Another gentle family day today starting with the colourful Farmers’ Market and ending with the delightful Lantern Parade.
Please join us on our drive into the mountains as we leave Atlanta and head for Asheville ending up at our historic hotel, The Aberdeen Inn which is just splendid.
Let me take you on a brief walk in Inman Park, Atlanta, taking in the mini libraries, some flowers and a sculpture.
We passed a chattering tree and realised that we were too close to a pair of Mocking birds and their nest.
The mocking bird brought to mind the lullaby, Mama’s going to buy you a mocking bird, which is an old Southern US lullaby, appropriate given where we are right now.
Hush, little baby, don’t say a word,
Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.
And if that mockingbird don’t sing,
Mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring turns brass,
Mama’s gonna buy you a looking glass.
And if that looking glass is broke,
Mama’s gonna buy you a billy goat,
And if that billy goat won’t pull,
Mama’s gonna buy you a cart and a bull.
And if that cart and bull turn over,
Mama’s gonna buy you a dog named Rover.
And if that dog named Rover won’t bark,
Mama’s gonna buy you a horse and a cart.
And if that horse and cart fall down,
you’ll still be the sweetest little baby in town.
… has been a month of family visits and adventures, from Atlanta to Los Angeles to Hawai’i Big Island, thence to Maui and back to Atlanta taking in art galleries and street art, cityscapes and suburbs, volcanoes and waterfalls, rain-forests and beaches, sunsets and a sunrise, excellent eating from picnics and eating out American breakfasts to a special early Thanksgiving dinner and, the best of all, all this in the company of much loved family who live so far away from us.
Join us on our journey through the following galleries, click on any photo for detail and enjoy the trip! There was so much in the way of glorious flora and fauna that they deserve a post of their own.
Cityscapes and suburbs
There will have to be another post to cover everything but here is a glimpse of an American Hallowe’en where almost every house and garden is decorated, some really elaborately.
More tomorrow……
These are the photographs that I have had made into a calendar for my family who all live away from Cornwall – in Munich, Germany; in Atlanta, Georgia; in Volcano, Hawaii; in Warsaw, Poland; in Exeter, Devon; in North Finchley, London; in Barcelona, Spain; in Dakar, Senegal and in Chilla, Devon.
Please click on any photo to reach the enlargement and to read the full caption. I have used the rectangular gallery setting but it won’t put the photos in chronological so I’ve given you them not in a gallery as well. Which do you prefer?
January 2012 – Walsingham Place, Truro, a beautiful curved Georgian terrace in Truro.
February 2012 – Godrevy Lighthouse from Hayle Towans
March 2012 – Daffodils in Trelissick Gardens
April 2012 – thrift on the cliffs at Chapelporth on the North Coast
May 2012 – Bluebells down the lane on the way to the Duchy Nurseries to buy a tree.
June 2012 – St Michael’s Mount from Mount’s Bay. The best ice creams in the world can be found in the tea-shop here!
July 2012 – From St Mawes looking over the water to the St Anthony Lighthouse. The annual regatta was in full sail.
August 2012- Looking out to Restronguet Creek from the pontoon of The Pandora Inn.
September 2012 – Kynance Cove, a favourite place for the family for many years.
October – Coming back into Cornwall over the Brunel Bridge over the Tamar, after our holiday in India and Nepal
November 2012 – Looking towards St Ives from Hayle Towans
December 2012 Pill Creek , where we first lived when we moved to Cornwall from Birmingham when I was 6 years old. Is it any wonder I fell in love with the County?
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1 The four of us had a last walk together up on the Flat Lode Trail this morning, planning our visit to see P&V in Atlanta next year!
Wheal Uny from a distance
Walking around the Flat Lode Trail near Wheal Uny
2 First sighting this year of beautiful Purple Vetch.
Purple Vetch
3 Fortunately we still have KJ and the children here otherwise the house would be too suddenly quiet! Watching Tom Daley in the Olympic diving event this afternoon, Tabitha was wearing this delightful nappy!
Love this nappy!
1 Beautiful dewdrops on the tiny hairy buds of the courgettes. We’re hoping the sun will get them flowering soon. They were planted late after the gales destroyed the earlier planting.
2 Portreath this morning was beautiful – the water turquoise, the sun glorious and lots of colour in the pavement flowers. I have shown you the lion sculpture before but the mosaics were glinting so beautifully in the sun that I had to show you again!
3 We’ve just finished making up the beds for KJ and the Shanticot for the children and the spare room bed for P&V who will be staying here for their last weekend before going to London for two days and returning to Atlanta on Wednesday. It is truly beautiful to have so many people back in our house for the weekend.
1 Sorting out the room for our Grandchildren to sleep in when they arrive late tonight for two weeks, I saw another fairy Sculpture and remembered that I had promised to show you another of my treasures made by the very talented artist Samantha Bryan. The other one can be seen at http://mybeautfulthings.com/2012/03/09/fur-elise-fairies-and-fishnchips/
Air balloon Fairy
Brain’s Airborne Support System
2 We had a very heavy shower onto hot ground this afternoon and, for the first time this Summer, I smelt petrichor! Wikipedia defines it as ‘the scent of rain on dry earth’. My lovely Sister-in-law in Atlanta, Georgia and I discovered the word at the same time so the smell always reminds me of her.
Number 3 was going to be a gorgeous and very big spider that I found in the garden and took a beautifully hairy photo of but just now this delightful email came in from my Brother-in-law in Warsaw, Poland:
“The photo below is about two cranes who met in an injured animals’ clinic in the south of Poland. The female had a broken wing, the male some serious food poisoning. During the course of several months’ treatment they paired up together. The male gradually recovered his strength, but the female’s condition was irreversible, so she didn’t regain the ability to fly. In view of this, the male refrained from cruising off to warmer climes in the winter and remained in Poland; he also decided to start building his partner a nest, on the ground. Which, of course, is pretty unheard-of for cranes…”
Two Cranes
Isn’t that just a beautiful story?
1 A lovely long email from my sister-in-law in Atlanta giving me all their news.
2 I love it how gardening makes me remember people. Today it’s the very small crinodendron hookerianum, with so many amazing lanterns this year, only three last year (Mum and Dad and their good friend Eddie), planting Cosmos (Bill’s Dad who gave me plugs the year he died and they kept flowering until the first frosts), night scented stocks, just tiny seedlings at the moment, ( KJ as a very little girl of 3 or 4 who used to wake up at about 10pm night after night. We used to take her out into the garden on summer nights to smell ‘the night flowers’ and then she would happily go back to bed.) And now, seeing the uncurling fern, my lovely sister Daisy who emailed to say that she too loves to see the uncurling ferns but in Hawaii they are 30′ tall!
Crinodendron Hookerianum
3 A delightful little snail – I know they eat my plants but just look at him on the edge of the ice cream tub!
Small Cornish snail
1 My lovely sister-in-law, Victoia, in Atlanta, emailed me to remind me about the Poem-a-day throughout April and the next email was the first poem! If you, too, are a lover of poetry, as I know several of my lovely followers are, you might like to subscribe free at http://poem-a-day.knopfdoubleday.com/ You never know what’s going to come into your inbox!
2 The sky today has been the vividest blue and the lovely Mr S fixed up our new weather vane.
3 We also planted something rather special though not conventionally beautiful, more a kitchen sculpture, my Mum’s old panstand! Each year we grow our runner beans up it and I know my Mum and Dad would have been tickled pink to know how we are putting it to use, there being no space in our kitchen for its proper use.
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