Amelia Island Garden Show

Coming to Central Park, March 6 and 7, 2010!

Come celebrate Nature in full bloom.

The inaugural Amelia Island Garden Show produced by the Fernandina Farmers Market will roll out nature’s brightest colors for two days on March 6 & 7, 2010 at Central Park in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Florida.

With growers and nurseries from around the state, the Amelia Island Garden Show will feature more than 50 vendors with a full assortment of flowers, plants, trees and palms, orchids, bonsai, water pond accessories, native plants, butterfly-friendly plants, shrubs, and garden accessories.

On-site experts will offer advice as to “greening” your home, yard and garden. “Ask the Expert booth” will offer short presentations and demonstrations from sustainable gardening to Orchids 101.

Featured attractions include: The Butterfly Encounter and The Raptor Experience.

The farmers and producers of the Fernandina Farmers Market will also be part of the Show with their just harvested produce, organic products, gourmet baked goods and variety of prepared foods.

Check out the website for more details:
www.ameliagarden.com

A Reminder of the Good We Do

Because of the tragedy in Haiti, I am reposting this thank you note from Dorothy Pearce with links to her orphange for those of you who have been asking for information on worthy causes to support .  We have contributed to Faith Hope Love Infant Rescue for a number of years. 

Also, here is a link to Dorothy’s blog, detailing her experience throughout the earthquake and letting us know she and the children survived, a little battered, but ok.  http://dorothypearcehaiti.blogspot.com/

Here is the original post from October 14:

We regularly get thank you notes from people and organizations we have helped.   I wanted to share just one that we received today.  This is not to pat ourselves on the back or to rest on our laurels, but just a reminder of the impact our little church can have on the world far away from our lovely little island.

This note is from Dorothy Pearce and the Faith-Hope-Love-Infant Rescue which is part of the Christian Light Foundation.  The photo is of one little girl who was rescued.  Let’s pray Haiti gets through this hurricane season better than it did last year.  They are still suffering and still need our help.

If you click on the letter or photo it will take you to their website.

Letter from Dorothy PearceEmanuella - Haiti Infant Rescue

The Snow Lay on the Ground

The children have been working on a song for our Christmas celebration.  I found this source on the Internet that you can go to and hear the music to practice with them at home.  Hope has the words posted on our website under the Sunday School tab.  They will be singing the first and last verse.

http://www.christmas-songs.org/songs/the_snow_lay_on_the_ground.html

Happy Anniversary Liz & Dave

This one goes out to Liz & Dave

Sunset on Fort George Island

We sit on the porch alone together at twilight.
“Soon,” I whisper, “the sun will set and our sky will change.
The show will begin.”
“The eye of God will come and all His glory will perform just for us.”

We are like children filled and overflowing with anticipation,
as if running down the stairs on Christmas morning
to see what new shinnies the man in red has left behind.

Spellbound, first we see a soft blue, we point and say,
“Oh, that’s the color we should paint our bedroom.”

Then, with each inch the sun retreats below our marsh:
the pink, warm golds, deep blue – crimsons and orange.
We just gaze, almost a strange glare in silence engulfed and flooded
by the presence of God.

I don’t think either one of us is breathing….?

For a moment I remember back to the time when He and I started this journey together.
We had nothing – we were both children – both alone.
We had held each other and declared,
“We can do this!”

Yes, we are breathing.

Here we are now, engulfed and submerged in this Shangri-La.
We feel hidden as if we have been sitting here alone together for centuries,
taking in all knowledge of what we see.
In the silence of our shambhala
we become conscious of great noise filling our lull.

Can there be soft noise?

In our stillness we now see the other world,
we hear the other world also along with us at the closing of our day, their day.
They are lifting their voices, their essence, to their God, our God.

First a song from the wren, soft and sweet, calling earnestly.
Crickets using drums to communicate, a familiar cry of the marsh hen
and off to the left frogs begin to harmonize.
There is life all around us giving praise.

Not wanting to be left out,
the tall cedars begin to sway, dancing with the music from the breezes.
We close our eyes and feel their soft touch on our up turned faces
as they ask us to join them in their evening dance.

