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As we begin the new year as well as the new decade, I would like to take a moment to count our many blessings. Harvest Hope has benefited from an abundance of blessings over the last year. Those blessings have come to us in the form of donations stemming from the enormous compassion and generosity of so many in the Midlands who care for their neighbors. To the many who have helped us get through the most trying period of want and need in our history I can only express our deepest gratitude and the assurance that your heart-felt contributions went far toward relieving the suffering of thousands in our community.
As we count the count the blessings of last year, we look ahead to the new year and see the need is still critical, but it is a need I know that we can meet with continued support from our many generous patrons and donors. I want everyone who helped us meet the incredible needs we faced last year, and in truth, all the years we have strived to feed the hungry in our community, to know that everyday we look at you as treasures.
Treasures are precious and favored things that we hold close to our hearts. For the Harvest Hope Food Bank, our treasures are the many donors, patrons, agencies, board members, volunteers, community partners and staff members who remain committed to ensuring that the hungry in our community can rely on us for food when they need it. Our treasures are also our clients, the individuals and families and children who are thrown into economic turmoil and cannot, despite their best efforts, meet the needs of putting enough food on their tables. As you serve, you are a treasure. As you receive, you are also a treasure. We think of all of you as being inside the treasure chest we call Harvest Hope.
In thinking about the collective group I count as the treasures of Harvest Hope, I'm aware that maybe you need to know more about what we do here at the food bank. Maybe you need to know more about the size and scope of our operation, the ways we receive and distribute food to the hungry. The ways that we attack hunger and strive to defeat the anxiety of need. The easiest way for everyone to see what we do and learn about our operation is to take an H.O.P.E. (Helping Our People Eat) tour at one of our Emergency Food Bank and distribution centers. A forty-five minute H.O.P.E. tour is a fascinating and educational way to learn how we receive, store and disperse the tons of food that arrive here daily. A tour will show you the many facets of transportation we deal with as well as the complexities of food issues such as product safety and USDA standards compliance. You will see the challenges we face in receiving, processing and then distributing 30 million pounds of food throughout 20 different counties every year. Seeing what we do here everyday is the best way to understand how complex and mammoth our operations truly is. Just as important, you will also see the faces of those who are at the end of their rope and who come to us in need. You will learn the ways we greet them and determine how we can best help them keep food on their tables.
Frequently we hear from those who visit and take our tour say how surprised they are at the size and scope of our operation. They are often awed by the expanse of our warehouse, the towering racks of food and the vast quantities of product handled by our staff and flowing daily through our facility. It changes the ways they think about our mission of feeding the hungry.
We at Harvest Hope open our doors and welcome the opportunity for everyone in the community to see how we meet the increasing demand of providing food to the hungry. We would like for you to open yourselves up to learning more about what we do and how we do it. We offer tours of our Shop Road facility during the day or in the early evening, although I recommend touring during operating hours from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm to observe and appreciate the full extent of our daily activities. I can assure you that at no time during the tour do we ask for or expect donations. It is purely an educational and learning experience.
We also extend invitations to tour our Florence and Greenville food banks. Each facility faces unique challenges in meeting their own local needs, and touring those locations sheds different perspectives on the ways that Harvest Hope tailors its hunger relief outreach. For individual information on H.O.P.E. tours, please see the following contact specifics:
- Columbia location:
2220 Shop Road
(803) 254-4432
- Pee Dee (Florence) location:
2513 West Lucas Street
(843) 661-0826
- Greater Greenville Area
5200 Pelham Avenue, Suite A
(864) 281-3998
I know after you have been to the heart of our outreach you will have a broader perspective on Harvest Hope and the message of our humanitarian mission. I am asking for your assistance this year to help spread the knowledge of that mission, and to share your experience with the people who are your individual treasures and invite them to take a tour of Harvest Hope.
Let's make 2010 the year that we not only display the work of Harvest Hope to our treasures, but work to build a larger treasure chest. Let's maintain the good work we have done and continue to meet the needs of those who need our helping hands.
I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you soon.
Denise Holland
For Where Your Treasure Is, There Your Heart Will Be Also ~ Matthew 6:19-24
We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~ Thornton Wilder


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I loved the pattern of small and large magnolia flowers, and the design worked perfectly for making two similar but different pillows.
