Braves Game! July 28, 2012

My son promised me a Braves game for Mother's Day.  Want to come along with us?

 Turner Field in Atlanta.  This was built for the 1996 Olympics and was used for the track events.  It has been the home for the baseball team since that time, the Atlanta Braves.

I took this photo just before we sang the National Anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner".  Not a lot of people sing along with it.  You know that I always do, don't you? Always, you can count on it.

There are some really nice statues just outside of Turner Field.  This is a statue of Warren Spahn, and in the wording of baseball, " the winningest left handed pitcher of all time".   He played for the Boston Braves and therefore, there is a display about him in the Baseball Museum that we are about to visit inside Turner Field.

This is a a photo of Warren Spahn  and they even have his Purple Heart on display but I am sorry that I didn't get a photograph of that which was alongside his Army uniform.  He is one of those athletes whose career was interrupted by war, in his case, it was World War II.  It seems unfair to look too closely at sports statistics and compare the players when you had men from this time who sometimes had years when they were not playing the game.

Can you see the signature on this baseball?  It is none other than Babe Ruth, who with 714 homeruns had the most homeruns, until Hank Aaron passed this record in 1973 and finished his career with 755 homeruns.  If you are interested in stories about fascinating people, look up both those names: Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron.   Both amazing baseball players with interesting life stories.

This is a photo of my son posing in front of Hank Aaron  who is on the left and Chipper Jones on the right.  Chipper Jones will retire after this year and he has been an outstanding player with the Atlanta Braves.   He has been with the Atlanta Braves for nineteen seasons so that means he has been a large part of my son's childhood.  (Chipper's number is 10, so that is the shirt that C. is wearing!)

Look, just beyond the Chik-Fila cow, giant Coca-Cola bottle, and Delta Airlines' sign, it's Atlanta!

Play ball!    STRIKE HIM OUT!  STRIKE HIM OUT! (Can you see the ball?)

The pitcher, Mike Minor, must have heard me.  This means he had five strikeouts, he would finish with NINE for the night!  (The backwards K means that was a left-handed batter).  When I was a kid, it annoyed me that "K" meant a strike-out.

There was a pretty good size crowd.  We were so thankful that we were not in the sun, it was still in the 90's and not a breath of air. That is my son's hand pointing out something to his aging mother who is having great difficulty in seeing things these days.

Nice clouds though.... wait, I feel a sense of Deja Vu... I can almost hear my Daddy say, "Kay, pay attention, you're missing the game!"  (I always kept score with my Dad at baseball games.)

I wonder how close I can get to Chipper Jones in the batter's circle with the zoom lens of my camera...turns out, pretty darn close!  Hey, Chipper, hit a home run for us!  Or better yet, wait until the NEXT DAY when we are not there to see it!  Yeah, you know it, that's just what happened!

Oh well!  The Braves won on this Saturday night that we were there, 2-1.  Thanks, son, I really enjoyed it!  Hope y'all didn't get TOO hot at this game with us in HOT LANTA.

Abide With Me

http://thelavalizard.com/2012/07/new-video-emeli-sande-abide-with-me/

In the American coverage of the opening ceremony of the Olympics, at one point there was a interview between Ryan Seacrest and Michael Phelps.  I just found out today that NBC decided to cut the song "Abide With Me" so we could hear this interview.  Apparently, "Abide With Me" was part of a tribute to those lost in the bombings in London in July 7, 2005.  This is only what I have read, as we in the USA, did not see any of it.

Emeli Sande is a singer of  Scottish/Zambian descent and I found a video of her singing this song and although it is not the footage from the ceremony itself, it is close enough for me to imagine how moving this song must have been.  I have the link at the top of this post.  Let me know if you like it as much as I do. 

Olympics 2012 Opening Ceremony

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18791679

Okay then, if you watched the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympics in the USA,  you stayed up very late, didn't you?  Wow, I need to watch it when I have not had such a bad week, that always influences me and makes me feel more negative...  Let's look on the bright side, shall we?

The highlights for me were the children's choirs singing Jerusalem, Danny Boy, Flower of Scotland and Guide Me Oh Thou Great Redeemer (sung to the Welsh tune of Cwm Rhondda).  This hymn is one of my favorites that we sing in my own church and I was very glad to hear it in the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics!  I have a link above to the BBC's video showing the children on the beach in Wales where this was filmed.  Bless them, they must have been cold but so excited.  It made me happy to see and hear this...just beautiful children singing on a gloriously beautiful beach.
And the song "Jerusalem" is one of my husband's favorites and one that I had never heard until I lived in England in 1985, but I like it very much indeed. And I know Richard's parents and friends in England were glad that this was the song that was chosen for England.  Also, I must add that Richard was very happy to see Mike Oldfield but also wanted to be able to hear more of "Tubular Bells".

