The County Fair

      Saturday night I was sitting in the bleachers at the St. Lucie County fairgrounds, bundled up with winter hat, winter coat with hood pulled up over the hat, and gloves, drinking hot chocolate. Who would have thought I could be so cold in Florida?  Now the people  in the Northeast will think we don't have much to complain about. The temperature is above freezing and there is no snow.  However, it is 20' below Florida's normal temperature for this time of year and this is fair week!
      Truth be known, we had gone to the fair that afternoon not dressed warmly enough and had gone home to dry out our rain soaked clothes and get a warmer coat.  We got our hand stamped so we ould return without paying again. Actually, it was not our hand.  They put the stamp on the inside of our wrist because it was raining so hard, they were worried it would wash off.  I was wearing 2 sweat shirts and my blanket poncho and had a giant umbrella, but that wasn't enough to keep me warm and dry.
      So, I was back at the fair wearing my winter coat and waiting for Charlie Daniels to come out. John has always been a Charlie Daniels fan, so we were happy to read in the paper this week that we could see him at the county fair, for merely the price of admission to the fair. That would have been $10, but we found out we are old enough in Florida to be senior citizens, so we only paid $5 each.
      The concert started a half hour late and lasted just a little more than an hour, but was very nice. I only knew 2 of the songs. "Amazing Grace," and "The Devil Goes Down to Georgia," which was the last song. It was neat hearing more than half the audience singing all the words the way John does.

sing along breath clouds-

Florida county fair concert

this frigid winter

trying to stay warm-

we stamp our feet

to the music's beat

Joette

A Busy Weekend

Joe & Kathleen Mayes, friends of mine from the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society, were performing in Melbourne Friday night. We left Port St. Lucie at 3 pm to drive up to Melbourne and have dinner. We ate at a nice little restaurant, Ichabod's Dockside.  After dinner we had time to walk around and look at the boats. There was one from Hawaii and one from Grand Cayman. Then we found a park bench where John could read his book and I played my charango until it was time for the concert. The concert was really good and it was good to talk to Joe and Kathleen afterwards. I got some pointers from Kathleen on how to get a restaurant gig.

On Saturday, we planted the plants we bought last weekend at the plant sale and then we went to the beach in Stuart for a little while.  Sunday morning, I decided to try a new church. I wasn't fitting in very well in the music ministry at the Catholic church closest to our home. The opening song began and I could hear an acoustic guitar fingerpicking with the piano. I immediately felt like here was where I belonged. After mass I asked if they would be open to having another guitar join them and the answer was, "Are you crazy? Of course we would be happy to have another guitar."  I think John will like this church too, but so far he is not happy about changing parishes when he was just getting to know people in the other church closer to our home.


After church we went to the Renaissance Faire in Deerfield Beach. We had a real nice time and heard some nice Renaissance music. I hope to play there next year. I bought a CD, a walking stick, and a Renaissance dress!  Then we went to Marie's  house for dinner and she cooked us lamb chops on her grill. Her house is full of boxes because she is buying a house and moving to Port St.  Lucie. Hallie & Aiden were happy to see us. It will be nice when they live closer.