The Best News, BABY

 

We are grandparents!  Isn't that the most exciting news? You know that Richard and I are thrilled! The parents have requested no photos or details, but I can tell you that we have a granddaughter! Isn't that wonderful? She is gorgeous, I promise! And Christopher and Sarah are parents extraordinaire, you know they are!

We were there to see her just after she was born and I tried to think ahead of time...what will be the first song that I will sing to her? What is the first song that she will hear from me?

Can you believe it, I was so overcome with emotion that I couldn't sing a single word.  I simply hummed the beautiful tune of "Come Back to Sorrento" when I first held her in my arms. 

What a sweet little love!  

Bing Videos

There! I hope you are able to click on that link above! You will be rewarded with Connie Francis singing "Come Back to Sorrento" in Italian! Yes, this marvelous woman could speak Italian and Spanish fluently! Our little granddaughter will know so many singers and songwriters from me, you know she will! 

Before we left to head back to our home, I was able to collect myself enough to quietly sing the first few lines of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to her, as she clutched my finger! (I found a great cover, but I sang it MUCH softer than this.)

"Sweet little things", "In My Garden-Candle of Life" and that one little Lily blooming for me, do you remember these from my recent posts?  Our granddaughter is called Lily!  See, I have given you some hints!  

Just read back over this and almost every sentence ends with an exclamation mark.  Those are all well and truly meant with all my heart.

Here are photos of Lily's English grandfather and her American grandmother. Just to mix things up, it is a photo of me in England and one of Richard in the North Georgia mountains. (And although Lily will know how great a photographer Richard is, you all know I took that last one!)

Hope you are all doing well in your part of the world!

Remember the baby turtle we saw on the trail? BABY!

Sweet Little Things (18 Birds!)

 

Hey! What do you think has popped up in our pot of pinks? See the heart shaped leaves? It is wood sorrel! (You might think it is clover but clover has rounded leaves and wood sorrel has the heart shape. You will be tested later!) Apparently, it is edible but hey, I'm not gonna eat it! "Sorrel" is from the old French for "sour" and the botanical name "oxalis" is from the Greek for "acid".  You can try those sour, acidy leaves if you like! Oxalic acid is found in many foods like chocolate, coffee, beets and spinach, not forgetting the unforgettable taste of rhubarb! Now, is wood sorrel a native plant? It is listed as so yet it is also believed that it could have been introduced here many years ago. Me? I am just here for the beauty of it!

Richard and I went for a nice long walk at Panola Mountain State Park this past weekend. It was lovely! Look at this baby box turtle! I gently moved it off the trail, I was afraid that a biker might not see it.

It was a cool morning and so nice to have all these lovely trees around us.

The native lilies had bloomed out but there was one left, and it was just waiting for me to admire it. You know I did! It is the atamasco lily and I really love it. 

THIS is what they looked like last year! Not even sure how many there were this year what with the rain amount we have had! Oh, and we did get some rain, thank you for anyone who prayed for rain for us!

Richard has a bird app on his phone. It is fun to have it and to see what birds we are hearing around us. When we got to one point on the trail, it was so full of birdsong that we were astonished! As soon as he turned the phone on, it popped up with one bird after another, and another, and another! In total, we heard 18 different birds! We have never had that happen before.

Here is the list of birds:

Cardinal

Tufted titmouse

Carolina wren

Eastern Towhee

Red Bellied woodpecker

Downy woodpecker

Arcadian flycatcher

Blue grey flycatcher

White eye vireo

Red eye vireo

Scarlet tanager

Summer tanager

Hooded warbler 

Yellow throated warbler

Goldfinch

Eastern Wood Pewee

Baltimore Oriole 

And last but certainly not least, the Wood Thrush!

We heard the wood thrush just as we were leaving that stretch of trees and what a lovely song to finish our walk! "Many think that the wood thrush has THE most beautiful song in North America".  It made me smile to read that statement.

At the end of this boardwalk, you can just make out the top of Panola Mountain, It is covered in trees, so you will just have to take my word for it!  (I walked just over 5 miles on this day and that was very good for me! You can see why though, it was so pretty.)

Did anyone see that Queen Camilla brought "Roo" from England to go with the other Winnie the Pooh characters at the New York Public Library? I only wish I could show you the video that I saw of her! It has her carrying the tiny stuffed animal in her purse! And on the plane coming over, it is perched on the pilot's shoulder! Also, they have the sweet little thing looking out the window as they are flying! Little things, but hey, I thought it was sweet.  

