… that could have easily become major if not for having a ‘back up’ plan. Someone went to a near-by chain drug-store/pharmacy after discovering reading glasses were advertised on sale and came in the door with a pair of eye-glasses for everyone! Not one to readily pass up a bargain, after years of being trained to shop the BOGO adv. at the nearby supermarket: hard to walk past a bargain!
People who had been cautioned that vision starts to decline when your eyeballs have a birthday after four decades cannot live in denial for long. Unable to read the small print on the pill bottle. No longer, even with squinting or standing right next to the light source able to decipher the font on back of the carton.
To make facing the reality of that slippery slope, the decline continues. A person can go into the store, stand at the rack, look at the choices, discern the necessity for magnification by studying the eye chart and make a decision. Walk to the cashier and pay for your new ‘readers’. Only to discover over time the magnification is insufficient. You are going to need something a little stronger to read the daily hints for the crossword puzzle printed in the newspaper. Bumping up from 1.5 to 2.00, then sadly- whatever comes next as you find you cannot recall which room you left those readers in…
These are off the rack at chain drug store. Used in a pinch when the lens fell out of the prescription ones
… photos from the fund-raiser dinner. All has not been finalized as far as expenses go, a few details left to be completed. But overall – a great success. The fact that there was considerable corporate support with organizations willing to underwrite tables, place settings for eight guests to enjoy the excellent catered meal prepared by a professional chef. More tables sold to guests than the previous year, as it has consistently grown in community support over the time.
Green salads served at each place setting, ready for guests to arrive, enjoy.In small clear glass vases, the arrangements were given away to attendees following the event.Charcuterie platters set up near the entrance to welcome guests for tasty bites.
The flowers came from the Tennessee Wholesale Florist off McCallie Ave.,where the Y is permitted to purchase the fresh cut bunches without paying an extra fee/tax as a non-profit organization. Looking at the goods a couple of weeks ago, shopping what was in stock days in advance is not the best way to get the job done. There is no way to know what they will have on hand when it is actually needed. Just an educated guess, as it seems likely most wholesalers will only be getting what is being shipped from the growers in central America where there are no seasons.
Some of the large ten stem bunches of blooms were not of the quality the wholesale people wanted to sell. Meaning what we had hoped to use to fill the small glass vases was not available – having to substitute other blooms instead. Hoping for some small chrysanthemums in the yellow and white color theme, but they were just not satisfactory. Yellow pixie carnations, small yellow blooms, eucalyptus foliage, leather leaf fern. Foolish to spend funds on something not fresh and usable – so others were used instead: the tiny but fragrant wax flowers, and other small blooms that would fill out the containers.
A favorite to add interesting texture is the hypericum berries: available in a dark red/russet, or a creamy yellow or the off white that you see here. Nice long stems that can add height to a large arrangement if need be, or just to provide the eye-catching shape that is such a contrast from the flowers and foliage. Plus: you cannot help but notice the slices of fresh lemon. Not sure if they actually provided any aroma once the finished arrangements were placed on the dinner tables – but you have to admit – a pretty cute/clever idea!
… by highly lauded and respected, noted southern regional author Wendell Berry. According to research, Berry has published over fifty books, although some appear to be reprints of articles in other media, as well as anthologies that are collections of short tales of his creative mind. Consisting of local residentsand relatives, friends, neighbors, business people, farmworkers, all beautifully developed people from an invented community over decades of keeping company with these families who lived inside his head before landing on a manuscript and coming to life in his books.
The book includes a couple of hand-drawn maps, to show where the community has expanded over the years, even though it only exists in the mind of the author. With farms, homesteads, commercial property along the edge of the river. The small tributaries that flow off the hills where people have built homes, barns, raise livestock as well as families, with runoff feeding into the creeks, into the wider navigable water way. Naming established families and their connections as young people marry, settle down, reproduce, sharing lives together, watching generations grow, relocate, return and often planted in the property surrounding the churches they attend.
