Another sign of spring, life is good and the one with sticks

- Three Dragon Wing begonia plants massed together in one pot.  Another sign of spring - getting these shade-loving plants potted.  I got these (along with the fern hanging above it - out of view) at the plant sale last Saturday.  I snapped this as I was leaving for work yesterday and smiled at them in the afternoon when I finally got home.

 - Neighbor Rhonda called in the afternoon and said our street was blocked off at the end I usually drive in on, so I walked in the park near work to give it time to clear out.  Fortunately I had the stuff to walk in with me.  And I needed that head-clearing walk.  I haven't been in this park since last November - it was good to see it.  The lovely young magnolia tree is just blossoming out (click to enlarge) and some good songs volunteered on my iPod.  Life is good.

- Coworker and friend Bren's grandson will play one of The Three Little Pigs at a school play in May.  They are gathering items for the costume(s) and so I volunteered to order pig snouts.  This was the most fun I had all week!  Her sweet grandson gets to be the pig with the sticks.

Yay - it's Friday!  Hope you have a lovely weekend!

The path, book browsing and new home

- The path before us was so lovely on Saturday morning at Lilburn Greenway Park that I had to stop and snap this photo with my phone.  Friend Laura doesn't know I have a blog, but doesn't ever seem to mind my serendipitous ways of stopping at random moments like this during our walk.  There had been a spring rainstorm the night before that made the morning sparkle.  If you click to enlarge, you can see the sun's rays flowing down through the trees.

- Saturday was full of local activity - here, a book sale at Tucker Reid H. Cofer Library.  I came by to pick up an audio book to listen to during my commute and was drawn into book browsing.  I put the audio book down to snap this photo and accidentally left it there.  A very nice librarian left a very nice message at home that it was (again) waiting for me at the circulation desk. 

- I got these two Anne Rivers Siddons books for a total of $4.  I have always meant to read these two books, both set in the city of Atlanta.  Ms. Siddons was born in nearby Fairburn, Georgia, and is a beloved southern writer.

- And both books were signed "For Connie - Warmest wishes - Anne Rivers Siddons".  A little sad to me that Connie has given up (or had to give up) her signed books, but they have another good home now.

Sunrise, mama bird and poppies

To celebrate Earth Day, Friday, April 22, I went back to another spring, five years ago, for some photos that make me smile this morning:

- Sunrise at my sister and brother-in-law's farm in Jefferson county, Florida.  Niece Amanda will be married on this spot, just before sunset, next March.

- This bird had a nest in the fern hanging by my front door.  She flew out as I was coming in with packages, keeping a vigilant eye on her nest.  I had to water that plant very carefully, I remember - keeping the water to one edge of the plant.  The plant lived though and when I got home from an out of town trip around the first of May that year, the baby birds had left the nest.

 - Poppies from the mountain property that I love to visit in the Nantahala forest.

Happy Earth Day everyone! 

Mr. and Mrs. Duck, Mac and Scout and green thumb

- Mr. and Mrs. Duck on a morning outing at Lilburn Greenway Park, where I walked Saturday morning with friend Laura and her two dogs.  I wish you could see the glory of Mr. Duck's teal head.  (Click to enlarge.)  It was unusual to see ducks near the entrance to the park - all we could think is that they had been investigating the new drainage ditch there.

- Passersby were chuckling at my attempt to photograph Macintosh and Scout (on the right), who would never stay still.  Since Scout is still a puppy, Laura is trying to teach her not to go crazy when others approach, by getting her to sit before getting a treat.

- It kind of worked, but not really.  :)

- And when I got home, neighbor Rhonda had brought home these beauties to plant in our common flower beds.   I am thankful for a neighbor with a green thumb.  I re-potted a plant on the back porch - that's about it so far.  :)  How I do love spring!

And on Sunday, I was delighted to see my first hummingbird of the season at the feeder!  

