiles they put up a couple of weeks ago are sporting a new wet spot after last night's storm. So, one of the calls today was to the roofer.

It's a good thing I love my old house.