Category: Fun

A Little Bit of Christmas

I’ve been a part of the Douglas County Chamber Singers for about 20 years. The Singers perform two concerts a year, at Christmas and in the Spring. I am one of just a handful of charter members who are still singing with the group.

We suspended the choral group when covid arrived in the United States, in 2020, a week before our Spring concert. Over the many long months of covid lockdown I missed singing with the group and wondered if we’d ever sing together again.

In September, the Singers regrouped and began rehearsing for our Christmas Concert. We have a new director, many new members, and a new name: the Sweetwater Singers.

If you are local, I hope to see you at our Christmas concert :

Meet Charlotte

Charlotte joined our family on Saturday when Raven and I drove to a park in Lawrenceville to meet her.

She’s a happy, sweet girl who is currently unspayed and has poor household manners (think 5 month old puppy in a 70 lb big dog body).

We have a lot of training ahead, but Raven likes her and Bert will come around…eventually.

We hope to get her spayed ASAP.

 

African Violets in Bloom

Here are four varieties of the African Violets that I propagated from leaves that are currently blooming.

This is a Ness’ Blueberry Puff. It’s been blooming for several weeks.

Two “Cajon’s Cherished Hope” African Violets. These were the first that bloomed and have been producing blooms for a couple of months.

An EK-Sady Semiramidy. What a lovely bloom! The bloom reminds me of the Sweet Shrub that blooms in early Spring.

Three Bishop African Violets that started blooming 2 weeks ago. Isn’t it interesting that two of the plants’ blooms are a light pink and the third plant has a darker bloom?

So, for now only four varieties of my African Violets have produced blooms and I have eight more varieties coming along. I’ll post pictures of those when they start producing blooms.

 

African Violets galore

Last November I was inspired by an article I read to try my hand at growing some African Violets. Over the years I’ve tried to grow these lovely plants but I had never been successful. Every plant I tried to grow eventually died a slow withering death. So several years ago I gave up. I swore them off forever.

But the article inspired me to try again. The author made it sound so easy. I went to a couple of local stores to buy a few African Violets, but none of the stores had them. So I went online and ordered a sample pack of 12 different African Violet leaves from a grower on Etsy. When the sample pack arrived I planted each leaf in a plastic dixie cup, placed the whole bunch of planted leaves in two small plastic tubs and set them on my kitchen counter under the under-counter fluorescent light. (You’ll see 20 leaves in the photos below because the seller sent me a few duplicates).

I watered them well and snapped the lids on the tubs. The tubs provided a nice, moist terrarium-like environment for the plants and because both the tub and the lid are translucent, the plants got plenty of light.

I left the fluorescent light on 24/7 and every couple of weeks I opened up the tubs to check the progress. For the first couple of months I didn’t see much of anything and so was skeptical that my effort would be successful.

Then, around the middle of March I saw some babies emerging from the soil around a few of the leaves.

A few weeks later, there were more babies and even a bloom!

By mid-April all the leaves had sprouted babies. After several weeks I transplanted most of the babies into one inch pots. Many leaves yielded more than one plant.

In June they were all growing and flourishing (I only lost one baby plant).

A few weeks ago I repotted the larger plants into larger pots (the picture below shows less than half of my plants).

You can see that some of the plants have started blooming and more buds are popping up every day. I’ve now got over 40 African Violets and three of the original leaves are still in dixie cups perhaps producing more baby plants.

Douglas County Chamber Singers begin its 18th concert season

The Douglas County Chamber Singers resumed weekly practices a few weeks ago to prepare for the 2019/2020 concert season. I missed singing in the very first concert, but joined the group in time to sing in the spring concert. I can’t believe I’ve been singing with this wonderful group for 17 years!

This season, we’ve got three concerts scheduled:

Organ Concert, First United Methodist Church of Douglasville, October 6, 2019 October 20, 2019 (rescheduled from the 6th to the 20th) at 6:00 pm
Last year the Methodist Church (where we rehearse and where most of our concerts are performed) ran a donation drive to collect money to refurbish its lovely pipe organ. On October 6th we’ll join the church choir, in singing some lovely pieces that feature and celebrate the church’s newly refurbished organ.

 

 

 

Annual Christmas Concert, First United Methodist Church of Douglasville,

December 13, 2019 at 8:00 pm

 

 

 

Annual Spring Concert,

First United Methodist Church of Douglasville,

March 20, 2020 at 8:00 pm

 

the Douglas County Chamber Singers

Right after Labor Day the Douglas County Chamber Singers started preparing for our 2018/2019 concert season.

Our first concert of the season is the “Messiah.” If you’ve ever sung any of the Messiah, I think you’ll enjoy the opportunity to sing along with us. Please come!

“Messiah Concert”
Sunday, November 18, 2018
6:00 p.m.
Douglasville First United Methodist Church
6167 Prestley Mill Road

The Chamber Singers is dedicating this concert to the “Glory of God” and to the Douglasville First United Methodist Church in appreciation of its support over all the years. I think the Methodist Church has one of the most beautiful sanctuaries in the county, with its lovely stained glass windows and high arching wooden beams. It is inspiring to sing there, and I’m thankful for their kindness in letting us use their sanctuary.

We will be joined by Trey Clegg, a superb Atlanta organist, who will accompany us on the magnificent pipe organ at the church – you can see the organ pipes behind us in the picture above. Thisis the only remaining pipe organ in Douglas County.

The Methodist Church is currently gathering funds to rebuild the organ console, so the Chamber Singers will donate all donations received at the Messiah Concert directly to the DFUMC Organ Fund. I hope you’ll come to enjoy the music and to support this worthy organ rebuild project.

Other Upcoming DCCS Concerts

Please mark your calendar and plan to attend!

  • Christmas Concert, Friday, December 7, at 8:00 pm
  • Spring Concert, Friday, March 22, at 8:00 pm

Finished Women’s 5K

It was a nice day to be outside and I had fun mostly walking the Women’s 5K on Saturday.

I’ve participated in this 5K many times over the years, but this is the first year my sister has joined me. My sister ran most of it, leaving me to bring up the rear, but next year, I hope to be in good enough shape to run it.

Last year, the 5k was held around Chastain Park, but this year, it was held around Grant Park. The Grant Park course was much easier than the Chastain Park course – not so many hills.

The race is put on by the Atlanta Track Club and at the end every woman is given a medal, a really nice Mizuno tee shirt and a long stemmed rose. I love all of the positive energy I feel when I am standing with all my sister runners & walkers. It’s really a great way to start off a Saturday morning.

Reflections on a lovely evening

The Douglas County Chamber Singers Christmas concert was last night and as I reflect on the evening, I feel so many emotions. I have sung with this group for 16 years (I missed the very first concert). I am honored to be a part of the Singers and have learned so much about choral singing from our conductor Vickie Orme.

I am humbled by and appreciative of the people who turn up to listen to our concerts. I am thankful to the musical composers and song masters who have created the beautiful songs we sing. I am thankful to the United Methodist Church of Douglasville for allowing us to sing this beautiful music in their beautiful sanctuary with it’s gorgeous stained glass windows, graceful wooden arches and its wonderful organ.

I am especially thankful to Vickie Orme, our conductor, to Deanne Ohman, our pianist, and to all of the singers in the Chamber Singers for their loyalty, their commitment, their flexibility, and their love of music.

Together we lift our voices in celebration, love, and devotion to each other, to the world around us, to our fellow humans, and to the God that we love.

Happy, blessed and safe holidays to all during this last month of the year.