I have read another of the Berry books: the story of Jayber Crow as his history is relayed. Quite entertaining. More requested from the local library collection. For someone with a library card that provides access to the PINES system in Georgia, organized by UGA, the options for reading more Berry tales are almost limitless…
.. annual fund-raiser dinner. If everyone who has purchased a meal shows up, there will be a good crowd. Delicious food, amenable company, interesting speakers who will share first-hand information about the impact the branch has across the community. This branch of the YMCA is non-traditional, not what most expect when thinking of the Y: no exercise equipment, yoga classes, but focused on community outreach. This facility provides educational programs for youths and adults. Teaching kids basic meal prep and nutrition, and providing adults in cardiac care programs with instruction health eating, recipes, short cuts to making good food easy. There is a mobile grocery, meeting the needs of the often under-served in the Chattanooga area.
The J. A.Henry YMCA operates a number of outreach programs in the area. In Chattanooga/Hamilton County, into north Georgia as well as neighboring areas. There is demand,even in densely populated area: where services have expanded in recent years to meet needs of youth and senior populations. A variety of opportunities have been developed over years to make this particular non-profit one that meets food challenges in non-tradition ways: a traveling market stocked with fresh seasonal produce as well as non-perishable goods.
In neighborhoods, where the distance from homes to grocery/supermarkets with fresh goods is too great for walking the area maybe referred to as ‘food desert’. With only access being convenience stores, the traveling market has a a regular, scheduled route for residents to know when to expect arrival. Without transportation, or willing neighbors/family, access to healthy, nutritious, fresh food can be challenging: the truck and Mobile Market are a valuable resource across the community.
A small grocery store housed in a downtown space where low-income/disadvantaged citizens need access to basic needs. Nutrition educational programs to support individuals in cardiac-care recovery programs, diabetes, other high-risk health concerns. Cooking classes for youth, providing education for good health/nutrition, as well as opportunities to sample new, different, unusual foods.
This once-a-year event helps fund the various programs that operate year-round meeting needs of youngsters and seniors. The fund-raising dinner began in the early 2020’s, increasing annually in scope and success.. Although the ingredients that feed teens in summer as well as after-school programs are USDA grants, there is much that the federal dollars do not cover: labor, vans that deliver goods, building maintenance, consumable goods. During that era when we were all in hiding, cautious about contamination, keeping our distance due to COVID anxiety, hoarding goods and wearing face masks.
Originally: the meal catered was delivered to the front steps and left for the recipient to open, enjoy, send a donation in support of the goals of this organization. Over time, with promotion and publicity, more awareness and advertising has helped the event to grow. Corporate sponsors purchased most of the tables, providing employees (or friends/family, co-workers) with an opportunity to enjoy a delicious catered meal, free adult beverages, socialize with friends and complete strangers, learn more about the programs that meet community needs.
This trailer, with fresh produce as well as ‘staples’ (dry goods like flour,sugar, shelf-stable ingredients) and some refrigerated products makes the rounds of the community each week. Meeting needs of neighborhoods that are often considered ‘food deserts’ at too great a distance from supermarkets for easy access to residents without transportation.
… a fund-raiser dinner to benefit programs of the metro YMCA, occurring each year in the fall: late September or early October. A catered meal, with delicious food, speakers briefly telling about impact programs have within community. Invitations to participate, conversations about ways to expand and support services, celebrating success.
With decorations consisting of fresh cut flowers ordered from Tennessee Wholesale Floral company to complete centerpieces for dinner tables at a rental venue on Mcallie Ave. Decorating the round tables designed to seat eight guests, covered with fresh black linens, for the fundraiser dinner. The J.A. Henry branch of the Metro Chattanooga YMCA usually has a number of corporate sponsors who will buy the seating for attendees, then donate those same meals to employees. Or agree to return those spaces/meals the Y to fill the chairs for friends and family to enjoy a delicious meal.
