Sunday, February 24, 2013

Rutledge, Georgia


 
 

 















Small towns in Georgia often have a sweet charm all their own. Rutledge is one such town. Years ago, red cabooses were on the backs of trains. (Cabooses were used on all freight trains within the USA until the 1980's. You may read about them here.) This red caboose was transformed into an ice cream shop years ago, but they connected the caboose to the building next door and it is now a small cafe which serves sandwiches and salads.  Very nice place for lunch if you are in Rutledge, Georgia.  After your lunch, you could go to Rutledge Hardware store.  The owner, Paul, has lots of plants that you can grow in your garden and also lots of seeds inside too. In fact, the store is crammed full of so many things, you could spend hours just looking!  (I asked Paul to get some parsnip seeds in, I hope that he does!)
If you are lucky, you might be invited to one of the homes in the area, someone who raises cows and keeps a garden too.  Can you believe that the two calves in the photo above were just born Wednesday of this past week?   They grow so quickly! (Audrey, I thought of you when I took this photo!)
You should have heard all these blackbirds, some of them are red-winged blackbirds and you can see the red wings if you look closely.  There is just something really lovely about a cabbage growing in a field, but you know I asked if I could take it home with me, and now it is in my fridge, ready to be cooked! 
The pineapple is growing in a greenhouse but the plant was rooted by just placing the top of a pineapple in some water, and then it was re-planted in healthy soil.  Now, Kay in Hawaii, this pineapple might be an everyday thing for you to see, but it is a wondrous thing to see in February in Georgia! That cabbage and pineapple must be really good for you, anything that beautiful must be healthy for you.  Hope you are all keeping healthy and happy these days.  Keep an eye out for beauty!



 

37 comments:

  1. I don't think I have ever heard of Rutledge, GA but it looks like a great place. It is always fun to see these places thru the eyes of locals. Great pictures- xo Diana

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    1. It is just a small town next to the railroad tracks but I really like it!
      Richard wasn't with me, so these photos are all by ME! xx

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  2. The heart of America has to be it's small towns, it's local color and it's hardiness to keep alive in these economic times. We live in a small town that is fighting a good fight to keep up. We're winning in many areas. People are ready to slow things down a bit and enjoy the real things in life! I'm jealous of anything growing outdoors now since it's sooo cold here! But our Spring is coming and we welcome it with open arms! That little town looks wonderful. My Brother lives in Georgia, perhaps sometime I'll get down and visit it!

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    1. There is a large company which is about to build in the next town over from Rutledge, so I am hoping that Rutledge won't change TOO much, fingers crossed!
      If you ever get to Georgia to visit, I hope you will email me and let me know, would love to meet you at the base of Stone Mountain and we could walk(in my case, pant) up the mountain together! xx

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  3. It looks a charming place, and that hardware store reminds me of The Yorkshire Trading Company, a very similar store in Ripon (and elsewhere in Yorkshire, I am sure!).
    Lovely calves! Do you remember the ones I posted last year after visiting my brother-in-law's dairy farm in Yorkshire? Some of them were only a few hours old!

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    1. Ah, Ripon, I feel as if I know it well from the books by James Herriot. You know, I LOVE his books!
      The calves are adorable, I love the color of the "smoky" one as my Dad calls it, the mother's name is Sunshine! If I could have been there on Wednesday, I could have seen Smokey born!!

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    2. And I forgot to say, I DO remember your photos of the newly born calves! Wonderful! You were so lucky!

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  4. I was charmed by many of the little towns in California which had similar shops and a very 'local' atmousphere.

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    1. My Dad is a country boy, born and bred on a farm, but I am a small town girl!
      Thanks for your comment! :-)

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  5. What a lovely place to visit. I'd love to see anything growing here, but it's still way to cold for us. If I ever get the chance I'll be sure to stop by and see the sights. Meanwhile thanks to you, I do know what a wonderful place it is.

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    1. Oh, it is a sweet place, the next town over, Madison, gets lots more attention but tiny Rutledge, is worth a visit too!
      Spring will be here for you soon! xx

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  6. It sounds like a place out of time, and i'd love to see it. We have a few such small towns here, too, and each has its own charm.

