Sacred Heart Garden Festival

Four gracious homeowners and a church opened their lovely gardens to us this weekend...

A delightful afternoon---thank you for sharing!

Country Sill in the City

"This is the season when the country kitchen's window sill is likely to be its most interesting. A city kitchen window sill can retain its austere order year 'round. In the country the kitchen window sill is a catchall, a laboratory, a treasure cache."

Celestine Sibley, A Place called Sweet Apple

A House

Last week while birding the sod farm in a tiny Georgia town we passed the hulk of an abandoned plantation "Big House". Austere, but hauntingly beautiful in the spring sunshine, it stood as a sentinel to past lives. As I approached the rounded curve of the portico, a huge owl flapped its wings above my head and soared out into the cloudless sky.

By wisdom a house is built,
And by understanding it is established;
And by knowledge its rooms are filled
With all precious and present riches.
(Proverbs 24:3-4)

In Bloom

This is "our" rose, (Georgians, that is)--- Rosa laviegata or Cherokee Rose.

It was favored by the Cherokee Indians who planted it along the tragic Trail of Tears and gave it their name. It was used as a fence(!) in antebellum Georgia because of its vigorous and thorny habit. It is our state flower. It is an incredible sight: glossy evergreen leaves covered with fragrant, pure white petals, dotted in the center by bright gold, clambering up and over a 30 foot pine. I have spotted them here in Augusta wildly and happily ensconced along the Calhoun Expressway and Doug Barnard Parkway, as well as in a neighbor's yard sedately pruned around a tall Long Leaf pine. My son, the birder, has a "saying" when looking for a certain bird called a Ruff: Learn the Ruff, be the Ruff, see the Ruff.

So...Learn the Cherokee, be the Cherokee, see the Cherokee.

In Bloom

One last glimpse...

Good Friday Blooms

Last fall I shared my whiskey barrel planters:

ornamental peach trees, cabbage, kale, pansies, and tulip bulbs.

I had hopes of tulips and peach blossoms coinciding

AND

during Holy week.

Too much to ask? Here they are today...

I missed the peach tree's bloom time...

here in full bloom two weeks ago...

But for today...

an exquisite combination of color and texture to celebrate Easter.

Palm Sunday Lunch

Many people spread their cloaks on the road,

while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.

Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

Hosanna!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
(Mark 11:8-10)

Masters Week

In absentia due to...GOLF.

(Photos of Second Born at Masters practice rounds last year.)

We, along with the entire city, are preparing for the world to visit.
Every first full week of April many Augustans rent their homes to people--"patrons"--who attend the Masters golf tournament. This is our first year to rent and we have spent the week cleaning, raking, washing, dusting, mowing, and polishing for our guests. We hope they will be well pleased with their visit to the little house on Rae's Creek!