With one last gift to be given us on this memorable evening – just off to the northeast, slightly into our right ears,
we hear the peacocks offering up roaring cries, their last prayers for this night,
from high atop the massive oaks where they retreat and retire for protection.

Now He and I join hands as black silhouettes against a sea of color
slowly slipping away to become our night sky.
Our breath is good.
Our breathing in time.
“We are happy.”

He looks at me, deep, intensely – into all I am – we smile –
Is this what Paul meant when he said, “to be in constant prayer”?
I think so!

The phone rings.
My thoughts are yielded.
It’s Kammy.
I laugh out loud!

- Elizabeth Slover 2006

Liz & Dave celebrate 40 years of marriage on November 23, 2009

St. George Tailgate

The 2nd annual St. George Jaguars Tailgate Event was great. We had about 26 people–more than last year. The food was great as everyone contributed and the Mimosas were wonderful. Thanks to Bob Hays at Florida Rock–we had a nice private place for our ‘little party’. See the picture on the front of the St. George Website. Go JAGS!

St. George Halloween Party

We had a great time at our Halloween party on November 1st. There were a variety of costumes that night. We had a princess, two Darth Vaders, Pippi Longstocking, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and many more. We bowled with pumpkins, had a mummy wrapping costume and told our own scary story. A big thanks to Kate and Hope for the wonderful food. We had Mummy dogs, Jac-O-Lantern Pizza and floating hands in our punch.

Another crowd pleaser was bobbing for apples. The youth were slow to participate so I told them I would bob for an apple if they all got an apple, (thinking they wouldn’t all get one) and they all did. So I plunged my head into the water and got my own apple. The kids sure make it look easier than it really is.

Here are few pictures of the bobbing for apples!


The value of a true friend

It is amazing to me when I think about how much my friends mean to me.  For a long time my definition of a friend was off-center. A few weeks back – before the weather turned – I went to the Talbot Island State Park with one of my new and true friends.  It was a beautiful day and the company was wonderful too.  Susan, Lilly, Samie, and I walked through the wooded path down to a secluded beach.  I was fearful that Sammie would get sunburned, waterlogged, and scared. My anxiety was quieted just by being with Susan.  We had a wonderful time ,and she planned for things that I had not thought of.  Everything went smoothly; Sammie had a great time with Lilly playing on the beach.  The value of my friendship helps enrich my life with activities that I thought may have been too overwhelming for me to handle by myself.  We enjoyed watching the girls playing and just spending time together.  So, thank you, my friend!

–Trisha

Thanks :-)

