Good Things Happened: Hello Spring!, Dreams, Moody view

The proprietor of my favorite little antiques / cool stuff shop in Lilburn, Georgia created this homage to Spring, which is almost over.  Sure has been beautiful.

Early last Saturday, the young 'uns were up and at it at the ball field at Mountain Park Park.  I titled this photo Field of Dreams and wonder how many dream of being big leaguers.

And there was a trip to my favorite mountain area the weekend before that.  It was a soggy trip, but I didn't mind.  I read two books on the back porch and just watched the river go by.

The last photo is of the drive up the mountain to my sister's vacation house.  Loved the mist on the mountains there.  Hope you all are well.  I'll be around for blog visits the next couple of days.  Hugs!

Good Things Happened: Another good dog and friends

I love dogs like friend Carol's dog, Bailey.  He was chosen from a shelter years ago and has been just the best dog, she says.  He never commands attention, like his brethren at the park.  I like that.

This hosta gets a mention every year, just for being faithful. It hibernates in the winter and makes an appearance in early spring.  I had almost forgotten about it until I saw some little shoots coming up.  It has made this miraculous transformation in the last two weeks.  It will double in size from this - it's just getting started.

Neighbor Rhonda is laying in some bedding plants, which gave me a huge smile when I got home yesterday.  She didn't feel like it last year, so this is definitely a good thing.

Google presented me with this altered photo of the dogwood tree that presides over the trash compactor at the condos.  I had not planned to use it, but it's rather striking now.  :)

I know it's not pretty everywhere like it is in the south, but you'll get there, I promise.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

Good Things Happened: Dog of the week, lilies and blessings

Friends Janice and Chip's dog Chili, at the park, after I asked him if he would like to be dog of the week.  I think the answer was clearly, "Yes!"

I was invited to Easter dinner at friends Laura and Bob's home.  The table was exquisitely set with pretty Easter themed china, crystal and napkins.  I loved the Lilies of the Valley from their yard - so perfect I thought they were artificial at first.

A wee present from Laura at each place setting - these beautiful little "Spring Blessings" packages.  Such a gracious hostess.

I hope you are having a good weekend.  I've finally gotten caught up on some sleep!

Good Things Happened: Zen Garden and along the way

The new job has me working in an area that used to be reception (they are running out of room, I think.)  These are my new office mates in the fish tank that is to my back.  I'm calling it working in The Zen Garden.  :)

I used to love to walk at Tanyard Creek Park near my office, but stopped walking there when I hurt my knee (since mostly recovered).  So since it's been two years since my last visit, I headed over there last Saturday morning, having another errand in that area.  The Lenten Roses beside the creek are in bloom, right on time.

There was so much activity in the park.  I encountered two photo shoots during my hour walk, one was a woman doing some sort of spoken word for the camera, and the other was the woman on the right, above, who was changing poses like a fashion model.  Cute.  :)  And I realized when I downloaded the photo, that I also captured a woman comforting a boy, there on the left.  So sweet.

From Mr C's sign:  ANOTHER DAY HAS PASSED AND I DIDN'T USE ALGEBRA.  Amen to that!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Good Things Happened - Saturday in the park

Friend Laura and I had just finished our walk at Mountain Park Park last Saturday, when her friend who fosters dogs stopped to chat.  I looked down and one of them was standing at attention on his hind legs, without moving.  "He wants to be petted." she said.  And so we did.

A little boy was hanging out with his father, waiting for the ball field to open.  I smiled at the wee one on my first pass by.  On our second pass, he approached and said he had picked this bloom for me. 

It's been gloomy here for days (and strangely warm), so that's why this photo from the drive thru at Starbucks isn't more bright than it is.  The cherry trees are blooming already!

Here's something not to be gloomy about - it's Friday!  Yay.  I hope your weekend is amazing, my friends.

Delightful, celebrating and shadows

This very vocal friend wandered up while I was photographing this delightful "planter."  I reached my hand out, but he/she stayed just out of reach.  The owner of the antique store said her husband discovered this abandoned Queen Anne sofa and she, in turn, made it into a working planter!

Just around the corner from that planter, this mural celebrating our four-legged friends is a new additional to the Greenway walking trail at Lilburn Park - spotted on my walk.  I'm thinking the kitty in the first pic looks like the one on the skateboard there at the top.

My usual Saturday walking partners were both otherwise occupied, so I listened to downloaded music from iTunes and walked alone, which I never mind.  As I've probably mentioned before, I love dragonflies and they seem to pop up when I need them, on good days and bad days.  On this day, a beautiful one stayed with me for almost the whole hour and then, at the end, drifted away toward some wildflowers.

