Recently, Robert, and I were in Atlanta for their annual Pride Festival. One morning we ventured over to the always-magnificent Atlanta Botanical Garden.
In addition to over 10,000 pumpkins (!) on display (I’ll block about that a little later), there was a new exhibit, “Enchanted Trees” woven through the garden’s incredible natural landscape.
Here’s one:
Amazing Beauty!
A blog category about finding “interesting decor” in various bathrooms I’ve come across.
So yesterday, Robert and I drove over to Bluffton, South Carolina to attend my daughter Amy’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for expansion of her Savannah- based medical company, Coastal Care Partners.
Afterwards, we had lunch at our VERY favorite fried chicken restaurant on the planet, Cahill’s Market and Chicken Kitchen. (I love its name.)
Cahill’s is a working farm.
At my age, I always pay careful attention to the whereabouts of the nearest restroom.
Restroom? Do you really rest in a restroom?
And here are a few other synonyms for restroom …
Bog?! Jakes?!
Anyway, before leaving Cahill’s and driving back to Savannah, of course I had to visit the, the … garderobe.
And look what I Halloween-y found!
I left the, the … watercloset, relieved and in a bit more of the upcoming holiday spirit.
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. Fall and chrysanthemums!
2. The ability to smile, even just a little bit, even when we may not feel like smiling.
3. This lone October blossom on a leafless Lily Magnolia tree (aka as Tulip Magnolia or Tulip Tree) that Robert and I saw and marveled at yesterday.
Sometimes you just gotta go it alone.
4. Daughter Amy expanding her Savannah-based medical company across the Savannah River and over into nearby (and beautiful) Bluffton, South Carolina.
HR and I drove over for the ribbon cutting yesterday morn.
Robert and I made it at the very end into the little local news coverage …
The paparazzi will simply not leave me alone.
https://share.google/oQybdqM9iBeJARSbc
5. Robert and some hay.
May you sit in front of a joyful weekend ahead.
As you probably know, Monday night gave us the beautiful Harvest Moon of 2025. And while I didn’t have any crops that needed to be harvested in the bright moonlight (as was done yesteryear), Robert and I did go on a wonderfully invigorating and insightful “Harvest Moon Hike” with about ten other moon watchers at nearby Skidaway Island State Park here in Savannah.
“The moniker harvest moon indicates that it’s the full moon event closest to the autumnal equinox, or the first day of fall. Historically, the moon’s bright light helped farmers complete their harvests for the year, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac.” cnn
“This moon will be the first of three back-to-back supermoons this year. A supermoon happens when the moon reaches perigee, or its nearest point to our planet, making it appear larger and fuller.” cnn
One of Robert’s photos:
And some of my sad attempts …
… which I ended up sort of liking and am now calling “artistic.”
“Oh, shine on, shine on harvest moon up in the sky
Shine on, shine on harvest moon”
The mid-summer heat is incredible down here in my Savannah, Georgia—as it seems to be in much of our weathered nation.
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Real Feel of 114? Seriously?
On early morning walks (it’s far too hot for me to walk midday), I have noticed one resilient plant that seems to not only survive in this oppressive heat and brutal sunshine, but actually to THRIVE.
“Some plants perform best when the heat is on; Crape Myrtles revel in the sun and heat. They are summer show-offs. In full bloom this beautiful shrub/tree radiates color, sporting a full head of crinkled, “crepe” like blooms in various shades.” aldenlane.com
May we follow crepe myrtle’s exemplary leadership in this very hot time in our nation.
It’s dangerously hot, but we will stay alive!
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. This visually very pretty (and delicious) box of dried fruit and nuts from Turkey. (A belated Father’s Day gift).
2. Looking forward to an end-of-Pride Month gathering tomorrow here in Savannah.
3. The Amazing Ability to doze off every night for Sensational Sleep.
4. Crepe Myrtle (“Lily of the South”) blossoms all over Savannah this hot summer.
5. Clouds.
Like sleep, I find them so mysterious.
“I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all”
Joni Mitchell (and me!)
But I do love them.
Have a Jolly last weekend in June.
“World Ocean Day unites and rallies the world to protect and restore our blue planet!
Since launching global coordination in 2002, World Ocean Day has grown from an idea to thousands of events and millions of people reached each year. The World Ocean Day network includes 2,000+ organizations in 180 countries.
Following a four-year petition drive with our international network, the United Nations officially recognized the Day in 2008.” unworldoceansday.org
Robert and I are fortunate to live about twenty minutes from the ocean—the Atlantic Ocean. Tybee Island (aka Savannah Beach).
My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.
1. This unique little “Dog Library” that I discovered near us here in historic district Savannah the other day.
A variation of the Free Little Libraries and Free Little Pantries scattered across the country?
2. This simple, unassuming little fresh-from-the-garden zucchini gift from friends and what I made from it.
3. Rejuvenating Spring Rain. (We’ve had a bunch of it lately.)
4. Robert’s Oh So Delicious! St. Louis Ribs on Memorial Day.
5. Attending a fascinating lecture at our local Jepson Center for the Arts about their latest exhibit, Moss Mystique: Southern Women and Newcomb Pottery.
We didn’t know much about Newcomb Pottery until our Toledo-in-the-Summer and Savannah-in-the-Winter friends Don and Jim told us all about the incredible pottery.
From the exhibit: “IN 1895, THE ART DEPARTMENT AT THE H. SOPHIE NEWCOMB MEMORIAL COLLEGE, a women’s school in New Orleans, Louisiana, began a new enterprise: the Newcomb College Pottery. The educators hoped to provide their graduates with way of putting their design education into practice and earning an income in a manner that was socially acceptable for white upper-class women.”
“These women decorated a variety of wares with ornament inspired by regional fora and fauna. Though students were educated in ceramics, the Pottery hired men to create the wares, which were formed from a mixture of clays from around the region. Promoting the Pottery to national and international audiences, its founders and some decorators claimed that the products were unique and authentic representations of the American South.”
“The Pottery’s aesthetics shifted dramatically over the following decades, and the school added other media, such as textiles, to the enterprise, but the emphasis on these products ‘Southerness’ remained in place until the Pottery’s closure in 1939.”
“Drawn from the permanent collection of the Newcomb Art Museum of Tulane University, this exhibition explores Newcomb decorators choice of imagery and their relationships with regional identity. Plants and vacant landscapes suggested isolation from busy urban centers in New England and the Midwest, while moss-draped oak and cypress trees matched descriptions in fiction that romanticized the pre-Civil War period. Even the decorators’ status as upper-class white women placed them as ‘belles’ in these fantasies. Though these women created many of these designs over 100 years ago, their work reinforced perceptions about the American South that remain powerful today.”
May you Exhibit some Powerful Joy this mid-spring Weekend!
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:
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 …
NealEnJoy 