Posted in Beautiful Savannah, Humor

Always Leave Room

This is a fairly long post, so you might want to put on some comfortable shoes and grab a snack.

Yesterday Robert and I visited the most SPECTACULAR garden center hideaway here in the greater Savannah area: Savannah’s Secret Garden.

But wait. Let me back up a second.

On Monday, we went over to the backyard of our friends and fellow church members Pat and Mary Prokop.

“Hmm, why their back yard?” you are surely asking. “Won’t they let you inside their house?”

Well, because they (primarily Pat) are incredible gardeners of flowers and vegetables (and friends).

Now I’m going to plagiarize a bit from HR‘s recent blog post about the same garden party.

But first he is forcing me to include the link to HIS blog post about the garden party.

SKIP OVER IT VERY QUICKLY SO YOU WON’T READ HIS BEFORE MINE!

Whew!


The plagiarism: Pat and Mary open up their garden each Memorial Day weekend to be enjoyed by all: gardeners, garden lovers, photographers, solar panel enthusiasts, astronomers (all Prokop hobbies). Sit a spell under a cool patio with fans and cold drinks, pet the garden cat “Grizabella” who roams freely (yes, from the “Cats” Broadway play).

A few of my photos from the garden party:

All the dahlias are darling! But this off-white beauty is my favorite.

While we were sitting in the shade, chatting with Pat, Mary and guests, for some reason HR (Husband Robert for any newbie readers) brought up the pitiful fact (pitiful since we were sitting in a glorious backyard garden) that he and I only have some potted plants and a tiny tree lawn in front of our place in downtown Savannah. But that we are looking to plant some milkweed to draw the butterflies!

“Then you HAVE to go to Savannah’s Secret Garden!” one of the guests immediately exclaimed!

“Wow,” a secret garden,” I thought. “Then I wonder how you ever find the place.”

Next my mind wondered a while back to when young actor/singer/grandson Daniel played the part of Colin in the Savannah Children’s Theater production of The Secret Garden and I presented him with an “Academy Award” …

“Neal!” Robert (rudely) interrupted my yesteryear thoughts, “Let’s remember to go to Savannah‘s Secret Garden to look for milkweed.”

Fast-forward (backward?) to yesterday, which indeed found us at the delightfully hidden-away secret garden nursery.

We spent about an hour meandering around the lovely place …

… until we finally came across this secluded little corner … filled with the cutest Faires!

HR was mesmerized!

Moral of the story:

Oh, and here’s our marvelous milkweed …

Always leave room!

Posted in Monday Moaning or Monday Marveling?

Monday Moaning or Monday Marveling? 5/26/25

I’m marveling this morn, remembering our supper last night.

I prepared Neal’s Sunday Night Chicken, using a variation of Ina Garten’s Perfect Roast Chicken.

Carrots, fennel, garlic, onion, fresh thyme and fresh rosemary. 

Prep the six-pound chicken …

Impatiently wait an hour and a half, as incredible aroma fills our humble abode.

In the meantime, make vegetable broth with parts of the veggies I did not use.

And take a little rest with Benny on the couch …

Voila!

Robert doesn’t trust me with sharp knives.

Delicious Food Joy!

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 4/9/25

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. HR’s cute Star Wars excitement.

2. Finding Benny and best buddy Huggy Kitty still fast asleep when I walked into the living room at about 6 am the other morning.

Just in case you want to know more about Huggy Kitty, here’s a previous post that explains, in far too much detail …

3. Being able to go to the grocery store and buy food. What a blessing.

4. Our new buddy Greenie, who has taken up residence in our Potted Plant Garden in front of our apartment.

See him?

No, no, that’s not part of Greenies‘s body. Here he is, truthfully exposed.

5. Continuing today’s animal theme, this friendly blackbird (grackle?) I had a little conversation with the other day.

Posted in One-Word Wednesday

One-Word Wednesday 4/30/25

“Scrumptious”

Robert’s Matcha-Strawberry Latte (with his matching bracelets)

Savannah
Posted in My Saturday Evening Post

My Saturday Evening Post: 4/12/25 “Night Light Life”

Robert and I were walking through Telfair Square here in Savannah last night after dinner. The statue-laden Telfair Academy (the first public art museum in the South, 1888) shone incandescently, perhaps a bit eerily, exuding both pride and remorse in our city’s problematic past.

I paused and gazed up into the heavy, meandering limbs of the ancient Live Oak trees, limbs laden with both desiccated (for now) resurrection fern and new, brilliant green spring leaves.

Death and life together.

The street light could not illuminate all their crevices.

“Some of these trees have to be older than the academy itself,” I thought, as we walked out of the past. “If only trees could talk!”

A light breeze kneaded the old and the new together, causing an audible whispering in the leaves.

And that’s my Saturday Evening Post.

Posted in Holiday Joy

Taizé Four 4/9/25 “Let All Who Are Thirsty”

Tonight was our church’s (Asbury Memorial, Savannah) fourth and final Taize service before the beginning of this Sunday’s Passover and Holy Week.

“Taizé is a meditative prayer service that incorporates simple repetitive song and chant, scripture readings, and periods of group silence in a setting of peace and soft light that fosters communion with God.” St. Mary’s of the Hill

After Pope John Paul Il visited the ecumenical, monastic Taizé community in France in 1986, he said:“One passes through Taize as one passes close to a spring of water. The traveler stops, quenches his thirst, and continues on his way. The brothers of the community do not want to keep you. They want, in prayer and silence, to enable you to drink the living water promised by Christ, to know his joy, to discern his presence, to respond to his call, then to set out again to witness to his love and to serve your brothers and sisters in your parishes, your schools, your universities, and in all your places of work.”

So come into this place of peace & let its silence heal your spirit; Come into this place of memory & let its history warm your soul; Come into this place of prophecy & power & let its vision change your heart. (From the service bulletin.)

Tonight‘s chant:

Let all who are thirsty come. Let all who wish receive the water of life freely. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Although you can’t quite tell it, this is a fountain filled with little stones. 

REMEMBERING OUR BAPTISM. You are invited to “Remember your baptism” by coming to the altar and receiving a stone from the flowing water of life. We encourage you to keep the stone with you throughout the seasons of Lent, Easter, and Eastertide. (From the service bulletin.)

May a Bit of Evening Peace be yours tonight.