north west corner …

…of Georgia, in Dade County. A park that claims to be the prettiest in all of the state: CloudLand Canyon, on the edge of the Cumberland Plateau, and foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Certainly not the largest, which would be Roosevelt, located on 9000 acres in the on the Fall Line in central west GA, near Pine Mountain. Or the most unusual which might be the barrier island on the Atlantic coast known as Cumberland, now managed by the National Park Service. Maybe the Okefenokee Swamp National Wildlife Refuge,with hundreds of acres of tannic-acid colored shallow water, abundant wildlife, recently designated a World Heritage Site, protected by UNESCO.

There is a lot of new construction going on in this park. At the entrance, a new kiosk for state workers to stay out of the weather where they can dispense information and collect entry fees. Currently day use is $10, up from the original five first charged some years ago to help defray maintenance expenses,although entry was no charged any place in the state when the parks were first established.

A new visitors center, incomplete, that will provide guests w information about history of the area, interpretive displays to explain geography of the deep canyon carved by millions years of erosion, and possibly centuries of indigenous inhabitants as well as wildlife, native flora and descriptive details. Many parks in the state have dioramas, examples of animals preserved by taxidermy as visuals to help make the scenes come alive: wild life in their natural setting, as if the creatures were living in water or on land, and simply in suspended antimation. Swimming, running, flying as if caught in motion.

Hiking trails, picnic pavilions, ample facilities for guests, paved paths for ADA.Waterfalls, horse-back riding, wedding venue. Much of the new construction supported by state funding, or Friends of State Parks.

This appears to be recently poured concrete and railing installed to make the path along the edge of the deep gorge more ADA complaint, giving visitors with an opportunity to get a better view of the wide vast landscape created by millions of years of erosion as the river flows across the bottom of the canyon.

book review: “The Queens of Crime”…

… by Marie Benedict. Educated as an attorney, she admits the years of law school were for naught, finding her gift as a writer to be much more satisfying as a career. Benedict is pen name, one she has used for a number of publications, including tales of Einstein’s first wife, as well as a woman who worked for the wealthy Carnegie family, and Hollywood notable, Hedy Lamar, and Lady Clementine,wife of Winston Churchill. Although the books are fiction, all are thoroughly researched, filled with details of the era, fascinating reading oft time, place, strong female characters.

Based on the in depth research the author will do prior to beginning a new novel, Benedict reports finding the story of a Dorothy Sayers, who was an English mystery writer in the real life investigation of the death of a young nurse. There was a group of females including Agatha Christie, in addition to Sayers, three others of the same genre, writing the stories published at the time. Fiction and fact blend, as the women travel to France, search for clues, find their efforts diminished and discounted by male writers, as well as newspaper reporters,law enforcement, men in general who cannot take them seriously as investigators.

The women do uncover many details, pieces of useful information, evidence as clues to help them piece together the mystery of the young woman’s death. Resolving the puzzle, referred to as ‘the locked room’ mystery, where someone simply seems to vanish into thin air without notice. Justice is served, the women are hailed as capable detectives by they male counterparts.

Bennet reports being inspired by an aunt in her youth who took on the responsibility of purchasing and gifting reading material in her youth that would enrich her life: books that surely must have lead her into the career of being the author she has become. The amount of research done before the narratives are assembled appears to be staggering, to have the details of time, place, traveling in such an organized manner. And excellent read!

book review: “Tilt”…

… by Emma Pattee. Published in 2025, under the imprint of Simon-snd Schuster. This is the author’s first novel, though she has been published in numerous well-respected periodicals. Highly regarded, she recently participated in a book event sponsored by the Parnassus group, headed by Anne Patchett, book-lover extrordinare, in Nashville.

Annie lives in Portland, Oregon, is extremely pregnant, shopping for a baby crib at IKEA when the long-predicted Cascadia earth quake rolls across the northwest, on the fault line running the length of the west coast. Buildings crumble, roofs cave with hundreds buried beneath rubble. All city services/resources cease to exist, infrastructure destroyed: no electricity, cell-phone service, bridges collapsed, streets impassible due to fallen trees, power lines, wrecked vehicles, buildings lying in the streets.

