Priory Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, London

I am not able to put any photos on this post and I had some very good ones to share with you!
We visited St. Bartholomew's in London.  Maybe I will be able to add them later...
in the meantime, maybe I can show you a video on here from YouTube.

Hacksaw Ridge- (New Movie Out Nov. 4th)

If you have been reading my blog for long, you will know that the best books and movies for me are ones that are based on true stories.  In particular, I have a great fondness for books and movies about World War II veterans.  (I worked for twenty years as a travel agent and spoke with many vets going to their reunions.)
There will be a movie coming out this Friday and it is based on the true story of Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector who joined the U. S. Army in World War II even though he refused to carry a weapon.  Andrew Garfield, an English actor, portrays Desmond Doss and I am amazed at the resemblance between these two men.
(Also. like many British actors, Andrew Garfield does an incredible American accent!).  I have a clip of the actor speaking about the movie, so I will let him tell you about it in his real accent!

Now, before I go all Hollywood on you and just start speaking of the film, I want to emphasize that this movie is about a real person, Desmond Doss.  I hope that this will honor his memory, as a true American hero.  Desmond Doss...there click on his name for more info about him...what an amazing story!!  (Desmond Doss spent a great deal of his adult time in Rising Fawn, Georgia.  Anybody remember my post about Cloudland Canyon from a few years ago? That is in Rising Fawn!)
   Desmond Doss receiving the Medal of
Honor from President Truman.   (image from Wikipedia.)

I really want to see this movie but the Fall colors are calling to me! Don't you want to walk down this trail with us?

London Evening/(I Could Have Danced All Night!)

Hey! We really did go to London in September, honest we did!
Do you remember the post that I did when I was so happy that we arrived just in time to walk across Waterloo Bridge and see the sunset over the Thames?  After that, we walked along the South Bank and then walked back over the Thames on the very lovely Westminster Bridge, which of course, has the magnificent Houses of Parliament on the other side!

The London Eye is lit up in red at night and the building beside it, why you would never guess this...when the famous chimes from Big Ben are sounded on the quarter hour, the lights on the building  changes from...let's see, I think it was red and then blue and was there a bit of purple? (Maybe as it is changing, I don't know...anyway, it was beautiful to glance over my shoulder and notice the color change!) The building beside the London Eye used to be the seat of the Greater London Council but now...it is the place where you buy tickets for the London Eye!  (It is used for other things also, after all it is a very big building but it is funny just to say that is where you buy tickets for the London Eye, don't you think ?) We have been on the London Eye before and I do recommend it!  You will see the London Eye described as a Ferris Wheel but that is not really true. It is more like a wheel of a bicycle, with the compartments as if they are at the end of the spokes of a bike, can you see what I mean?

Look! Richard got a photo of me looking up at the famous tower. now called Elizabeth Tower, after Queen Elizabeth.  I know that Big Ben is really the bell but I will always think of it as Big Ben myself!  It should be on the same par as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, it is that beautiful.

At night, this can look like the face of an owl, the two sides of the clock looking like big eyes...you can see this better if you go back and look at the first photo on this post.

Richard took this great shot of a pub...there were so many out and about, having a good time!

Lovely to see this framed art poster of the exquisite Audrey Hepburn in the hotel lounge! I have written of my admiration of her before, she was not only a beautiful actress but a truly noble human being.  She had her songs dubbed by Marni Nixon in the movie, "My Fair Lady" but I found a video of her singing the song herself. I love to hear her sing this in her own voice.

(By the way, folks, I have a new computer, and I hit something and it underlined bits of this in red, can anyone tell me what I have done?)

Wish me luck, I am getting set in my ways and find it difficult to learn new things! 

Ovenbird...Migrating Through Georgia!

Georgia is experiencing a drought, one of the worst we have ever had.  The birds, in particular, are noticeable to us in their search for water.  The small trays of water that we have out on our tiny patio must be advertised on the bird highway as the cleanest, most perfect water for miles around!

We saw a bird yesterday drinking water that we have never seen before. We believe that it was an ovenbird. (It is called this because the bird nests on the ground, in a nest that looks like...you guessed it, an oven!)

You can look back on an earlier post and see that it somewhat resembles the state bird of Georgia, the Brown Thrasher...but the ovenbird is much smaller and the brown thrasher is more of a chestnut brown, and the eyes of the brown thrasher are not as rounded and the beak on the brown thrasher is longer. (I really do know the Brown Thrasher!)

