Making Grandmother Proud

I have always tried to have some type of garden. This year, however, I really tried to put it in high gear. I have planted a lot more vegetables and really tried to eat everything that came out of my garden. My tomatoes have done well this year; I have gotten a lot off a lot of fruit off my tomato plants. Bell peppers are starting to produce, so I will be making some nice salads soon. And yes, I even have some corn. I ate my first ear of my home grown corn last night and it was good. I have around six more ears I will get to eat soon. A friend of mine told me how to get the corn to grow. I was told to go masturbate the corn. It did it and I have corn! If you really are interested in the process of masturbating corn get with me and I will explain.

I did not have good luck with carrots and squash. I am going to try the carrots again. My Grandmother told me I could grow these all summer long. So I am going to try one more time and see what results I get.

This weekend, I planted more tomatoes, cucumbers, and okra. I talked with my grandmother and she said I would be ok planting these vegetables this late in the year. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

My plum tree has exploded with fruit. I have been eating lots of plums and last night I made plum jelly. This is the first time I have made jelly so I was a little unsure of the results. I ate some of my plum jelly this morning and it was really good. I did a great job. I called my Grandmother to tell her the news and she was all excited for me. She said she was proud of me. Thanks Grandmother!

My Grandmother and I talked for around fifteen minutes planning out my fall garden. I went and bought a book on South Carolina Vegetable gardens as well. I am really excited and plan on continuing my garden.

Keller

To and Fro - the trip to Florence

For Father's Day I took the train home to Florence as planned. I was dropped off at the train station around 15 minutes before the train was to depart. The station in Charleston is old and has not been updated in a very long time but it was clean. I boarded the train and was very pleased at how clean and nice the Amatrak train was. The seats are comfortable and very roomy. Each seat reclines and has a foot rest so you can easily lean back and go to sleep if needed.

The ride to Florence was a little less than an hour and a half with only one stop in Kingstree. I have lived in Charleston now for over 12 years and have travelled home by car so often that I just about have every tree memorized. Now everything is different. I was very interested by the route the train took and all the surroundings along the way. I got to see all kinds of new places.

My parents picked me up in Florence and I spent the day with them celebrating Father's day. It was a nice visit. I stayed longer than I normally would have if I had driven but there are no complaints about spending time with my family.

I was dropped off at the Train Station in Florence around 20 minutes before the train was to depart. It was once inside that I found out that the train was going to be 40 minutes late. Not really a big deal, I just sat and read. The station in Florence is fairly new and also very clean so it made for a nice wait.

The trip back was very similar to the trip up. All was well and all was clean. I was very concerned about the cleanliness of the train. I had heard stories in the past so I was concerned. Once home I got off the train and walked home. It was a nice walk, a little less than a mile from the station to my house.

After this experience I will take the train home again. If not cheaper, it is as cheap as driving. On the train I get to relax and read and the end result is better on me and the environment. I will just have to adjust to being on the train schedule and not mine.

k

End of the season

I have reached the end of another season of Spoleto. This was a good season this year. I really didn't have any regrets. Friday night I went and saw Laurie Anderson. I have seen her in New York several years ago so I knew what I was going to experience. She was very good and the last two songs she asked her husband, Lou Reed, to come up and perform with her. Saturday night I went to an incredible play called The Great War. The entire play was done with miniatures and puppets that were projected on a screen. The play was about War World One. The actors read actual letters from soldiers of the war and animated them with the puppets and miniatures. It was really amazing how they pulled it off. It made for a great final to the festival.

The Train to Florence

Last night I went and purchased train tickets to go home to Florence. I have actually been thinking about doing this for some time. It is now to the point where it is better for me to take mass transit home. As gas prices have gone higher and higher I can now take the train for the same amount of money it would cost me to drive or even end up saving a little. I got round trip tickets to Florence for $40.00. To fill my car up with gas I will pay close to $50.00 when my car is on empty. Driving home I normally use 3/4 of a tank of gas. So I figure I am saving on the out of pocket expense of the trip.

