Boy, how my dragon palm sure has loved
the SC weather!! It's now about 4 ft tall with 4 huge stalks
(including one that got clipped and regrew). It's a monster of a
plant that I can drag inside for the winter now. LOL It's been
inside about a week and a half now and starting to drop leaves; but
that's what it does every year that I've brought it in.
I'm still amazed that I kept a plant alive this long! I can't
believe this used to be about 5 inches tall in a basket
arrangement of plants I received back when Randy died.
Before Winter sets in though, I've been doing some planting around
my backyard. Bill has a border planter all around the courtyard at
his house, and it's filled with various types of sedum and thyme. He
trimmed his up and gave me bags and bags of it to plant. So I've
filled the small area off the back porch where my fountain is. Now I
won't have to worry about moving this tiny spot and it won't just be
a mud pit either. There's enough time, and warm weather, that this
stuff ought to get a firm foothold. It should look really nice and
green this coming Spring.
There were 5 or 6 types of
thyme and sedum, so I planted it in all sorts of clumps to
mix-n-match the colors up when it comes back to life in the spring
time.
The boyz watching me while I work.
I've been doing a bunch of
digging just up in the treeline. Along with the planter stuff, Bill
gave me several crepe myrtles - two whites and two reds. The reds
are absolutely gorgeous and I can wait to see them grow and bloom.
the red one
the white one
Yes, these are hard to see
because they're only about a foot and a half tall and don't have
many leaves standing out against the brown leaves on the ground. If
you look at the dirt though, you'll see the red and white tags and
be able to spot the "bushes" better.
Week Two:
Renaissance Festival
Though it's easy to keep
up with friends through Facebook these days, it's good to see your
friends in person sometimes too. I haven't seen Phil in quite a
while (not since this time last year!) but we had an excellent
reason to get together again - The Ren Fest!
The Festival is a pretty amazing thing - walking around a medieval
village surrounded by woods dressed in Fall colors. So many people,
both workers and visitors are dressed in period garb eating roasted
turkey legs, playing reed flutes, and shouting "Huzzah!"
As usual, the Tortoga
Twins (well, triplets actually) performed some side-splitting skits
on the Fairhaven stage.
Very cute and magical but
not the kind of 'fairy' that I'm used to
The Story Teller is pretty funny too!
Transposing beginning letters of many words, simple nursery tales
take on a whole new meaning - usually a dirty meaning. ROFL
Part of the village across
from the jousting field
Leatherman and Phil
enjoying a great day at the Festival.
Huzzah!
Leatherman
- Producer and Videographer
(with some help from Bill!)
World AIDS Day is just
around the corner, and once again Catawba Care is sponsoring a video
competition for the colleges like they did last year. To get into
the swing of things, and to create some examples to show, Bill and I
put together a series of videos.
A while back, Bill made me
some letters (H, I, and V), so as prop-manager (and creator!)
it was Bill's job to set up the letters for me to take pictures of.
Although it doesn't sound like too demanding of a job, it was a pain
in the butt. It was a very chilly day, the ground was wet, the
ground was not level, and there was a pretty gusty breeze blowing.
We set up the letters all
throughout Bill's property and took pictures.
Bill, my unfailing
assistant, righted every fallen over letter, so that I could take
the pictures.
Want to see the series of
28 short videos that I produced with these pictures?
Check out the
Catawba Care Youtube Channel and the
"Did You Know?" playlist.
Week Three:
Some Pictures of Me!
Doh! After taking these pictures I
realized I had 2 pairs of glasses on my head.
multiplicity!
Fall Around
the Yard
The dogwood in the backyard is
beautiful
in all it's red foilage.
Looking up, many of the trees seem to me
to be golden rain falling down.
Beautiful reds and yellows
abound in the front yard
The pear tree has lost some leaves but
hasn't changed color yet. This Winter I'll need to get up into the
tree and chop some of it as it has grown way too tall.
Underneath the pear tree,
my zinnias are still blooming to beat the band!
Week Four:
WAD
World AIDS Day (Dec 1st)
is nearly upon and I've been busy working and reflecting.
I've been busy working on
putting together all the program for Catawba Care's World AIDS Day
Event. This year we are holding our second annual Video Competition.
We asked and received from the local colleges student-produced
Public Service Announcement styled videos about HIV. We plan to show
these, award prizes (cash prizes) , play commercially produced HIV
videos, and talk to the audience about HIV prevention and education.
For last year's event I had created several videos to play behind
certain portions of the program. This year I have created even more
video elements - enough to play behind every portion of the show,
including a half hour opening video (to play while the crowd is
being seated). I mean it IS a video-related event so we might as
well take advantage of the screen and facilities and use them to
their fullest extent.
I've also been busy
reflecting about Randy and Jim. For many years WAD was a time of
deep sorrow for me and many others as it was a time we used to
remember the dead. Although I am excited after so many years to see
WAD morphing into an event at which we can have some fun and put out
our message of prevention, I still spent part of this time
reflecting on the AIDS epidemic and how many people it took from my
life. Not only are my two guys gone; but so many of my friends. A
whole generation of gay men were wiped out by this plague. Although
I still have plenty of friends today, and have made some new friends
who also survived like I did, there are so many times I would like
to talk about the "old days" and things we did - but none of those
friends are alive to reminisce with me.