I just read the newly posted newsletter which opened with Father Marty’s always inspiring words.  I felt compelled to act right way, first to thank Marty for his loving work at St. George’s and all the work he does in God’s kingdom, things that we know about, and many that we do not.  Marty’s first day “on the job” at St. George’s was the first service I attended there, and I fell in love with him and the church right away.  Next, thank you to Kate, Hope, and all the office staff who work so hard and do such a beautiful job with the newsletter and keeping everyone informed.  One of the things that I am personally most thankful for is the ability to read and write.  I was thinking as I was reading the newsletter what a blessing it is to be able to share experiences even when we can’t actually participate by being present.  We all have such busy lives and there’s a limit to how many things we can actually go to, even if we want to.   But the next best thing to actually being in a place is to hear about it from someone who was there.  Reading about it and seeing pictures let’s your imagination drift into the experience.  Can you imagine what life would be like if there was nothing to read!  We wouldn’t know about anything!  As usual when I start thinking about things like this, my mind wanders into “space” and I wonder about the first words ever written, the first person to ever think about picking up a writing instrument and putting something down on paper.  About the creation of language, the alphabet, grammar and spelling.  Where and how did it all begin?  Fast forward a few thousand years, and look around us today with so many forms of media used for communicating with each other.  I have always loved to read and I’ve always enjoyed listening to stories, whether fact or fiction!  Some of my earliest childhood memories are filled with wonderful times spent with my father, reading my sister and me nightly bedtime stories.  No matter what kind of day it had been, he always made time for this special event, knowing how much we loved it.  He would read a chapter or two each night, just enough to fill our heads with visions of different worlds, different lives, places, people, adventures, laughter, suspense.  We would beg him to read longer each day, but part of the joy was drifting off to sleep, imagining being in that very place he had told us about in the midst of some adventure.  Some of my favorites were stories of the American South – Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  We  lived in such a different world – a large, bustling city with a large population, lots of roads, buildings and concrete!.  Hearing about Tom and Huck, their simple lives spent outside fishin’ and misbehavin’, was such a thrill.  Their adventures leading them through swamps filled with gators, snakes and all kinds of critters, not to mention suspicious sounding characters like “Injun Joe”.  Canoes and camping.  Fishing poles made of twigs and strings.  Family gatherings with fried chicken and home baked apple pie.   I think it is some kind of personal destiny that my path should bring me here to the place I dreamed about, and to find that it is just as awesome as I thought it would be.  (Although I try to stay out of the way of the snakes and gators!).  I love writing about experiences, but even more, I love reading about the experiences of other people, especially stories of travel and nature, as it adds to my own experience, giving me an idea of what it would be like to be in those places.  I’ve recently discovered a wonderful new source, another on-line blog, and I’ve asked the author for permission to share some of the accounts on the St. George blog space.  It is nature living at its finest, and takes me to places I wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to experience.  I think you’ll see what I mean when you read it.  Pictures too!  I will end here with this note of thanks to God – for our brains, our imagination, and the gift of the written word.  So keep writing and sharing all your stories.  You never know what a blessing it might be to someone who may not be able to experience it otherwise.

Upcoming Events

church pictureBeach Service & Picnic, Little Talbot Island State Park , 10:30 AM, October 25, 2009, Directions from St. George’s and Map

 Youth Group Pantry Raid, October 25, 2009

Rethinking Justice Workshop, October 26, 2009, 6:00-8:00 p.m., St. Paul AME Church , 6910 New Kings Rd., Jacksonville, 32219

 Halloween Party for the all the children of St. George’s, November 1, 2009, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m., Terry Hall 

 ECW Meeting,  Saturday, November 7, 2009, 10:00 a.m., Terry Hall

 Second Annual St. George/Jaguars Tailgating Party, November 8, 2009 , 10:00 AM – Noon

“Annie” Performed by Fernandina Beach High School

My Anniefriend Tom, who is one of the Park Rangers for the Talbot Island State Parks, including Fort George Island, recently asked me to do him a favor by coming one evening to the FB Middle School to video tape his daughter Zoe in the final dress rehearsal of her performance in “Annie”.  My youngest daughter is now 22 years old, so it has been many years since I went to a middle school drama production, and I was happy to do this favor for my friend, but didn’t really know what to expect.  While I knew that Tom, his dedicated wife Renee, and a bunch of other parents had been working very hard for several weeks building sets, making costumes, and putting together the whole show – I was not expecting to see the first class performance that I witnessed that evening.  I was literally “blown away” by these kids, their talent, and the whole production effort.  I told Tom after the show that I felt like I could  have been sitting at the Florida Theatre.  I’m really not exaggerating – this was an outstanding performance and a thoroughly enjoyable experience.  The school auditorium was sold out for the next four performances which ended last Sunday.  However, the show has been held over by popular demand and Annie will once again be performed by the drama department of Fernandina Beach High School.  The encore performances are  on Friday and Saturday nights (October 16 & 17). Tickets are only $10.00 and I must say it is one of the best values for your entertainment dollars that you will find.  So grab your family, friends, neighbors – and head up to Fernandina on Friday or Saturday night.  Make it a family night out with a casual dinner along the beach – some of my favorites are The Surf; Sandy Bottoms; or Barbara Jeans on the AIA at the Intracoastal Waterway.  I promise you won’t be disappointed – it is a really great show.

The show is at the Fernandina Beach Middle School auditorium at 8:00 PM.

Tickets are available at the school located at 315 Citrona Drive on Amelia Island.