A young deer has been trying to chomp on the plants in the big garden bed. I happened to look up this morning and saw him eating something. I shooed him away – boy, was he cute – and just now, he was right by the shed and the hostas planted there…I shooed him away again. Both times, he ran up the trail into the woods.
He’s young. He doesn’t understand my Rules For Eating yet.
I mowed the lilac side of the front lawn yesterday and I have to admit it, it was hard, probably because I’ve mowed a lot this week and my arms are tired from pushing that front wheel drive-less lawnmower. I finished, but I’m taking a break for a bit. The back forty needs to be mowed, but sometime next week will be fine. The lawnmower has now moved to the top of the repair list.
Don has been coordinating and hosting a series of concerts this summer. They are held outdoors in a park in a town north of us. Don recruited all of the performers and he emcees each concert – once a month for four months. Anyway, there is another one tonight. It has rained or threatened to rain every Friday there has been a concert and true to form, it’s doing the same for tonight’s concert. So he’s spent a lot of time this week ensuring the performers are coming, pressuring the powers-that-be to find an indoor location and making that decision, not at the last minute, but a few days beforehand so that the public knows the venue is changing. I think they’ve been doing this for 14 or 15 years. Don played in the very first concert long ago. He has noticed that the number of people attending has decreased considerably since Covid. It’s very depressing. The same thing has happened with theater – subscription bases have decreased. Theater – especially regional theater – is struggling. I’ll write more about that later, but several well-known theaters are in serious financial trouble. Back to the concert series: it almost seems as if lockdown kept us home and once lockdown ended, people didn’t return to their previous activities and support of the arts. I’d say it was about money – and it is, of course – but this series is free.
The Arts are in trouble – not-for-profit theater is really in trouble. It seems as if I hear/read something about that on a daily basis.
I’m proud of all the work Don has done to make these concerts happen. I don’t know if he’ll do it next year, but I’m betting that after some time away from it, he will.
Stay safe.
Happy Friday.
