Time away

We're off for a week...

 to work at Uncle Bob's Pumpkin Patch.

Moonrise

Freedom.

For worship today,

we attended a beautiful

Kirkin' of the Tartan

at Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church.

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see."

In Bloom

Yellow rose.

Finally.

It's always exciting and always welcome---

that first chilly morning. 

We left the windows open last night

and had to pull the quilts up and

... maybe...

slept in just a little longer

 savoring the warmth of the bed and the cool air.

 Soon, the day will give way to the warmth of the sun,

but for now it's an oatmeal morning.

Faces

A kind friend

let me borrow her sweet children

 for an impromptu photo shoot.

Immediately

they became busy doing garden chores...

discussing important matters...

 and introducing me to their

---almost here---

baby brother.

Fall in the South...

Football.

"I was a little different.
 I still say I'm a little different,
because success to me is not having the most money,
or having the biggest car or the biggest house."
Herschel Walker

A Blaze of Color

Pyracantha cascading down a hill alongside the Calhoun Expressway.

Oops!

I was stunned to realize
it had been more than a week since
my last post. Like everyone else,
school is in full swing for us
and has completely occupied our time.
I'm thankful
that most of that time is spent here
...at home.

Seeing

Sunday Morning at Valle Crucis

In Bloom

I was privileged to take part recently, as an exhibitor and photographer, in "Celebrate Beginnings" honoring the anniversaries of the Newnan Reading Circle (1909) and the Driftwood Garden Club (1959). The afternoon consisted of a small standard flower show, botanical photography exhibit, and Victorian Tea.
One of my photographs surrounded by the horticulture competition.

My favorite part of the exhibit was the
"Expressions in Color".
"Novices" interpreted a piece of artwork in their floral design:

Degas' "Dancers at the Barre"Claude Monet's "Water Lilies"
Francoise Gilot's "Two Women Reading Poetry"
Andy Warhol's "Soup Cans"

And the botanical photography...

A lovely afternoon.

Light...a study

Several weeks ago, we made what is now becoming our annual end-of-summer-event to Stone Mountain for the Laser Light Show. Before the nighttime show, my boys climbed the mountain while I toured the Antebellum Plantation--"a collection of original buildings from around the state of Georgia, built between 1783 and 1875. Each structure was moved from its original site and carefully restored to preserve its authenticity and historical value."

Incredibly beautiful and inspiring structures
that give only a shadowy image
of the lives lived out within their walls.
Most striking was the
...light...
that illuminated the inhabitants for me.
Immortal souls who had lived, worked, played
under the eaves of these homes and
...maybe...
paused to see and feel the same shifting late summer sun,
as day drifted into evening.

The dictionary defines light as:
something that makes things visible or affords illumination,
an illuminating agent or source,
the radiance or illumination from a particular source.

The amount and type of light on a object
creates contrasts which gives form.
Light gives warmth, clarifies, and reveals.

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said,
"I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life."
John 8:12

In Bloom

Ginger Lily (Hedychium coronarium)

Light

The light of the evening sun changes things.
Ordinary becomes extraordinary,
everyday becomes special,
and plain becomes intriguing.
Some extraordinary, special, and intriguing places in Augusta as the sun makes its descent.

(Mayors Fishing Hole)

(Business in Olde Town)

(Calhoun Expressway)

Seeing

"Some people,
in order to discover God, read books.
But there is a great book:
the very appearance of created things.
Look above you!
Look below you!
Read it.
God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink.
Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He had made.
Can you ask for a louder voice than that?"
(St. Augustine)

In Bloom

Cotton.
A plant that has shaped and defined the South. A plant inextricably linked with the fortunes of mankind. A plant that has impacted, for good or bad, many lives. And a plant still grown today--real living history.

The flower blossoms creamy white and then changes to yellow, then pink and finally red.

The boll, starting tight and green, follows the bloom.
As the fibers inside the boll ripen and expand, the boll turns brown and the white fibers burst their bounds.

In Bloom

Twenty! Years!

In Bloom

This globe artichoke was not harvested and allowed to burst into a captivating sea anemone-like blossom. Captured while at Stone Mountain's Plantation and Gardens.

Sunshine

For some time now the clouds have been thinning.
This week the sun burst triumphantly through the puffs and wisps scattering them to the four corners like marbles spilled out of a bag onto a hardwood floor. The gale that has been scudding across our lives for the past nine years is our finances. Last April it became hurricane magnitude and threatened to engulf us—making us question ourselves and God. The pressure to “put our children back in school” and take myself off to the hospital to nurse others for a paycheck reached dizzying proportions. As the winds swirled round and round, and the rain pounded us we couldn't see anything but the monsoon we were in—nothing was clear. But God put a deep conviction in our hearts that He has a plan to prosper us and not to harm us—a plan to give us a hope and a future. When we focused on Him, like Him, we could rest securely and soundly in the midst of the tempest.
I have stayed home with my family.
The storm has not disappeared but the clouds have been breaking and when the rays of sunshine shoot through like pure gold, we see clearly. But like Peter, if we do not keep our eyes on Him we sink and angry waters overtake us. He has provided numerous creative opportunities that have supplanted our income which have also enriched our family life---a regular writing assignment, photography assignments, interest in my artwork, and this week three of my photographs published in a national magazine (World, page 75!). A tangible reminder of the plans he has for us.

Seeing

As with the commander of an army,

or the leader of any enterprise, so is it with the mistress of a house. Her spirit will be seen through the whole establishment; and just in proportion as she performs her duties intelligently and thoroughly, so will her domestics follow in her path. Of all those acquirements, which more particularly belong to the feminine character, there are none which take a higher rank, in our estimation, than such as enter into a knowledge of household duties; for on these are perpetually dependent the happiness, comfort, and well-being of a family.

(Mrs. Isabella Beeton,The Book of Household Management, 1859)