Home away from home, early morning peace and weekend reading

- This image of the river behind my sister's mountain vacation home is my desktop image on my computer at work.  When I am feeling stressed (which is all too often when I'm working), I look at this and can summon up the sound of the river and feel more peaceful.  I'll be looking at this scene by the end of the day today.  Car is packed - as soon as I leave work, I'm on my way. 

- Feeling a sense of nurture as I water my (now straggly) outdoor plants in the early morning hour.  I love this time when it's still dark out, no other sounds except the birds singing and the paper delivery lady making her rounds.

- Reading material for the weekend (other than a pile of magazines), Cop Town by Karin Slaughter (she is a friend) and Flannery O'Connor's prayer journal (she was a neighbor when I was a child growing up in Milledgeville, Georgia.)  Two southern writers who, I'm certain, would have liked each other.

I hope you have a weekend full of peace and good reading.  Have a great one!

Keeping on, if you can't beat 'em... and welcome to the world

 - Stopping by Doug's organic garden for tomatoes after walking on Saturday.  I liked the nice display of pumpkins and gourds.  The pot of cherry tomatoes in the foreground is like my potted plants at home - beginning to show signs of throwing in the towel for the summer.  A little straggly, but still producing.  (In the case of my home geraniums and such - they are still producing blooms, but straggly.)

 - I always enjoy the group emails Doug sends out about what is available.  The one that came yesterday ended with this:  "The competition is mean out there. First the rabbits eating 280 out of 500 sweet potatoes plants, and now the field rats (I think) are digging out the sweet potatoes and eating half of it, and move on to the next one. I just have to grow enough for everyone."  So instead of being impatient, he just compensates by providing enough for the four-legged creatures, too.  What a nice man.

- There's a new baby in our family.  Born to niece Abby - Sawyer, weighing in at 8 pounds, 5 ounces.  That's a big name to live up to, but so far he is quite laid back and just wants to sleep.  A man after my own heart. 

Mysterious, beautiful and remote

My late father grew up in Elbert County, in northeast Georgia, and my grandparents grew up on neighboring farms there, so, it must have been difficult to leave when they moved to Macon, Georgia for a job opportunity when my dad was 17 years old.  When we visited Elbert County with her in later years, my grandmother would say, smiling, "We just entered Heaven!"  She loved it there that much.

Sometime in the early 90s, I attended a family reunion there with my parents.  Before we left, everyone told us we should go by the Georgia Guidestones, a granite monument with astronomically aligned slabs that appeared overnight in June 1979, off a fairly remote state highway.  Later, it was found that they had been commissioned by an anonymous person or persons, who wanted to leave "guidelines to an age of reason" and a road map for rebuilding civilization.  I conclude that they are just mysterious and interesting - especially that the guidelines are written in eight languages. 

- This post has been hanging out in my blogger drafts since last February, when my sisters and I got together to celebrate my birthday, which included a visit to Elberton, Georgia.  Of course, I had to show my sisters the guidestones.  If you are interested in further reading, the Wikipedia link above is good and there has been a documentary made that you can read about here. 

- You can tell it was winter, by the brown grass and spare trees in the background.  It was a beautiful day though - not cold at all.

 - The horizontal slot there indicates the annual travel of the sun.

- So you don't have to click to enlarge, the "guides" are listed below in English.*

- I couldn't decide which photos to leave out - the sky was so beautiful behind all of them.  I like guide number 10, which lists "leave room for nature" twice. 

*

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely – improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion – faith – tradition – and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth – beauty – love – seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth – Leave room for nature – Leave room for nature.

Good things happened, side by side and laughing all the way

- "This is what we will do.  We will go and put good things into the world...and the trees and the flowers and the sky will be so happy."  Spotted by my sister in a shop in Pensacola, Florida - she loved it and I wish I could afford to buy it for her.  ($$$)  She doesn't know I have a blog, let alone about the "good things" reference, so of course I loved that part the most.

- Spotting about 25 birds sitting side by side on a power line this morning observing rush hour traffic on I-85 southbound.  I wonder what they were thinking?  I think they were thinking they are happy they can fly.

- A man and woman sitting in the front of moving van, stopped at the red light on the other side of the intersection this morning at 7:30am.  They were smiling and laughing.  Probably a long moving day for them, so they were off to a happy start.  :)

And I'm happy - it's Friday!!!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friends.

