Tag: Nature

Posted in Countdown to Christmas

12/3/21 Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks

Posted on by Neal Saye

For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” each day between December 1 and 25, I take a pic of a state park ornament on our Travel Tree and briefly highlight that park.

High Falls State Park is a naturally beautiful oasis along the Towaliga River just off I-75 between Macon and Atlanta, near Jackson, Georgia.

The water was a bit muddy the day we visited. (But then again, I’m a bit muddy some days as well.)

Here’s a one-minute “meditation” (we’ll call it). Close your eyes and listen to the cleansing sounds of nature …

Moving Peace.

At one point I paused by the water and chatted with … an animal. It looked like a camel. I think it was a camel.

See? Don’t you agree?

It never answered back. And Robert would have no part of it.

High Falls was just a short stopover on our way home from Atlanta, so we want to go back for a longer trek one of these days.

(I hope the camel will still be there. Robert assured me, with a bit of an attitude, that it “wood” still be there.)

Posted in Countdown to Christmas

12/1/21 — Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks

Posted on by Neal Saye

Well before the pandemic, Robert and I had started exploring our state’s 48 State Parks and 16 Historic Sites. Georgia has an absolutely dizzying array of parks, from the North Georgia mountains, to the piedmont, on down to the coastal plain, where we live in Savannah.

After months waiting out the pandemic, and coming down with severe house-stir-craziness, we decided to venture out again … experimentally.

What a glorious time we had, getting reacquainted with or being introduced to our state’s natural splendors.

We would reserve a cabin for a Monday and stay several days before the weekend traffic arrived.

Oh, btw, here’s our nerdy state park magnet board …

Now that December is here, and we are on our Countdown to Christmas, Robert and I have put up our Travel Tree. What’s a Travel Tree, you ask? It’s a Christmas tree, with each ornament from one of our travels over the years.

For this new blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Our Travel Tree & Georgia State Parks,” I plan to briefly highlight one aspect of a different Georgia State Park each day till the Big Day.

Starting with one of our favorite, Tugaloo State Park, way up in Northeast Georgia near Lavinia.

Perhaps our greatest joy about this park was our very own private dock down the hill from our cabin. The dock extended out onto beautiful Lake Hartwell on the South Carolina border.

And here’s an absolutely pitiful pic (thankfully dark) of me shivering in the morning cold with my coffee.

And here’s one of Robert, inexplicably taking a picture of my coffee.

State Park Happiness!

Joyful First Day of Countdown to You!

Posted in Beautiful Savannah

I Love Our D.A.!

Posted on by Neal Saye

My stomping ground, Historic District Savannah, is a lovely place anytime of the year. But D.A (Downtown Autumn) is especially beautiful—and comes in a pretty close second to our Azalea-d Spring.

On a stroll this morning, I decided to ignore the leftover Halloween displays and just concentrate on Fall. Here’s a sampling of what yelled “Hello there, look at me!”

Glorious stairs, leading Up:

Wreaths:

Boots:

Boots? Who wudda thought?

Camellias (Savannah’s “cold weather azaleas”) ready to burst into bloom—and a few getting a head start:

Ralph:

Odds and ends:

A pink pumpkin:

Well, okay.

A cool courtyard:

Two hanging baskets, who drew me close and whispered, “Please. Please. Get us outta here. Haven’t we grown enough?”

Loquats—a native Chinese fruit found growing More often than you would think in historic district courtyards and tree lawns.

And finally, our fair abode, which now seems sorta shadowy compared to all those others I walked by.

But what a beautiful D.A. we have here in Savannah’s Historic District. Thank you, Autumn.

Posted in Life and Death

The October Rose: Sorta Sad, Sorta Not, but More Sorta Sad than Sorta Not

Posted on by Neal Saye

Morning walking in Savannah’s Forsyth Park the other day led us, almost Alice-in-Wonderland-ishly, into the little old, hidden-away, walled and overgrown Fragrant Garden. I knew it was there, having walked by the usually locked entrance hundreds of times. But I had forgotten it.

I was pleasantly surprised to see from just inside the gate how many roses were still in bloom. Dozens of bursts of color. Isn’t Halloween nearly here? And the bushes were standing so beautifully tall! Proud, regal.

I was taken aback at my sudden jolt of happiness. And I thought of what my buddy Anne (you know, of Green Gables) told me one time: “Neal, I’m so glad we live in a world where there are Octobers.” What a perceptive young lady.

But (and just for the record, if you think about it, whenever someone says “but,” the words that follow are often not the most uplifting) my Fragrant World smelled a little less joyful as I realized that the bushes were so very tall because they had not been pruned nor tenderly cared for. And looking more closely, I saw that most of the blooms were beginning to lose petals, droop a bit and some were even whispering an elegantly tortured “goodbye.”

Fall has forever been my favorite season. Autumn isn’t so childishly young as spring, doesn’t exude summer’s arrogance, thinking itself so very hot. And fall doesn’t give you the icy stares and cold shoulders of winter. Fall is gorgeously colorful and aroma-therapeutically delicious.

But fall is also, of course, the season that recognizes, even blatantly exposes, her mortality as those leaves drift earthward, and annuals lose their colors and die, while the last rose of summer falls from her heights to the untilled soul in the Fragrant Garden.

Sad but a part of the universal cycle.

Celtic Woman expresses the sentiment beautifully in their rendition of Irish poet Thomas Moore’s 1805 poem, “The Last Rose of Summer.”