Reading over this post, I have shown you heart shaped leaves, a baby turtle, and one sweet Lily. I told you about hearing 18 different birds and mentioned the tiny "Roo".  All sweet little things, don't you think we need more of them?

Happy Trails! 

In My Garden - Candle of Life

 Hello, my friends!

Thanks for anyone who was able to vote on the Webby Award. "More Than Santa Baby" didn't win but it was not because I didn't tell folks! It was a long shot, being up against HBO and Netflix, for Pete's sake! Thanks very much for anyone who took the time to vote, I appreciate it!

So, how are y'all doing?  April is flying by and guess what, I had a birthday! Yes indeed, maybe the American astronauts went around the moon but hey, I am thinking our trips around the sun deserves celebration too. (I wonder if anyone wrote a note to them saying "I love you to the moon and back? LOL!) Usually, April can be quite rainy but this year, it is not so in this area. We are desperate for rain, truly we are. Please, I asked you all to vote for a Webby award in my last post, would you all pray for rain for us?  Anybody know how to do a rain dance and direct it to Georgia, USA?  Thank you!

I really wanted to get to the Botanical Gardens in Athens, Georgia in April for my birthday but since it has been so dry and hot, I thought I might wait and see if May will bring some showers and they might be nicer to view. So....how about I just appreciate my own garden? Richard is a great photographer, but you know, he is an excellent gardener also.  

We got this pot of petunias in Old Town Conyers, from a halfway house where recovering alcoholics sell plants from a small nursery. Helpful for them and lovely for us! 

Anybody remember the tree we have out front that had the blossoms? It now has leaves! As I told you, it is a sassafras tree. You can always recognize it. It has THREE different leaves! One leaf has 3 lobes, and one leaf has two lobes (like a mitten) and one just looks like a rounded leaf. 🍃 There, like that photo! See all three leaves above? Now, you can identify the sassafras tree! It used to be the source of wait for it...root beer! Now, in the autumn, these leaves turn the most gorgeous colors- orange, red, yellow and even purple! This is a native tree, and it came up in our yard and Richard liked it and it is growing. 

Close up of the Columbine!  This was given to us in a pot and Richard left them out when they went to seed and the wonderful plant dropped its seeds and now, we are enjoying them anew! (The Dutch iris is in the background blooming. My brother gave us these years ago. He grew them from seed!)

Dutch Iris!  Here it is!  We usually have more to flower, but we think with the lack of rain, they are struggling a bit. 

Our front porch is becoming like a fern corner!  The small ferns in front of the tricycle stand are ebony spleenwort, and we dug those up from our yard! They are native plants and they are growing well. The other ferns are Kimberly Queen (from Australia, I believe) and Autumn fern is from Asia. 

Pinks! (Dianthus) How I love these!  They remind me of my in-law's garden in England; my mother-in-law loved her pinks. I did a post about these before.  They are not called pinks because of their color, it is due to the edges of the flower, see how it looks as if they have been cut with pinking shears? The actual word "pink" is taken from these flowers. Honestly! 

Always good to get a few bright red flowers like salvia to hopefully bring the hummingbirds to us!  If only I can keep the squirrels from digging it up!  Why do they do this? Who knows? 

Besides loving flowers, we also enjoy brightly colored leaves.  This is a pot of coleus.  It is a very cheerful sight as we climb our steps!

Justin Hayward is having a concert tonight in Augusta, Georgia. We wish we could be there!  Since we will not, I think I must have a song from him to end this post.  Hope you are all doing well and hope you liked our little trip around our front garden.

Oh! And I took all of these photos, if you are wondering why they are not good as usual.  What was Richard doing? Why, watering the plants, of course!

"Candle of Life" was written by the late John Lodge but Justin Hayward sings it in concert, and I have it for you here. It is from the album "To Our Children's Children's Children". 

Webby Awards Vote Request and Spring Blossoms!

Recently, I told you about Phil Springer and that he wrote the music for "Santa Baby".  Many of you were kind enough to vote for the documentary for him as a People's Choice Award, which it won! 

Now, I have another link where you may vote for him!

It is the Webby Awards!  Here is the link- 

https://wbby.co/57567N

 Voting is open until April 16th, so please vote!  Phil Springer will turn 100 in May! Wouldn't it great if he won this and could celebrate this on his 100th birthday? 

