In the mist, cheerful and colorful

Four unrelated good things this week - going from gray to colorful:

The skyline of midtown Atlanta was lovely and mystical looking, as viewed from the parking deck of Georgia Public Broadcasting on volunteer night.  We had needed rain so badly and it was welcome when it came.

More gloomy sky, but loved the cheery scarecrow wearing Santa's hat.  Madison, Georgia, last Saturday.

It took all week, but I got my little tree up.  It's sitting on a draped crate so that it will have more presence.  :)  I decorated it a little at a time and finally finished yesterday.  Richie Bear was purchased at Rich's department store, in the mid-1980s, when it was still open.  And the cardboard Santa to the right was given to me by my kindergarten teacher, way back when.  

Coworker Bobby salvaged peppers and green tomatoes from his garden last night, since the temperature was dropping into the 20s (fahrenheit).  It's cold here in the south today.  I chose two red peppers that he swears won't be hot.  :)  It was astounding to see these garden baskets on this wintry day.

I hope your weekend is full of good things!

Busy bee, sharing and fun holidays

- This bee was so busy on Saturday, going from flowering plant to flowering plant, I finally managed to snap his photo while he was in motion.  It's so delightful to see them around, when there has been so much in the news about them vanishing.

- Coworker Bobby brought in mountain apples to share at work on Monday.  They smell so good and are delicious.

- This is the fun holidays of the month calendar I produce these days - I hang them on the bulletin boards at work.  So it was fitting that Monday was Johnny Appleseed Day and we had apples.  Google tells me that Johnny Appleseed was an "American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ontario, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as the northern counties of present-day West Virginia."

It's also National Chicken Month - I amused myself by finding cute chicken clip art.  :)

Back porch, Harvest moon and treasure

- The back porch had been covered with a fair amount of dead leaves, which I swept off on Saturday.  The plants are getting straggly, but they are still nice and green.  And I splurged ($12 on sale at HomeGoods) on that colorful doormat to change things up a bit.

- Driving home from a dinner with friends on Saturday evening, the gorgeous Harvest moon kept popping into view here and there.  I'm so glad I had it with me for the drive.  My grainy iPhone photo doesn't do it justice at all, but it still makes for a nice memory.

 - Friend Bren brought me this treasure - a "Holding Cross" - back from her trip to the Golden Isles, on the coast of Georgia, last weekend.  It's smooth and fits in the palm of my hand.  I love it.  It was carved by hand by Rev. Dave Hanson, of St. Simons Island, for use as a meditative prayer aid.  I love this printed on the accompanying card, "It is prayerfully carved from natural wood to remind you that you are greatly loved and never alone."  (Romans 8:31-39)  An article I found about him can be read here.

Humor in uniform, repurposed and let them eat cake

- You'd have to click to enlarge to see the City of Atlanta police vehicle pulled across the road ahead.  There was also a noisy hovering helicopter overhead.  The reason was a large sinkhole at 14th and State Street (in the intersection behind me.)  I didn't want to bother the workers by taking a photo of it.  :)  I was on my way to my volunteer work housed at nearby Georgia Public Broadcasting in the late afternoon yesterday and was detoured onto a side street to park. On the trip past this police car the first time, I asked the officer inside the car what was going on? (not wanting to walk on into a shoot out or anything):

          He:  Shark attack.

          Me:  What???

          He:  Shark attack.

          Me:  What??? (it had already been a long day)

          He:  Sinkhole.

 

- This bracelet was made by Juliet of the Crafty Green Poet blog.  She lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and frequently takes us along with her on nature walks.  I noticed her Etsy shop link and visited.  She creatively "repurposes" materials, making them into one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry.  That's the pretty bracelet I got, above.  Do visit Juliet's blog when you can - especially if you love Edinburgh as much as I do.

- This is what my coworkers and I are counting on.  :)  In a fit of boredom yesterday (we are slow this week at work), Joanne went across the street to the commercial bakery (which also sells by the slice) and brought back cake.  (Image spotted on facebook.)

