Front porch view, joyous running and mama cat

- Neighbor Rhonda put a hummingbird feeder out front so we could all enjoy them.  She was sitting in a chair out there Sunday morning when she spotted the first visitor, who then came over and had a look at her.  She says it hovered there for a moment as if to say, "thank you."

- I wish this photo could capture the all out exuberant running of the young man pictured above.  He threw up his hand with a smile as he passed me.  We looked like the tortoise and the hare, except in this case the tortoise never caught up.  :)

- At the antiques shop near the park, the owner was cooing at something through the window to the back porch.  It was mama cat and her brood.  I love the sleepy eyed look she gave us as she nursed her babies.  The owner brings them all in at night, to protect them.

Presiding, framed and all ready

Some fellow church members and I spent a pleasant Saturday morning readying the church sanctuary for Easter morning services.  I took a few photos - the first two are from the many trips back and forth bringing Easter lilies from their holding area down the way from the sanctuary.

- This dogwood presides over the church courtyard, where receptions and such are held.  It's also a good place to just sit and be.  Taken through a hallway window.

 - This pink dogwood is beautifully framed in this window at a stairwell.  The church has a preschool and you can spot some of their play equipment there in the lower left.

- There it is - all ready for Easter morning.  We stood back and admired our work.  The lily pictured in my Sunday post was a reject - what I call a "leaner."  But for a reject - it sure has been pretty sitting outside my front door and I love seeing its blooms when I drive up in the evening.

And here it is the weekend again!  Yahoo!  Hope your weekend is spectacular, my friends. 

Happy hour, see you in May and promises kept

- Golfers having a late afternoon "good walk spoiled" on Bobby Jones Golf Course, that runs adjacent to the park where I walk in the afternoon.  (Click to enlarge.)  I had an off day at work and being out in nature's glory made it all go away.

- The apple scented candle I've been burning in my kitchen makes me think of someplace pleasant that I can't put my finger on.  And this morning, while unloading the dishwasher, it came to me.  My sister's mountain home kitchen.  Ahhh...

- More early morning activity:  watering the outside plants that are under the eaves, including the Easter lily pictured on Sunday.  I promise the as yet potted geraniums (out in the open) that rain is on the way for them today. 

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Easter!

From my walk earlier this morning on the street where I live...

Have a beautiful, peaceful day, my friends!

Almost like a painting, reflection and colorful

- Such a serene spot, and for it me it always signals that my walk at the park near work is 3/4 done.  It almost looks like a painting, I think.  And there is a marked difference from a photo taken in the same spot almost a month ago.

- You would have to click to enlarge to really see that house across the creek.  I like that it is reflected in the creek below.  I do not remember seeing this house on previous walks in the park and think that it is either new or growth has been cleared from around it.  They sure have a great view from those back windows.

- A Maundy Thursday service in a friend's home.  Everyone brought food for the dinner before and the highlight was truly this wonderful colorful Easter cake that friend Mary and her 6-year-old daughter Isabella made.  Bella was so excited about cutting it to show the layers of color inside.  And it was delicious.

I hope that you are well and happy today.  Have a lovely weekend!

Captured, weekend breakfast and boring, but good

- I think I post this same scene every season, but it bears repeating.  Pink and white dogwood trees, captured on Saturday morning at the condos.  Click here for the October version. I'll have to make sure to snap it in July and January, too. 

- Special weekend breakfast of poached eggs on English muffins after my weekend morning walks.  Something I never tire of and the poached eggs are a big cheat - using the microwave poacher for 45 seconds.

- Reading about many spring break trips on facebook, but deciding that hanging around my place is not so bad either.  Reading, catching up on dvrd programs, downloading music.  It was lovely.

Blooming inside, smiling dogs and happiness

- Beauty at the reception desk at the printing company.  The owner, a lovely lady, cut a few blooms from her Japanese Cherry tree from her yard and brought them in to share. 

- Smiling dogs at the park near work.  They all seem so happy to be walking outdoors - some even trotting alongside their bicycling people (kept close by leashes.) 

