So yesterday, Robert and I sashayed over to the Telfair Museums here in Historic District Savannah. (Yes, it’s plural—there are three separate buildings and locations.) One of the joys of living downtown is its walkability. (Is that a word, or did I just make it up?)
I wanted to see one of the newer and smaller exhibits at the Jepson Center.
I have always considered birds to be the personification of elegance and upper echelon beauty.
I was enthralled.
So HR got me this cool and beautiful book for Christmas.
I love it.
From the intro: “Flowers are incredible. They have the power to calm, heal, and allow us to express our deepest emotions without saying a word. They can boost your mood, reduce stress, and improve well-being.”
“Choosing a flower for its traditional meaning, natural energy, or holistic properties, you can bring the benefits of the natural world into your home or workplace, and into the lives of loved ones.”
My birth flower is the carnation, so when I turned #{£%&@ on January 10, we picked up some pink and white lovelies.
Following the advice of philosopher of contemporary living and favorite author Alexandra Stoddard, we divided the bouquet into smaller arrangements and placed them around the apartment.
What a difference the addition of a few fresh flowers can make!
“Carnations have long been associated with love. Different colors of carnation have various meanings with the overall theme of love: pink carnations are symbolic of pure and romantic love; red ones signify ardent love, and white tell the recipient they are fair and beautiful.”
So the beautiful carnations coronating our little place helped to heal me of the shocked revelation on January 10 that I am now #{£%&@ years old!
Collards are probably my favorite winter vegetable. (Delete “probably.”)
Yesterday morning Robert and I went to our incredibly and beautifully diverse Savannah Farmers Market, where I grabbed a bunch of the green delicacy.
I rushed back home to clean them (the collards, not the farmers) and create my favorite part of the collarding experience— making the collard bouquet!
Isn’t she beautiful?!
Next, the chopping into manageable pieces. (Which sounds a bit too much like “Sweeny Todd” to suit my fancy.)
After placing the greens into an already-been-cooking mixture of broth and ham seasoning meat, and impatiently waiting for them to slowly cook …
DELICIOUS JOY!
Wait! Don’t throw those too-thick collard stems away, for goodness sake. Make homemade vegetable stock with them.
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. SO enjoying last night’s Savannah Telfair Museum Christmas Tree lighting and Design District Holiday Walk.
2. Our wonderful (and often taken-for-granted) EYESIGHT.
3. HR’s nickname … Squirrel.
4. Washington Square at dusk. We live just off Washington Square in downtown Savannah. (Savannah has 22 extant squares, and ours is the northeast most one near the river.)
It’s one of my favorite places to read or rest.
5. Underrated beauty in fall’s scraggly bushes.
May you find lotsa beauty this weekend.
I felt a great sense of gratitude Thanksgiving night as Robert and I put up our traditional Travel Tree, gratitude for the beautiful life of Georgia native and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
Here’s a wonderful article about Rosalynn’s beautiful life:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/28/opinions/remembering-rosalynn-carter-eizenstat?cid=ios_app
So a while back, I did a short series of T-shirt Tuesdays with cool wildlife T-shirts I saw at the Savannah Wildlife Refuge gift shop.
Recently we went back, and I snapped a few more photos. (With a few folks staring at me for pulling the T-shirts off the racks and positioning them for my photo op.)
Today … the Sensational Sea Turtle
Here’s a cute cousin of the sea turtle we saw at Hunting Island State Park in SC …
May we all think long term and age gracefully.
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. Falling beauty. (Even in a Savannah shopping center parking lot.)
2. Belts.
3. More autumn beauty in Savannah.
4. An early Thanksgiving dinner at our church’s Wednesday Night Supper this week, with ex-wife Donna and our good buddy Margaret.
We all just have SO very much to be thankful for! (Especially those garlic mashed potatoes with gravy.)
5. Covered streets.
May you have a cornucopia of joy this weekend.
A few of our autumn photos …
May our change lead us toward good.
NealEnJoy 