Still blooming, savory bite and nocturnal rain

- I think my camera will do lots of things that I haven't tried out until now - in this case, the macro lens gives a close up view of my happily blooming geranium and one of its blossoms. They clearly love the cooler weather.

- Toasted walnuts in my dinner salad make a lovely extra savory bite and make the kitchen smell good, too. And it seems kind of a fallish thing to do.

- Waking to hear a light rain during the night and then wondering later if I imagined it. No - opening the front door reveals a wet path and refreshing cool air.

Adjustment, pleasant call and loving the lattes

- Little Lucky (niece Amanda's dog) - apparently feeling usurped by the new kitty at my sister's house by burrowing in big dog Moby's bed to hide out. Amanda carries Lucky wherever she goes and he adapts.

- Driving by a teenager standing on the sidewalk using her cellphone. She snaps it shut and turns with a pleased smile to go in the house.

- Coworker Joanne gives me a Starbucks gift card as a thank you for delivering her stained glass materials for her. Totally unnecessary, but it has been fun to have an excuse to stop for random Grande Non-fat Lattes to go. :)

Beautiful nibble, beyond sweet and message

Photo by a niece or her friend :)

- Facebook is so great for keeping up with nieces around the country (and abroad sometimes) - in this case, my niece in Portland, Oregon was at a party with some friends and this photo made it into the mix. I love that they combined grapes and tomatoes onto a beautiful plate as a nibble.

- Message from same niece yesterday, referring to a birthday call from last February, made to her when I was visiting my mom: i have the birthday message from you and nana saved on my phone. whenever my voice mail prompts me to erase or save again, i can't get myself to erase... i just love hearing your voices. ...Now that's beyond sweet.

- Another loving message: two of my friends have been domestic partners for 21 years. One packs the other's lunch every day and always includes a boiled egg with a message written on the shell with a Sharpie. Most recent message: "If I could have one last dance with you, I'd play a song that would never end."

Moon (again), fashion statement and taco tweet

- Amid telephone wires and streetlights, this was my attempt to capture the super harvest moon during my early morning commute last Friday. Can you see it? I pulled over at the fruit and vegetable stand up the street from my home.

- The acolyte at church with her white robe and big cross hanging around her neck, also wearing glittery pink Mary Janes.

- It is difficult not to be excited for Hankook Taqueria (Korean taco place near my office) after reading this on Twitter: Don't forget to watch us on Food Network's BEST THING I EVER ATE on Monday, the 27th at 9:00pm EST!!! I'll be watching. :)

Brother Pete, the fun life and bejeweled

Get used to that camera, Petey - you'll be seeing it a lot! Photo by JMM

- Here he is - my sister's new kitty, complete with a first name and middle name - Brother Pete. The vet's office had named the whole litter with names of Greek gods and goddesses, and this one was pronounced "Zeus" - but they had been calling him Brother or Little Brother, after he was the final one left to adopt. My brother-in-law suggested Pete, so Brother Pete, he is. They'll just end up calling him Pete, we think.

- A message from my plantation manager niece: "a snake shed his skin in my office but the snake is nowhere to be found yet......this could be an interesting afternoon." She reportedly spent the afternoon sitting with her legs up in her chair. Yikes. The fun life in the country!

- A conversation with my cousin about her son's upcoming wedding. There will be no flowers at all, but lots of faux jewels. The bridesmaids will carry jewel-studded pomander balls. She is impressed that I know what a pomander ball is - I think it is all that informational blog reading. :)

So that's my family news for the day. I hope you have a wonderful weekend with good things happening to you!

So long summer, super harvest moon and the fair

- Farewell to summer. Someone needs to tell the weather department that it is officially autumn now. :)

- For the first time in almost 20 years, northern autumn began on the night of a full Moon. Wandering out to view the "Super Harvest Moon" - I can't really say I saw the predicted special glow of the moon, but I liked thinking of all my friends and family around the country (and beyond!) having a look at it, too.

- Another sign of autumn, from a friend on facebook (speaking of the Gwinnett County fair): FAIR!!! Rides, corn dogs, funnel cakes, games, oh my!

Note, the most wonderful time and fleeting

- A co-worker rounds the corner, writes this note, gives it to me and disappears with a smile. I think it refers to my low-maintenance personality. It makes me smile, too, and I tack it up in my cubicle.

- A woman calls in for an estimate on printing a Christmas catalog that features elves. Fun! Is it that time already?

