13 Bean Medley after soaking overnightVoila! Hambone Soup
And it’s just warm enough to eat outside. It = weather as well as soup.
2. Reading/skimming through this beautifully delightful book about flowers.
And then going outside the farmhouse to practice …
Okay, maybe I won’t win any floral awards. But it was fun.
3. Being able to stay warm in the cold of winter. What a blessing!
Brrr. Savannah!
4. This ceiling light at a local indoor—outdoor restaurant.
5. The neat coincidence of Grandson Gabriel re-entering his recent high school basketball game just as an advertisement for his parents’ medical company flashed on the screen behind him.
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.
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.
Fall greensYum times 100.
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 …
merriam-webster.com
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!
Chicken made out of beer bottle caps. And why wouldn’t you? 
I left the, the … watercloset, relieved and in a bit more of the upcoming holiday spirit.
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
I look a little crazed. I’m blaming it on the full moon. 
“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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Yesterday afternoon here in Savannah 
Real Feel of 114? Seriously?
cnn
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.
Crepe Myrtle
“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.
“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).
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.
YUM!
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!
NealEnJoy 