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)

In Bloom

“Let's go to that house...

for the linen looks white and smells of lavender,

and I long to be in a pair of sheets that smell so. “

Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler , 1653

Seeing

"If your heart is straight with God,
then every creature will be to you
a mirror of life
and a book of holy doctrine."
Thomas à Kempis

More In Season

Purple Hull Peas.

Eating Seasonally

Our neighborhood's local market...

Isn't it beautiful?

Home again.

The evenings are drawing in.

There is beauty, comfort, and expectation in the continuity of Life.

The continuity of sunrise and sunset, the ongoing seasons, the magnolia bloom in the summer and the ripe apple in the fall.
Time to prepare as we glance toward the end of summer.

Another Detour

Off to the mountains for a week...

A Little Levity

In case you missed the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island yesterday... These two competitors squared off yesterday with the now famous Rae's Creek Hot Dog Eating Contest.

They would have been eliminated from contention in the first fifteen seconds!

(Maybe that's a good thing!)

Celebrating

Dear Friends,

Let us not take for granted the beauty
and blessing of our freedoms.
Freedoms gained by independence, not dependence.

Let us be ever diligent and watchful to guard these freedoms.
Freedoms that are never free.

"Nations grown corrupt
Love bondage more than liberty;
Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty."
~John Milton

A Detour

Recently, while traveling through Allendale County, South Carolina we noticed a dirt road designated by a National Register marker. We pulled off the nearly deserted sunny tarmac and onto the dirt road. The coolness of the encroaching forest enveloped us and led us down a green leafy tunnel. We could barely make out an old structure in a clearing at the end of the road...

Antioch Christian Church
1833

From South Carolina Department of Archives and History :
Antioch Christian Church was the second Disciples of Christ Church in South Carolina. Today, according to the South Carolina Disciples, it is the oldest standing structure of that faith in the state and has been referred to as the “Mother Church.” Antioch is also significant as an excellent example of the meeting house style of church architecture. The simplicity of the design is carried out in the interior. The walls are plaster, and the original pews of hand-hewn pine remain intact. The South Carolina Disciples of Christ renovated the church in 1976, although the interior was not included in the renovation. Included within the acreage is a cemetery where many of Allendale’s oldest families are buried. Listed in the National Register December 12, 1977.