Stone Mountain Carillon Americana

Walking up Stone Mountain!  Sometimes, if you are there at the right times, you will be able to hear the music from the Carillon drift over to you and it is beautiful to hear. (A 732 bell Carillon, it was donated to the park by Coca-Cola after it was exhibited at The World's Fair in New York City in 1964. I found a great descriptive post about it and you may read it here.)  The music is played during the week from a recording but on the weekends it is played live by Mabel Sharp, a woman in her 90's!  She has been playing here for over 30 years!

You may drive closer to the lake and then walk to the building that houses the Carillon OR you may walk.  You know we walked! In my photo above, a gentleman has knocked on the door, asking if he could take a photo with her.  I could have done the same but I didn't want to bother her, so I just took this photo!  (She has someone with her, quietly knitting.)  Just after this, as I was waiting for her to begin playing, Miss Mabel Sharp came up to me and asked if it was my first visit there and I told her that we had been coming for years and that I loved her music.  I am happy that I was able to tell her that!  One of the past visits that we were there, I was overjoyed to hear three songs in succession that were just perfect for me:

ODE TO JOY
JESU, JOY OF MAN'S DESIRING
JUST A CLOSER WALK WITH THEE

(I didn't think I would remember them for you but Richard said: Just remember OJJ...and then, the titles will come back to you. And he was right!)

Mabel Sharp also told me that they have installed bigger amplifiers now and that the music will be heard over a greater area! Look out for one of Richard's videos in the future!

The Yellow Daisies are blooming now and if you go early in the morning, not only will you see them in the morning light but you will enjoy their sweet fragrance!

So, remember to listen out for the Carillon, it's lovely.

And if you can't get to where I am in this world, listen for music wherever you are!

I looked at several videos of Mabel Sharp playing the carillon but decided on the one above, that is the way I usually hear it as we are walking, from a short distance and combined with birdsong.

And you know those three songs that I heard? You might not know that last one, so I have it here for you, sung by Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson!

Heroes

On the Today Show this morning, I watched a video that I want you to watch too...you may find it just  here.    You might remember the men who stopped the attack on the train from Amsterdam to Paris last month, this video is an interview of two of the men.  It is well worth five minutes of your time, I promise!

Mark Moogalian and Spencer Stone discuss their heroic efforts to stop a gunman on a Paris-bound train, and how Stone was able to save Mooligan’s life.

This time last year, Richard and I were in London.  We spent quite some time in Southwark Cathedral.  I lit a candle there in memory of all those who died on Sept. 11, 2001.  I remember today also.

It Moves My Heart

"Just as I wonder
whether it's going to die,
the orchid blossoms
and I can't explain why it
moves my heart,
why such pleasure
comes from one small bud
on a long spindly stem, one
blood red gold flower
opening at mid-summer,
tiny, perfect in its hour."
- Sam Hamill, The Orchid Flower

Happy 60th Birthday to Richard! (With Words of Love)

Nice if you manage to have your birthday on a major holiday and even better if you make sure you have the day off from work!

HAPPY Birthday to my dear Richard, my most wonderful better half! 

 If you have only just started to read my blog you might not know this, but the vast majority of the photos on this blog are made by the very gifted photographer, my husband! And he is so very interested in the natural world that he should be in the company of Sir David Attenborough!

Richard in London, St. Paul's in the background and Victorian lamp post behind him.

 

Poor Richard, when you see him in a photo on my blog that means it was taken by me! (I still manage to get his sweet smile though!)  And very often, he has a tree or a lighting fixture growing from the top of his head, I don't notice this until I see it later. After all, I only have eyes for my dear Richard!

On the Eastbourne seafront, posing with the Carpet Gardens and the crosswalk lights behind his head.

 
 


Richard going down a gigantic slide as a baby with his Dad. Look at that smile!

Taken this past Saturday at Stone Mountain! Somehow managed to make him look as if he has a big rock on his back!

 

Hope you all have a good day and for all in the USA, Happy Labor Day!  And if you want to see a list of all who are celebrating birthdays today, pop over to Mimi's blog from Louisiana...you may find it just  here!  I am most impressed by those born on this day, go and have a look! (The artist Jacob Lawrence AND Queen Elizabeth I, the first one in 1533!)  And she also lists that it is "Turn A Cartwheel In Public Day"...you know I can do that, right?
I should turn cartwheels every day in celebration of my husband!

HAPPY Birthday, Richard!
60 years of sweet smiles!

 

 

"Words of Love" a song by Buddy Holly (who was also born on Sept. 7th) and covered by the Beatles is a favorite of Richard's.

Waterloo Sunset

We have someone close to us just now visiting London.  A Waterloo Sunset would be nice!  And fish & chips is also wished for him!  Please note, most of the fish that you have at a fish and chip shop has a wonderful breading on the fish, but we found a nice fish & chip shop that made this cod WITHOUT any breading and therefore is gluten free. This photo is from a visit from about five years ago...I was just trying to get a nice photo for you!
 Look at those chips! 

Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy

"Do you want to know a secret?  Do you promise not to tell?"

I write notes to myself and sometimes when I look at my notes later, I wonder what my words mean.  Does that ever happen to you?  I looked at some of my notes from this time last year (when I was visiting England) and I saw three names on the right side of the page that I think everyone should recognize:

 
Sleepy
Dopey
Grumpy

 What could this mean?
I have no idea but it is most certainly my handwriting. (And for anyone who has had the JOY of trying to read my AHEM distinctive handwriting, you know what I mean!)

So, any guesses as to why I would write those names? Perhaps that is how I felt after jet lag? 

Also,  in May I found an envelope with these words..."Mystery seeds" once again in my own handwriting.  I planted the seeds and the plant is now blooming with small purple blooms and Richard and I have just found out that the plant is a globe amaranth!  Where did I get these seeds?  I have no idea!

 

Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy are three of The Seven Dwarfs (from Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs).  I am sure you can name the other four, can't you?  Now, don't cheat,  just think in your head if you can come up with them.

 

That first line in my post..."Do You Want To Know A Secret...do you promise not to tell?"-Snow White had that as the first line in the song "Wishing Well" in the Walt Disney movie from 1937.  John Lennon must have liked it too, since he used the same words in the song he wrote..."Do You Want To Know A Secret". (It is George Harrison as the lead singer.)

 

 

Hey! You know I have both songs for you!

 

And you know I have the rest of the Dwarfs for you:

Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy, Doc, Bashful, Sneezy and...

HAPPY!   Doggone it, I am tired, and could not think of the 7th one, so Richard had to help me with that one! (Of course, I could have looked it up, but why should I when I have such a genius of a husband!)

 

I have so many things I want to write about and look at what I am sharing with you today!  Hope to get back into the swing of things soon, my friends!  Hope you have a great weekend,  (It is a long weekend in the USA...our Labor Day holiday is Monday.) 

 

Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy...

Sleepy, Dopey, Grumpy...you know, if you say it over and over again, it does seem to have a calming effect, like a mantra. What do you think?

Increase Your Dose of NATURE!

You MUST watch this video I have for you!  It is brilliant!
If you read my blog at all you will know how much my husband and I try to get out into nature as much as possible. We walk on as many trails and over our mountains as often as work allows.  We honestly TRY to combat the work induced catatonia!  It is a very funny video because it is so true (and also as Americans, we are VERY tired of all the drug adverts on TV!!)

Increase your dose of nature wherever you are in the world!

(In my header photo that was taken this time last year near the top of Stone Mountain, those are the lovely Yellow Daisies in full bloom...but do you notice at the edge of the photo on the right side...see a pair of shoes? Guess who?)