Walking miles, with an occasional ride, she is searching for her husband. Diverted numerous times due to downed power lines, unsafe passage of bridges or crossing over highways, water, she struggles in her massive pre-birth state to get back to her neighborhood. The descriptive parts of the narrative, as she makes her way across town from the ill-fated trip to find a baby crib, to her home in an apartment where she hopes to find her mate appear to be realistic and accurate, as the damage of the colliding fault lines of the massive quake with take years to recover from.

book review: “One L” …

… by fiction writer Scott Turow. The book might be the only non-fiction work he has published, as most of his writing is based on legal stories, with twists and turns as the plot unfolds,often in courtrooms. This one was the second one he wrote, early in his career of a prolific writer of tales from the courtroom. Currently, according to Dr. Google, published books by Turow include thirteen fiction and three non-fiction. Translated into a number of languages, there are literally millions of tomes by this author on the planet.

“One L” is the term used in law school for first year students. The second and third years, as you might expect, are similarly labeled. Turow must have kept details in journals of his time at Harvard, as the book relates his experience in a fairly precise manner. Turow was married, an older student, with some work (teaching) experience under his belt before deciding to attend law, and accepted at Harvard. The couple were living in California, and moved across the country for his three years of legal training. His wife was a teacher and easily found work in schools near the campus.

It was a stressful, harrowing experience. The professors were demanding, expecting hours of study, copious reading of history and ready, quick recall in lecture classrooms. Treating the students as if that one class was the only one they needed to prepare for. The first year students start classes a week before 2 and 3 to help them acclimate to the campus, and environment. But reading the book, it is obvious nothing prepares a person for the sense of forced labor that soon permeates the lives of those first year students: almost like paying that tuition to endure the daily punishment of insufficient sleep, humiliation in the classroom when called upon, unreasonable demands of the instructors.

Published in 1977, it was the second book Turow wrote. Even though he had talked to friends and acquaintances who were attorneys, to better understand what to expect, it is apparent that there is no way to fully be prepared for the stress of that environment. Insufficient sleep, constant anxiety, physical turmoil from not exercising or eating properly including far too much caffeine, unending headaches, constantly reviewing, endless doubt of capabilities and decision making.

world’s longest yard sale …

… along half-a-dozen states, reportedly 690 miles of antiques, collectibles, ‘junque’ from barns, abandoned long-closed general stores. The origin was meant to encourage travelers along the Highway127 route driving to stop, visit, purchase goods from locals,. Eat in local cafes, support the small towns economy as the browsed the collectibles, farm implements, hand loomed textiles like bedspreads, quilts, lovingly-stitched hand made crochet and knit crafts from care-worn farm wives hands. Purchase the fruits of the kitchen: those jars of delicious jams and jelly, home-grown vegetables nurtured from the soil, local honey, cane syrups, regional delights to take as the passing travelers returned to their origin.

Parts of the southeast region have long had a reputation for textile production: bed spreads, floor coverings, a variety of woven materials, shipped world-wide. Due to low labor costs, affordable real estate, outside financial support, there are still a number of large international manufacturers of these goods. Many depend on minority labor, as communities have developed with generations of families coming in to establish. The names are seen on carpets, rugs, floor coverings across the world: Shaw, Miliken, Mohawk, as well as groups in Europe.

In decades past, earlier in the twentieth century, as autos become more common, families had resources and opportunity to get out, away from work, and home. Travelers passing through these rural communities in the past,would notice lovingly pieced quilts made by generations of farm-wives,crochet and knit articles of clothing and bedding. Pull off the narrow two lane country road, stop to look, offer to buy, occasionally taking that heirloom seen hanging out on the clothesline or front-porch railing away when they returned to their travels.

This is likely one of the origins of the long yard sale, as locals have deliberately advertised, supported, spread the word over decades to encourage visitors, travelers to slow down, shop the oddities/wares of years gone by.The small towns, as well as communities that are even more rural, unincorporated with city resources or organized government bodies to maintain order, utilities still gather. At churches, meeting halls, community centers where the locals, extended groups of families and friends would plan and organize events. Participating in fish-fries, bar-be-que stands where food is slow roasted over low fires all night to sell travelers are attracted to sales, goods like rust-covered pitchforks, textiles, odd-ments from days gone by.

