New Shoes, so beautiful and good things happened

This is a postcard that has been affixed to the side of my refrigerator with a magnet since last fall.  (Click to enlarge)  It was for an exhibition of paintings reflecting on the work of Flannery O'Connor at her home, Andalusia Farm, in my hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia (wish I had gone to see that).  I loved the image so much that I finally had it framed and will probably hang it with a grouping in my bedroom.  The image on the front of the postcard is from a painting by Jude Harzer, called "New Shoes" and was inspired by a line from the O'Connor short story, "Everything That Rises Must Converge."  "Even a child with normal feet was in love with the world after he had got a new pair of shoes." 

These flowers from the grocery store have been so beautiful that I finally snapped a photo of them.  (All photos taken with my iPhone these days.  Note - not sure why my dining room wall and ceiling, there in the background, looks pink, when they are painted white.)

How about that?  I exercised almost every day in June, except for Sundays, which I decided to take off.  I give myself a sticker on the calendar in my home office on the days I work out.  And that's a lovely quote by Franz Kafka on the calendar, which I hadn't really noticed until this morning, "Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old."

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!

Beautiful and delicious, small world and ironwork

- These heirloom naval oranges produced by a small grower, Rising C Ranch, in California are the best oranges I've had for years.  They smell so sweet and they are delicious.  And beautiful, I think.  I love that this husband and wife team live among their groves.

- I won this book on facebook by signing up for online event alerts from Andalusia Farm, the home of the late writer, Flannery O'Connor.  When the visitors services manager, Ross, emailed to tell me I won, I mentioned that I grew up a couple of miles away from Andalusia.  Turns out he was a "yard man" as a teenager for various people in my parents' neighborhood.  Small world.

- Will I ever find a good place in my home to hang this thing?  It's some kind of piece of decorative ironwork that I picked up at an antiques store, because I liked the intertwining vine pattern.  Right now it graces the top of a stack of magazines, which is fine for now. 

You can tell when it's been a quiet week - when I start photographing things around my home.  Quiet is good, I think!  I hope you have a great weekend!

Making my way back home, trolley tour and perfect day

For months, my cousin Susan and I had been talking about a day visit to Milledgeville, Georgia, where I grew up and she went to college.  This past Saturday, we finally went:

- The first stop was the convention and visitors bureau that is housed in a lovely old building that was the built to be the post office, then became the county library and now houses the CVB.  I posted about it here in 2009, if you would like to see a photograph of the building (then the library) where I worked after school and during summers when I was in high school and early college, until I moved away.  Parked outside was this trolley, named Milly.  :)  Short for Milledgeville, I guess.  A very nice woman inside the CVB told us the trolley tour was leaving in eight minutes if we would like to go - lead by a professor emeritus from nearby Georgia College and State University.  So off we went.

- The view to the left of the CVB.  The banner on the light pole there proclaims Milledgeville as "The Great American Main Street City."  And indeed it is - having won that award in 2014.  I always knew it was.  The first stop on the trolley tour was the original state capital building for the state of Georgia from 1804 to 1868.  The building is on the campus of Georgia Military College and was in use that day for a meeting of "Georgia Republican Leadership" - they were on a break, so our group got to see the room the old legislature once met in. 

- Next - St. Stephens Episcopal Church, built in 1843 on the historic statehouse square.  Amazing that in all the years I have loved this town, I had never been inside this church.  During the Union occupation of Milledgeville during the Civil War, they reportedly burned the pews for firewood and housed their horses inside the sanctuary.  It is said that you can see the imprint of horses hooves on the wooden floors (now covered with carpet.)  When the nearby arsenal was blown up, the roof was blown off the building.  If these walls could talk!

- The stained glass windows date from the early 1900s and were each dedicated to communicants by their families.

