Sunflower Festival- Rutledge, Georgia

 

 

 

The Sunflower Festival was this past weekend in Rutledge, Georgia.  Since my Dad only lives a few miles from the festival, I always like to go to the festival with him.  My camera lens steamed over as I snapped a quick photo of one of my Dad's sunflowers.  (My header photo right now is from almost the same spot last year.)  From the photo, it looks foggy, it wasn't but it was very cloudy and looked as if it might rain all day.  Guess what, it didn't!  After a while, the clouds blew away and it was a beautiful day.  Don't believe me?  See for yourself!

 

Every sunflower festival should begin with a tractor parade!   I love the American flag.  George M. Cohan has nothing on me!  (He's the one who wrote "You're A Grand Old Flag".  Please make sure you see the movie "Yankee Doodle Dandy".  Thank you.)

 

There are artists and other creative people displaying and selling their crafts under the tall oak trees.  Last year, the temperature was over 100, this year...it was the low 80's.  Much more comfortable to enjoy the sunflowers and the atmosphere!

 If you paid $8.00, you could cut as many sunflowers as you could carry.  Many people took them up on this offer.  I always love to see the people walking away with their arms full of sunflowers.

 

With all this rain, the leaves on the sunflowers made it look like a jungle! And they were tall, very tall, some of these were ten feet high.

 

 

There, in the last photo, do you see the oak trees that the people are walking towards?  That is the blessed shade, that once the sun came out, everyone wanted to be underneath it!  All the artists' booths, the entertainment and the food and drink are under the shade trees!

 The sharecropper's house built in 1891 is a focal point with beautiful flowers planted all around it.   Let's get closer, shall we?

 

Is this a watering trough for cows?   It makes a nice spot for hydrangeas too.

 

I always take a shot of the pasture and the sky from the window of the sharecropper's house...I love that view!

 

 

The family that owns the property now allow weddings in this garden.  You should have seen and heard the hummingbirds here! The Georgia Hummingbird Society had a booth right next to this and they spent the early morning, banding the hummingbirds.  I hope to get there early enough next year and I might be able to hold a hummingbird in my hand, here's hoping. 

 

 

 

 

The Rocky Creek Band!  I really enjoyed this band, I thought they were fantastic!  When we first sat down to listen to them, they played "Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress" which was a song by the Hollies, an English band! AND the very next song, they announced, was by a fellow Georgian, Otis Redding, and the song was "These Arms of Mine".  Boy oh boy, what a great band!  When they played a song by Elvis Presley, you must know that this was my kind of band!

 

Hey! If you don't know this song by Otis Redding, you really should! I have it here for you. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Kids had a great time at the Sunflower Festival.  Don't believe me?  Have a look at this!

 

 

 

 

Yes! That is my Dad who is 86 now but I think he might have been the biggest kid there. He is so funny, you can't believe he would get on this kiddie tractor toy. Nothing like being young at heart.  Can you tell he is having fun?

 

I told you it turned into a pretty day!  Y'all come back with me next year, same time, okay?  (This was so tall, I just held the camera up as high as I could and snapped the picture! Meike, you know I thought of you, with that yellow against that blue sky!)