You missed It. It happened the first weekend in August. Mark your calendar for 2027.

book review: “A Solitude of Wolverines”…

… by Alice Henderson. The book was published in 2020. I found a paperback copy on the sidewalk of Eagle Eye Books where there is a 24 hour book sale, that benefits local non-profits. If you go by at 2:00 am, just roaming in the dark, browsing and find something interesting, drop your payment in the crack in between the two front doors for the staff to put in the jar when they unlock on the morrow. A hardback was published the same year, by William Morrow Co.

In an afterward the author tells of being an environmentalist before she could spell the word. Raised in a family that gave the freedom to pursue interests, and roam the wild places, camping with parents and free to pursue her curiosity at will, she has cultivated an interest in the untamed parts of the world since childhood. The results are obvious in this interesting book about the lives and habits of wolverines. A small, fierce creature, completely unsocial, that enjoys the mountainous regions generally deemed uninhabitable by humans.

Alex is living in Boston, having moved from California to the east to be with a man who finished law school and was offered a corporate job with a large firm. The relationship gradually dissolved as their interests diverged, with Alex unwilling to ‘settle’ into tame, city life. After a near tragedy, she is offered a position doing research in the mountains of Montana, searching on a large preserve for evidence of wolverines. Empty lodge, abandoned ski resort, a creepy place with stories of hauntings, murderous guests, mysterious circumstances that make the readers hair stand on end – and give enough suspense to want to tell Alex: get out!

As she designs camera traps to look for possible wolverines, she finds a variety of other animals, with her complicated set-up collecting hair to evaluate for DNA. Hoping to find enough evidence of the solitary animals, she treks across mountain ridges, and through beautiful meadows of wildflowers. Also finding evidence of a man who is seriously injured, but disappears before she can provide help. And evidence of something damaging her camera traps that is not likely an animal.

Fascinating details of the lives of the animals she is researching, and how she hopes to prove they are living on the property, in conservation. On protected property, any animal within the bounds of the land would be safe, but cattlemen cut fences and allow their herds to graze on the private lands. Alex tangles with local law enforcement, ranchers, hired hench-men. Not a book I expected to enjoy, but it was fascinating. Highly recommended reading for those who are interested in the environment, concerned about the value of maintaining the natural balance of nature.

book review: ‘Lab Girl” …

… by Hope Jahren. Born in Minnesota, she discovered her love of the environment of chemistry labs as a child, roaming her father’s workplace. He was a chemistry teacher, and would take her as a youngster with him to work. She is a professor (at the time of writing, when the book was published in 2016) at the University of Hawaii. Described as a geochemist/geobotanist, the book chronicles her life and work in the study of plants and trees, as well as personal history.

Jahren was granted funding to establish labs in the places she was hired. Teaching and doing research in universities across the nation, in a series of locations as disparate as Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and in Hawaii. Currently at University of Louisiana in Lafayette where she is an adjunct professor.

One of the more interesting things of her career moves is that everywhere she has been employed since the early years, she has taken her lab partner. In many of those places, she had to raise the funds to pay his salary herself, so treasuring his skills and knowledge. Frequently traveling great distances with students and grad. assistants for field work under harsh circumstances in summer weather, the book relates some really unique experiences of cross-country drives. Often undertaking travel on a very tight budget with lab equipment, coolers for food, luggage, human cargo all packed into rental vans or university owned vehicles – the trips unspool with occasional hilarious results.

Chapters alternate between science, facts and information about trees, the planet, soil – written in a way that is not ‘science’, but easily understood by a reader who has little scientific knowledge. With the other chapters telling about her life, lab work, family, personal challenges: all strung together in a most enjoyable manner. A fascinating story, and enlightening. Well written, enjoyable, entertaining as well as educational!

zygo cactus…

… is a term used to cover all those different varieties of indoor plants seen in floral shops and supermarkets throughout the year. Grown in great quantities in greenhouses under controlled conditions of just the right amount of fertilizer, water, light, with the perfect temperature for helping the plant to flourish. The internet will have you believe that the plants are easy to grow from a small leaflet, with practically no attention or effort required to have the small section readily root to share or re-pot for growing more of the plants.

