Fresh Ground hits the stage in St. Charles
What better name for a musical group that performs in area coffee shops?
If you spend any time sipping coffee and relaxing, reading or working in a coffee shop, you may be familiar with Fresh Ground and its three musicians - Krista and Eric Anderson and Scott Miller - and sound man Mark Kennedy, all from Geneva.
Fresh Ground is making the rounds, so there's a good chance you'd catch them at Graham's in Geneva or Fresh Beans in Batavia, but their upcoming show will be from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday at the Arcedium Coffee House in St. Charles.
The band has released a CD, "Only a Shadow," and you can learn more about them on the Freshgroundsound.com Web site.
Krista does the singing, which makes sense. Those who attend Riverside Community Church in St. Charles hear her sing regularly, and they know she's been singing since she was 6.
Her husband Eric handles the keyboards, and Miller plays acoustic and electric guitars.
What kind of music does Fresh Ground produce? The type you'd like to hear in a coffee shop - light rock, ballads and easy listening.
Jane and Lee Norris of Norris Funeral Home are certainly big fans of Fresh Ground. They are the proud parents of Krista, and in-laws to Eric.
Anyone who hasn't had a chance yet to stop in at the Arcedium along First Street may want to give it a try Saturday. It's worth the visit.
The original swans: Last Sunday readers were introduced to Lucy and Ricky, the trumpeter swans that protect the pond on the Delnor Hospital campus.
Judy Smith, director of service excellence at Delnor, mentioned she purchased the original swans from a lady in Geneva more than a decade ago, not long after the campus on Randall Road opened.
Those swans went by the names of Virgil and Cheryl. When they were away for the winter, Cheryl got sick and eventually died.
Smith said that because swans mate for life, there didn't appear to be much hope for Virgil.
"But being the modern man that he was, he took up another lady," Smith explained. Unfortunately, Virgil got a mean streak and was returned to his wintering pond, and that's when a new couple emerged - Lucy and Ricky.
Pelicans on the move: Speaking of our feathered friends, there was much hoopla regarding the migrating pelicans making the annual stop at Nelson Lake on their way to Canada last week.
But the day that the story appeared in the Daily Herald, alerting people to go take a look at Nelson Lake, it is believed that a nearby prairie burn chased most of the pelicans away.
They didn't go far. Hundreds of them were spotted at the Carson Slough in Sugar Grove. I stopped by there a day later, and there were still enough on the pond or in flight to amaze.
dheun@sbcglobal.net