The National Health Service and the Great Ormond Street Hospital, I wonder how many owe their lives to that one hospital alone?  J.M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan, left the royalties from Peter Pan to go to this hospital.  You may read about it at   http://www.gosh.org/gen/peterpan/history/peter-pan-and-the-hospital/ As a child, my husband spent a good bit of time there and feels he would not be here today if not for the care that he received there.  I don't pretend to understand the staging during this segment but I was grateful to see the Great Ormond Street Hospical represented. (Maybe that giant baby looked better from a distance, in the stands you see, not close-up on TV!)

To end the ceremony with Sir Paul McCartney was, of course, the icing on the cake for me.  As many times that he has sung "Hey Jude" over the years, I love that he seemed choked with emotion when he first started singing it...

The seven British teenagers lighting the torch was magical to me.  They moved with such youthful, graceful energy and they were all so perfectly in time that it put all computer imagery to shame.

I cannot give all of those children bouquets of flowers, nor can I call Sir Paul and tell him how much I appreciate him but here is a daffodil which is, I think, very special to Wales and of course, is very much loved all over Great Britain.   (I did a post this year about the poem "Daffodils" by Wordsworth.)
I don't have the children's choir from Wales singing for you,but I DID find a wonderful Welsh choir singing the same song that they sang, and this has the lyrics for you too. Please,  turn it up so you might hear all their voices.  You know I did!

All Souls Church

On June 3, my husband and I attended the worship service at All Souls Church in Eastbourne. (Loving the Lord Jesus and Making Him Known). Everyone was very welcoming and friendly (as you wish they always would be at a church!) and if you would like to see their website it is here at www.allsoulseastbourne.com and you could even download the audio sermon from that date! "Don't Worry" was the the title of the sermon and don't worry, I am not going to preach it to you, but take my word for it, it was good and it is there for you, if you like. (You will hear me, I am one of those giggling, but only when it is expected of me, I promise!)
All Souls Church was completed in 1881 and it is a beautiful church along with a 83 foot tall campanile, which is a bell-tower for us Americans. You may read more about this building at this website http://www.achurchnearyou.com/all-souls-eastbourne/all-souls-church-a-short-history.html

Bombing in World War II destroyed the windows on this side and I hope you can read the explanation of these two stained glass windows that have replaced them. 

All Souls Church is a very beautiful church and I felt honored to be able to attend a worship service there along with my husband.  We asked if we could take some photos of the inside after the service had ended and we were thankfully given permission to do so.  The vicar said to us that it was a beautiful church but as he said this he gestured to the congregation happily chatting around him that the church was really the PEOPLE.

Keane And Bexhill-On-Sea

 De La Warr Pavillion, you can just see this in the background towards the end of the music video that I will show you, Sovereign Light Cafe by Keane.

  Keane is a really great band from Battle in East Sussex, England.  They just came out with the video of their new single, Sovereign Light Cafe and it was filmed in Bexhill-On-Sea, or you may just call it Bexhill, but don't you like the sound of Bexhill-On-Sea?  I know I do!  Do you remember the post that I did recently on The JOY of Friends? The Diamond Couple, Joy & Henry live in Bexhill! As we left, they told us to make sure that we went past the seafront, and see the new modern shelters that were put up there and oh, by the way, a band had just filmed a video there and we had JUST MISSED THEM. Oh well!
Did Joy or Sarah tell me that they filmed it with a white charger on the beach and I filed that in the back of my mind and said that in a comment to someone recently?
 
Keane is really unusual these days, the lead singer has a great voice and I really think they have made some good music. And they seem to be such nice guys!  I read that the band took out a full page ad in the Bexhill Observer to thank all of the locals who were involved in the filming of the video.  (And I love that they used REAL people in this filming, don't you?) The Sovereign Light Cafe is a real cafe and you may see it at the end of the video.  Also, those wooden shelters that Joy mentioned  are also in the video, one of the band members is sitting underneath one.  The only thing that would have made this video any better would be if I could see the smiling faces of Joy and Henry, but that's okay, I can just look at my post of THE JOY OF FRIENDS!  Anyone who left a comment on that post, I want to thank you so much since Joy and Henry were really very much pleased with all of your lovely comments!
Now, Kay, you are saying, what about that Keane song?  Well, here it is!  Cheers, mate!  (Sorry, trying to sound English!)  And I really like this song, I have been humming it all day...

