Curio cabinet, happy ending and goldfinches

 - The story of my new cabinet:  My sister and I walked by a newly opened antiques shop in Thomasville, Georgia on the day after Christmas.  She said that building had been a hardware store for years.  A hand inside the window waved at us, so we went in.  While my sis talked to the very nice lady who had waved, I walked around and browsed.  Tucked away in the corner was a lighted curio cabinet with a "Sale" tag of $50 on it.  I thought, "$50????  Hmmm...how could I get that home?"  I knew just the spot for it in my dining room.  We left and I mulled it over while we walked around town.  I mentioned to her that I thought I might like that cabinet and she said it would fit in the back of her SUV, so we went back, only to find the shop had closed for the day.  I snapped a photo of the telephone number posted on the door and finally called about it during the last week of January.  The shop lady said she was very sorry, she was using it as a display case now.  Well shoot.  I cajoled and made my case, but no, she was firm - it was no longer for sale.  (It's in the photo above - found on their facebook page. Click to enlarge.  Far left corner in the back.)

- As you can see from this photo, this story has a happy ending - here it is in the corner of my dining room with contents from around my home in place.  I adore it.  :)  Here's what happened:  My sister and I were talking on the phone about her upcoming trip to visit me in Atlanta on the first week of February and I told her my tale of woe about the cabinet, adding "I should have bought it on the spot when I saw it."  She said, "I'm going to Thomasville tomorrow (she lives about 30 miles away in northern Florida) and I'll see what I can do."  She walked into the shop and pleaded my case again for me, by saying that she was coming up for my birthday and would love to surprise me.  She walked around the shop browsing and the shop lady thought about it, "It's her birthday?  Really?"  My sister called me while I was driving home that afternoon, "You owe me $53.50!" :)  The very nice lady had acquiesced.  Here it is and I adore it.  We need to send my sis to Washington, I think.

- Sara says my birds from the last post might very well be goldfinches.  How about that?  And perfect that I am reading the book, "The Goldfinch" right now.  I can hardly put it down at this point.   Click on the red link for Stephen King's review in The New York Times Book Review.  If he liked it, that's good enough for me.

Thanks for coming by!  Have a great weekend!

Home with the family, the day after and Small Business Saturday

- Pete the cat, looking around warily to make sure great nephew Monroe, a busy toddler, wasn't on the way.

- Beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia on "Black Friday."  I loved the subtle ornaments hung in the trees.  Click to enlarge.

- These little library boxes were in front of several businesses.  You may take a book or leave a book (or both.)  So nice.  This one was in front of Sweet Grass Dairy, who invited all to come in and "Recharge with CHEESE!" on Small Business Saturday.* We did.  :)  A lovely holiday.

* Small Business Saturday - a day to celebrate and support small businesses and all they do for their communities.

Beautiful day, proposal and more chatting time

- A quick trip on Friday night to see my sister and brother-in-law with two of my friends.  On Saturday, they wanted to see Thomasville, Georgia, with it's bustling downtown area.  Sister and I were sitting on a bench waiting for them outside this kitchen shop here.  A beautiful day.

- Scarecrow competitions must be the big thing this year.  This one was on his knee proposing marriage to anyone who walked by.  Click to enlarge.

- All three of these photos were taken while my sis and I sat on sidewalk benches waiting for the browsing friends (we both tend to breeze through shops and move on - it's all good, either way.)  It gave us more chatting time and she never questioned why I pulled my camera out for random photos.  None of these three photos were altered at all - the beautiful sunlight tells the story of the day.

Welcome sight, remembered and getting a wave

- Driving into Thomasville, Georgia (at the very tip of south Georgia) on an overcast day, to meet my sister and niece for lunch on Friday.  This would have been a more beautiful through-the-windshield shot without all the power lines and cars, but still beautiful to me.  There was a tour group (all holding paper fans) on the steps of that church.  And beyond that - two beloved women sitting in a restaurant waiting, a welcome sight after the long drive from Atlanta.

-  A woman in a shop remembers me, even though I haven't been there since last December - something I only seem to encounter in small towns.

- Getting a wave from everyone inside on-coming cars on the highway on the six mile trip to my sister and brother-in-law's farm.  Whether they recognize you or not - they are always friendly there anyway.