'Maters, summer beauty, and stumped

In the south, we jokingly refer to home-grown tomatoes as "'maters".  :)  These beauties came from coworker Bobby's garden.  He's been bringing in a small basket every couple of days.  Those of us without gardens pounce on them as if they are gold.  My favorite is a 'mater sandwich, but these are probably going into some ratatouille.  I'm going to try Alice Waters's recipe.  

I love the little purple petunia that popped out among the Dragon Wing Begonias next to my front door.  I am leaving for work way earlier than I used to in the morning, and find that I love the time on the front porch, in the 5am hour, watering everything so they'll be good for the day, since it's been so hot.

I've posted a pic of this guy before - the "chair" carved from a stump at Mountain Park Park.  Now it's sporting mushrooms - spotted on a gloomy sky walk last Saturday.

It's been a very busy couple of weeks work-wise, so I've been a little tired from it.  I'll be around for blog visits though.  I missed you guys!

Front door view, life is beautiful and belated

It seems as if the rain never stops lately.  Last evening, I opened the front door of my condo and just stood, thinking how beautiful it is.  One evening last week, during another downpour, the power went out around 5:45pm.  I took a sitting-up-nap on the sofa for about an hour, woke to see the power was still out, and ended up lighting candles and reading the book on my Kindle with candlelight flickering around.  It was quiet and peaceful and I was almost sorry when the power came back.  :)

But it was sunny last Saturday at the Greenway park.  I love these Oak Leaf Hydrangeas bordering the walkway.  My walking partners were busy, so I had a rare, solitary walk, listening to music, which I never mind at all.

Spotted on that walk:  they had repaved part of the sidewalk, after installing some drainage, and someone wrote in "Life is Beautiful". 

And my birthday was in February, but it was delightful to receive a gift bag from friend Barbara, who said she had had it all this time.  The spoon there on the right makes me think of my late mother, who loved teapots.  

I took a wee blogging break, but am back now.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

Hanging out, cloudy sky and reappearance

This lovely little tulip was hanging out all by itself at the park on Saturday morning, just waiting to pose for the camera.  It was a lovely respite, this walk, after a week of battling traffic during, what we're calling, The New Normal, in Atlanta, after the I-85 bridge collapse.

And back home at the condos - a glorious Saturday morning sky.  I was walking over to look at the dogwood tree, there on the right, but love the look of that cloud formation and a couple of puffs of cloud that had escaped, there at the top.

And the pink Dogwood tree in the condo driveway blooms again.  Someone did a wonderful job landscaping this complex when it was built 30 or so years ago.  It's lovely to see old friends like those pink blossoms reappear year after year.

Hope you have a good week, my friends!

Gazing at the sky, stump chair and a grand thing

As usual, I was racing to my car, so I could get in the line up on the expressway for the journey to work. But this sky was so glorious, I had to stop and gaze and moment and capture it with my phone. And then it was off to the races.

Someone cut this tree stump into the shape of a chair. How about that? It was another glorious sky last Saturday morning and I noticed the stump chair when my friends and I were saying goodbye after a walk in the park.

My favorite cookies from Ryal's Bakery in my hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia. A hometown friend, Chuck, posted this pic on Facebook and it made me smile. :)  He also posted a quote from author Agatha Christie this morning that resonated with me:

"I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow; but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."

Impulse buy, spooky home and sparkling

Seems like a day for some Good Things!  And as always, it's the little things...

The cashier at the grocery store loved that I was buying flowers and wine.  "And a salad!" she said (looking perplexed).  I told her the flowers were an impulse buy for me, the wine was for a gift and the prepared salad was for lunch the next day.  I adore coming home and seeing these flowers, first thing.

Friend Janice and I were walking in park on Saturday morning - a lovely, crisp morning.  I think I've posted a pic of this tree before, but I still think it's delightfully spooky looking.  And love that it has a bird house on it.  If I were a bird, that's where I would want to live, in this spooky home.

And the driveway view at the condos was sparkling with light and color when I got home from the walk.  Love the shadows on the pavement, too.

I hope you have a lovely, peaceful week, my friends!

New admirers, curiosity and time to go

- Friend Janice's dog Chili on a walk with the gals on Saturday morning at Mountain Park Park.  He is still a puppy and in obedience training, so he went with us to practice.  Here - he encountered some new admirers - friends also walking at the park.

- And here he is asking, "What are you doing???"  Oh please - like you haven't had cameras on you before.

- And here, he is signaling his intent to move on, but being very polite about it.  The adults could have chatted all day. 

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...

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.