Tag: Savannah

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 4/25/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. Heavenly smelling Strawberry Blossoms and Fruit on a visit to Sonrise Farms near Dublin GA.

2. Reflection

HR and … me

3. The ability to walk up a staircase and to walk down a staircase. (Though it’s getting to be more of a challenge these days with my creaky knees.)

4. Grandson Daniel‘s 18th birthday dance at Miyabi’s Kyoto Steak House here in Savannah.

(You can hear Robert in the background, egging Daniel on.)

A pretty messed-up photo at the party but sort of cool in its own way. 

5. The amazing spectacle I often see when I step out my front door here in historic district Savannah, a few blocks from the Savannah River …

… and pause before I head to wherever I’m going … to take in a gargantuan cargo ship heading to the Savannah port.

The purple through the oak trees? That’s a cargo ship!

I hope this weekend brings you a Cargo of Good.

Posted in My Saturday Evening Post

My Saturday Evening Post: 4/12/25 “Night Light Life”

Posted on by Neal Saye

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.

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 4/4/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. Morning Glory.

Early morning walk on Skidaway Island (Georgia)

2. Simple Beige Beauty.

Our breakfast table

3. The inhale and the exhale.

And the oft-forgotten mindfulness of the inhale and the exhale.

4. The Breath of Fresh Air Robert and I are experiencing with the television reality series, “Love on the Spectrum.”

“Overview: Seven adults with autism dive headlong into a dating group to explore the unpredictable world of romance, tackling misconceptions about both themselves and how they want to live.” (Series Website)

We recently stumbled upon season two and are working through it now.

5. Playing hide and seek with a Japanese Flowering Cherry tree near us here in historic district Savannah.

May you experience a Bit of Play somehow this spring weekend.

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 3/28/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. Walking to one of my favorite reading spots a couple of blocks from us here in Historic District Savannah on the bluff overlooking the Savannah River.

2. Being able to walk!

3. Friendly farm animals yesterday at Hunter Cattle Company in Brooklet GA, where we bought beautiful grass-fed ribeye steak.

4. More of Savannah’s Spring Beauty.

5. Looking for the Tree Spirits at various spots around Saint Simon’s Island (Georgia).

(I’m working on a post about the dozen or so “spirits” we found recently.)

May you spring into a Happy and Healthy Weekend ahead.

Posted in Savannah Joy

First Day of Spring in Savannah

Posted on by Neal Saye

I don’t know what it’s like in your stretch of the woods on this First Day of Spring 2025, but Savannah is …

Bursting into Bloom.

Azaleas at Savannah Botanical Gardens

Dogwood around the corner from us.

And a Galleria of Azaleas we just saw on our First-Day-of-Spring Morning Walk …

Red Tip Photinias dazzling in the morning sunshine …

And a Miscellany of Marvelous, also on our Morning Walk …

Our sweet little Green Japanese Maple coming back to life …

Happy, Happy First Day of Spring, whatever you see today.

Posted in Holiday Joy, Holidays and Seasonal Changes

Sunday Evening Shenanigans

Posted on by Neal Saye

It’s St. Patrick’s Day eve, and as Robert and I have done the last five or six years, we hightail it out of Dodge (well, Savannah).

“Why,” you may be asking. “Doesn’t Savannah have one of the nation’s largest and most celebrated St. Patrick’s Day bashes/parades?”

Yes, it does. And we have enjoyed them in the past.

But here comes the rub. I moved to Savannah back in 2009, as I was semi-retiring from Georgia Southern University (about an hour north of SAV). I have lived in two Savannah locations , and (incredibly) BOTH were directly on the parade route, which initially sounded great. And I suppose initially it was.

But as the years went by, I began to see aspects of the parade’s insanity. Don’t get me wrong, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations can be so much fun and meaningful: the Greening of the Fountains, the Celtic Cross Ceremony in Emmet Park, the Jasper Green Ceremony in Madison Square, etc.

Savannah’s population is around 150.000, and the parade usually draws at least that many more visitors. And living on the parade route, we have witnessed disappointing human behavior outside our door. Our potted plants being trampled, thrown and broken on the pavement, even urinated upon. (TMI?). Partiers loudly camping outside our door all night the night before the parade.

So anyway, we drove an hour or so south of us to St. Simons Island to a quaint little retro motel (not hotel). Queen’s Court Inn:

We are currently high-energetically super-celebrating St. Patty Eve.

My helpers:

And Robert’s:

It’s deliciously quiet here. And raining softly outside.

celebrate (with a small “c”).

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.