I Can Help

 

"Is that a bag of trash?"

"No, it's a person!"

Recently, Richard and I walked on a trail.  We have to drive our car to the trail and as were leaving, I looked over and in the middle of the road, there was a .... I couldn't quite make it out, it looked like a big garbage bag that might have fallen off a truck but there was an unusual bit sticking up and... I realized that the bit sticking up was a human arm.  I jumped out of the car and went running over, and I saw some other walkers not too far away and shouted that someone had passed out in the road. (My reasoning was that it might be a good idea to have others surrounding the boy in the road, one must always consider cars approaching!) All of them came straight over. This was indeed a young boy, unconscious but with his arm straight up in the air and his other hand clutching a cell phone. What would you do? This is what I did: I was prepared to do CPR on him.  (Hey, I have never done it before and I have only taken one class on it, but I was ready.) Before I even got to him, I was talking to him...."Hey, hey- can you hear me?" I got to him and started to touch his neck but then, he moved his eyes.  He sat up and rather than looking like a big lump of clothes, very suddenly he looked like just what he was: a young teenager who was hot and needed water. Don't worry, Richard was already on it- he supplied him with one of the cool bottles that he always has for us. His mother came running up the trail to us. Turns out, he and his mother had hiked for several miles and in the heat... we asked if we could do anything for them and she told us that we could drive them back to their starting point which is just what we did.

Now, I wondered about telling y'all about this. I didn't really do anything, it was just that I was prepared to help if I could. It was such a scary thing, truly it was, but I really was ready to do CPR if I needed to do so!

Well, thank goodness all was well with that young man but one never knows what can happen!

Okay, let me just try to regroup here and think about some photos and a song....

I am showing you some random photos that Richard has taken over the past months as we were walking on some of our local trails. (Oh, except the turtle photo, that was in our own backyard! What? You didn't know we have a wildlife refuge? We do!) That big black snake was right across our path on a trail, and it crawled up right beside that big log and would you believe it, you would never have known it was there. If you are ever hiking in the woods and feel tired, you might not want to sit down on a log.  If you are in Georgia, there might be a snake sidled alongside it! (Please note, that particular snake is not venomous, but I still don't want to be right beside it.)

This past weekend, I walked out my front door and at the bottom of our steps, there was a big turtle on its back! Oh no! I yelled for Richard, but I couldn't wait for him to see this, I had to help the poor creature! Over on its correct side it went, and is it my imagination, or did he (or she) look grateful? 

Hope you are all doing well, my friends.  Stay cool! And be helpful when you can!

EARTH

 

There is an article in Newsweek magazine that mentions the magnificent monadnocks right here in Georgia!  You can see it just

here.   Even though it pleases me to know that Arabia Mountain is included in this article, I am just a teensy bit annoyed about it.

 

The piece is entitled "The Weirdest, Most Extraterrestrial Spots You Can Visit Here On Earth".  Oh dear, I do wish that we could somehow convey our astonishment at natural beauty without it sounding as if we are on another planet. For one thing, the photo that they give you of Arabia Mountain is at the very top and is therefore the most rock that you will see. (They compare it to a moon scape, I think, and trust me, it is breathtaking to see it!) However, if you care to look back at my blog and see all the posts that I have written about Arabia Mountain, Panola Mountain and Stone Mountain, you will see the amazing wildflowers and trees that grow there! And the rock itself is amazing!  Weird? Oh my goodness, I think not!  Arabia Mountain, Panola Mountain and Stone Mountain are all beautiful, each in their own way and if you ever spend any time at any of them, you will see this!

"The Magnificent Places on Earth that Only Appear Other-Worldly Because We Are Heavily Influenced by TV and Films"- there, could that be a better title for this piece in Newsweek?  

Arabia Mountain

Panola Mountain

Stone Mountain (That's Atlanta on the horizon)

These are all in the Atlanta area. We are not in the mountains! The monadnocks rise up from the surrounding landscape. Stone Mountain is the largest while Arabia Mountain is the oldest. They are millions of years old! 

Funny thing, I was really just going to tell you that the WORDLE today was the word "EARTH". And you will never guess, I got it on the first try!  Was it because I was thinking about this article in Newsweek or because when I asked Richard what should our first word be today, he replied, "No EARTHLY idea"?  Ha ha, we will never know now, I just know that I am pleased that I got Wordle with the first word that I entered and also, that we live near these wondrous rocks of beauty!  Take care everyone and try very hard not to get even the teeniest bit annoyed like me! LOL!

Richard took this video of the yellow daisies at the base of Stone Mountain, years ago.  They will be just this pretty this September also!

Impossible Dream- Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly

 Hello, my friends! I hope you are all doing well! July is here and I have a few photos to share with you. The following two images are from our back yard, these are "whorled rosinweed" flowers. They are wildflowers that first appeared a few years ago and Richard has encouraged them to grow and now, we have more of them. Now, I must tell you, it took a while to research this one but we believe it to be correctly identified. (A member of the Aster family.) It grows very tall, some of them are almost 5 feet tall!

You see how the leaves are in a kind of "whorl" around the stem? That is how it got its name!

Just to add to the show, we also had a few sunflowers that came up from the bird seed that we put out for the birds! A volunteer is a sweet surprise.

Remember me telling you about the spicebush swallowtail caterpillar on our sassafras tree?  Yesterday, I was so sad when I saw a really scary looking black mass on one of the leaves. I was convinced that the caterpillar had died from some kind of virus that I had read about but today, I saw the caterpillar- big and green and healthy looking!  If you look at the video above, you might guess that I will not be touching the caterpillar.  No, I just observe it...and since it is on a low branch of the tree, I am crouching down and am usually in broiling hot sun with the temp at almost 100 degrees! (If my neighbors wonder what I'm doing, let them wonder!) Oh, I hope so very much that we see the butterfly emerge from this tree! We are both taking out the Japanese beetles, Richard and I are trying our best! 