In addition if I was to drive I would have a two hour trip from my house to my parents house. According to Amtrak, the trip to the Florence train station is one hour and 38 minutes. I should save a couple of minutes there. Also I will not put miles and wear and tear on my car. And I will help the environment. The train runs with or with out me, so I will use less of our natural resources on my trip home.

Also, I can walk to the train station in Charleston. It is around a mile from my house, so if I am really feeling green. I am going to walk it and walk the return trip as well.

And the last plus to the trip. I can read the entire way home. I am way behind on my book for this months book club so this down time will really come in handy.

k

Red Room

So seven years later I am still working on my house. I have repainted my dinning room. It is a tile red room now. I have always wanted a red room but just was not sure how I was going to pull it off. I like the look of this paint. As the sun light changes through out the day the color of the room seems to change as well. It goes from a slight orange red in the morning; red in the mid day; to a brownish red at night. I still have to put molding down on the bottom of the walls and then i will be done. This weekend I am going to purchase a rug and possible see what light fixtures are out there. Next project I am going to work on the hallway.

k

Amistad

Last night I went to the opera Amistad. I will start off by saying that opera is really not my thing, so I determined last night. This was the first opera I have ever been too. I will say that it was very well done and very interesting to watch. The cast was big and they did a very good job. The production was done in a black box style setting with the stage in the middle of the theater. The cast did a great job on performing to all sides. But overall I am not a fan of the use of opera to tell the story. Maybe it is something that will grow on me over time. I was also told that this was not the tradition opera and if the occasion occurs I am sure I would give opera another try. These tickets were a gift from a friend so I was pleased with the experience and very grateful for them as well.

Amistad was held in the Memminger Auditorium which was just renovated. It is a very impressive theater setting. I was very excited to check it out. I have never been in the Memminger so I do not have a comparison of the old to new, but what I saw was impressive indeed.

Spoleto-ing it!

This weekend I continued with Spoleto. I did not have as good as a time this weekend as last, but it was still a good time.

DANIEL MILLE. Danile Mille is a French accordion jazz performer. He is very talented, but to be honest I was glad when this one finally ended. It was supposed to be an hour long performance but this one ended up being close to an hour and a half. There is only so much accordion playing I think I can handle. On top of that, Daniel Mille really was into his music a bit to much and made these really odd orgasmic faces while he played.

THE BE(A)ST OF TAYLOR MAC This was an interesting performance. Taylor Mac is a drag queen. He put on a drag show that was mixed with social and political commentaries. It was very interesting and very entertaining. I did enjoy it.

THE BURIAL AT THEBES A really good play performed at the Cistern at the College of Charleston. I really enjoyed this one. It was performed outside and the sky was a little stormy at times so as they were talking about Zeus and other Greek gods it was cool to see lightening in the back ground. The play is a Greek tragedy performed by a British cast. It was very good.

Spoleto Festival USA

For the past seven years or more I have been a devoted participant in the Spoleto Festival that is held each year in Charleston. Each year during the 17 day long festival, audience members experience a broad range of artistic styles and forms, including classical ballet; modern and post-modern dance; opera; chamber, symphonic, and choral music; jazz; theater; and visual arts. Residence of Charleston are very fortunate to have so much art and culture at their door steps. This year's festival has not let me down so far.

Below are the shows I saw in the first weekend of the festival.

Paula West performed at the Cistern and was very good. I had not heard of her before but always loving a good jazz diva I took my chances and was not let down. What I really liked about her was that she took some not so standard jazz songs and put her own twist to them. I simply loved her rendition of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone."

Between The Devil And the Deep Blue Sea was very good. It is a play to mixes film through out to make a dark homage to the silent film era. It had an Adam's Family / Tim Burton feel to it. I really enjoyed it.

MONKEY: JOURNEY TO THE WEST was Amazing. I read that it cost over one and a half million dollars to produce. It is a mix of circus meets opera all performed in Chinese. I was in awe the entire time. The play was subtitled and my only criticism is that the subtitle were at the top of the stage and it was hard to go back and forth from looking at the stage to looking up to read the subtitles. But even with that, this play was AMAZING!