Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 1/24/25

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. My insanely delicious baked Buffalo Chicken Drumsticks for lunch yesterday. And so easy to make.

(I pretend they’re healthy, with the addition of the celery and carrots.)

2. Still marveling at our rare Snow-vannah we experienced this week.

Looking right and left outside the door of our old mid-1800’s apartment building …

What’s a snow shovel? And where on earth would you buy one? Or even want one? Isn’t snow supposed to melt the next day?

We also don’t have sleds or sleighs or whatever you use to careen playfully down snow-covered hills.

So you have to improvise. Here’s a little video of grandson Gabriel doing just that in his front yard.

That’s called Minimalist Sledding.

And other grandchildren in their backyard across the state from us in Columbus, Georgia …

But this morning, everything doesn’t look quite so angelically white and inviting. Why didn’t someone tell me the beautiful powder turns into gray and slushy mush?!

Who wants to slide in that?

3. The priceless blessing of a warm dwelling. I so often take it for granted, but I know that everyone is not so fortunate.

4. Lavender!

I love its restful, calming scent.

Dried lavender still smells good.

Beautiful Red Oak Lavendar Farm we visited recently up in Dahlonega GA

More dried lavender in our living room

H.R. and I have enjoyed chocolate-lavender candy bars, lavender cookies, lavender salt and lavender tea. Have you had lavender in other foods or drinks?

4. The ability to lean.

Mcmillan Creek Greenway, Jesup GA

May you lean into some Good Moments this weekend.

More years (decades!) ago than I care to admit.

Posted in Beautiful Savannah

Winter Morning Stroll

Winter’s Chill here in Savannah (28 the other night — COLD FOR US!) can’t hold back downtown’s blooming colors.

Columbia Square

Winter azaleas

Reynolds Square

And the delightful winter yellow blooms of the Tractor Seat plant (Farfugium japonicum)

And don’t forget the camellias.

Robert, look what I found on the ground!

May you find pretty sometime today.

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 12/27/24

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. Morning coffee with Robert at Flora and Fauna, the coolest little coffee bar/supper club here in Savannah.

2. Youngest granddaughter Isabelle, one on one with Santa.

3. Mindfully recognizing and appreciating that I Feel Good whenever I Feel Good.

4. Christmas Day Supper with just HR and me. (We do a bigger Thanksgiving with family, but fam is scattered across the state, so now everyone does their own thing for Christmas.)

This year I told HR uber-enthusiastically that “I am making OYSTER DRESSING for the first time!”

He looked at me as I had just told him there is no Santa. (He still believes. See recent blog for proof.)

I got quickly to work, convinced that I could win him over. Even though he doesn’t accompany me when I have a hankering for …

… at one of Savannah’s fabulous oyster houses. “Neal, what must have been wrong with the first person in history who somehow—probably by freak accident—cracked open an oyster and said, ‘I’m gonna eat that slimy thing right now.’”

But I got him to like Susan Boyle, so how hard could a little mollusk shellfish be?

I opened up my two pints of oysters …

Prepped my other ingredients …

Fancy HR tells me this part of kitchen work is called “mise en place” (everything in its place).

All ready for the oven …

Forty-five deliciously anticipatory minutes later …

(I managed to place NOE—Neal’s Oyster Extravaganza—in the center of our little buffet in an attempt to make it the star.)

And guess what? (I’m sure you’re a nervous wreck by now wondering if he liked it.)

He did! He did! The joy bells rang triumphantly through Historic District Savannah!

(Although I have to confess that he took most of his dressing from around the edges … to avoid the possibility of slimy you know what. And covered it with his yummy mushroom gravy. But still, I declare Victory!)

5. The Seasonal Pause of Quiet and Calm that seems to occur each year between Christmas and the New Year (at least in my mind).

May you find some Quiet and Calm this final weekend of 2024.

Posted in Holiday Joy

Christmas Morning Walk in Savannah

After we gobbled down our Christmas Toast, searched through our Christmas Stockings …

… and opened our Christmas Gifts …

Robert and I headed out for our Christmas Morning Walk here in Historic District Savannah.

Festive beauty had us marveling.

Now, that’s a bow!

Joyful Christmas Season to You!