After making a playful pillow sham for Hadley's big girl room, I decided to add a white flange pillow with hot pink trim for our guest room. I wanted a bright color to coordinate with the fabric wall design
Just love how a few new pillows can add a finishing touch to a room! ♥
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subset: commoncrawl


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Released: November 2009
The Doctor – Tom Baker
Mike Yates – Richard Franklin
Sally – Susie Riddell
Dr Adam Farrow – Michael Maloney
Old lady – Susan Jameson
Francesca – Jilly Bond
Antonio – Stephen Thorne
Main Production Credits
Producer and Director – Kate Thomas
Writer – Paul Magrs
Script Editor & Executive Producer – Michael Stevens
Incidental Music – Simon Power
Audio Editor – Neil Gardner
Production Assistant – Lyndsey Melling
Studio Engineers – Simon Willey & Wolfgang Deinst
Story Summary (SPOILERS!):
The Doctor tells his friend, the retired Mike Yates about his third encounter with the alien Hornet creatures. Arriving in the town of Blandford in 1832, he learns that a travelling circus is in residence – the Circus of Delights. Upon visiting it himself, the Doctor finds that Hornets are using the Circus to kidnap and possess the local residents, intending to send them out into the wider world as an invasion force to help spread and multiply the influence of the alien Hornets further. While hypnotising and interrogating the circus ringmaster, Antonio, the Doctor also discovers that the ringmaster first met the Hornets back in his home city of Venice as a child, after seeing them fly out of a recently landed TARDIS – his TARDIS! The Hornet hive mind evacuates Antonio as his husk of a body dies from old age, and then takes over the body of Francesca, the circus' dancer and tightrope walker. The Hornets force Francesca to commit suicide in order to escape from the Doctor's clutches once more.
Story Placement
Between Hornets' Nest: The Dead Shoes (BBC Audio) and Hornets' Nest: A Sting in the Tale (BBC Audio).
Favourite Lines
The Doctor – "I can't abide the waste of good gobstoppers".
After the decidedly mixed quality of the previous two instalments of Hornets' Nest, I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to be anything more than inconsequential and disposable entertainment, but happily The Circus of Doom bucks the trend, and starts to finally add meat to the bones of Hornets' Nest story arc set up in The Stuff of Nightmares. Furthermore, the tone of the script is slightly darker, and is much more enjoyable as a result, losing some of the lightweight material in the two previous audios. When I say darker, I don't mean that the story itself is especially dark, just that the balance between light and dark is much more equal, and more in line with the tone in what is usually considered 'traditional' Doctor Who.
The storyline for this adventure is a perfect example of this, being an inspired twist on the age-old alien invasion story, with the Hornet creatures trying to takeover mankind via a sinister travelling circus, possessing their audiences, and sending them out into the world to help infiltrate and takeover populations. The circus in particular is a fascinating playground for Paul Magrs' creations, both mysterious and creepy, with the expert build up to its first appearance transmitting a real sense of apprehension in the listener. Another big positive difference is that for the first time, the alien hornets feel like a genuine threat. Paul Magrs wisely delays their first appearance in the story until the Doctor confronts the Ringmaster Antonio during the circus performance, so their presence in the story is much more dramatic and keenly felt.
This is also the first time in the Hornets' Nest series that the Doctor feels out of his depth, being forced to challenge Antonio and the Hornets openly before he has any real plan, and in a great moment seems to come close to death as the possessed clowns force his head into the mouth of a lion. Paul Magrs then immediately tops this with the brilliant twist that the lion is also a hornet-animated stuffed animal, as the Doctor notices the unmistakable smell of formaldehyde, cleverly referencing the stuffed animals from The Stuff of Nightmares. However, another far bigger twist lays in wait as the Hornets' Nest story arc comes to the fore, developing and expanding on the continuing mystery of the Hornets' presence for the first time. The Doctor discovers to his horror that the Hornet creatures arrived at Venice (in front of Antonio) in the TARDIS. This clever twist is a real wake up call to the listeners as well as the Doctor, being something I never expected, and shows that Paul Magrs is significantly raising his game.
It's therefore a big shame then that The Circus of Doom, like its predecessor has a rather feeble ending. Outside of their impressive entrance, the Hornets seem to give the Doctor free roam for most of the story, teasing him on towards the big twist about the TARDIS, and then just locking him up. The Doctor foils the Hornets' invasion attempt just by freeing the kidnapped audience members with his sonic screwdriver, and then confronts the new host of the hornet hive mind, Francesca (since Antonio's body died earlier in the story). It's at this point that Paul Magrs is somewhat pushed into a corner as a result of his plot detail in The Dead Shoes, and has to contrive a sequence which ultimately ends with the Hornets' murder of Francesca, by forcing her to commit suicide. This hereby allows for her dead feet to be the resting place for the Hornet hive (and queen) as discovered in The Dead Shoes a hundred years later in 1932. Although disappointingly, there's still no explanation as to why it was so important for the Hornets to animate the ballet shoes that became a key plot device of The Dead Shoes.
Just like in previous Hornets' Nest audios the characterisation is rather simplistic and inconsequential. Dr. Adam Farrow first looks like being an interesting foil to the 4th Doctor, but ends up being a cipher to help prompt the Doctor to explain the plot and ongoing story arc, and spends most of his time endlessly cursing or despairing about his daughter, Francesca, and her part in the sinister circus. Sally, the local shopkeeper's daughter, is also a character with much wasted promise, very likeable and spirited, but ends up as the cardboard cut out of a damsel-in-distress that regularly needs to be rescued. The Hornets and their possessed human orators fare only a little better this time too, occasionally more subtle, but ultimately still amounting to the wicked witch in the seasonal play, with some lines of dialogue that threaten to break into camp territory, such as Francesca's "I can rise to ever greater heights!".
The basic characterisation though, is made much better by the strong cast that holds the whole production together nicely. Tom Baker in particular, is on top form here, and delightfully relishes some of his narrative dialogue, also adding great dramatic presence and tension to key moments quite powerfully and seductively. Stephen Thorne performs a subtle and slimy Italian variation of his Max Vilmio character from The Ghosts of N-Space, adding a welcome colour and variety to the audio soundtrack, and faces off well with Tom Baker, even if his character Antonio isn't give all that much to say, and is also used as a talking plot device for the second half of the story. The rest of the cast are good also, especially Susie Riddell, but due to the one-dimensional nature of their characters, they have difficulty finding a chance to shine. Jilly Bond in particular is hampered by some really cringeworthy over theatrical dialogue.
Even if dialogue isn't Paul Magrs' biggest strong point, his beautifully imaginative and descriptive narrative passages joyously remain so. You can really picture being in that quiet and traditional rural town, full of cold fresh air in the mornings and the pungent smells of animals in the fields. The Circus is also greatly visualised, especially the reaction of the hypnotised audience of Blandford residents, staring wide-eyed and open mouthed with rigid fixed grins like Victorian ventriloquist or 'Punch and Judy' dolls. A Circus hasn't been this creepy in Doctor Who since The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1988 TV Serial), and it shows.
Overall, The Circus of Doom is a real treat for listeners, and a marked improvement on the previous Hornets' Nest audios. The plot, characterisation and dialogue may not have been as well realised or developed as it could have been, and weakened what has otherwise been a great production, but the ideas and storyline are genuinely thrilling and make you appreciate the potential and ingenuity of the Hornets' Nest series for the first time. This is where the underlying story arc really starts to get interesting, and I'm fascinated to see where Paul Magrs will take us next.
Score: 8/10


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I've been genetically blessed with fuller brows, so I have a pretty laid back brow routine that normally just includes using a tinted brow gel and the occasional powder when I'm feeling it. However, the main product I've been using for well over a year, Benefit Gimme Brow, isn't my everything. Yes, I love the small wand, the plumping fibers, and the relatively dry formula... but their darkest shade, "Medium/Deep", just makes my brows look ashy. Enter my new lord and brow savior, Glossier Boy Brow in "Black". This baby is difficult to get your hands on, let me tell ya. In the short time it's been out, it has achieved cult status and thusly has been sold out a LOT. I finally snagged one when the Phase 2 makeup sets launched along with their stretch concealer and a Generation G Sheer Matte Lipstick.
I love small brushes on brow gels, and this one is very similar to my old favorite. The tiny tapered brush lives inside the super minimalistic white and silver tube. The packaging is very clean and to the point, which I appreciate. This tiny tube of brow magic has a lot of big things about it. Beeswax and carnauba wax are the natural waxes that flexibly hold the brow hairs in place and contribute to a more natural, less frozen-in-place look. Oleic acid and atelocollagen respectively nourish/moisturizes and condition/strengthen the hair fibers. Lastly, to top it all off, letcihin creates that perfect smooth texture that emulates the slight sheen of healthy hairs. This stuff is basically skincare... but for your brows. Foo foo brow care aside, how does this stuff look on? Pretty damn rad.
Glossier claims that Boy Brow has "sheer" pigment, but I respectfully disagree. It's pretty full color, so much so that I have to be careful on the tops of my brows where my translucent forehead fuzz lives... I've accidentally given myself more brow than I've bargained for a few times. There's also a fair amount of plumping and filling action in this lil' tube. In my sparse areas, like the bottom of my inner corners, I just purposefully push the brush into the skin to fill them in there further. Perfect shade aside, what also makes this different from the Gimme brow is that this also somehow defines each hair, which can be great for playing with texture.
Price: $16
Size: 3.12 g/0.11 oz
Availability (get 20% off your first order): Glossier
- Better color selection than most brow plumpers
- Does a great job of volumizing brows
- Natural appearance
- Comfortable hold
- Always frickin' sold out
Cruelty free: Oui
Final thoughts: I mean, this thing managed to replace my go to product and end up in my monthly favorites video during the month that I got it, so it's pretty dang good. If you like more natural, laid back, but a still groomed brow look then this definitely is the product for you. I highly recommend it.