More photos on Wednesday!

Butterfly, bee and magnolias

- A butterfly bush, and its special visitor.

- And their friend, the bee.  So much activity on one bush!

- A nearby magnolia blossom.  Summer in the south.  Lovely.

R is for River, Resting and Resurgens

 - The Hiawassee River just at the bend of it in Clay County, North Carolina.  Sometimes when I'm particularly stressed out, I close my eyes and can just hear the whisper of the river flowing by. 

- These dogs having a little rest while their owners shopped in downtown Thomasville, Georgia, a truly beautiful small town shopping area.  I like how the dog on the right made the most of the shade under the bench.  :)

- This is the seal of the city of Atlanta, with its motto "Resurgens" which is Latin for "rising again."  When Atlanta was burned to the ground by Union troops toward the end of the Civil War in 1864, the residents decided to rebuild.  Hence the adoption of the image of the mythical Phoenix rising from the ashes to live again.  This seal adorns many of the buildings and lampposts in Atlanta.

 

Day 18 of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, featuring the letter "R."  Three things that give me pleasure.  Happy Friday! 

Room with a view, heroes and big family

- This is the view from my mother's hospital room in Thomasville, Georgia.  There is a lovely little courtyard shaded by that Live Oak tree.  I stand and look out at this serene view and have never seen one person down there.  Looks like a good place to read to me. 

- The young man who transports patients to physical therapy was a local football hero and knows that the high school in my suburb of Atlanta, Tucker, Georgia, won the state high school championship in 2008 and 2011. His team played them. I tell him I remember the banner going across main street last year.  He smiles as if he loved that time in his life. 

- I love people's stories.  A student nurse is pregnant.  I ask if this is her first.  No, her sixth!   She'll have three boys and three girls with this one and then will be done.  She's one of seventeen children herself and always wanted a big family. 

Mom is back home at the assisted living facility, as of Thursday afternoon.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

The hospital, parking lot and some stories

- Spending the weekend within this hospital in Thomasville, Georgia with my mother (who is recovering from the aftereffects of a fall.)  The architecture of the building seems out of character for the surrounding neighborhood, but yet somehow fits anyway. 

- And in the parking lot, while getting in the car to leave, there is this view.  The tree is what is referred to as a "Live Oak" and has the usual ethereal looking Spanish moss dripping from it.  The house across the street is typical of the beautiful homes surrounding the hospital.

- Three favorite stories from the weekend (I was there from Friday morning to Sunday evening):

1. Two visitors come in and we stand whispering beside my sleeping (and sedated) mother's bed.  Ever the Southern Belle, her eyes open and she gently reprimands me for not offering them a chair.
2. A nurse is wearing a beautiful two-toned gold pendant.  Her father had it made for her specially, knowing that she loved white and yellow gold together.  It arrived in the mail one week after he died and is a Guardian Angel pendant.  She never takes it off.
3. A woman who comes in to clean the room tells me how much she loves working there and that this is her favorite floor of all.  I tell her that the people who work on that floor couldn't have been nicer, so I can understand that.

Wishin' and hopin', blueberry treats and sparkle

- It's Halloween and I remember just how much I loved Trick or Treating when I was a kid, so I hope I have some Trick or Treaters this year! My plastic pumpkin is filled with candy I wouldn't want, ie. nothing chocolate, and I will leave the lights blazing in hope. :)*

- My 1 3/4 year-old great-niece is staying with her grandparents this week and will be trick-or-treating tonight for her favorite thing: blueberries (her mom doesn't want her to have candy yet.)

- A man and woman who live at my mom's assisted living facility are engaged. The woman's eyes sparkle when telling someone that "the big day" is in two weeks.

* Update, Tuesday, November 1 - I had 10 trick or treaters! So cute and smiling and all wearing homemade outfits. :) My favorite: my neighbor Elijah dressed as a ninja and his friend, who was EcoGirl. She was wearing a long green robe with a big yellow flower on her shoulder and a green crown.

Watching, gracious living and football rivalries

- Downtown Thomasville, Georgia, on Friday afternoon. Waiting patiently.

- All the tables in the dining room at the assisted living facility have a vase of fresh flowers with one deep red rose in the center.

