Free to be, working cows and so proud

- The pot in the middle is the one I have always allowed to be free to sprout whatever it wants. Last year it was some stalks with cottony looking blossoms. This year - a maple tree and what looks to be a little pine tree seedling in the back. Neighbor Marion mentioned that he had watered my tree for me one day. It will be interesting to see if its leaves turn in the fall.

- My niece, who works on a plantation, posts this on facebook yesterday: "working cows & watching the sun rise :)" Sounds so peaceful, except for the working cows part. :)

- Friend Barbara G will be one of the speakers at an upcoming Green Initiatives conference and invites me to come. It costs $175 to get in the door, so I ask if I can just come and hold her purse. :) So proud of my friend.

Have a lovely weekend, my friends!

Keyhole, soothing and so sweet

- Still feeling the pull of the river - this view is like looking through a keyhole. Neighbor Gail (her house is just visible) stays there from early May until sometime in October, when she heads back to Florida.

- But reality set in and back to work for me on Wednesday and a frantic early call from a graphics designer client who needs something printed for her client. Done and done.

- Washing some blueberries for my cereal and popping a juicy looking one in my mouth. It is so sweet. And I vow to find more to freeze for the coming winter.

Dorothy Sprinkle, freshly made and headed home

- More from the weekend... This basket found at a purveyor of antiques in Hayesville. The handmade tag reads: Jeremiah basket, Handcrafted from Natural Reed by Dorothy Sprinkle. I left the shop, but kept thinking about the basket. The woman at the counter said, "You're back!" I tell her that I want the basket because it was made by Dorothy Sprinkle. Neither of us knows her - I just like her name and she made a lovely basket.

- A man emerges from Louise's Garden Shop in Hayesville holding a loaf of her bread in a paper bag. He hands it into a woman inside the car and says, "Smell this! And it's still hot!"

- Taking a new way back to Atlanta and getting a little lost. But the scenery sure was lovely: a lake, some farms and lots of forest. Finally emerging next to a familiar sign at a long ago shuttered store with a hand lettered sign out front that advertised Cold Cokes. I knew just where I was and headed home.

Shimmering morning, gone in a blur and dad's hat

- A shimmering morning in the mountains, cool and no humidity - much of it spent feet up on the back porch. Midway through the morning, a lone hummingbird buzzes up and has a look at me and then is gone in a blur.

- There they go - a boy and his dog kayaking down the Hiawassee River. Taken through the screen of the back porch.

- I have adopted my dad's lawn mowing and fishing hat. I like having it with me - especially in a place that he loved as much as this.

Relics, troubled no more and calling my name

- As my place has filled up with heirlooms from our family home that is up for sale now, other stuff from my home must go out. It amazes me how I can rationalize trying to keep things like this. Maybe I'll need to watch a VCR tape sometime (I haven't in a few years) or Don't I still have a cassette player somewhere? :)

- A tape in the fish bowl, Silver Wings, is New Agey music that I used to go to sleep by when I was troubled. So far the fish bowl with the cassette tapes stays until I can see if any of those old treasured tapes might be on CD. Troubled no more, but sometimes it is nice to hear soothing sounds.

- Soothing sounds. I am off after work to sit by the river in Clay County, North Carolina. The river is calling my name.

Have a great weekend friends! It is a holiday in the states on Monday, so I'll be back in blogland on Tuesday. Cheers!

Capitol, lost and a good walk

- A meeting in a building just next to Georgia's capitol building in Atlanta. It was so sunny that the Georgia gold leaf on the dome is not shown to full effect here. A nice building, I think. It was erected after the capital of Georgia was moved to Atlanta from my home town of Milledgeville after the Civil War.

- Going through security checks of my person and bag in the judicial building that houses the Supreme Court of Georgia and then being sent in an elevator to a floor in which no one at all is visible - just marble corridors stretching to the left and right. Fortunately a smiling woman appears with two other visitors in tow and leads me to the right door for my meeting.

- An enjoyable walk around an area of the city that I don't usually get to. Parking was a challenge, but I finally found a metered spot. So I enjoy my nice walk past historic buildings and statuary, returning to my shady parking spot nearby and head back to the office.

This Is Yours, family gathering and new message

- A member of this band, The Debutaunts, contacted me last spring and asked if I would print some prop cards for them to use in a video. Several cards needed to be blank and they use them to great effect toward the end. We don't usually print this kind of thing, but I did it for them because he was so wonderfully polite and well-spoken in the asking. And I like it that one of the cards has my often-used symbol. :)

- Hearing from my cousin that we are all having Thanksgiving again one more time at their still intact family home, uninhabited for three years. I reply that I'll be there with the sweet potato casseroles.

- Rerecording my voice mail greeting on my home phone - it's been the same for years - after getting feedback that the current message was too low in volume. And it only took three tries to get it sounding somewhat right. :)