- This is the Brown-Stetson-Sanford house and was the last stop on the tour.  It was designed by the master builder John Marlor and built in 1825.  It was originally a hotel for visiting legislators, then a private home.  In the 1950s, until 1966 it operated as The Sanford House Tea Room.  My late father used to have lunch there sometimes.  He told me that was how he became acquainted with author Flannery O'Connor, who lunched there frequently with her mother.  The house was moved to its current location in the late 1960s, when the grocery store it butted up against was planning to tear it down to make room for additional parking.  Thank goodness local preservationists saved the building by moving it and then restoring it.

I used to walk by this house after school, on my way to work at the library.  I stood under this tree while the tour guide talked and thought about what a perfect day this was - a blue sky Saturday, with a beloved cousin, in a town I love so much.

Good for your health, old neighborhood and making it happen

- There is a man who lives in my hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia, who was a classmate of my younger sister.  He is a local radio personality and the self-proclaimed "mayor" of the neighborhood my parents moved to when they were a very young married couple.  It's an old neighborhood.  I like driving through it when I visit (which has been way too long now.)

- This is the house I refer to above.  It's an insurance company now - and so small that it's hard to believe four people lived there (so long ago.)  My three-year-old memory has the yard to the right (fenced back then) as being much bigger.  We only lived there two years - my younger sister was on the way and we needed a much larger home.  But I like thinking of the cheerful man living somewhere within that neighborhood and love hearing about it on facebook.

- Every morning, he posts what he refers to as "Coffee Pot Parade" and this morning he ended it with this:

"It Is Said That When You Lose Hope That You Have Lost Everything! The Best Way To Deal With The Bad Things Is To Get Up And Do Something! Don't Wait For Good Things To Happen. Get Out There And Make Good Things Happen! There Is Still Much That Is Good In The World. Your Actions Can Help Fill The World With Hope. Remaining Positive And Continuing To Move Forward Is How We Combat The Bad Things! Get Out There And Live Each Second Without Hesitation! And Never Lose Hope That Good Things Are On The Way!" 

Couldn't have said it better myself.  :)  And he inspired someone else to post that quote by Voltaire at the top (which I have borrowed).  Love that he inspired this trip down memory lane, too.  Have a great weekend, my friends!

Body double, comfort food and the sweet life

Click to enlarge

- This tapestry was part of the exhibit I visited at The High Museum of Art last weekend.  It depicts French monarchs smiling benignly at servants and pets in the month of October.  :)  Friend Barb thought the monarch on the upper right looked a little like the late comedian Redd Foxx and he kind of does!  Compare photo below.

- Having so many ingredients left over from the lasagna from the weekend that I decided to re-purpose some of them.  So Googling "recipes using half and half" yielded this recipe for Creamy Polenta.  I made it Wednesday night - it's good and made great comfort food in this cold weather.  I had never made polenta before, so it was a fun thing to make and it went well with the never ending sauteed kale.  :)

- Reading an obituary in the online version of the newspaper from my hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia.  I have taken over the role of reading obituaries from my dad, who perused them every day.  Since my sisters and I have little connection there anymore, I find this is the only way I have of knowing if any of my parents' friends have passed away.  There was one that caught my eye, simply because of the woman's maiden name, that I associate with a family owned shoe store there (long closed.)  I didn't know her, but she had a great obituary.  After she passed away, her family found a post-it note in her handwriting above her desk at home and included it in her obituary; a quote from Emily Dickinson that read, "That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet."

