homosassa – Page 6

Friday Meanderings

November 23, 2018 by KTgreen

Happy Friday!

I’m still trying to get over the Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival. It was such a great event again this year. But it really wears me down. So much planning goes into every little detail!

I want to make a big SHOUT OUT to all of the volunteers. There is no way that this festival could be run as efficiently and as cost effectively as it is without the volunteers. Everywhere you look, orange shirts. And I ran out of shirts this year so we had a few people incognito!

Terry and I tried to put a list together of all of the volunteers because we have a dinner every year to celebrate their efforts. Our list went to well over 70 people! Pretty good for a small community with only 110 members in the Homosassa Civic Club that sponsors the event.

Terry with Clyde, two of our over 70 volunteers!

Now….let me tell you about the festival. I do the photography (and the t-shirts, website, and social media). So on Saturday morning I was snapping photos for the judging. This guy got best of show. I think he got it last year, too.

The Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival is run by the Homosassa Civic Club and it is always the second weekend in November. All proceeds go back to the community–scholarships, youth groups, veterans, and more. Terry and I started volunteering for the festival in 2015. He became chairperson in 2016. We’ve come a long way since then!

There were a lot of complaints about the quality of the vendors going down back in 2015 when we first started volunteering. Also the food was all deep fried. It was a nightmare for the arts and crafts vendors to set up and tear down. The arts and crafts committee now juries all the entries. While there is still deep fried food, there are also healthy alternatives. Now there are volunteers that take the vendors to their spot when they first arrive and parking people to direct traffic for the tear down.

We first started having musical entertainment in 2015 with two bands each day. This year we have a professional musician who volunteered to run the entertainment. It was non-stop music from 10 am to closing both days.

And we allowed pets in this year!

Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival

entertainment — Hey, look! There’s Myrna and Kevin!

Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival

We’ve got the volunteer dinner scheduled and we are getting ready for next year!

Friday Meanderings

November 9, 2018 by KTgreen

Good Day!

Sooooooo…..

It’s the BIG WEEKEND OF THE HOMOSASSA ARTS, CRAFTS, AND SEAFOOD FESTIVAL!

Lots of work but lots of fun because we have lots of volunteers. I’ll be in the t-shirt/information booth. And taking pictures. And at the gate. And……

Last Saturday was crazy busy!

Started out at the Veterans Service at the Old Homosassa Veterans Memorial.

Commissioner Ron Kitchen spoke. Usually one of the commissioners do. This time while he was speaking a very tall man with an even taller staff walked up to the podium and stood with the dignitaries.

I was like “who is that?” It was kind of scary with all the awful things going on.

He just stood there in his star spangled shirt and acted like he belonged until the Homosassa Elementary Chorus came out to sing and he strode out and announced “Jesus said let the little children come to me!”

Youth pastor, Troy Allen, then quietly pulled the guy aside. Troy was at least a head shorter than the trespasser so I was totally impressed! Shortly after that a deputy stepped in followed by a couple other deputies for backup.

All was good.

Then I went on to the Blues and BBQ event. Sarasota Slim, one of my favorite bands, opened the day up with a rock version of Star Spangled Banner. This same intruder marched up to the stage and stood front and center during the entire song. I alerted a volunteer but when the song was over the guy just walked off into the neighborhood.

So it was totally harmless. Probably just looking for his 15 minutes of fame.

But I’ll be on the look out for the guy at the festival!

Stop by to say hi! I’ll be in an orange shirt. As well all the other volunteers!

Have a great weekend!

Kathy

Friday Meanderings

November 2, 2018 by KTgreen

Yesterday I happened to glance out the door and saw a bald eagle diving into the canal and then soaring off. Cool moment.

Then. We were sitting around the table after dinner in our screened room and a barred owl hooted right over my shoulder. If I still had Maggie, I would have been protecting the little pooch.

And speaking of that dinner, Terry was in charge of the main course. So I was doing the salad.

He said “which one was mine”

I said “you pick”

He’s not a big fan of tomatoes.

He said “you are feeding me gruel.”

There might have been some good natured bantering about then.

Hey. What is wrong with trying to get my husband to eat something other than meat?

And what exactly is wrong with tomatoes? And lettuce. And Spinich.

And moving on to more unimportant stuff….

I have probably mentioned like 100 times that I broke my foot. Totally not me fault. I have NO idea how I did it.

But I will admit to the rest of the injuries….

I fell down after getting out of the pool with wet feet and screwed up my left knee. And got a black eye. Bonus!

Then this past weekend Terry and I went to a Halloween Party which was the best party I have ever been to. And I fell off of the swing. (I know, you are saying why was there a swing at a Halloween Party?And all I can respond is I LOVE SWINGS!) Just like that. Flat on my face. Hurt my right knee.

It’s been a hard year.

Probably ought to stop drinking.

Naaaaaah! Not going to happen. Instead I will not drink and swim nor drink and swing. (Hmmmmm, that doesn’t sound quite right, does it?)

Anyhow……

Tomorrow is the Blues & BBQ. We love this event. Hanging under the oaks with friends and neighbors enjoying great live music and delicious bbq!

Veterans Day ceremony is tomorrow morning at the Old Homosassa Veterans Memorial. Yulee Drive will be closed but there are detours. Come on out and honor our veterans!

The ceremony is a week before Veterans Day because that’s the same date as the….drumroll….

44th Annual Homosassa Art, Craft, and Seafood Festival.

One more week. A week of busy, busy, busy!

The festival is completely sold out—arts, crafts, food, non-profits, and sponsors. In fact, we have vendors calling, emailing, Facebooking every day looking for openings. The committee actually made extra spaces trying to accommodate but Old Homosassa only has so much room!

If you have been to the festival in prior years, you need to come back because there will be new vendors.

And the kid zone will be crazy fun. Most of it is free. Jessica MacRae and Sami Monroe—our summer camp coordinators—and the Key Club will be manning the booths and have all kinds of fun planned for the kids. The Lecanto High School Honors Arts program is doing the face painting which will be from $3 to $6. Win for the kids with less expensive face painting and win for the arts program!

The entertainment will be amazing! There will be an even more variety of food in the food court.

The t-shirts just arrived. And they are great! SO OLD HOMOSASSA! This year we are keeping the design a secret because they sold out in about 10 minutes last year. No preordering and there will be no mail ordering. Gotta be at the festival to get your t-shirt!

But I can say that Gil Watson again agreed to do the art. I keep promising Gil, really this is the last year! And he keeps making me art! So lucky to be Gil and Wendy’s friends!

The Festival is very fortunate to have a lot of great volunteers that really want things to work. And that makes it not only successful, but fun!

So come to the festival. Say hi to all the volunteers in their orange shirts! They have worked their butts off and are proud of their effort!

It’s a great event that gives back to the community!

See you at the Blues and BBQ tomorrow!

Kathy