- A woman sports a Gators t-shirt on Saturday morning, saying she can't wait for the game to start (University of Florida vs. University of Alabama). We discuss the divided loyalties of our respective families - some are loyal to Florida and others to Florida State. On this day, Florida lost to Alabama. Too bad, Gators! :)

I'll be posting Monday, Wednesday, Friday this week.

Sold, home and sweets

- Traveling down to visit my family in south Georgia / north Florida and making my usual stop at Stripling's General Store on the way. Two nice men ask if I will try their barbecue sauce. It's their family business, always sold at Stripling's, etc. I know how hard it is to sell things, so I buy a bottle (and it is tasty.) I only notice the logo after arriving at mom's. :) The "butt" in the title refers to the part of the pig most commonly used for pulled pork. You can read about the company and see that crazy logo better here.

- Arriving at the assisted living facility and sweet Velma hugs me and says, "I didn't know you were coming home this weekend!" I hadn't been thinking of this as home, but home is where my mom is, I think.

- At church on Sunday morning, brother-in-law passes pieces of butterscotch candy down to me and niece Amanda. He always has individually wrapped candy to give to kids at church and I am happy to be thought of as one. :)

In front of the scarves, khaki clad and quotes

- It's Random Photo Thursday and this one is of a happy profusion of flowering plants in front of a shop selling colorful scarves in Thomasville, Georgia. I always think I'd like to attempt one of those multiple planting pots - maybe next year.

- A very tall, slender woman walking down 14th Street in midtown Atlanta, wearing a long flowing khaki skirt and an enormous wide brimmed khaki hat, looking like a cross between Isak Dinesen and Scarlett (you know who I mean.)

- Wonderful Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) quotes:

“To be lonely is a state of mind, something completely other than physical solitude; when modern authors rant about the soul’s intolerable loneliness, it is only proof of their own intolerable emptiness.” – Out of Africa, 1937

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea." – Out of Africa, 1937

"When in the end, the day came on which I was going away, I learned the strange learning that things can happen which we ourselves cannot possibly imagine, either beforehand, or at the time when they are taking place, or afterwards when we look back on them." – Out of Africa, 1937

"Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me leave to do my utmost!" – "Babette's Feast", 1953

All in the ears - it is, chivalry and lost and found

From Google images

- A man comes in with his dog and I ask him what the dog's name is. "Yoda - because of his ears." The dog is friendly and comes up for a head scratch. He wandered up to their house one day and stayed. He looks a bit like a Corgi mix to me, but a Google search shows that any dog can look like Yoda if given the proper costume.

- A girl and a boy walking up the sidewalk next to a busy street - very young, probably in their early teens. A car whizzes by too close and the boy puts out a protective arm and switches places with her so that he is on the side next to the street.

- Returning a top that would need hand washing to a store (should have noticed that first) - it's been in the trunk of my car in a bag since May. And finding something underneath the bag that I've been looking for. Sweet.

Surveyor, down by the water and Georgian

Taken with iPhone

- An early morning walk around Cherokee Lake in Thomasville, Georgia on Sunday morning. There were a few quiet walkers at 7:00am, as well as this guy, who found an awesome perch on a skinny stump.

- In perfect choreography, "Down by the Water" by The Decemberists comes up on my iPod just as I set off around the lake.

- A couple, strolling with their dog, slows down to let me pass. The woman asks, "Are you Georgian?" I tell her I am, but just visiting that part of Georgia for the weekend. They are from upstate New York and visiting their daughter, who has just given birth. They like Thomasville well enough to be thinking of moving there. There is serious humidity this particular morning, so that's saying something. :)

Magnolia, another day and fragrant hair product

- A sun-dappled magnolia blossom on the tree in the courtyard outside my mother's front door in Thomasville, Georgia.

- On the way down on Saturday, a truck in front of me on the state highway going south swerves to avoid hitting something. It's a turtle, in no hurry, and it makes it to the shoulder of the road to live another day.

- Just before I leave to come back north on Sunday, beautiful niece Abby shows up to visit her aunt and grandmother. We hug and say "you smell good!" to each other at the same time and laugh.

New York, North Carolina and south Georgia

Tales from the last three weekends...