Now, there is also a wood thrush...it looks similar but it is...well, it is the wood thrush, look it up! We heard it singing when we were walking on the trail at Stone Mountain one time, and the song of that bird was outstandingly beautiful.

Don't believe me?  Listen, this is Henry David Thoreau had to say about the song of the wood thrush...

Whenever a man hears it he is young, and Nature is in her spring; wherever he hears it, it is a new world and a free country, and the gates of Heaven are not shut against him.

May I just say...if you don't have close access to birds. these birds might look all the same to you, just brown birds.  However, if you look at them closely and if you are lucky enough to observe them from just a few feet away, you will see that the color of brown is strikingly beautiful and the streaky pattern on the feathers is as distinctive as the stripes on a tiger! Ah, there I go again, showing my love for birds!  These creatures are free for anyone to enjoy.  You only have to have the eyes to see them!
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Hey! Guess what! We have had computer problems, so for a while, I won't be able to put many photos on here.  Hope to get it sorted it out soon!  I know it is popular to say computer "issues" but it feels more like "problems" to me! 

I am in need of something cheerful, how about Glen Campbell singing (and playing the bagpipes!) to "Mull of Kintyre".  Hope you will like this as much as I do.  Glen Campbell should be honored much more than he has been.  I know he is very ill just now, he is in the last stages of Alzheimer's.  So sad.  All the more reason for more people to know his great talent, I think.
(I loved his show on TV which ran from 1969 until 1972...The Glen Campbell Good Time Hour.)
I have had this video on here before, but it is worth watching again and again!  The song "Mull of Kintyre" was written by Paul McCartney and Denny Laine in 1977.  It was not a hit in the USA but it SHOULD have been!

Take care everyone! Look out for birds...and bagpipes!

October Days- Special

Oct. 22, 2012. - Sunset At Arabia Mountain

Oct. 22, 2013...Blue Heron at Lake Alexander, Panola Mountain State Park

Cheesy Corn Muffins - Oct. 22, 2014

Eastbourne, England - Oct. 22, 2015

October!  It has always been a special month, the weather here in Georgia starts to cool down and the leaves change into gorgeous yellows, reds and browns. (Last year, we were in England in October...and it was lovely there too!)  I thought it would be fun to show you the photos from the same date in October.  

Sending best wishes to Scriptor Senex (John) who not only had a birthday this weekend, but also celebrated the arrival of TWO grandchildren! Talk about October being a special month!
  You may send your best wishes to Scriptor and you may find his blog just here!  Cheers, John! I am very happy for you and Jo and all your family!

Walking on the Rockdale River Trail...Oct. 22, 2016

Birds And Butterflies

Monarch butterfly! This is the only one we have seen this year and it was in our backyard. (For all we know, there might have been dozens of them, but maybe they came down when we were at work!)

Have you seen any?

We only see the rose breasted grosbeak as it migrates in the Spring and Fall.  Richard was able to get a photo of the female as it was drinking water from our small bird dish on our patio this week. (It has the top of the watering can in front of it.)   I tried very hard to get a photo of this bird myself but when I saw it, it was eating the berries off the beauty berry bush and it just would not hold still long enough for me to photograph it! 


Have you seen any birds that you don't normally see? Chances are that they might be migrating! 

Above is a a photo of the postcard that I mailed to my Dad...I sent him another one that he never received.  It was reported on the news tonight that a postal employee had dumped several batches of mail on the side of the road in Atlanta!  (There was the postcard that my Dad never got, I bet!)  Oh well, good thing I thought to send him two, so at least he got one! 

Have you ever had mail to go astray and you have no idea what happened to it?

My friends, I have been a bit under the weather this week...nothing serious but I hope to be better soon. 

Keep looking for birds and butterflies...and I will ask my Dad to keep looking for that other postcard!

Tell America It's Great (Right Back At Ya, Canada)

"All the warm lighted windows below in the town"...

   When we fly to England, we fly from Atlanta and so, the plane goes along the Eastern part of the country. Recently, when we visited, it was clear and I was able to make out the rivers of Pittsburgh, the Capitol in Washington D.C. and in New York City, the tall skyscrapers.  When those giant buildings came into my view, I marveled at the beauty of it all, even from such a distance.

America! You have been through so much lately.  I am thinking that this country could use a little love.  Well, guess what, our neighbors to the north are doing just that.  Have you seen this video that Canadians have made for Americans?  After I watched this, it made me think...when someone does something for you and you say, "That was so NICE", instead we should say, "That was so CANADIAN"!

Oh Canada!  May I say for my country, thank you! We needed that!