A happy orchid, I think.

One of the advantages to South Florida are the beautiful orchids you can find all around. If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know our success rate with them has been mixed. Two (or it might have been three) years ago, we decided to try the tie an orchid to the palm tree, leave it alone and see what happens. It’s the beautiful thriving lavender/purple one I’ve posted on several occasions. Encouraged by that, I went when the East Everglades Orchids Society was having one of their shows/sale (member of HCA http://www.homesteadcenterforthearts.com)  and spent some time with a gentleman who was quite patient with me. He recommended two small varieties in wooden baskets that I hung on the fence. This area gets direct sunlight part of the day and that was one of the issues. The first blooming gave me hope and when those faded, I was a little nervous. The leaves looked like they were okay though and we had other blooming periods after that. Nothing spectacular, but definite signs they were surviving.

Last week, hubby told me to go look – both orchids were in full bloom. They were indeed and with more blossoms than either plant has had in the past. I’m not intending to get over-eager here, although I think we’re ready to take on another couple and try tying them to the traveler palms we have in back. Now, if I could only remember what kind we have. Ah well, one step at a time.

Another successful blooming.

One of the Paintings on Display at Phicol Williams Community Center.

Well, the week obviously got away from me and yesterday was a day of literally all meetings. I started at 8:30 headed out to the first one, got home around 2:45 and worked a series of emails until I left for the 5:00 event that was purely social in nature. That schedule, however, combined with a night where I really didn’t sleep well kept me from posting (yeah, I know, how wimpy of me).

Anyway, one of the meetings was at a neighborhood community center and Homestead has a policy of featuring local artists’ work in sections of our community centers. I know only a few of the artists, but I am always intrigued with the talent that we have in our area. Part of the vision of historic downtown is to have the arts and entertainment district as a future goal. The renovation of the Seminole Theater is on track and of course the intent is for it to be a performing arts center with broad-based programming rather than a movie theater. A new restaurant is set to take the place of the closed Lucky’s Pub and that’s another step in the right direction. Most of these things take time and as the revitalization continues, many of us hope that art galleries will once again also return to downtown.

Drummer Making Music

There are delicious little ironies in life as well as those that bite you in the butt and this post is about one of the lovely ones. If you follow the blog, you know that I am actively involved in and support Homestead Center for the Arts and that we initiated the Music Series, MuSe, last year to bring another type of venue to the area. In most cases, it’s music in the garden of the White Lion Café where people can enjoy an outdoor setting with different genres – jazz, blues, blue grass. It’s been a hit and as we have explained, it really all started one day at lunch as we looked out onto the garden and I said something along the lines of wouldn’t it be great if we could set up a jam session some time. Just work out a time frame and invite whoever to come play and folks could listen in. My two companions are far more musically attuned to genre, etc., than I am and it did not take long for them to conceive of MuSe in the form it has come to have.

One of the gentlemen who puts groups together has an interesting number of musicians he can call on and he always comes through with a great group. It so happens that this week as we did R&B, I was not aware that this particular group of highly talented men wasn’t actually a group. It so happened they were individually skilled in R&B and came together for this performance with virtually no practice time. You wouldn’t know that from they way they blended and while it wasn’t quite a “jam session”, I could easily imagine seeing them doing something like that. It was a great night with wonderful music, great food, and lots of people having fun.

No, I don’t mean the outcome for my sad Seahawks fans. After all, only two teams can go to the Super Bowl and that means the fans of the thirty other teams are disappointed at some level. If you have multiple teams you enjoy either because you have lived in different places or perhaps players/coaches you admire move to a different team, then you increase your chances to have some emotional investment in the game. Otherwise, what fans want is a good game, played hard, with a fairly balanced score and enough excitement to say, “Did you see that?!” In theory, all Super Bowls should be that way since the playoff system is supposed to allow the two final teams that make it through to be fairly evenly matched. There have, however, been a number of blowouts through the years and in those cases, unless your team happens to be the one winning, you tend to focus on the commercials and maybe the halftime show.

Last night started with the scoreless first quarter and that’s okay, too. The teams were fresh, the defenses determined to do their parts and the coaches taking measure of what kind of plays they were facing. The excitement started late in the second quarter and I made the classic error of seeing the play clock with little time left before the half. I dished up the chili and moved behind my husband’s recliner where I said something like, “I don’t think much is going to happen in the next 11 seconds so we can move to the table.” He corrected me as he pointed to the screen and sure enough, there it was – one of those – “Did you see that?” – moments as the Seahawks made their touchdown. Nice way to tighten the game.

In watching New England fall behind, looking as if they might not catch up, then the push to go forward again, and then the crucial minute where the entire game shifted in an incredible catch – this was what the Super Bowl is about. The actual play that sealed the game was equally spectacular unless of course you were rooting for Seattle. The sheer timing of it though was enough to warm the hearts of those who just wanted to see a good game (and naturally thrilled all Pats fans).

This is a post for all my readers who love photography. Among the reasons for us to change our plans and remain in South Florida for the foreseeable future is that hubby is getting more into photography, to include above the surface. (Anyone who knows me is aware that the photos I take with my Iphone is it for me.) Hubby though has been greatly inspired and two gentlemen here have recently established the South Florida National Parks Camera Club as a part of the Homestead Center for the Arts (http://homesteadcenterforthearts.com). By partnering with our two local National Parks, and Big Cypress not far away, members of the club have access to parts of the parks that are not normally open to the public. This benefit doesn’t seem to help keep mosquitos away, but it is South Florida.

Anyway, yesterday hubby attended an all day seminar by some well-known photographer that I’m not familiar with. In telling me about his day and how much fun he had, he mentioned that the guy talked about choosing to focus on one thing and becoming as proficient with that as you could with whatever equipment you could afford. His point was that most people shoot a variety of subjects and yet, if you selected one particular subject and really spent time with it, you would develop (no pun intended) as a photographer. In his case, it happened to be sports, but someone else might choose birds or flowers or sunsets. It wasn’t that you stopped taking other photos, rather that you spent extra time with whatever your “specialty” was. Hubby hasn’t decided what his will be, although race cars are pretty high on the list. How about it photographers? Have you done this already?