Thursday treat, all done and the forecast

- Coworker Joanne brought these in to work yesterday as a treat.  They are from Sublime Doughnuts that I've heard so much about.  It took about five seconds to go off my diet.  :)  That one on the middle right - the "A-Town Mocha" (the A standing for Atlanta), was one of the best things I've ever eaten in my life!  So I had to blog about them.  There are two locations in Atlanta and one in Thailand (?), so if you are ever there, I recommend them. 

- My sister and niece are on their way to visit from Florida to celebrate Mother's Day weekend - an annual tradition now.  I hurried up and finished all my spring potting and re-potting and am finally pleased with how it looks.  It was 48 degrees outside on this cool Friday morning when I transferred the Mexican Heather to that pretty green pot I found at Ace Hardware this week. 

- Look at that weather forecast!  I texted this to my niece last weekend so she could see how cool it will be this weekend in Atlanta.  It's been very hot and humid in Florida already, so she is excited.

Have a lovely weekend, my friends!  Hugs to friends who are moms and celebrate this holiday!

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!

Three beautiful things, cake and along the way

- Friend and coworker Bren gave me this card for my birthday last Thursday (with a gift card for lattes).  I love the owl magnets attached and those truly beautiful words.

- And then friend and coworker Joanne brought in this delicious little cake around lunchtime and sang happy birthday.  If I had to work on my birthday, all of these things made it so nice.

- Aaaand - Mr. C's sign made me chuckle, as it so often does.  It's probably not always good to be lucky - I just wonder what happened to inspire that.  :)

Golden trees, festivity and off to a good home

- I still haven't put up my Christmas tree yet (due to the effects of a lingering head cold), so I'm admiring other trees.  Loved these golden trees in the antique shop window.

- When my sister was visiting from northern Virginia, we kept our eyes out for festive holiday earrings to go with her reindeer outfit.  She was to dress as a festive reindeer in a neighborhood Christmas party choir.  (I saw photos - it was awesome and she found some earrings during the trip home.)  Now I'm seeing festive earrings everywhere - this batch was dandy!

- A printing company client brought these mums in around Thanksgiving as a thank you gift.  But when they started looking a little peaked, someone sat them by the loading dock door.  I was standing there looking at them, when coworker Bobby walked by; truly the nicest man I know.  He asked if he could have them - he hated to see them thrown out.  So they went home with him and he planted them.  I love that.

Sentimental journey, pinch hitter and nice surprise

 - It was another rainy Saturday, so I was at home a lot (which is always OK with me.)  I snapped a photo of a section of my bookcase that means much to me.  I like my shelf of books with Flannery O'Connor story collections, as well as books about the state of Georgia.  And that pot with the bird perched on it has an etched line from a hymn that was sung at my mother's funeral, "His Eye is on the Sparrow."  If you click on the red link, you can hear Lauryn Hill and Tanya Blount sing it - so beautiful with its lyric, "I sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm free..."

- At church on Sunday, some friends placed these beautiful flowers in honor of their late wife and  mother.  This photo taken with my phone does not do them justice.  The pianist is another church member, who was pinch hitting for the music director, absent because he was by his wife's side as she gave birth to their new son. 

- And I found this bottle of wine at my desk on Monday morning - a gift from coworker Joanne, because I worked late on her projects last week.  A nice surprise.  I took it home, but thought about leaving it at work for emergencies.  :) 

Hope you are having a good day!

Neighbors, March is busting out all over and good eats

 "She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,

   She wore her greenest gown;

She turned to the south wind

   And curtsied up and down.

She turned to the sunlight

   And shook her yellow head,

And whispered to her neighbor:

   "Winter is dead."

- A.A. Milne

- That poem is called "Daffodowndilly" - it seemed to fit the photo and the mood of my city this week as it shrugs off winter - although it is supposed to drop to the freezing mark tonight.  We'll have to cover the Japonicas, as my dad used to say.  I always think of that when this kind of weather happens, although as far as I know, they didn't have any Japonica in their garden - I think that phrase might have been passed down from my grandmother.

  - The cherry trees are in full blossom this week (this photo snapped on work errand).  Photos never seem to do them justice.  There is even a cherry blossom festival in the city of my birth, Macon, Georgia, this week.  The head of a family owned real estate business in Macon, William A. Fickling, Sr., planted one Yoshino cherry tree on his farm near Macon.  He shared seedlings for others to plant, and now there are more than 250,000 cherry trees spread around our state.  