 Life is indeed sweet - a good thing to remember, I think.  I hope you have sweet things in store for you this weekend, my friends!

written in her elderly handwriting is a quote from Emily Dickenson, “That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.” - See more at: http://www.unionrecorder.com/obituaries/x1767985599/Emily-Annette-Trapnell-Manning#sthash.hpUas8AT.dpuf

written in her elderly handwriting is a quote from Emily Dickenson, “That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.” - See more at: http://www.unionrecorder.com/obituaries/x1767985599/Emily-Annette-Trapnell-Manning#sthash.hpUas8AT.dpuf

The weather outside, hometown pic and cheerfully smiling

Three images that have been hanging out on my computer desktop.  This seems like a good day to post them.  I will call this Random Photo Wednesday.  :)

- This cartoon was drawn by a weatherman, Mike Francis, on Atlanta's TV channel 11, and posted on facebook.  It's exactly that the weather is like.  Last Friday, temps were in the 70s, and I was walking around with no coat.  It dropped 30 degrees during the night and on Saturday I had to bundle up.  It's 29 degrees this morning, but might be shorts weather again tomorrow.  Go figure.  :)

- My hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia, ca. 1921.  The train used to go right through that main street of town.  And you can still see signs of those tracks in the street.  The business pictured there, J.C. Grant & Co., is the oldest business still existing in Milledgeville and is still in that same location.  (But looks very different now.)  Click to enlarge.

- This smiling lady was my great grandmother.  She was posing for the camera while picking tomatoes.  I want to have this one enlarged and framed, I just haven't done it yet.  I like to think of her smiling down from the family photo wall in my home office.

Thinking of her, messages from the phone and the upside

- I was able to quickly snap this photo with my phone on Friday morning as we paused to let someone make a right turn.  The truck made me think of niece Amanda, who is a die hard University of Florida "Gators" fan.  That driver is a Gator fan, too - if you look carefully you can see the Gator sticker on the back window.  I texted the photo to Amanda after I parked at work (just down that hill) and we had a quick texting catch up. That was also a gorgeous 7:30 am sky.

- Earlier in the week, friend Colin texted that he was going to my home town of Milledgeville, Georgia on Friday and where should he and his friend have lunch?  I texted suggestions and remarked that I so miss Milledgeville.

Around lunch time on Friday, this text from him:  "At Georgia Bob's Barbecue for lunch and then on to Savannah." 

My reply:  "You should stop at my friend Susan's shop, The Red Door.  I have my parents' '60s china cabinet and buffet on consignment there.  And next to that is the best bakery in Georgia.  I love their German Nut Bars."

Then this instagram photo came:

 - My reply:  "Ah - there it is!  At least they can put things in it."  (It's been there since last August - people look, but don't buy.)  I like that his friend is doing the Price is Right gesture there.  :)

And then this instagram photo:

- There they are - German Nut Bars there in the center.

Me:  "You're getting at least one, right???"

Him:  "Of course."

Me:  "Have one for me."

Him:  K

Thanks for indulging me on my Friday journey through texting - it was a very up and down day (the down due to work drama), but this was definitely the upside.  :)

Back to school, my old school and bittersweet

- Back to school for those young adults there, and probably the owners of those cars there, too.  In my home town of Milledgeville, Georgia on Tuesday afternoon for the legal stuff to close the sale of our family home.  I was so busy for those five hours that I had little time for photos, except for this one out of my car window.  But I saw hundreds of college students all over town yesterday and it brought back memories of my first days at that school

- The college campus pictured above is Georgia College and State University, chartered in 1889 as Georgia Normal and Industrial College - a college for women only, to prepare them for teaching or industrial careers.  It went coed in the 1960s.  That building in the background is Atkinson Hall, circa 1896, named for the founders of the college, who wanted to promote the education of women in the 1880s.  My freshman English teacher used to hold classes on the lawn in front of that building when the weather was nice.

- A lovely and bittersweet afternoon.  It was delightful hearing the distinctive middle Georgia accent all afternoon.  The bakery had my favorite German Nut Bars on hand.  The rain started just as I was leaving town and was at my back all the way home to Atlanta.

