More lighted beauty

More photos from my visit to the Atlanta Botanical Garden's Chihuly in the Garden exhibit.  Hope you don't mind!  Granny Annie asked in a comment if I named the pieces.  I'm sure they have actual names, but I don't know what they are.

- This one looks like a Harlequin hat to me.  There was a play going on nearby, somewhere in adjacent Piedmont Park, that sounded Shakespearean, which made perfect background noise for viewing in this area.

- Click to enlarge and you can see the blue sculpture that looks like Medusa's hair.  :)  A more close-up image can be seen here.  I loved how it popped up in this view though.

- In the conservatory, another pear-shaped sculpture.  Beautiful.

- A beautiful garden gate.  Click to enlarge to see the iguana, etc.

- And I named this one spray.  :)  The sun was setting and it had turned a bit cooler.  It was so lovely - can't wait to see it again.

Have a great weekend, my friends!

Lighted beauty

A few of the zillion photos I took at the Chihuly in the Garden installation at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.  

I named this one dandelion because...well, you know.

Inside the orchid house.

Flames in the water.

The botanical goddess is part of the regular exhibit at the gardens.  The lighted "boat" floats before her.  (Click to enlarge.)  A much better photo of her is here.

Beautiful torch.  

Barb and I plan to go back when it's cooler out - the exhibit lasts until the fall.  And this time I'll read the names of the installations and view more of these after dark.  We were early birds.  :)  A few more on Friday...

Lavender, Woof!, update and favorite fruit

- Friend Janice and I journeyed to Roswell, Georgia last Saturday for the annual Lavender Festival, held at historic Barrington Hall.  A few of my brother-in-law's family's antiques are inside the house - I posted about that here.  It was hot, but there was a little shade around, thanks to those huge Live Oak trees.  And the highlight for me:  lavender infused lemonade.  Yum.

- The night before, friend Barb and I visited the Atlanta Botanical Gardens for the Chihuly in the Garden installation.  I'll post about that next week, but right now wanted to share this botanical pooch in the midst of the upper garden, part of the regular garden tour.  I named this photo Woof!

- Update on the mural across the street from my office (click photo to enlarge) - it is celebrating my work neighborhood as the Upper Westside.  I posted about it last time here.  Can't wait to see the finished product!  The painters are spending much time on that last bit there on the right.

 - And a fourth thing today - semi-local blueberries are back!  Be still my heart.  I love them so.  These are from the south, at least.  Looking forward to finding some locally grown blueberries soon!

Hope you are having a lovely, peaceful day, my friends.

"Kyrie" from Memorial by René Clausen - GFU Concert Choir Spring Concert...

Thinking of the people of Orlando this morning and their resilient spirit after the heartbreaking events of the weekend.  I ran across this peaceful piece of music this morning while looking for something else.  It's so peaceful, I just have to share it.  Hugs!

 

Window, so good and making its way back home

 - The kitchen window at the mountain house in the Nantahala Forest - taken a couple of weeks ago when I was there.  So much going on in that window:  I like that my sister's late mother-in-law put items in the house with Native American touches, like the artwork on the left, since there are two documented bent trees on the property.  Native Americans used the bent trees as trail markers.  The watermelon and duck tchotchkes on the sill evoke Northern Florida, where the family is from.  And the tree outside the window is a Japanese Maple tree - I loved the sunlight playing across it and it's what made me snap this photo in the first place.

- Friend Leisa and I like to meet at L'Thai, near my home in the Atlanta suburbs, for dinner sometimes.  This plate of shrimp and vegetables in Panang sauce from our last visit was so beautiful that I had to snap a photo of it.  And it was so good!  There are so few patrons there during the week, that we wonder how they stay open, but so glad that they do.

- On a somewhat somber note - my late father was a veteran of World War II, in the US Navy on a minesweeper until the end of the war in 1946.  This photo album was taken from a captured Japanese soldier and considered a "spoil of war", I guess.  My very kind dad and I talked about it before he died.  He said he wanted to see if I could return it to the soldier or his family.

     So the journey to return the album began, but efforts to handle it through the Japanese embassy in Washington failed (long story), until I was watching CBS Sunday Morning two weeks ago and saw a story about similar efforts.  The story focused on the flags (Yosegaki Hinomaru) that Japanese soldiers took with them into battle.  They were signed by their family members and friends before they went off to war and they kept the flags with them in battle.  Many American soldiers found them and took them home.

     The story featured a non-profit organization in Astoria, Oregon, called the Obon Society, that is handling the return of the flags to the families, which sometimes takes time, but they are having some success.  So I contacted them and they most kindly agreed to take the album, warning me that this might take some time, that 67 cities in Japan were burned to the ground during the war, so they are finding that often the families have moved on and can be difficult to trace.  However, they are having some success finding the families if they are / were living in rural areas.  There is a name and address in the front of the album, faded, but legible, so I'm hopeful.  I sent it to the Obon Society on Wednesday.  Keeping my fingers crossed.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

At rest, more beauty and family fun

- More mountain scenes from the Nantahala Forest taken with my iPhone.  This is a farm I see every time I drive up the mountain to my sister's vacation home.  See the cows there resting in the distance?  The field of yellow wildflowers caught my attention every time I passed.  Click to enlarge.

- Back at Hamilton Gardens in Hiawassee, Georgia.  I loved the wildflowers next to the Oakleaf Hydrangea bush.  That's some sort of utility shed in the distance.

- And the view to the right from the back porch at the house.  The farmer across the river is in his 90s - I've mentioned him before.  He was out every morning and afternoon, working on his plantings.  You can just see a corner of his property there on the left.

- And there was some of this - watching kayakers go down the Hiwassee River.  Family fun, looks like.

Several days ago, I realized there is a bird's nest in the fern hanging by my front door.  Mama Wren flew out as I started watering it and kept yelling at me from a nearby perch.  Early this morning, I was outside watering potted plants and heard movement and chirping from within the plant - it was positively vibrating with life. Lovely.

Garden gate, star of the show and enjoying the view

- Last Sunday morning I took a walk in the Hamilton Gardens in Hiawassee, Georgia.  I was delighted to see the gardens in good order - last August, when I visited with my sister, it was overgrown and weedy.  A check of the internet then told me that funding had ended for its upkeep, but fortunately, a non-profit organization has formed that is taking good care of it now.  Love that beautiful gate!  And that's my car photo bombing the picture once again.  :)

- The gardens are known for its rhododendrons - blooms are on the wane now.  I was lucky to see any at all since they are usually done with blooming at the end of May.

 - I have a bum knee right now, so it was a slower walk than usual.  And I took advantage of the memorial benches dotted around the gardens, to stop and rest now and then.  A lovely walk.