- It must be, because on the same day my busy friend from the veterinarian's office calls to get a deadline for the file submission for their 2011 calendar. My talk with him is fleeting and he is gone. He leaves me smiling, as always.

The shadow, not me and DWTS

- The shadow that this little statue makes on the wall at my mother's assisted living apartment. This was an award my dad won a long time ago and we put it on top of the kitchen cabinet. I like how it looks as if it is watching over things.

- Somehow my cellphone manages to dial up my office on its own inside my purse - twice - while I'm out. I'm told that they could hear me talking, but couldn't get me to hear them. I put it all together when I realized they were hearing the woman's voice who is reading "The Time Traveler's Wife" that I am listening to on CD in the car. :)

- The guilty pleasure of watching Dancing with the Stars on TV. What a crazy show, but I enjoy it immensely.

Cotton, cloud-like and possibilities

- Driving past miles and miles of cotton fields on my way to and from visiting my mother in south Georgia. This is still a major crop In Georgia apparently and makes me appreciate the cotton t-shirts I love to hang out in at home.

- An errant cotton ball evokes the clouds.

- Your responses to possible cat names for my sister's new cat pleased her. All good and very creative! Talon and my niece had the same thought: bring him home and be around him for a bit before bestowing a name. I'll post a picture of him with his new name later this week. Happy Monday!

Heureux, familiar scent and not Zeus

- I slid the mood indicator button on my refrigerator to "heureux" this morning to reflect gladness over the day. Happy Friday, friends!

- Walking into Atlanta Union Mission yesterday and being greeted with what has become a familiar scent - coffee and chocolate. Lovely.

- My sister is getting a new kitten from a litter at the veterinarian's office; he is gray with white paws. The vet's office has been calling him Zeus, which she thinks is a bit grand for this little guy. We tend to call our pets people names. Any ideas? (My mother rather sunnily proposed "Sunshine" which didn't fly. I suggested "Sonny" as an alternative. Nope.) :)

Avoir une heureuse fin de semaine, d'amis! (Have a happy weekend, friends!)

Sunrise, no complaints and priceless

Sunset over Razor lake by ALM

- My niece works on this property in northern Florida and is privy to this view all the time. I tell her how lucky she is (except for that working cows thing, which she doesn't mind.) :)

- Such a comparison with the concrete and asphalt I am surrounded by, but no complaints here. I love my section of northwest Atlanta and especially clients like loyal Matt, who tells me yesterday how much he likes working with us on his projects.

- Catching the end of America's Got Talent, a guilty pleasure. No spoiler here, but I think the right person won and the look of excitement on the winner's face was priceless.

Peering out, tasty prize and residual effects

Photo by Lisa B. - taken with iPhone

- Friend and printing client Lisa B. spotted this little bandit on two of her walks through the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. A good home for him, I think - away from trash cans. :)

- My mother reports participating in a Butterbean Auction at her assisted living place. She bid five beans and snagged a Fifth Avenue candy bar.

- From facebook: RBH says she "really wishes movies would quit depicting Southern people always sweating and glistening. I mean, we DO have AC down here." She has a point, but this made me laugh out loud because I am usually sweating and glistening during the summer. Maybe I should try out for the movies.

Vegas angel, connecting and bearable

- Another in my collection of angels. A friend brought this one back from Las Vegas as a Christmas present. I just like that she is looking over my home office and her reminder of Peace.

- Spotting a deceased friend's children on facebook and "friending" them - they have scattered around the country and it is lovely to connect with them again. It's clear they have big personalities, like their mother.

- Having a meeting after a meeting in the parking lot - bearable now since the evening air has taken a decidedly cooler turn.

Magic, neighbors and empty

- A little spoiled from having a three-day weekend the week before, I wish I could wave my magic wand and give myself another day today. Just kidding - it's all good. Happy to be employed and off to work on a Monday morning. :)

- A lovely Saturday morning on my back porch drinking coffee and enjoying the cardinal couple hanging around in the trees. They seem disconcerted by my presence on one of their landing spots.

- Finally getting caught up on laundry, down to the dregs of the basket that never quite gets emptied.

Free to be, working cows and so proud

- The pot in the middle is the one I have always allowed to be free to sprout whatever it wants. Last year it was some stalks with cottony looking blossoms. This year - a maple tree and what looks to be a little pine tree seedling in the back. Neighbor Marion mentioned that he had watered my tree for me one day. It will be interesting to see if its leaves turn in the fall.