Come Back to Sorrento

When I was a child, one of very favorite songs that I enjoyed my sister playing on the piano was this one: Come Back To Sorrento.  This same song was used in a Chuck Jones cartoon that our son really liked called, "The Cricket in Times Square".  It is a beautiful tune and when I found this video of Pavarotti singing it, I wanted to share it with you.  He is accompanied by Meatloaf, of all people.  However, I think he is really gutsy to share the stage with the masterful voice of Luciano Pavarotti who is sadly no longer with us, but we can still enjoy that wonderful voice.

Believe it or not, I watched an award show last night...the Teen Choice Awards, and I was really saddened by what passes for music these days.    (And I couldn't watch all of it, and sometimes I had to mute it just to be able to stand it.)  Sometimes, you have to TRY to understand what is going on in the world, but honestly, most of the time, it just astounds me.

(And I have taken a long time this evening trying to understand how to download my own videos to Youtube, but I haven't figured it out yet!  A good bit of my time is spent pondering, it seems...)

And you might wonder, didn't you like ANY of the music from that Teen Choice Awards show?  Okay, I must admit, I did like one song that I always sing along to on the radio, and of course, it is a band from the UK!!  It is a band called One Direction...and here is the song that I sing along with...

Beside The Seaside

It has come to my attention that some of us might need a little sea air.  (I know I do.)  We can take a little stroll to the pier in Eastbourne and walk along the seafront.   Let's follow that seagull, shall we?

This is a photo of the Sea Houses in Eastbourne and they are the oldest along the seafront.  I read that Charles Darwin stayed in one of these.  It is interesting to think of him walking along beside the sea too...

 

  

These wooden benches are all along the seafront and many of them have plaques attached to them in honor or in memory of someone.  So nice to sit down and enjoy the view. Wait, who is that coming around the corner?

 

Oh, it's Richard!  Can you see the sailboat going past behind him? Nice blue sky, isn't it?   (These photos were taken on May 30th of this year before the wettest June in England in over a century.)

We have crossed the street now going away from the seaside.  Can you see the young couple on the bench and the top of the blue and white sail of the sailboat just to the right of them?  I don't know who the lady is in the white car, but she is heading to the Town Centre and Beachy Head!

Hope you enjoyed our little stroll.  I am glad we didn't have any food with us, that seagull would have tried to steal it!

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside!  You really have to sing this song in your head when you are walking along the seafront.  You could sing it out loud if you are really brave.

Summer Lightning

Summer is hot in Georgia but that means that can produce some powerful thunderstorms.  Every night this week, I have been limited in my time at the computer since with the storms I have had to unplug electrical devices.  Not as much time have I been able to spend on blogging.  I am so out of it that beginning to sound like Yoda I am.  Please forgive me, that is what happens when I can't read all of your lovely blogs and I know everyone must be in mourning not seeing my comments! What are you all doing with yourselves, writing sorrowful tunes and singing the blues?  Never mind, listen to this song by Ralph McTell and it will cheer you up, I promise!  I have written of Ralph McTell before, he is from Croydon, England, which is the birthplace of someone who isn't famous, but should be, and that would be my husband, Richard.  He can play this song on the guitar and sing it too and he is really, really good! If any of you in England actually know Ralph McTell, or ever see him in person,  would you please tell him to visit the USA and do a concert?  My husband really misses him.  Thank you!


This photo was from July of last year and all of this was given to me by my Dad and doesn't it look so good?  He didn't have as many tomatoes this year and they were smaller (we have had a severe drought) but when I sliced them, they were perfectly ripe, ruby-red and delicious.  Nothing is as good as fresh tomatoes from the garden, from the garden of someone who gives them to you with love.

In The Summertime

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In The Summertime in Georgia ...can you see that in the photo of the swimming pool, I got my brother in mid-air just as he was doing a cannnball into his swimming pool? The cloud photo was at my home, but the pool and the porch photos are from my brother's house, and the sunflowers and watermelon are from my Dad's.

The hummingbird feeder with precious hummingbird is also at my house!

In The Summertime was a hit song from 1970.  Of course, you know that I remember it very well, it was such a huge hit and I remember hearing it at Lake Spivey

Anybody in Atlanta area remember Lake Spivey?

Hope everyone is having fun IN THE SUMMERTIME!!

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