"You Are So Beautiful"

 

In late May, we went for a lovely walk on the Rockdale River Trail.  It begins in a very woody area and then it crosses over a cleared area where the power lines are located. Suddenly, you are under more trees, and you are right beside the Yellow River and the shade is very welcome. Alongside the river were the amazingly beautiful Mountain Laurel. (Kalmia latiflolia). I have written about it before! 

Georgia Girl With An English Heart: Mountain Laurel: Pollen Dispersal by Catapult (Lyman Briggs)

Aren't these just the most amazing parasols of beauty? I was that pleased when I saw them that I said, "Oh, you are so beautiful".  As you must know, that reminded me of a song.

"You Are So Beautiful" is a song made famous by Joe Cocker.  It is an amazing vocal! However, did you know that it was written by  Billy Preston?  If you watch the following video, that is Billy Preston on the keyboard! I remember reading that it was Paul's idea that he wanted to ask Billy to be a member of the Beatles and John's response was that they couldn't get along as a group of four so why try with five members? (As always, you never know if anything like this was ever said but I found it amusing and interesting.) Of course, he has been called the 5th Beatle anyway! 

As much as I love the BEATLES, I do not love the BEETLES that are visiting my sassafras tree just now! What do I do to make them EX-Beetles? I take a thick garden glove and pinch the hard-shelled things off. (You must be quick, they fly off very fast!) Now, as hard as I press upon them, it doesn't kill them but it stuns them enough that I can then place them on the paved walkway and press a heavy flowerpot upon them. The Japanese beetle is not a pest in Japan since it has natural predators. You see, it is essential that we try to keep the Japanese beetles away since the sassafras tree is a host for the Spicebush swallowtail butterfly caterpillar! It is really something.  It starts out (in its first "instar", isn't that a great word?) looking like...and I am not kidding.... like a bird dropping! It does that as a camouflage, of course! It even has two fake eyes! It closes itself up into a leaf during the day and comes out at night to feed on the leaves, provided the beetles haven't eaten all the leaves! It gets bigger and bigger and eventually will become a cocoon. And then, hopefully it will become...the spicebush swallowtail butterfly!  (It really prefers a spicebush but it will also accept a sassafras!) Now...I might have to do a post about the sassafras tree soon! It's very interesting too! Three different leaves on the same tree? It's true!

If I see a spicebush swallowtail butterfly in my front yard, I will be singing that song again! "You Are So Beautiful"!

And I will be singing "Get Back" to the Japanese beetles! "Get back to where you once belonged", that is perfect to sing to them! LOL!

Buddy Holly and the Crickets.... John Lennon is supposedly the one who thought up the name of their group to honor Buddy Holly and his "crickets" but instead of "beetles" it became "BEATLES" since John loved wordplay.  I'm sure you all know that but just in case you don't, now you do!

              (This is one of the later instars, where it turns green.)

                                   

Beauty and Design

 

Athens Botanical Garden (Athens, Georgia!)

Ah, beautiful design... I do hope that all of you appreciate it no matter where you see it!

Charles Stanley Peach (1858-1934) was a British architect that I admire.  We will soon see the tennis championship games from Wimbledon, England and when you watch them on TV, pay attention to the Centre Court. That was designed by Mr. Peach in 1934, using "board finished concrete" for the first time. Thirty years earlier, he was asked to design the electric transformer stations in London. (Now, pay attention...that would have been in 1904 and therefore would have been in the very early days of electricity.) The most famous of these would be Brown Hart Gardens in Mayfair, London. It is a raised garden OVER the electricity transformer station! Isn't that something? These are his thoughts about the designing of power stations....

"The amenities of the locality should not be disregarded, and every care should be taken to reduce to the minimum all causes of nuisance or annoyance. The appearance of the building counts for much in these cases."

Sigh, am I the only one who reads that and wishes that we had someone around like that today? "The appearance counts for much"...I do know that everything costs money but how much more would it cost for a building to have some sort of beauty to it? 

After a full day of designing power stations, Mr. Peach would go home and would work late into the night on huge drawings of King Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem.  He was an amazing artist, you can see some of his works online. 

This bench at the Athens Botanical Garden was not only beautiful but also comfortable.

Main Street- Conyers, Georgia.

"World, I cannot hold thee close enough".

I do wonder how many others bend down and hug this globe like I did?  Would you? It's the very first thing I thought to do!

Hope all of you are doing well these days! Time is just flying by, don't you think? June is abuzz with bees and flowers! 

The Stoke's Aster! I had to find out the name of this flower and I did! We saw it in a lovely garden on Main Street here in Conyers and then, we also saw lots of them at the Botanical Garden.  We really liked it and so did the bees! 

What else did I learn this week? The perforations on toilet paper were patented in 1871 but not available until 1890. Gee, what took them so long? LOL! (I learned this from watching a very interesting piece about the founder of Universal Studios, Mr. Carl Laemmle. What did toilet paper have to do with him? Hmm....something about one of his many lawsuits that was brought against him by Thomas Edison regarding film. You will have to look it up!)

Here is a funny song for you! When we are walking sometimes and we hear very loud voices, we think of this song!