Path of blossoms, closure and her story

- The shedding dogwood tree leaves a lovely blossom path.  Late afternoon at Crestlawn Cemetery in Atlanta.  When I blogged about looking for my beloved late great aunt's grave in February - post found here - I didn't mention that when I found her grave, it didn't have a date of death on it, and she passed away in 1983.  My cousin asked if I was certain that she was actually buried there, but I attended the graveside service back then, so the answer was yes.  The gravestone is one of those double ones - husband on one side, wife on the other.  Her husband died in the late 1960s and at that time, her name was put on the stone, too, + her date of birth, just awaiting her death.  It looks as if no one ever followed up on that after her death; the cemetery owners assuring me that no one ever paid to have that done.  Hmmm.  I had no way of proving that (cousin's father - the executor of her will - has also passed away), so I enlisted my sisters help and we paid to have her date of death put in place.  I went to see it yesterday afternoon and her date of death has been added now.  I feel better.  I knew her well enough to know, that would have bothered her. This is she, below, the laughing woman on the right (click to enlarge):

 - Aunt H and her friend were on a trip to London (early 1970s, I think) and someone snapped a photo of them on the street.  She lived in the Candler Park neighborhood in Atlanta in a house with a big front porch.  I liked to sit there with her in the porch swing. We were each others only relative in Atlanta; she had no children.  I told the cemetery representative her story, so he would know she wasn't just another name on a sea of gravestones.  She worked for Rich's Department Store for 30 years, in the flagship store in downtown Atlanta.  She always dressed very stylishly, in beautiful suits.  I remember going with her to Rich's for suit shopping once - she chose a lovely, peach one she had had her eye on, and then we went to dinner.  She passed away not long after that.  I miss her very much and was so glad to put some closure on her final resting place, where her body rests next to her beloved Clarence.

A sentimental post today. The photo above is just one I love, taken in Thomasville, Georgia, a few years ago.  It seemed like a good note to end on this morning.  Hope you have a lovely weekend, my friends!

Waiting for visitors, new digs and signs of spring

- A definite sign of spring:  the hummingbird feeder is filled and waiting for visitors.  The nice lady at my local bird feeder store, The Garden Enthusiast, told me another customer reported seeing scouts about already.

- I went there on Saturday to buy yet more Nyjer seed - the finches are going through it like mad, but half of it ends up on the back porch floor.  So I bought this new feeder with smaller holes.  They were hesitant at first, but took to it eventually.  Love that guy waiting his turn at the top.  Click to enlarge.

- And nothing says spring to me like Vidalia onion bulbs.  My late father used to plant these in his backyard garden.  I love putting them in salads and that's where these have gone this week.

There was a lovely spring rain last night.  I ran the plants from the back porch out front, so they could feel the rain and the pollen on their leaves could wash away.  Everybody's happy this morning, including me.  :)

Cherished, how it could look and finally did it

- The internet tells me that Saturday is National Cherish an Antique Day.  There's a day for everything, I think!  The few antiques I have are inherited from my late parents and this vase, there in the middle, is my favorite, I think.

 It's a Fenton Hobnail Milk Glass rose vase, probably made in the late 1940s.  My parents likely received it as a wedding gift.  When we were clearing out the storage shed on the last day we were at our family home a few years ago, I found it among some clay pots.  I remembered it from childhood - mom used to have a houseplant in it, I think.  I'm keeping collected matchbooks in it right now, but roses would be pretty.  I never knew it was called that until yesterday.  See image below found online:

- I had oral surgery a few days ago (nothing serious) and was mostly confined to home for a few days, so had time to walk around and really look at everything I have.  The wall pocket below had been sitting propped up on my bathroom counter, waiting to be hung, for months.  And I bought it about 15 years ago.  That's an azalea bloom plucked from the condo property stuck in one of those water holding vials:

Procrastination should be my middle name.  :)  I hope you have a lovely weekend, my friends!

Graceful, new opportunity and right on schedule

- On a gloomy day outside, azalea blossoms from a coworker's garden graced the reception counter at the printing company.

- I always pick up two fortune cookies when I visit my favorite Chinese restaurant, Main Moon #10.  These two seemed to go together - maybe.  (click to enlarge.)

- The male goldfinches are molting and turning golden - right on schedule.  Click to enlarge.  OK - hard to see them there on the feeder, but trust me - there is definite golden-ness!  :)

Too expensive anyway, Aesop and lessons

All the lovely wisteria around right now reminded me of this post from 2010, so a re-post is in order!

- Stopping by The German Bakery near my house only to find it closed, but finding it surrounded by wisteria. Beautiful. When I was a little girl, I used to think wisteria vines were bunches of grapes.

- The image instantly recalls a fable from Aesop, "The Fox and the Grapes": "ONE hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. 'Just the things to quench my thirst,' quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success. Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: "I am sure they are sour."

"IT IS EASY TO DESPISE WHAT YOU CANNOT GET."

- Aesop's Fables are wonderful for their lessons, I think. Wikipedia recounts this modern variant on the tale with the following joke from the comedian Mitch Hedberg: "Sometimes in the middle of the night, I think of something that's funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or if the pen's too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny."