Something made me think of this TV ad and I found it here for you. This really makes me laugh. "It's a piece of junk" and the boy's expression is priceless!
This was a very busy day for me today but I still managed to get to Arabia Mountain with Richard just before the sun went down. Too cloudy for a nice sunset but it is always a pleasure to see these lovely yellow daisies.
A painting, I tell you, a painting...that is what this looks like to me. I find this incredibly beautiful. It astounds me that so little attention is paid to this beautiful wildflower.
Hopefully, I will be able to visit all your lovely blogs soon. In the meantime, hope everyone has a lovely weekend.
Note to Yellow Daisy Lovers: The Yellow Daisies are at their best during the first part of September at Stone Mountain. They are equally as beautiful at Arabia Mountain, but it is later, more like the last part of September. These photos were taken on Sept. 23th and Sept. 25th at Arabia Mountain.
You can still see all the evidence of the quarrying done on the mountain but nature, blessed lovely nature, is coming back.. Yellow Daisies should not really be capitalized but this is my blog and I say they deserve capitals, and they shall have them!
Richard took all of these photos but I must tell you that I asked him to take this one, with the blue Slender day flower amongst the Yellow Daisies!
This photo reminds me of a painting by one of the Impressionists, Monet perhaps?
This pine tree was in very little soil and had partially fallen over. It was still alive though, we need to learn from it! Can you see the lines in the rocks on the left? That shows where the rock was drilled so as to crack it along those lines for the rock to be quarried.
Sunsets are not so easy to see with all the trees that we have in Georgia but on top of Arabia Mountain...
Hope you enjoyed the Yellow Daisies and the sunset at Arabia Mountain. We truly did!
Oh, and I asked Richard if he could get a photo of the Yellow Daisies and the sunset in the same shot. Please tell me that you love this photograph as much as I do! I think it is stunning! Well, I think they are all stunning to tell you the truth. Is it just me or is Richard a great photographer or what?
It is just a matter of time until I type a post and someone will leave me a comment and say, "You know, you did a post saying this exact thing on ...(whatever date). What I mean is...I can't remember things and I have had this problem even as a child. Of course, now that I am...ahem, getting on in years shall we say, I think that the memory thing is getting even worse.
For example, in the photos above, have I shown you the lighthouse at Beachy Head? I took this photo on one of those days in June and it was a very cool rainy day and as you can see, there wasn't one other person around. Leaving Richard in the Beachy Head Pub with his friends, I told him that I simply had to go outside and take some photos. The nice chaplains were looking at me very carefully but when they saw me hook my arm around the railing before I snapped these photos, I think that made them breathe easier and know that this was one gal who was planning on sticking around! I don't mean to make light of it, Beachy Head is one of the top suicide spots in the country. There are also numbers posted for suicide prevention. It is a sad fact that this is a place where people end their lives.
There, can you see the pier in the distance? We could walk down there from here, but we will wait for better weather, don't you think?
All my life I have relied on little rhymes and songs to help me remember things and I know that this is called a mnemonic device. I prefer to think of this as "the art of memory".
You may read about it here. It's a bit too complicated for me. Just give me something that rhymes, and it will be in my brain forever, that's all I know.
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
And that has twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine in each leap year.
Of course, everyone knows that rhyme. (And if you know a child who does NOT know it, then what are you waiting for, teach it to him! And there are some adults that could learn it too.)
Here is the interesting thing to me, that rhyme is from the 15th century! And that version is like this...
Thirtey days has November,
Aprile, June, and September:
Of twyecescore-eightt is but eine,
And all the remnante be thrycescore-eine.
O´course Leap yare comes an´pynes,
Ev'rie foure yares, gote it ryghth.
An´twyecescore-eight is but twyecescore-nyne.
The literal translation of this medieval version would be:
Thirty days has November,
April, June, and September:
Of twenty-eight is but one,
And all the remnant is thirty-one.
Of course Leap year comes and stays,
Every four years got it right,
And twenty-eight is but twenty-nine.
Earthbound is a song by Rodney Crowell that is several years old now but I think it fits this post quite nicely.
Remember Richard's " Dawn Is A Feeling" Post? This is the view that made me get up so early.
The flowers along the seafront in Eastbourne are so beautiful. We were there in late Spring, just before a very wet June, but we were lucky, we saw some very nice days.
So neat and tidy, English gardens are lovely. Especially this one!
The pier in Eastbourne on a very windy day. This was just before the Queen's Jubilee.
This English garden is lined with pansies and a really beautiful white flower called "Snow In Summer", which does not grow in Georgia. I always look for it when I am in England.
No roses were safe from me...I loved them all, just like these ones growing over a wall!
Hope you enjoyed looking over some of our photos from England, here I am back home and this was just taken this morning at Arabia Mountain, and it almost looks like Glinda the Good Witch right in front of me, doesn't it?
Remember Richard trying to find a good video of "Dawn Is A Feeling"? I found this one and I hope you like it as much as I do. It's a very good song and except for the middle part, where it kind of sounds a bit umm...slightly psychedelic, , I think it sounds very contemporary. Love the Moody Blues!
Please tell me that you love this TV commercial as much as I do! And hope you all had a great summer and are looking forward to a ridiculously good autumn.
Crepuscular rays are alternating light and dark sun rays streaming
through gaps in clouds. They appear to fan out from the Sun's position, although
they are actually parallel (like the apparent converging of railroad tracks when
you look down a long straight track), and arise when clouds castshadows on to
the atmosphere.
When the sun is low, towards twilight (from which the rays derive their name)
the light rays often appear reddish, whereas the dark shadows have a green
tinge.
(weatheronline.co.uk)
Crepuscular...that is the correct word, but for me, it looks like a painting, and a very heavenly one too. When I mentioned the word, "crepuscular", Richard told me that it is a French word for dusk. Mais oui! C'est vrai! All I know for sure is that this is beautiful in any language.
We are having problems with our computer and I am typing this on another computer which I can barely see. So, forgive me because I am not able to read all your lovely blogs and leave comments. This has taken me much longer than normal just to type these few words. Hopefully, within FIVE days, we will get what we need so that I will be able to be on my blog again.
"Flippant" is the word that came to my mind last night, after I had typed my last post about "23 Skidoo and NYC". That was not my intent and I really want anyone who reads this blog to know that that day is still so upsetting to me that I can barely speak of it, let alone write about it. I mentioned Charmain who was there on that day and she has a post from last week on her blog at www.agirlandherneedle.blogspot.com. If you can, please go to her blog and read her account and see her photos. Believe me, I will never forget the events of September 11, 2001 and in no way would I ever wish to make light of that date. I just happened to read the background of the origin of that expression and it amused me that it came from New York City. You see, I heart New York. That is all there is to it.
http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/congregation/spc/about
Do you remember the church with the white walls that held all the artwork that the children sent to New York City after the attacks? That church is St. Paul's Chapel/Trinity Church and it is an Episcopal church, a very old one where George Washington once worshipped. It was decided that because of the great need, the congregation would hold their services elsewhere and the church would be used just for the relief workers, the firemen, the policemen...for meals, beds, counseling and for rest. From September 2001 until May of 2002, "the little church that stood" gave comfort and aid to those who were working at Ground Zero. St. Paul's was across the street from the buildings of the Twin Towers but the building of St. Paul's was not damaged, not even one broken glass. The brunt of the force was taken by a very old sycamore tree which was in the church graveyard and an artist, Steve Tobin, cast the roots of the tree into a 10 foot bronze sculpture and it has been on display since 2005. If you would like to see a video about it, it is here http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/webcasts/videos/history/september-11-2001/the-trinity-root
Mayor Rudy Guiliani at the time called the survival of St. Paul's, "one of the miracles that help our faith to go on". I couldn't help but think of the photos of London being bombed so heavily in World War II, and how even with so many buildings destroyed and the smoke all around it, St. Paul's Cathedral also survived.
St Simon's Episcopal Church in Conyers, Georgia has St. Francis holding this dove which is a symbol of peace. Peace be with you.
There are expressions that might be in books or movies that have gone out of fashion. What about "23 Skidoo", have you heard of it? (This expression was used in one of my favorite books that I read as a child, "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn".)
Have you ever been to New York City and seen the FlatIron Building? It is on 23rd Street and Madison Square. In the early 1900's, groups of men liked to stand around there and try to catch glimpses of the women's ankles as the wind would blow up the ladies' skirts. The policemen would tell them to disburse by saying "23 Skidoo". (Perhaps "skidoo" comes from skedaddle?) There are other theories, much like the use of the word "okay", which is very American, but no one knows the origin of that either, not for certain. Even the people who used this at the time knew exactly what they meant, but not where it came from. During the Titanic Inquiry, the following shows how much this was in the vocabulary of the times:
Then was it that watertight door, which you see on the plan is in the alleyway, which is in front of your room?
- I am not sure, but I think it is No. 23 door.
I do not know their numbers, but was it the one just forward of your room?
- Yes, in the alleyway.
And you actually saw them doing that?
- Yes, they were working on it.
. You are quite right; it is No. 23 door?
- We used to call it the skidoo door, on account of the number. That is how I remember the number.
(The Commissioner.) I do not understand that?
- It is an American joke.
Will you explain it?
- I could not explain it, my Lord.
New York City was on my mind this week because of the remembrance of September 11, 2001. I hope that they will always read those names out of those who died that day. There is a wonderful post by a woman named Charmain at www.agirlandherneedle.blogspot.com and if you can, please go and read her post from Sept. 11th. Charmain was in New York City during the attacks in 2001 and she wrote very movingly of her experience.
Best I love September's yellow, morns of dew strung gossamer Thoughtful days without a stir, rooky clamours, brazen leaves,
Stubble dotted o'er with sheaves - More than Spring's bright uncontrol Suit the Autumn of my soul. Alex Smith
To coincide with the yellow daisies at Stone Mountain, there is an arts and crafts festival that has been held there for forty-three years which in the American South, makes for a sacred tradition. I read in the paper that it was expected that 200,000 people would attend over the four days of the Yellow Daisy Festival. We really wanted to go to Stone Mountain, but thought that the crowds might possibly be too much. We should not have worried, it happened just as I thought, most of the people were under the tents at the festival and it was one of the least populated times on the walk-up trail we have ever seen, especially in such beautiful weather. The daisies were "at their best" which is what the sign in England said about the bluebells when we went on a bluebell walk in England. These flowers reminded me of that lovely walk, only in yellow this time! I have two videos on here for you, let me know what you think of them. Richard did both of them too!
Click on any one of these photos and you can scroll through them, this stiched photo looks better on a wider screen!
We have almost made it to the top! Not only have the yellow daisies been beautiful but the clouds!What a perfect day to climb the mountain.
On top of the world!
We came up on the Walk-Up Trail but the Cherokee Trail crosses over the Walk-Up Trail so we went down the Cherokee Trail side of the mountain, very steep in places, one must be very careful.
Guess who? No, it's not Indiana Jones!
Richard took most of these photos, in fact, he may have taken them all except the ones that I took of him. I think he takes great photos, just look at this shot, I think this could be a post-card, don't you?
Last year, on my walk at Arabia Mountain when the Yellow Daisies were blooming, I left a wish that I hope one day yellow flowers will mark your way. It is still my wish for you.