New young plants easily started by putting in damp sand or possibly just shallow water for roots to form and create a new plant to pass along to family and friends. Or just add to your container to increase the size in order to have more blooms each year. The individual sections will soon multiply and grow to fill in, with the young sprouts having a rusty/reddish tint as they mature.

The zygo originates from south America, growing in shady places. The actual name is Schumlbergera, and there are a number of different varieties. Which explains how the plants are marketed throughout the year, as seasonal items in containers – as ‘Easter’ or ‘Thanksgiving’ or ‘Christmas’ depending on when the plant is producing prolific buds and flowers. In colors from a rich deep magenta, to pink, salmon, bright red and white- in single or double type blooms. One of the two plants here might even qualify as variegated: the buds are pink, opening to white, but they have a pink-ish edge on the petals.

Not actually a ‘cactus’ in the true sense of the word: they don’t grow in places normally associated with the spiny, spikey plants in sandy dry environments that lack consistent rainfall. The plants were originally discovered in the rain-forest in Brazil, a place with high humidity, where they are found growing in trees.The first ones discovered in the mountainous area of southeast Brazil, near the Atlantic coast, in an area that is cool, constantly damp, like a ‘cloud forest’. Clinging to rocks and places on tree branches that had accumulated mosses and ferns, enough organic matter/compost, to give it a toe hold, a way to secure the plant to the host, often high up in the tree canopy of the damp environment.

It is a succulent, meaning it does not need the weekly watering most people would think necessary for indoor plants. Consider the origin: in a place with high humidity, and porous soil. Much of this gleaned from Dr. Google, then wandering off to wikipedia for more facts and details…

It is making buds and blooms in the last weeks of March, with Easter about two weeks away – although it bloomed in December!

belated, part 2…

… more of the images painted on the windows of a building downtown. It appears the artist does work all over town, as I have been told she did a really impressive brightly colored mural of scenes from the downtown area on the wall of a business on the south side of town. The photos here are not the best, as the reflections of other images in the glass cause the images to not really be all that impressive or clear. Not really distorted, but you see so much of other scenes, stuff on the exterior, other buildings, it is difficult to get a clear image of the work the artist did. The store front is part of a large building, a number of floors, under renovation. Inside, what you can see from peering in the windows: construction materials like saw horses, stacks of sheet rock, piles of lumber – materials being used as the building is being improved in the hopes of luring new tenants.

So many of the older downtown buildings with a number of levels have been converted into living space. Either apartments or condos for people who want to live close into the city and many activities that go on year round, day and night in the downtown area. There IS a lot to do in this town, in addition to open spaces and the linear park of the Riverwalk. Outdoor concerts, biking year-round, museums for art as well as children’s activity spaces.

These images, like the ones directly across the street are done with primarily white paint, with colors added to create depth and tints. One set of windows illustrates items found in a bake shop, with shelves full of baked goods like cakes, pies, sweets. Another set of windows depicts women’s clothing: fashion seen through the years as would be available for sale in shops with window displays to lure in customers passing by. Other windows

belated…

… can also just indicate delayed or mature. In this case: simply belated – images that have been tucked away after delivery to computer storage and not actually included in a story to post. But such interesting photos that, even though not especially timely, so interesting they should be included, to share and save for posterity.

The images painted on glass of store fronts downtown. Places I pass occasionally, but with traffic, had not really noticed. When driving and doing all those things that are mostly ‘muscle memory’, it is not always easy to observe passing scenery. Steering, applying brakes or accelerating, observing pedestrians, watching traffic signals, being aware of other vehicles should be primary focus instead of perusing store windows.

We had reason to park and go in a shop, where there is a alteration/tailoring business. On the corner of that block, a long-established jewelry store. The business owner had a skilled artist come and paint holiday decorations on the show windows for the holidays. Although we were well into 2026 when walking along the street, those amazing decorations were still up on the windows. Due to the small access door from the business into the display cases, the trim was actually painted on the exterior rather than inside where the design would not be affected by weather.

You can easily tell from the cone-shaped sequin encrusted ‘trees’, the window is decorated for Christmas.

It is fascinating the way the artist actually only used white paint, adding other colors in small amounts to tint the base white and create other colors that are still obviously mostly that original white. Especially impressive are the strings of pearls across the top of the glass. Using the tinted shades to create a 3D effect on the two dimensional surface.