 - And I've been inspired to cook light and springy things, such as this Grape Tomato, Olive and Spinach pasta.  It was for lunch at work all week.  So good.  You can find the recipe here.  I was using up a box of Ziti pasta, but next time will use Penne, as the recipe suggests.

The funny thing about the photo at top:  I spotted the dandelion and her neighbor, the purple vine flower in front of my car as I was leaving work on Wednesday.  I was squatting down with my phone on the pavement, snapping the photo, when a coworker was leaving the building and called out, "Are you OK?"  He just shook his head when I reported "Just taking a photo of a flower."  :)  May fun and quirky things happen to you this weekend, my friends.  Have a great one!

Bumper crop, coming around and in the air

- Coworker Bobby has a winter garden at home, in which he grows mustard greens and kale, among other things.  He brought boxes of both in last week and we all left with (clean) trash bags full of greens to take home.  I was laughing after I braised all of those mustard greens in broth on Sunday, that it yielded exactly this amount (see above).  That's my Monday desk lunch above with a chunk of cornbread.  The greens were just seasoned with a little Kosher salt and some apple cider vinegar.  Pretty good.

- January has never been my favorite month, but now that we have Downton Abbey, it's coming around for me. 

- A chilly, foggy commute this morning, but as I approached midtown Atlanta on I-85 south, I could smell something like bread baking.  But then realized it was the glorious fumes from the SweetWater Brewing Company down on the right.  Lovely to think that beer brewing gives off that comforting scent in the air.

 Three things that gave me pleasure the last two days:  food sharing, Downton Abbey and the smell of beer brewing.  :)

Three bananas, a classic and something different

- Coworker John eats a banana every morning at his desk at work and had loaded up for the week, when he was unexpectedly out of work for a few days.  (He is fine, don't worry.)  I took care of his work for him and reminded him that he had bananas (turning more fragrant by the day) and asked if I could take them home to make banana bread.  "Please!" he said.

- And here it is.  I've never made banana bread before, so had to look up recipes.  I settled on this recipe, that called for three bananas.  The rest of the ingredients were already in my pantry.  And it was pretty tasty, especially with a little butter on it (not the fake stuff.)  :)

- Due to a sudden cold snap, there was also the first fire in the fireplace on Saturday morning, while the banana bread was baking.  The best part of the whole thing was how good the house smelled while it was baking.  I don't bake often, but found this was fun and easy.

Perfect harmony, September Wonder and avocado toast

 - That's a bird feeder (there in the middle) that my late father gave me once - guaranteed to keep away squirrels (so far, so good.)  Click to enlarge to see a chickadee feasting on birdseed.  The feeder is designed for little birds, but the cardinals sit in the tray and eat the seeds that the little birds dropped.  Photo taken last weekend - it was a regular party there for a little while, cardinals and chickadees sharing a snack in harmony, but they all flew away except this one, when I loomed up to snap a photo with my phone.

 - Coworker Bobby went to Ellijay, Georgia last weekend to pick apples and shared these beauties with us.  This apple is called September Wonder.  Isn't that a lovely name?  It's a variety of the Fuji apple - sweet, crisp and delicious. 

- Look at the time there - I had a little photo shoot this morning at 5:43am.  A late summer peach, an avocado + two banana peppers that came from coworker Tony's garden.  I love that everyone shares.  And I have plans for that avocado for this weekend, inspired by this post from food52 called How to Make Avocado Toast.  Yes - there will be some avocado toast at my house this weekend.  :)

It's raining out - I love the sound of it.  And I love that it's Friday.  Happy weekend, y'all!

Home grown, best line ever and being nice

- Sheer happiness at scoring some home grown tomatoes from coworker Bobby and a home grown cucumber from coworker Tony.

Photo by JB

- Enjoying all the photos being sent by friends and family of their vacation scenery (although I did threaten to a coworker that I should take a picture of the concrete and asphalt jungle I work in and email it.)  :)  Ha!  This photo of a placid cat was preceded by a beautiful tale, with photos, from niece Rebecca and her partner Jack, of hiking on Vancouver Island, BC, and then discovering that their car had been towed.  After recovering it and shelling out much $$$, they return to their rented cottage, where the cat wandered in with them and "the night's sorrows dissipate like kitty breath."  Best line ever!

