Hey! Anybody else feel the need to relieve some stress? I do!
Listen to Chas & Dave sing some waltzes, that will do it for me! (You know I will sing along with them.)
Please note, if you go to the 11th track here, it is "Mustn't Grumble" and it was written by Chas & Dave! You must listen to it and pay attention to the words, they are so true! "Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry all alone."
Great praise to firefighters! As I am typing this to you, the TV newscast is showing the effects of a terrible fire on an interstate highway in Atlanta. The bridge on I-85 has collapsed. So far, we are being told that there are no deaths or injuries.
Wish I could be walking on this beach just now! It is in Eastbourne in England, can't you just smell the fresh sea air and hear the cry of the seagulls?
Stone Mountain Park is extremely popular and can become quite crowded at the weekends. In the winter, there is an attraction called "Snow Mountain". They make snow from the water from the lake and on the large hill they have an area for sliding, and at the base of the mountain, a place for little kiddies to play in the snow. (The past two months have been quite warm but in the shadow of the mountain, it must have been cold enough to keep the snow!) You can see from the pictures below that there are times that all of it is in bright sunshine!
Of course, you can also just walk beside the lake and enjoy the beauty of the dogwood trees and the quiet sound of the water lapping against the shore.
At one time, they had two riverboats that would take you around the large lake. I really do miss them. (Doesn't the look of it remind you of Mark Twain and his books?)
They have one remaining. It is no longer used but I have hopes that one day it will be restored and will be an attraction again.
Mabel is just beside the lake playing the Carillion here. The sound of this echoes across the water and if the wind is just right, you can hear it from the very top of Stone Mountain. Even though Stone Mountain can be very busy, you can get away from the crowds, if you really want to! You know we do!
Mary Delany was a fascinating woman, who lived from 1700 until 1788. The most amazing thing, she did not make her unique "mosaiks" until she was in her 70's and she created over 1700 of these pieces! You could understandably think that the photo below is a water color but it is not, what you see are tiny pieces of paper, cut and pasted, layer upon layer and done with such precision that the finished piece looks very much like the original flower! (You are thinking, why that is just collage! Yes, I know it is but this is extraordinary work, don't you think?) And a most extraordinary woman she was too, this was written about her... "She judged everything and everybody for herself; and, while ridiculing all empty-headed or vain insipidity, whether fashionable or eccentric, was always ready to applaud the unusual, if sincere and worthy. She was eager in the acquisition of knowledge of all kinds to the end of her life."
Passion Flower by Mary Delany-1777
Mary Delany was a great letter writer and corresponded with Jonathan Swift and was also great friends with the musician Handel. I can only imagine what it must have been like to have been in her company! Where can you see some of her works? Why, at one of my favorite places in the world, The Enlightenment Gallery at the British Museum! You may read much more about Mary Delany here. Also, just here! I hope you will find her story as interesting as I do! "She was eager in the acquisition of knowledge OF ALL KINDS to the end of her life."
Wild azalea (NOT a landscape plant, it is a wildflower!) at Stone Mountain , March 2017.
Hello to you all! It will be Mothering Sunday in England tomorrow, so I want to wish all the MUMS in England a happy day! In particular, I want to send best wishes to the most elegant of them all, Joan of Eastbourne, my gorgeous mother-in-law! Now, to PROVE to you that my mother-in-law is truly a REGAL woman, I have a photograph of the back of her beautiful head of white hair and I have a photo of the Queen also! Can you tell which one is Joan and which one is the Queen? Don't let the diamond tiara fool you, you cannot underestimate Joan's exquisite taste in fashion!
Today, we had the carillonneur at Stone Mountain play a special tune for us. (She did this when she heard Richard's English accent!) When I told her that I was going to have this photo of the Queen here, we both giggled at her perfect choice of song! (The recording I have here is from Westminster Abbey!)
Happy Mothering Sunday to Joan and Queen Elizabeth! And to all the mothers I know in England and Scotland!
The rest of you, have a great weekend and week ahead!
Oh! I meant to tell you...Joan IS elegant but she can be a bit CHEEKY, you know! One of her friends gave her a solar gnome for her garden, but she thinks it is hilarious and shows it off in her conservatory! Hmm...I bet the QUEEN has one too but she just doesn't tell anybody! Happy and GLORIOUS!
Hello, my fellow dwellers in time and space! If you don't know the hymn, "Praise The Lord, The King of Heaven", I hope you will be able to listen to the video and then, sing along with the words. "Slow to chide and swift to bless" came to me this past week, and although these words refer to God, it occurred to me that we should follow that same line of thinking. ("Chide" means to scold and isn't a word used very often these days, is it?)
Henry Francis Lyte wrote this hymn, which is a paraphrase of Psalm 103. He is the very same one who wrote "Abide With Me". I somehow feel a kinship with him, he loved languages, music and wildflowers! Why, he even suffered from asthma! Here is something else that was written about him, " He felt an indefinable desire to do something good in life".
Rev. Henry Francis Lyte/ ...there, you may click on that link and read more about him. You know you want to! I find him to be a most fascinating and likeable man, I hope you will too.
Friends, I have not had much time for reading all of your blogs and I do miss my reading time! The few that I have visited this week have given me much pleasure! Listen, I have seen a gorgeous dollhouse from Germany, sunlit daffodils from Scotland, a beautiful bride from South Africa, and read about a man who brought back a fifty pound note to an Oxfam shop in England! (It had been hidden inside a belt that he had gotten there!)
See? I wonder what else I have missed? Tell me, guys, you know I want to know!
Jasmine blooming at Arabia Mountain. Sometimes when we are walking, we have yellow blossoms underfoot and we look up and see this. All the joy and beauty!
