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 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 Monday Moaning or Monday Marveling?

Monday Moaning or Monday Marveling? 5/5/25

I’m Marveling this Monday Morn remembering our hike the other day at Skidaway Island State Park near us.

We saw our first alligator of the season. He (she?) was a young one. So we didn’t hang out around too long because Mama was probably somewhere close.

“Alligators are common in Savannah, as the area provides a suitable habitat for the species with its mix of freshwater and saltwater environments, as well as abundant prey. Alligators are found in many of the waterways and marshes surrounding Savannah, including the Savannah River and Skidaway Island.” savannahproper.com

Robert and I have learned to respect the large alligator population here in Coastal Georgia. They are not aggressive and will generally leave people alone, as long as we keep our distance (especially while walking a dog) and refrain from feeding them.

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.