Another yellow flower to show you! This is the flower that we see blooming at Panola Mountain State Park and we think it is called the "Woodland sunflower".  It is a beauty!

 

Besides flowers, we also are crazy about ferns! Guess what, I found a fern (it was an Autumn fern) on sale for only $4.00.  It was a tiny little thing but we bought it and it is now a very full and frilly fern! (I don't seem to have a photo of it but perhaps I will show it to you on a future post. The photo above was from one of the gardens we visited in June.) Richard is very good in the garden.  In England, they would say that he has green fingers! Isn't it funny that in the USA, we say that someone has a green "thumb"? Can anyone explain to me that no matter what it is...in many cases anyway, we Americans just HAVE to say it a different way? Go look it up on your "cell" or "mobile" phone, depending on what country you are in! LOL!

Just observing the caterpillar in the different "instars", makes me think what an impossible kind of dream it must be to become a butterfly!  That reminded me of one of the BEST tv adverts that featured such a great song....I have had this on here before but it is so very good! Enjoy!

"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!

Month of May 2023- Flower, Birds, Butterflies!

 

Hello there! My last post was about the Coronation of King Charles. That was ages ago, wasn't it? What have I been doing? Oh my goodness, I have been working on a book. Oh, didn't you know that I have THREE books? They are as follows:

Book 1:  The Things that Kay Knows

Book 2:  The Things that Kay DOES NOT Know

Book 3: The Things that Kay Knew but Has Forgotten

That first book is a slim one, very slim indeed.

The second one is so big that it can hardly be lifted.

The third book is rapidly getting bigger every day!

What recent additions to that first book of Kay Knowledge?

Cotyledons- The first two leaves that come out on a seedling.

Blue eyed grass - not really a grass but an iris that grows wild. 

Sisyrinchium atlanticum, botanical name. (Beside a trail at Panola State Park.)

A small green butterfly- Juniper hairstreak. (On a daisy, it was.)

A grey bird with bright white feathers at its front- at the edge of Alexander Lake. (Even though I was so happy to ID it but now I can't remember the name of it so looks like it might be in that 3rd book. It is one that I have never seen before, only seen here in migration.)

Plains coreopsis-  A beautiful yellow flower growing wild beside the road in East Atlanta.  It had a dark center in the middle of the flower. We have lots of coreopsis growing wild beside the road but that particular one, I had never seen it before.

A green anole (a lizard) was on my front steps on a Dusty Miller plant- it was very straight on the stem and as I watched, it ate its own skin! I looked this up and sure enough, that is what I was seeing!

If you look back at my blog, you will see that I did a post in October and I told asked you all to read "Dracula".  I hope some of you did so!  Guess what! There will be a film coming out in August that focuses on just ONE chapter from that excellent written book! 

The film title is "The Last Voyage of the Demeter". It is about the ship that carried 50 wooden crates from Carpathia to London.  Isn't that something? To have a movie made from just one chapter? I told you that it was a great book! "Dracula" by Bram Stoker was first published on May 26, 1897.  If my math skills are correct, that was 126 years ago! Now, will I see the movie? Probably not, I don't like scary stuff! It cannot improve on the book anyway!

"Jennifer Juniper" by Donovan (I sang this when I learned the name of the little green butterfly.)

It has been a lovely cool breezy kind of month, this month of May in Georgia which is rather unusual, but I am not complaining! Flowers are blooming but my tomato, pepper and cucumber plants are wondering what happened to the Georgia heat. (Don't worry, it will be here soon enough!)

Hope you are all doing well where you are and always adding to your book of knowledge. And if you are like me and keep adding to that third book, at least we have our blogs where we can look back and refresh our memories.  Take care!

Close up of the blue eyed grass.  Isn't it beautiful? See how those little bits go out from the edge of the petals? Amazing, it is so tiny.

All the King's Horses and All the King's Men

 

Did all of you watch the Coronation?  No matter how you feel about the Monarchy you must admit that the Brits really know how to do great ceremonial pageantry.  I do wish I could have been there!  London is always wonderful for me but to have seen it in all the splendor associated with the Coronation of a king?  Yes indeed, it would have been amazing, I am sure! The procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Cathedral was magnificently done, don't you think so too? 

The Admiralty Arch was built as a memorial to Queen Victoria from her son, Edward VII.  Designed by Sir Aston Webb it was completed in 1912. You can find it at the end of the Mall (which is the large road which leads to Buckingham Palace.)

I took a photo of this from my TV screen! The banners spell out "Happy & Glorious" which is from the national anthem of course! 

At the top, the letters carved in the stone are in Latin and reflect what I told you above.  "In the tenth year of King Edward VII, to Queen Victoria, from most grateful citizens, 1910." That is, I think that is what it says... my Latin is not all it's cracked up to be, folks!

What else do you notice?  See how on one side, there are two sets of windows and yet, on the other side, you can count three? Three stories on one side and two stories on the other! Isn't it interesting that the architect chose to build this asymmetrically? I wonder why this is so?  Those on the left side have higher ceilings? I just wish I could go inside!

Did you notice the great precision of those marching in the parade? How they were able to march in formation through the arches?  (That is my meaning behind my title "All the King's Horses and All the King's Men".)  And so many! Just perfectly done.  One must admire it!

When we were in England in 2012 during the Queen's Jubilee, we had a lovely spread at the home of my in-laws. We even had quiche then! Marks & Spencer makes a very good gluten free one too!

Steve Winwood performed at the Coronation Concert.  He didn't do this song but I really like it...."Now The Green Blade Riseth".