It would have been Julia Child's 100th birthday - we should all have something French to eat today in honor, even if it's French Fries.  :)

M is for Milledgeville, my home town

My home town of Milledgeville, Georgia was the capital of Georgia when Civil War was declared. Milledgeville has the distinction of being the only city other than Washington, DC to be designed as a capital city. (The capital was moved to Atlanta during reconstruction.)  Here are a few of my favorite houses and buildings there:

- The Old Capitol Building in Milledgeville, Georgia. Shortly after the capital of Georgia was moved to Atlanta in 1868, the building and surrounding grounds were acquired by Georgia Military College. It is still in use for classrooms and offices and is where my sister Jo met her husband.

- The Old Governor's Mansion, c. 1839, home to Georgia's governors until the end of the Civil War. The pink stucco mansion is considered to be one of the finest examples of High Greek Revival architecture in the nation. Designed by architect Charles Clusky, an Irish immigrant, and built by Timothy Porter of Farmington, Connecticut, it was claimed as a "prize" in the "March to the Sea," when General William T. Sherman headquartered in the building on November 22, 1864. It even has a cameo part in E.L. Doctorow's novel, "The March" in which a character in the book can see the Union army inside the house from the windows of her home across the street. In 1973 the Mansion was designated a National Historic Landmark by the Trust for Historic Preservation.

- On the same block as The Mansion, is the Gordon-Porter-Ward-Beall-Cline-O'Connor house, c.1820.  It was built by a General Gordon, "not of Civil War fame." It was leased as a residence for the governor while the Governor's Mansion was under construction. This was the home in town in which Flannery O'Connor lived with her parents when they moved to Milledgeville in 1938 when she was a teenager. It is still owned by the O'Connor estate.

 

- My family's home in Milledgeville is at the junction of where the 20th and 14th corps converged more than 147 years ago. It is easy to imagine 30,000 men camping on property around the bubbling creek that runs through it. 

As you can tell, I love my home town and miss it.  The family home is up for sale now and I am usually just there for estate matters.  I might slide in a few more of those beautiful homes and buildings before the challenge is over.

Thanks for taking this tour with me on Day 13 of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, featuring the letter "M".  We take Sundays off during the challenge - so see you Monday!

Fishing, Favorite Flower photo and Friday Eve

Click to enlarge

- This well loved truck with its bumper sticker "FISH TREMBLE at the sound of my name" immediately made me think of my late father and how much he loved to fish.   Most favorite memory:  he and I went to Lake Sinclair near my hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia early one Saturday morning to quietly fish and contemplate.  It was lovely sitting on the side of the lake waiting for fish that never came.  So dad was packing up the car when my pole (that I had laid down on the bank with the hook still in the water) began drifting away into the lake.  I excitedly yelled for dad to come back and he retrieved my pole for me.  I had caught a lovely fish with no effort on my part whatsoever.  Dad cleaned it and cooked it on the grill for our dinner that night.  A lovely memory.

- Most favorite flower photo ever - taken last August along the banks of the Hiawassee River in the mountains of western North Carolina.  I call it "Two Ants" - click on the photo to enlarge it and see if you can spot them. 

- The man who draws my blood on Thursday morning knows that I don't like being stuck with needles and so keeps up happy chatter about the weekend to take my mind off of it.  We talk about what we are going to cook at our respective homes.  It's over before I know it and he wishes me a good weekend and a happy Friday Eve.  

Wow - it's already Day 6 of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.  Today features the letter F.  Three things that gave me pleasure (except for that whole getting stuck with a needle thing...)  :)

Happy Full Moon Friday, y'all!  So good that the day of the week and the moon cooperated with the A to Z Blogging Challenge. 

The Mansion, lovely Saturday and Advent

 - My sister and I had the honor of attending a party at the antebellum Governor's Mansion in Milledgeville, Georgia on Friday night.  Milledgeville was the capital of Georgia when the Civil War began, but was moved to Atlanta shortly after.  All the government buildings remain, including this one.  It looks a bit gloomy at night, but there were "ambassadors" to greet us and escort us up those steep steps and carolers on the lawn.   It was lovely to see all the beautiful holiday decorations inside; there was even a gingerbread house replica of "The Mansion."