Once again...https://wbby.co/57567N

    Anyone can vote wherever you are in the world!  It is a global award!

Now, on to our Spring photos....

As we were leaving to walk at Panola State Park recently, I had to stop and ask Richard to take a photo of the azalea bush that we have in a pot on our front steps. It was overcast but this flower was so bright! It is a Hershey red azalea! Remember me telling you about the film about Milton Hershey that will be out this summer? The azalea is named after the flowers at Hershey Gardens, I believe!

Now, here we are at Panola Mountain State Park. See the blocks of wood for children (or the young at heart)? You know I always have to stack these up and then, do a bit of decoration. The small spent blossom on the top is from one of the azaleas that they have planted there....

There is a pink one too!

These are just beside the trail as you enter the woods. (I need to do a post about these. I always thought they were native azaleas. It is a bit more complicated than that, and of course, it involves England! Stay tuned!)

The fringe trees blooming are such a wonderful thing to see! (Native).

Trumpet creeper, some say it smells like cinnamon, some like coffee. I have told you this before, I am sure. It has a very distinct fragrance, but I don't like comparisons, I think it smells like itself, which is marvelous. (It is also a native)

Look! On the horizon, it is Stone Mountain!

You know that Richard zoomed in for you!  See, it is a "mountain" of rock and is much bigger than either Panola Mountain or Arabia Mountain. If you ever fly out of the Atlanta Airport, look down and see if you can see the grey mountain with the green buildings on top, that would be Stone Mountain. 

The bright red diamorpha looks somewhat muted in this photo, that is because it now has the white star shaped white flowers on it! It seemed that a lot of the flowers were a bit early this year, but I am not complaining!  Hope you enjoyed the blossoms and views I showed you here!  Take care, my friends! Let me know if you were able to vote for Phil Springer!  

If anyone wants to know how Richard sounds on guitar, I say that he sounds a lot like Ralph McTell! Enjoy! Sweet Mystery. 

  

Thank You for Voting! (More Than Santa Baby Won!)

 

Thank you all very much for voting for the documentary about Phil Springer for People's Choice for short documentary. IT WON! Isn't that wonderful?  What IF those of you who voted are the ones who got it over the top in order for it to win? Isn't that a great thought? It reminds me of a children's book, "Horton Hears A Who" by Dr. Seuss. What? You don't know it? You should!  I have written about it before, just here.  

   I truly love the comment from Melody (you know I LOVE that name!) who said that anybody who wrote "Santa Baby" deserves all the awards.  He really does! And I think I told you that he co-wrote that song with Joan Javits, I found a great article about their songwriting together here. Oh! And they wrote it together with the thought of Eartha Kitt singing the song. Even though Eartha Kitt is no longer with us, I saw a photo of Eartha Kitt's daughter and Joan Javits together, where they just happened to meet at a clothing shop in California! (Might have been LA, hey, I don't remember details, alas for my little bit of blog writing.)  

Once again, thanks very much.  I really appreciate it!

Our lovely redbud trees have just about bloomed out now, but they have been so nice! I do wonder if all the azaleas and dogwoods blooming will be over by the time the Masters in Augusta occurs in April! It truly seems as if our Spring flowers have been early this year.  March will be over soon, hope the month has been kind to you all.

Take care!

Today is opening day for baseball! I have had this song on here before, it is Harpo Marx from the "I Love Lucy" show!

Phil Springer, Songwriter! (More Than Santa Baby!)

 

One thing that you should know about me: I have a deep regard for songwriters.  Phil Springer is a songwriter who will turn 100 years old in May. He has over 540 musical credits, the most famous song being one that he cowrote with Joan Javits for Eartha Kitt, "Santa Baby".  His daughter, Tamar Springer has written and produced a documentary about her father "More Than Santa Baby".  I am very pleased to tell you that you may go to a website and VOTE on this documentary!  Please do!

https://forms.gle/KDNYYfsRfnxiAmE98

The website is the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival People's Choice Awards. Once you see the form, type in "More Than Santa Baby" in the Short Film Category.  You might say, "but I haven't seen it!"  I haven't seen this documentary either, but I will! And I KNOW that I will love it, so I have no qualms about voting for it.  

I hope you have seen the video of Phil Springer playing "Moonlight Sonata " on the piano. Hey, it has 1.6 million views! I am pleased to say that it won a 2024 WEBBY award for Best Individual Performance. 

