The first Thursday in October has traditionally been a night of celebration in Newton.
Bethel College’s Annual Fall Festival kicks off four days of activities for current students and alumni. The festival includes class reunions, football games and many other events.
Downtown Newton also celebrates with Taste of Newton, a local festival designed to showcase the varied local and ethnic food traditions to be found in and around Newton.
This year, three blocks of downtown were blocked off starting before noon so over 80 vendors could set up outdoor shops on Main Street.
Local churches, boy scout troops, civic groups, school organizations and businesses participated with baked goods, bar-be-cue, desserts and a sea of meal choices.
Some of the night’s offerings were:
- Trinity Heights/Boy Scout Troop 127 with Dutch Oven cobblers in a variety of flavors
- Harvey County Farm Bureau with pork chops & roasted corn
- Bethel College Alumni Association with verenike, pudding cups & caramel apples
- Flip Flop Shop with lasagna, meatballs & garlic bread
- Must Be Nuts with German roasted almonds & pecans
- Caring Hands Humane Society with puppy chow and homemade dog and cat treats
That is only a few of the vendors in one block. Are you hungry yet?
The event is normally scheduled from 6 to 9 p.m. It also normally starts early. Neal and I had to be at Financial Peace University class at 7 p.m., so we walked down to Taste of Newton early. We weren’t the first ones there!
The photo above was taken at about 5:30. Later in the evening, it would have been impossible to get a clear shot for half a block, let alone a full block. Neal opted for Brats & Saurkraut from Boy Scout Troop 123, Quivira Council while I had my mouth set for egg rolls, fried rice and sweet & sour chicken from Amy Wong, of the China Inn Restaurant (although I admit that sauerkraut sure smelled good on the walk home!)
One of our downtown landmarks is the old Tudor-style Santa Fe Depot at the corner of Main and Fifth.
Another landmark is the marker that marks the first water well put down during cattle drive days. The old well was right in the center of the intersection of Main & Fifth.
A new fountain has been installed in front of the depot and near that intersection in commemoration of that historic well.
The fountain and its environment has been under construction for about six or eight weeks. Tonight, I noticed it was running so I had to stop and take some pictures.
The setting for the fountain is not yet complete. Lots of bare ground and infant grass just starting to take hold, but the goal is to create a setting that is inviting and beautiful. While I certainly miss the trees that were on this location for many years, I do like the look of this new construction.
Part of the exhibit is this plaque erected at the sidewalk and which tells about the original well and its importance in the life of the residents of the time, as well as local commerce.
The plaque reads:
1871 Water Well Memorial
Santa Fe engineers were surveying and platting the Newton town site on Section 17 in March 1871. Captain David L. Payne, State Legislator from this district, and other early settlers saw the urgent need for domestic drinking water. Captain Payne agreed to supervise the digging of a well in the center of 5th and Main Street intersection.
It was the only domestic drinking water in Newton for several months and considered the best water for several years thereafter.
The small, circular plaque in the center of this intersection marks the location of the historic well.
Courtesy, Harvey County Historical Society.
I have wondered upon occasion what it must have looked like with cattle and cowboys coming into town to meet the trains that took cattle to market; horses and riders gathered around that well; the air choked with dust and filled with the sounds of animals and people and trains. Sounds like an interesting painting, doesn’t it?
Speaking of paintings, there wasn’t much time to paint tonight because it was class night for Financial Peace University, a thirteen-week course from financial advisor, talk show host and author, Dave Ramsey. This is our fourth week into the course and we are learning a lot about handling finances, budgeting (gasp! budgets!), debt-reduction, saving and investing. It has been informative, entertaining and … challenging.
I did also spend part of the afternoon working on the current ACEO colored pencil portrait of Lockkeeper, so be watching for updates on that.
©Copyright 2008 by Carrie Lewis. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Carrie Lewis’s website.
….Seems to me like there was a popular Country/Western song by that name many years ago. I can hear the chorus in my ear this morning, but don’t quite remember the artist. Eddie Rabbitt, maybe? (Have I given away my age, yet?)
The light is gorgeous, but then I always have been deeply appreciative of the effects of rain and overcast on light. There is something deeply satisfying about the way distance looks when viewed through a veil of rain.
I am left wondering how close winter is. This year has been the coolest year I’ve experienced since moving to Kansas in 2002 and the recorded average global temperatures bear out that observation. Several “coldest month on record” months have already been noted this year.
Granted, we did have some 100 degree plus weather at the end of July. Five or six days of it, if I remember correctly. But the first year I was in Kansas, we had five or six weeks of days in the low 100s and nights all the way down to 80 or 90!
On Sunday, August 3, from about 2:30 to 5 p.m., I participated a combination chamber concert and art exhibit at West Side Baptist Church, 304 Seneca in Wichita.
This is the week’s Weekly Small Format Landscape challenge painting.
As many of you know, I am the current director of the 
The members of the Newton Fine Arts Association have provided an excellent collection works featuring a wide variety of subjects, media and styles for The Land We Love.
The reason I am not a weather forecaster is that I can look at radar and still not guess right! I said yesterday that the radar out of Wichita looked like we would have rain most of the day. I was going to take my camera to work and get shots of rainy light. Remember that?
So Approaching Storm is officially complete, signed and everything. It even has the appropriate notations on the back (title, date, signature, background information, etc.)
Both cards are archival mat board prepared with three coats of gesso all around (including the edges), then toned with Alizarin Crimson.
It was a great studio evening.
Day One of the “Fore” Party at Newton’s Sand Creek Station is now behind us. It was a great start to a two-day show like none I’ve ever done before.
One of us, 