- She is sorting out two languages (English and Turkish) in her head, so this busy 16-month-old just says a few words right now, most notably "hi" and picking up the pronunciation of "hey" in two syllables from her southern aunt. Here in Central Park, in New York City, she shows us just how a stroller should be pushed. And later, from said stroller, she looks up at the photo below and calls out, "Woof woof!"

From the Elliott Erwitt exhibition at the International Center of Photography, New York City.

- Early one morning at my sister's mountain cottage, in Hayesville, North Carolina, I assemble breakfast at the kitchen counter and look up to see a deer watching me with interest outside this window. We make eye contact and neither of us move. The deer's head turns to look at something in the river and I edge to the left to pick up my camera. A second deer, much smaller, stands behind, catches my movement and in the blink of an eye, they vanish.

- And in Thomasville, Georgia last weekend, as I set up the folding table and Pollyanna board game, my mother exclaims, "I'm so glad you girls like to play games!" We are always happy to play with her and to always be thought of as her "girls."

I'm staying home this weekend, y'all! Hope yours is good!

Cherokee Lake, missing out and escape

Cherokee Lake in Thomasville, Georgia, from Google images. (I was there for an exercise walk and didn't take my camera.)

- A Sunday morning sunrise walk around Cherokee Lake; just me and a couple walking a large black poodle are there at first. Around the lake, a man wearing a cap denoting an airborne division he was a member of long ago, sits on a bench meditating or praying. He smiles and nods as I go by.

- A silent man stands on the footbridge over the lake twirling white loaf bread into the water for the wild ducks. Much splashing and excitement down below. A lone domestic duck stands next to the water, watching. "You're missing out!" I whisper to it as I go by.

- A black cat with white face markings watches warily from under a nearby tree and runs away, fast as lightning, when I get too close.

Back at the assisted living facility, a smiling group sits on the front porch in rocking chairs chatting before breakfast. Within five minutes, they get my entire story out of me. I feel a bit like a celebrity as I go inside to see if my mother is ready for the day.

Glisten, south Georgia and like

- From Friday walk, these trees are still blooming around the park near my office, the scattering of blossoms make the tree glisten. The markers below the tree give a detailed account of the Civil War battle fought on this spot.

- In south Georgia on Saturday, where there is bright sunshine, amazingly friendly people and always the faint scent of barbecue smoke in the air. Mom and I try a barbecue restaurant for lunch called "Granddaddy's Barbecue" - she critiques the pulled pork as not being quite smoky enough. I ask how many stars she would give it out of a possible five. "Three stars," she decides.

- Telling my mother on Mother's Day that I like her. She smiles and says she likes me, too. :)

Fields of green, mirror baby and Miss Elmera

- This grove of pecan trees was so beautiful, with its leafing out, fields of clover and wildflowers that I couldn't resist pulling over on the Georgia Florida Parkway (near Albany, Georgia) to photograph it during a weekend road trip.

- A toddler is delighted to be standing on the restroom vanity (with her mother holding on) - she points at herself in the mirror and says, "That's my baby!" Her mother says, "No, that's MY baby!" "Noooo - that's MY baby!!!" And on and on - lots of giggling as they leave.

- A 96-year-old woman confides her age. She is sharp as a tack and can see, hear and get around perfectly. She thinks it was all the farm living - she lived alone on a farm until last year. What I admire most is her spirit; she is friendly and gracious, with a ready smile and delightful personality.

Premiere footage, extinguisher and pilau

- Spotted on the Atlanta History Center website - home video footage by Russell Bellman of the "Gone With the Wind" Atlanta Premiere (December 15, 1939). The video features the Georgian Terrace Hotel, Atlanta Municipal Auditorium, the Gone With the Wind Ball, and the Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta. I saw the dress that Scarlett wore to the barbecue.

- Chatting up the man who is changing out the fire extinguishers at my work building and remarking that I need to get one of those for my house. He goes to his truck and brings me a used one as a gift, something I will never live down with my co-workers. Oh my - the teasing! But I say, when you are nice to people, good things happen to you. :)

- It was warm enough in Thomasville, Georgia for a cookout yesterday. On the menu: Chicken Pilau (pronounced "pur-loo"), a low country dish. My mother pronounces it delicious - wish I could have been there. Here is a recipe with a picture.