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    1. It really hasn't changed very much for all the years that my Dad has lived there (since 1992) and I hoping it will stay the way that it is!! :-)

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  7. When I was a kid, we lived right by the train tracks. When the freight trains would go by, we'd run out and wave at the engineer and the railway man in the caboose. They would always wave back. I was sad when cabooses were discontinued. Trains have always seemed incomplete since then.

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    1. Oh, that's funny, my Grandfather's house was near the railroad tracks too, and we would do the same thing!!
      We LOVED to see those trains, waving our arms off!!
      "Little red caboose", my little brothers would say...
      yes, I was sad when they got rid of them too.

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  8. Keep an Eye out for beauty! What a wonderful line to live by! Rutledge looks like a wonderful place, Kay!

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    1. Yes, that is what I always say to myself, keep an eye out for beauty! I know you do the same!!
      Thanks for your comment! xx

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  9. Cabooses are so charming, though it's hard to explain just why. Perhaps it's the smallness and redness. So nice to see one that has been repurposed to good use.

    How wonderful to have a fresh cabbage, and other growing things! Here all is still snow and mud. But the trees are looking ahead to spring and so are we all. :)

    P.S. Great shot of the blackbirds.

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    1. Thanks, Sue! Guess what? I took all these photos, Richard was at work!!
      Your spring will be here soon, and I am looking forward to your spring photos from the back of your bike!!

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  10. It used to be quite common to see ex rail wagons converted into garden sheds of various kinds near rail lines. Not so much now. Great use of the caboose!

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    1. You would love climbing up the steps into this caboose, there is a rail on the side where you could see the railwayman would hang on, my Dad pointed it out to me.
      I really miss the red phoneboxes in England, there are a few in Eastbourne...you know I had to pose in front of them when I was last there!!

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  11. I really enjoyed this post, Kay! Such a variety of comfy images ~ Well, except for the collard greens; those would send me running in the opposite direction! And your sweet pansy at the end, so lovely! Thank you for sharing!

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    1. Thanks, Louise! You but you should have my Dad's collard greens, my brother-in-law from Colorado LOVES them!!
      And I took that photo of the pansy, well, it's really a viola, it was tiny, but I zoomed in on it so, it looks bigger than it is!! :-)

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    2. Goodness Gracious! I would have sworn that was a pansy ~ one of the earliest flowers I knew and loved! Thank you for letting me know about violas ~ Those I am not familiar with! Have a good one, Kay!

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    3. You know, looking at the photo... I wonder if it might have been a small pansy and I just THOUGHT I had zoomed in on it! Hmmmm...now you see why I always let Richard have the camera, he would never make a mistake like me!
      I think that viola is the botanical name for pansy, so they are all the same thing really. I am a bad one for plant and flower names, that is also Richard's job! (Do you see a pattern here? He is good at everything!!)

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  12. Hello Kay,
    What a charming little town and new calves born already - always wonderful to see!
    Ivan

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    1. Hey Ivan!
      I would LOVE to see what you could do with those collards!
      And those calves were so sweet to see!

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  13. Having grown up in the US in out of the way places I do miss that very special kind of scenery. Adore the red caboose and always wanted one! Minerva ~

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    1. Hey!
      I just want to say to you that I LOVE your blog, we really do have a lot in common, I should think, including having a solid black cat!!
      xx

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  14. Like Debra, I'm sorry they discontinued the caboose. I always tried to spot them as a child.

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  15. Kay, Rutledge looks like the sort of place we would stop in and explore so if we are ever on a road trip in that area, we will keep it in mind. Grenville likes anything to do with trains and that hardware store sounds wonderful too.

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    1. You could have lunch at The Caboose. My Dad and I had the "Boxcar" sandwich. It was delicious!! xx

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  16. That's such a quaint caboose. Georgia is one of the states that we haven't been to. Seeing your photos make me very curious though. It looks so interesting.

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    1. Hey Kay!
      You would have loved the caboose!
      Stone Mountain is a must-see if you ever make it here.
      Art can run to the top but you and I will walk up it!!

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  17. I had a book when I was very small which had a train with a caboose. It always seemed such a strange word to me! On our recent trip to Florida we had collard greens. They reminded me of kale. They were really nice!

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  18. I love exploring small towns. This post was right up my alley.

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