Tag: Photography

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 5/27/22

Posted on by Neal Saye

Last night, in the midst of some uninvited anxiety (Hello, Truffles!), I told Robert that I was thinking about not doing my weekly Five Friday Happy Bringers today. That there’s just too much Sadness and Horror in the world to post about Happiness. After giving me a lengthy and incredulous stare … something like this …

… HR helped me see that my rationale made NO sense. “Everything is not negative. And doesn’t positive help to counteract negative?”

He’s right. Happiness continues to come our way, if we see and embrace it.

1. Curly haired courage. Florida high school class president Zander Moricz, speaking at his graduation, brilliantly referencing his being gay (and Florida’s new restrictive anti-gay laws) without ever using the word (as he was told not to do so).

cnn

If you haven’t read about or seen videos of Zander’s speech, here are a few excerpts.

“I must discuss a very public part of my identity…As you know, I have curly hair,” he continued while taking off his graduation cap.

He went on to discuss the challenges faced by curly-haired people. “While having curly hair in Florida is difficult — due to the humidity — I decided to be proud of who I was and started coming to school as my authentic self,” after unsuccessful attempts at straightening, he said. And he found support from teachers who discussed the topic and discovered others with curly hair.

“It’s because of the love I’d drawn from this community that I came out to my family,” he said. “Now I’m happy. Now I’m happy. And that is what is at stake. There are going to be so many kids with curly hair who need a community like Pine View, and they won’t have one. They too will try to straighten that part of themselves.” (The Advocate)

Malay Mail

2. HR prepping for his spectacular Baked Ziti Thursday night.

4. Grandson Gabriel receiving a year-long honor roll award at his school’s ceremony.

With his big brother Daniel and his cousins, twins Matthew and Madison.

4. The classic simplicity of lettuce and tomato.

5. Life. LIFE!

Have a lovely last weekend of May.

Posted in The Artful Dodger, Unexpected Art

“The Artful Dodger“ #9

Posted on by Neal Saye

A blog category about finding “art” in unexpected places and situations.

There I was, minding my business and sitting at lunch with HR at the Grub Burger Bar up in Atlanta. Nearly finished with the meal, I looked down at my tenders plate, and saw a little bird sashaying among my fries!

I stared at it for a minute it two, wondering how it got into the restaurant. When, lo and behold, the little bird (little duck?) took flight and flew down my throat!

Startled, I looked over at Robert, levelheaded as usual, who told me to “Feed him a fry or two. He’s probably tired and hungry after that flight.”

So I did.

Posted in My Saturday Evening Post

My Saturday Evening Post: 5/21/22 “Fancy Coffee”

Posted on by Neal Saye

Yesterday morn, Robert and I headed over to a new bistro near us, Alexander’s, for coffee and a little breakfast. I got my usual (whatever drip they were featuring), but HR went all fancy — a latte with mocha.

Look at the coffee.
Look at me.

The orange flower was edible! (He didn’t share.)

My coffee came in a sad brown paper cup. I had to force it to let me take its picture.

After HR’s sausage roll and my Kanelbullar cinnamon roll (with pearled sugar!), we just weren’t ready to leave, so we shared a beautifully delicious Scottish Egg.

Fun, fun morning.

Posted in Friendship

The Architecture of Friendship

Posted on by Neal Saye

The other evening Robert and I were out and about here in Historic District Savannah when we happened upon a young couple. Strangers. The young man was perched on the sidewalk, photographing the striking statuary in the front courtyard of The Telfair Museum when we walked by.

He started up a conversation by showing us his terrific black and white pics. We hit it off immediately and went to World of Beer where we enjoyed a couple of hours of newfound camaraderie, discovering a truckload of common interests and concerns. Great fun.

As we were finally saying our goodbyes, the young man suggested that he take a picture of our feet together. I cherish out-of the-blue ideas like that!

We all loved the result. And we appreciated the truth of the young man’s closing comment: “Now we’re all in the stream together.”

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About Standing (in Kinship)

We all have the same little bones in our feet
twenty-six with funny names like navicular.
Together they build something strong—
our foot arch a pyramid holding us up.
The bones don’t get casts when they break.
We tape them—one phalange to its neighbor for support.
(Other things like sorrow work that way, too—
find healing in the leaning, the closeness.)
Our feet have one quarter of all the bones in our body.
Maybe we should give more honor to feet
and to all those tiny but blessed cogs in the world—
communities, the forgotten architecture of friendship.

— Kimberly Blaeser

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 5/20/22

Posted on by Neal Saye

1. Passionate Purple.

Photographed in several Savannah squares near us.

2. Grandtwins Madison and Matthew’s 4th grade awards ceremony.

With terrific teacher Mr.Range
Ex-wife Donna, Daughter Emily, HR and the twins (with Matthew looking a tad less than enthusiastic.)

3. Attending a tea tasting fundraiser for healthy new tea blend Equi-Tea at our buddy Wayne’s Ashford Tea Company here in Savannah. Proceeds from the sale of Tisane Health Equi-Tea support a wonderful organization, Healthy Savannah.

Cool tea expert Wayne

From Healthy Savannah’s website: “When we picture a healthy Savannah, it is inclusive of all people – regardless of ability, age, income level, race, or neighborhood. Everyone must have equitable access to the resources they need to live their healthiest life.”

“Healthy Savannah’s work over the past 13 years has been successful in reducing the gap in health equity. That is the power of our 200-member coalition, our close relationships with the local government leaders, the faith-based community, and residents in our priority population and neighborhoods.”

Me (looking slightly crazed and short), Larson
(Communications and Community Clinical Linkages Program Manager of Healthy Savannah) and Paula (Executive Director of Healthy Savannah)

More info here if you’re interested: https://healthysavannah.org/

4. Frozen Joy.

Oh. My. Goodness. SO GOOD.

5. Gratitude for each new morning!

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I’m grateful for you too. Have a cool and delicious weekend!

Posted in Robert and …

“Robert and …” #17

Posted on by Neal Saye

A blog category of pics I’ve taken of HR (Hubby Robert) and … well, just about anything

Robert and … mansplaining. Here’s HR in his gay Smirnoff t-shirt at breakfast, left hand either furtively hiding something he doesn’t want me to see or gesturing awkwardly, as he drones on and on about some trivial topic or other. If I remember correctly (and don’t hold me to it, my mind often wanders/wonders), I think he was painstakingly explaining to me how important it is to double check the forks and spoons after washing them (our dishwasher is ill right now), since I tend to just let a little drizzle of water touch them before tossing them in the dish drying rack …

“And the thing is, Neal, you MIGHT want to look more closely for little pieces of food or butter or soap bubbles or whatever on the forks and spoons because, YOU KNOW, that’s probably not all that good for us … … … ….”