- Speaking with a triage nurse on the phone at my HMO who tells me I have a wonderfully peaceful way of saying no.  (To a doctor I didn't want to see.)  It always seems to me that you can get what you want by being nice.  

Paper clock, like being at a wedding and package

- This paper clock that I made during a paper company's "lunch and learn" program.  We were given a bunch of material to choose from and told to be as creative as we could as we assembled our clock.  Me - I just stuck to the basics, got it done and am pleased that it works!

- My coworker notices my almost daily morning snack of graham cracker with a bit of peanut butter.  She asks if I've ever had a graham cracker with vanilla icing.  No, but I have now.  I bring the graham crackers, she brings the icing and I think it tastes like wedding cake.

- And then there's the dark chocolate that came in the mail, courtesy of a good friend, that inspired a little after dinner nibble with a glass of red wine.  Yum!  And it's fun when a package comes in the mail, isn't it? 

It's Friday!!!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Bear Pole Dance, sharing and follow the scent

- This is an awesome video of a bear "pole dancing." It's only 33 seconds. Sometimes you need something silly like a dancing bear to get your morning off to a good start. :)

- One coworker brings in a bucket of okra from his garden, and another brings in Krispy Kreme donuts. They look funny next to each other and the donuts get lots more attention.

- Going to a meeting at 7pm, having already missed dinner, and being welcomed by the scent of cinnamon coffee cake, still warm from Janet's oven. Lovely.

Dancing, outside watering and a good thing

- One of my coworkers recreated this with two former classmates for their 40th high school reunion on Saturday night. Watch it if you have time. I love the spirit of these actual senior citizens, who performed a dance to "Billie Jean" at an assisted living facility. It's one of those you tube videos gone viral.

- It's gotten sort of routine - going outside to water plants at 5 a.m. I sort of enjoy the quiet nurture time of watering the ferns, ivy, geraniums, dragon wing begonia and renegade pot of weeds. I imagine what their day is like in the sizzling heat and like to think they appreciate the early morning water.

- Hearing my mother's sweet voice saying "Hello?" when I call her in the late afternoon. I always ask her if anything good happened to her that day and yesterday she says the highlight is my call. :)

Cyclists, presidential and chocolate ganache tart

- A sign of the times - a few workers in this office building in midtown Atlanta bicycle in. I've seen more and more of this lately with rising fuel prices. Just last week at different times - two women in business attire on motor scooters.

- A coworker gives birth to a 9.1 pound baby boy and gives him a rather grand name containing three names of former presidents of the United States, including his already Presidential last name.

- An individual dark chocolate ganache tart containing a surprise center - a fresh strawberry. Cheers to client Jenn's birthday and whoever made those for her.

Red gold, laughing and sofa time

- Home grown tomatoes are like gold to me and friend and coworker Bobby keeps me supplied when his come in. Here they are at home (with Duke's Mayo - important) and later at work in a sandwich for lunch. So good!

- Coming into work in the morning and the plant manager is standing with Charlone at the small press, telling her some tale that has her in stitches laughing. A lovely sound, her laugh.

- It's been a busy week for activities after work and I decide to forgo the afternoon walk in place of sofa time for Thursday evening. Funniest moment - turning on the TV in time to hear Dr. Phil tell a weeping woman, "This ain't my first time at the rodeo!"

Yay - it's the weekend! I hope yours is wonderful, my friends!

Exercise stars, afternoon tea and surprise song

- So proud of all my stars for the month of April, that I photographed my calendar at work. I give myself a star for each day I exercise.

- Scrounging for change at the bottom of my purse so I can pull through the drive through at Wendy's for an afternoon iced tea, only to find that they are out. I sadly report this to coworker Joanne, who thinks iced tea sounds pretty good right then and drives up to the better supplied Chick-fil-A to get some for both of us. It hit the spot.

- A high school chorus holds their Spring concert in my church sanctuary - we can hear them singing as we have a meeting in a nearby room. As we depart - about 60 alumni are waiting quietly in the hallway around the corner. They have prepared a special song as a surprise for the long-time music teacher who is retiring.