Here is Phil Springer's website:  Composer of Santa Baby
 

If you click on that link, you will also see a book mentioned: "The Last Legacy of  E. Y. "Yip" Harburg". I hope you know his name! He is the one who gave us all the lyrics for many songs, including all of the songs from "The Wizard of Oz"!  Yip Harburg and Phil Springer were great friends and song collaborators. (If someone is going through a tough time, give them a bag of lemon drops and hand write this line from Harburg. "May your troubles melt like lemon drops".  I am paraphrasing of course, but that is totally lifted from the marvelous "Over The Rainbow"!)

Look! This tree is in bloom right at our front walkway. Do you know what it is? (You won't win anything, just my great respect, if you know.)  Spring officially begins tomorrow on March 20th, but it already looks like Spring to me!

Please don't forget to go to that site and vote for the documentary about Phil Springer.  I will send a message to Tamar Springer that I wrote this post on my blog.  I am thanking you all in advance! You are all just the best!

 

Harriet Powers: Textile Artist (Quilter)

 

Harriet Powers was born into slavery in 1837 near Athens, Georgia. It is not certain how many quilts she made in her lifetime, but we know of two that have survived:  the Bible Quilt from 1886 and the Pictorial Quilt from 1888. Both are proudly displayed at museums in Washington, D.C. and Boston, Massachusetts. Just last month, a set of U.S. stamps was issued in honor of Harriet Powers.  I have a photo of the stamps above.  You know I had to buy myself some too!  I must admit a fondness for stamps. If you are new to reading my blog, look over on the side there, and you will read that I married my pen pal!  Yes, Richard and I wrote actual letters to each other for nine years. (I always tried my best to find interesting stamps to go on his letters!) Back then, all our stamps had an actual money amount stamped upon them. Now, the stamps that we buy are "forever" stamps and are supposed to be good, no matter if the postal prices increase. (And they do, very often!) Therefore, we are not able to use these "forever" stamps on letters or cards sent out of the country, we must buy the round "airmail" stamps that to me are rather bland.  Oh well! 

Before, I started telling you about how much I love stamps, I was talking about Harriet Powers.  You would not believe how much I have read about her!  I only just heard of her when a group of people were petitioning the United States Postal Advisory Committee to get them to approve her quilts as a choice for new stamps. (Did you know that there are folks trying to get stamps issued all the time?  No living person can be on a United States stamp and it must reflect American history, culture or environment.)

 There is a really great piece that I read about Harriet Powers and I strongly urge you to click on the following to read it!  Harriet Powers: Rediscovered Artist-Storyteller | DailyArt Magazine

I do hope you are able to see that! You will be rewarded with an actual photograph of Harriet Powers herself!  You will see that even though she dressed very neatly for the camera, she made sure that she wore an apron, no doubt made by herself! (You can recognize the sun.) In my reading about her, it seems that there is some confusion about whether or not she could read or write. I am thinking that she must have learned to do so, perhaps later in her life.  Here are some quotes from her regarding the pictures in her quilts, speaking of an eclipse," The sun went off to a small spot and then to darkness."  And of a meteor shower, "The falling of the stars on Nov. 13, 1833. God's hands staid the stars". Her description of the quilt she made of the Lord's Supper, "I composed a quilt of the Lord's Supper. 2 thousand and 500 diamonds."  

The imagery of her words!  How I love them!  At the beginning of this post, I told you that she had been born into slavery. Just let that sink in for a moment. Consider what her life would have been like, from 1837 until 1910.    Her quilts must have been very special to her. Harriet Powers is buried in Athens, Georgia. I read that in 2023, her memorial headstone at the Gospel Pilgrim Cemetery was restored. It was sponsored by the Women of Color Quilters Network. It is my hope that this post conveys my deep respect for Harriet Powers and for all who work with their hands to create beauty. 

Quilting! My own grandmother made quilts in North Georgia. She lived to be 96 years old.  My very own brother makes the most beautiful quilts! Did I also get a set of the Harriet Powers stamps for him too?  You know I did! 

I wonder what you think of my very colorful tablecloth I like to use at Christmas? One year, I placed all the Christmas cracker hats together and put an orange on top of them.  I just liked the colors! (By the way, Harriet Powers quilts were much more colorful. The ones that we have left have faded but they are still beautiful.)

Keep looking for beauty, always.   "2 thousand and 500 diamonds."

Harriet Powers' quilts leave a complicated legacy for her descendent | WBUR News