- My niece, who works on a plantation, posts this on facebook yesterday: "working cows & watching the sun rise :)" Sounds so peaceful, except for the working cows part. :)

- Friend Barbara G will be one of the speakers at an upcoming Green Initiatives conference and invites me to come. It costs $175 to get in the door, so I ask if I can just come and hold her purse. :) So proud of my friend.

Have a lovely weekend, my friends!

Keyhole, soothing and so sweet

- Still feeling the pull of the river - this view is like looking through a keyhole. Neighbor Gail (her house is just visible) stays there from early May until sometime in October, when she heads back to Florida.

- But reality set in and back to work for me on Wednesday and a frantic early call from a graphics designer client who needs something printed for her client. Done and done.

- Washing some blueberries for my cereal and popping a juicy looking one in my mouth. It is so sweet. And I vow to find more to freeze for the coming winter.

Dorothy Sprinkle, freshly made and headed home

- More from the weekend... This basket found at a purveyor of antiques in Hayesville. The handmade tag reads: Jeremiah basket, Handcrafted from Natural Reed by Dorothy Sprinkle. I left the shop, but kept thinking about the basket. The woman at the counter said, "You're back!" I tell her that I want the basket because it was made by Dorothy Sprinkle. Neither of us knows her - I just like her name and she made a lovely basket.

- A man emerges from Louise's Garden Shop in Hayesville holding a loaf of her bread in a paper bag. He hands it into a woman inside the car and says, "Smell this! And it's still hot!"

- Taking a new way back to Atlanta and getting a little lost. But the scenery sure was lovely: a lake, some farms and lots of forest. Finally emerging next to a familiar sign at a long ago shuttered store with a hand lettered sign out front that advertised Cold Cokes. I knew just where I was and headed home.

Shimmering morning, gone in a blur and dad's hat

- A shimmering morning in the mountains, cool and no humidity - much of it spent feet up on the back porch. Midway through the morning, a lone hummingbird buzzes up and has a look at me and then is gone in a blur.

- There they go - a boy and his dog kayaking down the Hiawassee River. Taken through the screen of the back porch.

- I have adopted my dad's lawn mowing and fishing hat. I like having it with me - especially in a place that he loved as much as this.

Relics, troubled no more and calling my name

- As my place has filled up with heirlooms from our family home that is up for sale now, other stuff from my home must go out. It amazes me how I can rationalize trying to keep things like this. Maybe I'll need to watch a VCR tape sometime (I haven't in a few years) or Don't I still have a cassette player somewhere? :)

- A tape in the fish bowl, Silver Wings, is New Agey music that I used to go to sleep by when I was troubled. So far the fish bowl with the cassette tapes stays until I can see if any of those old treasured tapes might be on CD. Troubled no more, but sometimes it is nice to hear soothing sounds.

- Soothing sounds. I am off after work to sit by the river in Clay County, North Carolina. The river is calling my name.

Have a great weekend friends! It is a holiday in the states on Monday, so I'll be back in blogland on Tuesday. Cheers!

Capitol, lost and a good walk

- A meeting in a building just next to Georgia's capitol building in Atlanta. It was so sunny that the Georgia gold leaf on the dome is not shown to full effect here. A nice building, I think. It was erected after the capital of Georgia was moved to Atlanta from my home town of Milledgeville after the Civil War.

- Going through security checks of my person and bag in the judicial building that houses the Supreme Court of Georgia and then being sent in an elevator to a floor in which no one at all is visible - just marble corridors stretching to the left and right. Fortunately a smiling woman appears with two other visitors in tow and leads me to the right door for my meeting.

- An enjoyable walk around an area of the city that I don't usually get to. Parking was a challenge, but I finally found a metered spot. So I enjoy my nice walk past historic buildings and statuary, returning to my shady parking spot nearby and head back to the office.

This Is Yours, family gathering and new message

- A member of this band, The Debutaunts, contacted me last spring and asked if I would print some prop cards for them to use in a video. Several cards needed to be blank and they use them to great effect toward the end. We don't usually print this kind of thing, but I did it for them because he was so wonderfully polite and well-spoken in the asking. And I like it that one of the cards has my often-used symbol. :)

- Hearing from my cousin that we are all having Thanksgiving again one more time at their still intact family home, uninhabited for three years. I reply that I'll be there with the sweet potato casseroles.

- Rerecording my voice mail greeting on my home phone - it's been the same for years - after getting feedback that the current message was too low in volume. And it only took three tries to get it sounding somewhat right. :)