Trains and more trains, like a floating carnival and yum

- Monroe's second birthday party in Pensacola, Florida on Saturday had a train theme.  It's a six hour drive from Atlanta for me, but it was totally worth it - especially later in the evening when he called me "Aunt Wynnie."  His mom used to call me Aunt Wynn when she was a wee toddler, too, and later, when she could manage the L sound better, it changed to Aunt Lynnie.  She still calls me that.  Full circle. 

- A Sunday night stop at the Port of Pensacola yielded the astounding sight of this enormous ship - called Deep Blue.  I didn't get the entire ship in the photo, so clicking on this link yields better images.  It looks like a floating carnival from a distance, but in fact the 677 foot ship is the world's largest purpose-built ultra deepwater pipelay and subsea construction vessel.  It's in port for maintenance before it moves on.

 

- And then we moved on to dinner at my favorite restaurant on beautiful Pensacola Bay - The Fish House.  I ended up having fried Gulf shrimp twice over the weekend, but the shrimp here were steller - pecan crusted.  And I acted like a tourist and got a drink in a take-home commemorative glass.  :)

More photos on Friday - I had a lovely time.

Along the way, like a patchwork quilt and compliment

- The largest percentage of my time at the printing company these days is spent on the customer service function, but I do have a few printing clients still.  This week one of them wanted to see me, so off I went.  It was a 20 mile or so drive into a largely industrial area of Southwest Atlanta.  Along the way, I spotted something colorful through the trees, in a park I hadn't noticed before, and vowed to stop by on my return trip.

 - I drove up into the park on the way back and found this color mural, which resembles a patchwork quilt, I think.  There isn't much about English Park on the internet, but I did find a rap video was filmed there at what looks like a family picnic.  And I saw people walking on the trail.  It reminded me of when I used to do only account management and the part of the job I enjoyed most:  getting out and about.

- Because I always laugh at his jokes, a coworker says:  "Lynn your humor is as twisted as mine."  "Thank you!" I replied.  :)

And a flashback to another job - having a wonderful dinner last night with friend Leisa at a Lebanese restaurant and  remembering the law firm I used to work for handled some work for this family.  Life can be a full circle sometimes.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

The garden, searching for the pumpkin and lunch today

- When I stepped out of my car on Saturday morning at Doug's garden, in search of tomatoes and Old 200 Poundy, this quiet scene presented itself.  Lovely and serene (click to enlarge.)  I located the tomatoes for sale in the garden shed nearby, but no one seemed to be around.  Eventually the nice lady who works there came up from the garden to help me.

- She speaks mostly Spanish, but eventually understood that I also wanted to see the pumpkin and lead the way.  There it is, Old 200 Poundy, looking as if it is not quite at that weight yet.  I'll keep up with its progress and report back.

- There are lots of flowers around, too.  I loved these ruffley looking lilies, basking in the morning sun.

- And I got my tomatoes.  There is nothing like a summer tomato.  There have been mostly sandwiches made from them, but I'm also thinking gazpacho.  Yum.

Country bouquet, in search of tomatoes and contest winner

- A photo from my visit to the mountain farmers market a few weeks ago.  Loved that this bouquet was labeled as "country."  I thought it was beautiful.

- In search of tomatoes.  There are certainly tomatoes around, but nothing beats a tomato grown in someone's home garden.  I will be dropping hints at work today.  :)

- There is an uncertified organic farm near the park in which I walk.  I'll stop by there tomorrow probably.  Doug sends out regular emails and I love this one from a couple of weeks ago:

"I have a special project I'm working on. As you come by the house, on the right I have planted a special variety of Pumpkin, a giant one. I have been studying as to the special care to grow them.  They need 15 gallons of water a week and 150 leaves on the plant to produce 1 Pumpkin. I have 3 plants and 3 pumpkins. Many have been grown to go between 400 and 800 Lbs. I would settle for 200. My dream is to have a giant  pumpkin where you can bring your children for a Picture and sign it this fall. I will try to post picture of it as it grows.  I would like to see if there is a group of children who would like to make a Scare Crow in the patch and help record its growths."

- A great marketing move to get people to come by his farm, I think.  And an email a week later had a "Name the Pumpkin" contest.  The winner?  Announced yesterday:  "Old 200 Poundy"  from someone in the neighborhood.  Love that name! 

Hopefully he'll have tomatoes, too, and you know I'll photograph that pumpkin.  Have a great weekend y'all!