- Since the first photo is so gloomy, I stopped by on sunny Saturday morning to get this brighter picture.  It really is a treasure - pink stucco on the outside and a beautiful rotunda on the inside with a glass ceiling.  But my favorite part of the weekend was seeing friend Susan at her antique shop on Saturday morning and visiting with other friends who dropped in while I was there.

- This was the second Sunday of Advent and four generations of women lit the candle on Sunday morning.  Mackie (great name!) is a member of our church and she had her daughter, granddaughter and two great granddaughters with her.  The baby smiled at the congregation on cue.  A peaceful moment in an otherwise hectic weekend.

Cerulean blue, sitting up nap and sweet treat

- The chapel and bell tower that overlook the graves of fallen heroes in Milledgeville, Georgia. The sky was a lovely cerulean blue on Saturday.

- Waiting for a repairman to arrive at our family home (up for sale) in my home town. He is late, so I sit in the cushy chair in the living room and put my head back for a sitting-up-nap. It is perfectly quiet except for the faint sound of a lawn mower down the street.

- My sister says, "Have a blonde brownie for me!" And so I do wander into the best bakery in the world where there are blonde and chocolate brownies for sale and my favorite German Nut Bars. Yum.

I will be posting Monday, Wednesday, Friday this week. Cheers!

Lovingly restored, in the Keys and Twain quote

- The Campus Theatre in Milledgeville, Georgia - newly restored by the local university. It was where I used to spend most Saturdays when I was growing up, at double and even triple features. For years, an accountant owned the building and worked out of the offices upstairs, and was asking an astronomical amount of money for the theatre. The college worked out a deal, bought it, has lovingly restored it and even put a coffee shop with a fun name off to the side. A bookstore resides in front and there is still a small theater in the back.

- Friend Jim H. sends this message: "In the Keys on Holiday. Family got to snorkel for the first time. Had some good hole-in-the-wall food, some bad parrot head music - All's well." They are a great family with two young boys - so lovely that they are having this time.

- A friend who is in addiction recovery sends this on facebook: "The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up." - Mark Twain. Like!

Figo, thank you note and I wish you enough

- My favorite little Italian restaurant near the office - Figo Pasta. I love how they have embedded broken crockery as a mosaic for their front counter, but my favorite thing is how the staff calls out greetings when you come in the door.

- Receiving a written thank you note from my niece for her Christmas present. She had thanked me in person, so it wasn't really necessary. But I love seeing her handwriting thanking me for her gift card, that she used it the next day and that her dog Lucky liked his special "cookies."

- A former neighbor of my parents, probably the kindest woman who ever lived, emails "forwards" and I do not have the heart to tell her I usually do not read forwards. But the subject line made me read one today, "I wish you enough." It is long, about a woman telling about the tradition in her family of saying "I wish you enough" to each other. The essential message is given at the end: 'When we said , 'I wish you enough', we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them.'

I wish you enough, my friends. And I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Life is a song, interesting client and good things

- Discovering an item purchased from a mountain vendor last October, but forgotten until I ran across it in a drawer this week. I like the stickers on the box and the message on one of them, "Life is a Song...Sing It." Indeed.

- Funniest moment of the week: a printing client sits in the conference room with me and tells of his dream business card, prefacing that with, "Have you ever seen the film American Psycho?" Hmmm, no, but it is in my Netflix queue now. :) Apparently it has a theme of "business card envy" running through it.

- Favorite facebook status update of the week, from home town school friend Ralph: "Rain on the tin roof, chicken on the grill, sitting in front of a big roaring fire listening to some good music. It's a good day to be at the shack." This is the kind of thing I like to see on facebook, good things happening.

