Nearly Wordless Wednesday: 5/23/12

My hens average nearly a dozen eggs per week—and I'm very grateful, too!

Fresh eggs from my backyard hens in a glass quart measuring cup
LaGrange, Georgia—21 Feb 2010

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: 5/16/12

They once belonged to my great-grandmother, Mae Barrett Williams

I've always adored these antique cut-glass buttons from my mother's vast sewing stash. My great-grandmother gave them to Mom when I was a toddler, adding that she'd never used the buttons on any dress she'd ever made. "The edges of the buttonholes are sharp, and wear out the thread," Maw-Mae said.

They probably date from the late 1890s through the 1920s. Mom's kept them for nearly 40 years, preferring not to use them despite major advances in sewing thread technology. We've seen many gorgeous buttons in fabric stores, but none quite like these.

Antique cut-glass buttons from my mother's collection
Heard County, Georgia—11 July 2010

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: 5/9/12

Once ripe, they made the best homemade peach ice cream ever.

Tiny green "baby peaches" on the ancient peach tree in my mother's yard
Heard County, Georgia—25 April 2010

Previously featured in "The Little Peach Tree That Could"

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: 5/2/12

I reuse commercial egg cartons to store my own chickens' eggs.

My little brown hens lay brown eggs. And pink eggs. And suntan eggs. And café-au-lait eggs.
LaGrange, Georgia—4 August 2011

Doc Speer's Place

Green paint on the outside brick wall of Doc Speer's Place, LaGrange, Georgia (14 April 2012)

Today's post is co-hosted by my other blog, WilliamsWrite. 

Like many small towns, LaGrange is full of interesting photo opportunities. The Hillside neighborhood, in the southwest part of town, is particularly interesting. Over the last decade, DASH for LaGrange has rehabilitated several dozen old "mill houses," saving them from destruction while revitalizing a shrinking community. Doc Speer's Place, the wall of which is pictured above, is among the buildings DASH has salvaged.

The green paint still clings to Doc's brick wall, decades after the last business vacated the premises. The floor and roof of the old store rotted and fell years ago; by the time DASH came along, six-inch-thick magnolia trees grew through the foundation and up the inside walls. But the basic structure was in decent shape, and it was a shame to tear down one of the last old-fashioned store buildings in LaGrange.

So the DASH team and community leaders decided to transform Doc Speer's Place into a sort of open-air meeting place. The vines still grow up the walls, along with privet hedge saplings nearly 20 feet high, but now they hang over picnic tables and chairs set about the 1,500 s.f. space. It's a strangely peaceful place to have a bake sale or street fair.

More photos of Doc Speer's to come, after I post final grades next week.

Every place is a sacred place

Beauty, calm, and peace.
(Near Blue Ridge, Georgia—19 May 2010)

Oak, hickory, dogwood, mountain laurel, sassafras, tulip poplar, elm, sweet gum, locust—I wished I'd brought my tree book along on the hike. New fern fronds carpeted the forest floor with frothy green, but not so much so that I couldn't easily identify the poison ivy leaning out onto the trail. Leaves of three, stay away from me.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: 4/18/12

He's gorgeous, and he knows it.

Leroy the rooster is loud and proud in my backyard chicken run.
LaGrange, Georgia—20 June 2010

Sycamore lace

It's amazing what a change in perspective can do.

Here's looking up the trunk of a sycamore tree in my mother's yard on Easter Sunday afternoon. When I sat down on the earth beneath it and pointed the lens upward, I was amazed at how the leaves started to resemble fine green lace. The branches radiate outward at just the right angles for the photo (and photosynthesis). The trunk's randomly-peeling bark echoes the leaves ever so slightly.

Heard County, Georgia—8 April 2012

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: 4/11/12

Like miniature cabbage roses, no?

Deep pink blossoms on my mother's crabapple tree
Heard County, Georgia—11 April 2010

Saturday Beauty: 4/7/12

The duck-billed platypus of the gardening world

The Oregon grape holly (Mahonia aquifolium) holds on to its gorgeous fall leaves and grape-like fruits until well into spring. This one stands about four feet tall in front of the Comfort Inn, in Warner Robins, Georgia.

As I checked out of the hotel and prepared to head home after my overnight business trip, I couldn't help snapping a photo of the matte bluish-gray "grapes"—they look as if they're covered in frost—and how they jump out against the warm reds, oranges, golds, and light greens of the foliage.

Warner Robins, Georgia—10 April 2010

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: 4/4/12

Every bloom is multi-colored, much like its biblical namesake

Joseph's Coat climbing rose in my yard
LaGrange, Georgia—April 2010

Saturday Beauty

The colors come alive with light shining through the petals

This was a very lucky shot. On a rainy afternoon, the sun finally came out from behind a cloud and illuminated this iris bloom. I love how the light brings out the saffron-like golden "beards" hanging down the side petals. Absolutely glorious!

Iris blooming in my mother's yard
Heard County, Georgia—25 April 2010

Nearly Wordless Wednesday: 3/28/12

Amazing mid-spring color

Flame-orange native azalea
Warner Robins, Georgia—April 2010

That "grape soda" smell means wisteria

It's springtime in the Deep South, and the air smells like grape soda. Not name-brand grape soda, but the cheapest-of-all-cheap-store-brands grape soda. Or maybe it smells more like year-old grape bubble gum, the wonky kind that nobody will even shoplift off the clearance rack at Big Lots.

Whatever sticky grape confection it smells like, that smell means wisteria, also known as the Other Vine That Ate the South. Say what you will about wisteria, but I always look forward to its glorious Pointillist creations draping the trees.

Greens, purples, lavenders, smokes...wisteria's got 'em all.
(LaGrange, Georgia—21 March 2012)