In a recent post, I mentioned to you that Bill Paxton had died. Richard recorded several episodes of the TV mini series "Texas Rising" for me, about the Texas Revolution. (It had originally been shown in 2015.) Bill Paxton was one of the leading characters, portraying Sam Houston. Interestingly, Bill Paxton is related to Sam Houston! Here, are his words...
"My great great great great great great grandparents on my father's side had a son and a daughter," Paxton said. "I'm a great descendant of the son. The daughter -- she grew to be Sam Houston's mother -- which makes Sam Houston my first cousin five generations removed."
There, isn't that something? There is a link of Bill Paxton speaking of the experience of "Texas Rising": just here.
Just an aside, I often speak to people who have names that I recognize: Crockett, Key, Davis, Redding...I ask them if they might be related to the person I am thinking of...and very often, the answer is YES!
Now, back to the show...I have some criticisms of the film but for the most part, I really liked it. Right off the bat, we noticed that the gorgeous mountains looked out of place for east Texas! Sure enough, it had been filmed in Mexico! It made me go straight to the internet to look up all the names of those mentioned. You all know by now I much I love reading and learning of REAL people!
Here is a list:
Davy Crockett
Jim Bowie
Sam Houston
Erastus "Deaf", pronounced 'DEEF' Smith"
Santa Ana
Jack Hayes
James Walker Fannin, Jr. (from Georgia, Fannin County is named in his honor. Killed in the Goliad Massacre.)
Emily West (A real woman but I think poorly represented here,
can we truly know what she was like? Thought to
inspired the song "The Yellow Rose of Texas".)
Mirabeau Lamar
Andrew Jackson (yes, that one, the 7th President of the USA, played by someone I truly admire, the wonderful Kris Kristofferson!)
Thomas Rusk
Bigfoot Wallace
Now, there were quite a few characters that were completely fabricated, but I think it is quite easy to spot them. (Lorca and Billy Anderson, for example). There is a website that I like to visit, "History vs. Hollywood" and you may see the link for this film here.
The Texas Revolution, along with the Texas Indian Wars, is a quite complex subject that can only be touched on in a short space such as this but I urge you to read more about it. It is fascinating.
Did you know: Sam Houston was on trial in Washington, D.C. and Francis Scott Key was his lawyer? (Francis Scott Key, the same man who wrote the words to our National Anthem.)
That Santa Anna lived for a time in New York City and due to his efforts, we have HIM to blame for chewing gum? (The true inventor is Thomas Adams who tried to use the Mexican "chicle" to make tires. When this was unsuccessful, he remembered how much Santa Anna simply liked chewing it...he put together a batch and just like that, chewing gum!)
In my reading of this, the director stated that this was meant as entertainment and not a history lesson. I say that if there is ANY subject that is filmed, we have the resources to research the subject and should search out the real history of it! Remember, films have to "Hollywood" it up for the most part, but that does take away from the real people who have lived and deserve to be remembered.
My friends, I want to thank all of you left such kind comments on my last post with your kind encouragement! I appreciate you more than you will ever know.
I hope to walk this weekend! I have a friend on the Isle of Lewis who also loves Stone Mountain and she will be having a medical procedure (it's surgery but let's call it a procedure...anybody know what movie that comes from?) and I want to send out BEST WISHES to her and to say that I am sending her my love, as I do to all of YOU! God bless you all! Have a great weekend!
"Take Me To Texas" by George Strait. Enjoy!
One last thing...Bill Paxton was wonderful in this role, truly he was! I enjoyed him so much and I am so sorry that we longer have him but I am thankful that he was able to portray Sam Houston in this film.
Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been truly enjoying something in your life and suddenly, someone comes along and taps you on the shoulder and says, "Sorry, you have to come with me and do THIS" and the "THIS" that you are required or obligated to do is AWFUL and something that you really dislike!
Or is it just me?
In 1980, I was in Cozumel, Mexico, enjoying the first snorkeling I had ever done in my life. I enjoyed it very much, the sparkling clear water, the brightly colored fish and the wonderful, beautiful air just above my head!! THEN, along comes the person tapping on my shoulder and I had to do the scuba diving which I did NOT enjoy. The instructor put too many weights on me and I dragged the ocean floor like an overweight anchor.
I have other examples, but you get the idea! My blog is something that I have truly enjoyed but these days, I am so exhausted that I have been unable to write in the evenings.
Never mind, I will be climbing one of my mountains this weekend, maybe TWO of them and nobody will be tapping on my shoulder, telling me to do something I don't like!
This is me in England! Hello, my friends! If you should meet me on top of Arabia Mountain one day, you know I will tell you of my love of the area! This is exactly what I did today when Richard and I met a delightful couple there. You know I had to tell them of the wildflowers, the birds, the butterflies and well...a great many things! I also told them that I have my own blog...do you tell people that you have a blog? I don't usually but this couple seemed very interested in the area, so you know I had to tell them about Richard's great photos! And what better way for them to know Arabia Mountain than to see what we have seen and shared with you all!
From outcrop at Panola Mountain, that's Stone Mountain in the distance.
In the autumn, walking on the trail at the Rockdale River trail.
Arabia Mountain, early March from a few years ago. The red diamorpha is amazing!
Last September, at the British Museum in London.
Richard is such a great photographer, he can make even ME look good! (I think he was telling me to get just a BIT more behind him! Ha ha!)
So, do you tell others that you have a blog? How do people react when you tell them this? Funny thing, I noticed that someone got to my blog today by typing in this: "origin of nosey parker". I promise you I am NOT the origin of that phrase! Love to you all, see the heart that I made from pine cones for you?