Home again, comfort, and life is but a dream

- Receiving this flower for representing my father at my parents' church on Sunday in my home town in honor of All Saints' Day. The church is adjacent to a cemetery that has graves dating to 1804. I always mean to take some time to walk around it again and will one day. Author Flannery O'Connor is buried here, as is Bill Miner, an "American criminal" according to Wikipedia. He was called "The Gentleman Robber" and is said to be responsible for the phrase "Hands Up!" His gravestone says he is "The Last of the Famous Western Bandits."

- Having a comforting cup of soul warming soup for a snack at work. It is always cold there this time of year and although I've grown accustomed to it, it never hurts to have something hot to drink.

- Coming home from work to three young neighbors out playing. They are loudly singing, with great hilarity, "Row, row, row your boat" - except they have changed the ending to "life is but a strawwww!"

Old courthouse, familiar scent and unhurried

- The old Milledgeville courthouse, c. 1885, now empty, taken from the steps of my mom's bank. A beautiful building and I am so glad that they are keeping it, even though it has been replaced.

- A quick trip to my home town for a bit of family business. As I get out of the car, I breathe in the fresh air mixed with cooking smells from the nearby cafe. A familiar scent that reminds me why I love my home town.

- Stopping by The Red Door antique shop to say hello to friend Susan. Her dog Raisin meets me at the door with a stuffed toy in her mouth. Susan is giving a silver teapot a quick polish before sending it off with a customer. I sit for a few minutes before getting on the road again. It was good to get these few minutes of unhurried small town life.

Nannie's trunk, restoration and coming home

- This antique trunk was in the back of my parents' storage barn for years - it belonged to my grandmother. When my sister and I pulled it in out in the sunshine, we could see her initials and location had been stenciled on it in beautiful old script: sma Macon, Georgia.

- Milledgeville friend Susan, who sells antiques, sent me to a local man, Richard A., who could clean it up for me. I did not want to restore it to look like new, only cleaned up so that I could bring it home and it would look nice. I was bracing myself for some high figure he would charge, but he thought for a moment and said, "maybe $75?" Worked for me.

- I picked it up on Saturday afternoon to bring home to Atlanta. Richard and I realized we have something in common, his mother was a teacher at my high school and I was her student assistant for two years during my "free" period. Small world. And now, if I could just figure out where in my home to put this trunk...

K-5, memories and notes from a wise woman

- This is the house in which I attended kindergarten in my home town of Milledgeville, Georgia. The Roberts School - run by a sweet little lady - Mrs. Roberts. I was in my home town on Saturday to further ready our family home for sale and went by this landmark, now a real estate agency, sat in the driveway and remembered.

- This is the back door that students entered and exited. And the playground was the same fenced in back yard in the shade of a giant oak tree.

- Earlier on Saturday, attending a memorial service for someone gone too soon. Her daughter gave a beautiful eulogy and listed things her mother taught she and her siblings: that we are all the same regardless of the color of our skin and if anyone disputed that, they should argue with them. And they might get in trouble growing up, but it would be OK if they learned from it and it was fun.

Steve's house, pulling for the dog and friends

- This house caught my attention last time I was in my home town of Milledgeville, Georgia and it turns out that it belongs to a childhood friend, Steve S. I love all the little whimsical touches and you can't see it, but the porch ceiling is painted blue - a custom in the south to keep away wasps nests and / or spirits, aka "haints." :)

- Receiving this message via facebook from a former co-worker, also named Steve, "Hello there my old pal. I hope you're doing well. I was watching Independence Day the other day, and I always think of you when I watch the scene in the tunnel where the dog makes it to safety. I don't know if you remember me loaning you the movie, and you commented on how you were pulling for the dog." I have no memory of this, but am glad to hear that I was pulling for the dog.

- Going by my client's house to see her new baby - just one week old. Her dog Scout, who loves company, runs around like a fool barking, stops long enough to sniff the baby's toes and then ends up by leaning against me, gazing up adoringly. The baby was oblivious. I'm betting that she and Scout will be great friends.