Tag: Photography

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 3/7/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. Watching this beautifully tall and obviously-in-love couple leaning toward each other at Amerson River Park in Macon, GA yesterday. (Robert and I were taking a walk, waiting for time to check into our Airbnb.)

May they live happily ever after.

2. Finishing a fascinating novel about the timely subject of trans men and women. Both hilarious and heartwarming. I’m so glad we found the book.

This is the 198th book Robert and I have read together.

May we continue to be able to read what we want to read in this nation – and not only what “the government” wants us to read.

3. The ability to feel — physically feel. I have been struggling with more arthritis pain than usual lately. Frustratingly, in several areas of my body. And I’m a big baby when it comes to pain.

As I was moaning and groaning recently, HR reminded me that at least I can feel. Some people can’t even do that. After fighting off the urge to inflict pain upon him, I realized he is right.

4. Once we settled into our Airbnb (three rooms of a crumbling but still beautiful Southern mansion in Macon’s Old Town), we went out onto the huge shared front porch …

… and were promptly welcomed by the Friendly Neighborhood Greeter.

5. Our Travel Buddies (who go with us everywhere) hovering under the tulips HR picked up to brighten our Airbnb.

May you pick up something to brighten your weekend ahead!

Posted in Holidays and Seasonal Changes

Why My Face Is Dirtier Than Usual Today

Posted on by Neal Saye

Robert and I, along with my ex-wife Donna and good friend Margaret, went to our church’s Ash Wednesday service at noon today.

I LOVE the Season of Spring and all the Warm Days, Holidays/Holy days it debuts.

Here’s National Day Calendar’s brief explanation:

“Ash Wednesday signals the beginning of the Lenten season for Christians. It takes place 46 days before Easter and the day after Shrove Tuesday.

Those who celebrate Ash Wednesday may reflect, fast, repent and celebrate. The ashes represent death and repentance and Ash Wednesday services focus on both. In many churches, the ashes are made from the palm branches that are burned from the previous Palm Sunday service.”

I am a Christian (belonging to a very liberal, inclusive, and justice-oriented congregation), but I love this secular rendering of Ash Wednesday:

Google Overview

Here’s a beautifully somber yet encouraging meditation on the meaning of Ash Wednesday:

May you see a Reflection of Good this season.

Posted in One-Word Wednesday

One-Word Wednesday 3/5/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

“Yellow”

On a walk yesterday morn, we saw this pushy yellow jessamine taking over the back entrance of the Savannah Yoga studio.

“Carolina yellow jasmine (sometimes called false jasmine or Carolina jessamine) is a member of the family Gelsemiaceae. It is a vine native to the southern United States, Mexico, and Guatemala. Its name derives from the Italian name for jasmine, gelsomino, and the species name indicates that it is evergreen. It was named the state flower of South Carolina in 1924.” North Carolina Extension Gardener

Posted in Monday Moaning or Monday Marveling?

Monday Moaning or Monday Marveling? 3/3/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

Marveling this morning at my grandson Daniel‘s convincing performance as a REALLY messed-up teenager in his latest play, this time at the Tybee Arts Association Black Box Theater on Tybee Island near Savannah.

The play: Marvin’s Room.

Daniel’s character: Seventeen year-old Hank. (D is also seventeen.)

Here’s what Google’s AI says about Hank:

Whew!

Hank, onstage, with his psychiatrist on the right and his emotionally distant mother on the left:

As a grandfather, it was actually (and probably foolishly) somewhat difficult to see the normally exuberantly positive and usually smiling Daniel portraying such a severely damaged young man. (Hank doesn’t smile very much in the play.)

For a moment, I forgot what actors actually do. Act.

Daniel’s now been in over thirty plays, and his specialty seems to be the romantic lead in musical theatre (Prince Topher in Cinderella, Marius in Les Mis), Raoul in Phantom of the Opera.)

Sitting in the audience for Marvin’s Room, I kept having a bit of conflict between watching that mentally challenged CHARACTER I just met and denying to myself that the young ACTOR I knew so well could have ANY of Hank’s negative qualities.

But, uh oh. Maybe we haven’t burned down a house, but haven’t we all pushed a button or two to provoke a reaction from someone else?

Haven’t we all occasionally struggled to express our emotions openly?

Haven’t we all used sarcasm?

And haven’t we all felt (or acted) a little … crazy from time to time?!

The play ends (thankfully) on a positive note with Hank seemingly on his way to a better life.

And here’s Hank — I mean Daniel (!) — smiling his usual smile with HR and me after the performance.

Chatting and joking about his crazy character, we asked Daniel what he was going to be doing after this play ran its course.

“Oh, I’ll probably burn down my high school.”

Daniel, second from the right, chatting with some of his high school buddies who came to support him at the play’s second performance.

O

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 2/28/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. Signs of approaching Springtime in Savannah.

2. The ability to hear. And to mindfully know, in the moment, that we are hearing.

3. Boardwalks. Especially as they weather and age a bit.

Skidaway Island, near Savannah.

4. This cool sign we came upon this morn in Savannah’s eclectic and edgy Victorian District.

5. Rest.

May you have a restful weekend ahead.

Posted in Beautiful Savannah

There’s a Story Here Somewhere

Posted on by Neal Saye

Walking through Savannah’s Colonial Park Cemetery this morning with HR, we came across this bench.

There has to be a story somewhere. Is the story’s central character Mary Helen Ray, whose name is on the bench?

Or maybe one of the nearly 700 folks who died during a yellow fever epidemic in Savannah: “The most macabre bit of history involves a subtly tweaked fact on a historical marker about the yellow fever. According to the marker, ‘nearly 700’ victims of the 1820 yellow fever epidemic were buried in a mass grave, but historical records allegedly show that exactly 666 people are buried in the grave. Nearly 700, indeed.” savannahnow.com.

Here’s a link to an interesting story about Colonial Park Cemetery: 

https://www.savannahnow.com/story/lifestyle/2021/08/04/savannah-history-cemeteries-colonial-park-yellow-fever-deaths-graves/5476392001/#

Oh, and for extra credit, here is Robert sitting in a bunch of ginkgo biloba leaves at one of the entrances to Colonial Park Cemetery …

That’s probably a story in itself.