- Ignoring the pollen and getting outside to walk myself this week.  This afternoon will be the third after work walk of the week.  It's like taking a happiness drug; somehow the indoor exercise video is just not quite the same. 

Something else that makes me happy:  it's the weekend!  Woo hoo!  I hope you enjoy yours and that good things come your way.

My Georgia kitchen, passing the dogwoods and more books

- Very early on Tuesday morning, I got absorbed in David Lebovitz's latest blog post, about the making of his new cookbook.  I've been reading his blog for years - he is an American chef living in Paris.  I need another cookbook like a hole in the head, but ordered it.  I just had to.  But look at how many I already have.  Maybe one more won't hurt.  :)

- The dogwood trees are blooming and really, on the wane already.  I pass one after the other when I'm driving, thinking how I should pull off residential streets and get out of my car to get a beautiful photo of them.  But in the spirit of my blog, things are good, not always perfect, so I snapped this beauty in the midst of power lines and storage business when I was parking somewhere yesterday afternoon.  I love how they pop up like that all over town.

- Tuesday is my long day - I go to volunteer work after my paying job.  We record publications and books for the blind there.  And this week is volunteer appreciation week, with the most exciting part for me being the stacks of books we could purchase for $1.  Here's what I got (see above stacked on the leaf shaped platter):  "Mockingbird" by Charles J. Shields - a portrait of author Harper Lee, "Cumberland Island" by Charles Seabrook - a history of the island off the coast of Georgia, and "Celestine - A Granddaughter's Reminiscence" by Celestine Sibley Fleming - a portrait of the late Atlanta journalist Celestine Sibley.  I used to read her column every day - it was a perfect start to the day.  And this was a perfect (almost) end to this one:  forking over my $3, not eating the appreciation cake, getting my recording done and heading home with takeout dinner.   A lovely day.

Saturday morning visitor, madly leafing and down came the rain

- The luxurious feeling of watching a movie on a beautiful spring Saturday morning.  My walking buddies were both out of town and the pollen count was extremely high, so staying in felt justified (and luxurious.)  :)  The cardinal there on the railing came to visit, first landing in the terracotta pot, then hopping on the railing.  He was probably seeing his own reflection in the glass, but it looked for all the world as if he was looking at me.  (Click to enlarge.)

- The end result of all the pollen is worth it though - the trees are madly leafing out.

- A spring rain, that came in on Sunday, and then has settled in on Monday morning, washing away the yellow stuff.

Sunny road, on the road and other women's lives

- Someone painted a landscape on the side of this building in Lilburn, Georgia (click to enlarge.)  I like how the painting migrates around the corner a little and what I imagine I might see if I go through that tunnel.

- A blessedly lighter commute.  It is Spring Break for the public schools in my county next week, and there were fewer cars this morning on the commute.  People are already leaving town, it seems.  Works for me.  :)

- Yesterday in the nail salon:  two women who haven't seen each other in years, marvel how the time has passed.  "Doesn't it seem just yesterday that our children were little?"  Now they both have grown children and are dealing with matters brought on by having had many birthdays.  It was lovely relaxing and having a pedicure and listening to the details of other women's lives.

This is my 1350th post.  How about that?  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Lenten roses, reminder or gift and good joke

- I only became aware of Lenten roses a couple of years ago, when friend Alice pointed them in out in her garden.  Now I notice them around - here at the Greenway Park last Sunday.  There's another clump of them in front of someone's home on my afternoon commute.  So much beauty around.

- Neighbor dog Cali (who is my buddy), happily carries sticks around in her mouth and always carefully leaves them around her front door when she goes inside.  So yesterday, when I found one in my pot of dirt that is waiting for something to be planted, it seems like a nice reminder or a gift - either way, it made me smile.

- Friend Mary, who had her daughter Isabella rather late in life, is the most fun mom I know.  Yesterday her April Fools joke on her six-year-old was this:  "Her bowl of cereal looked like every other bowl of cereal until she tried to dig in. Frozen solid. She tried not to laugh but ..."