Plus a number of speakers to briefly share about how this branch with community-based programs impacts their neighborhoods,schools, day care centers, churches. Including youth who are fed all summer, traveling grocery market, cooking demonstrations, healthy eating classes for diabetics and recovering cardiac-care patients. Literally thousands of young people under the age of eighteen benefit from delivery of nutritious meals over summer months when schools are not open for youth to be fed in lunch rooms: good nutrition for growing bodies and brains.
Definitely a family affair: Her sister has been doing the catering for several years. There is always two protein choices, at least two vegetables, a dressed green salad with home-made croutons, and desserts. A full meal, with options for filling or over filling a dinner plate. The actual utensils for the event, including serving ware, aare all compostable, and reclaimed to recycle by a local business.
Appetizers greet guests as they arrive: bites of finger-food sized morsels set out on trays filled with an assortment of tasty cubes and slices of cheeses. Accompanied by bites of various meats like salami, pepperoni, crackers to transport the food from the tray to mouth, delicious sweet grapes artfully arranged on charcuterie boards. Bite-sized, finger-foods, for eating with one hand, as the other holds your adult beverage. Choices of poured wines and seasonal beers donated by wholesale suppliers.
Volunteers and board members putting together the charcuterie plates of cheeses, crackers, tasty treats to whet appetites before the dinner.
The floral arrangements were my part of the contract. Two larger ones, in tall clear glass containers, plus the eighteen used on the dining tables. One of the two, filled mostly with mums and alstromeria lily stems, plus the interesting texture the little white berries of hypericum adds to the look. Sitting on the stage, below the podium where the speakers gave brief talks about the impact they have witnessed as the nonprofit meets community needs.
Those hypericum berry stems were also in the smaller vases on each table along with small yellow carnations, brightly blooming fragrant wax flowers, the wonderful aroma of eucalyptus leaves as filler, to help hold all the blooms in place. The addition of slices of fresh lemon, on small wooden skewers to finish off the centerpieces. All these colorful, small, portable fresh flowers gifted to hosts of each table as the evening’s meal and conversations ended to take home and enjoy for the next week.
… a noted regional author who recently died. Wendell Berry was born in 1934, recently died at the end of August 2026. Limited reading of his writing might think the stories are about individuals created in the mind of Berry, but often amalgam of those he encountered in life. He was known as a prolific writer: publishing books, short stories, as well as poetry, essays, being an ardent conservationist, speaker, Trump opponent. Small time farmer of land he owned, preserved, loved, in his native Kentucky by observing sound management of crops and livestock, with an abundance of common sense.
Highly regarded as an author of essays, poetry, fiction of the membership of Port William community, as well as full length books where he attempts reasonable explanations on race relations, soil and water conservation, A proponent of small family owned farms, Berry opposed large farming operations that cover thousands of acres, supporting the family farming operations of yore. Berry received a number of distinguished literary awards. His notable career achievements include: Guggenheim foundation fellow, recognition by President Barack Obama, National Humanities Medal, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
A beautifully written book, it is actually an anthology/collection of previously published short stories of the fictitious community.
…. by Wendell Berry. Berry was a regional writer, telling tales of life in a non-existent place where he developed a cast of characters inhabiting Port William. A fictitious community, he referred to as a ‘membership, situated in the valleys and hills, rich bottom land with farms along a river. With a population of fascinating, well-developed natives who ran shops, worked the land, married, had families, lived and were buried in the community. From pastors of small congregations, to barbers, farmers, tradesmen, all with a variety of skills and abilities as befits those capable men and women of that self-sufficient era.
Situated on the banks of the Kentucky River, along with a number of smaller tributaries, the hills and valleys of the community settled by families that married, expanded and diminished over the years as the area prospered. Then declines as circumstances changed for individuals including drought, being called into military service, financial difficulties, job loss, marriage and other life-altering situations. Stories of those who endured the hard scrabble life of farming on shares, as well as others who were fortunate enough to come from generational wealth: growing up in families established on land that was debt free, and profitable for raising livestock or crops.
All cheerfully invented over time, by a man with a mind so fertile all of the many people who lived there in the land surrounding the community seem absolutely believable: with thoughts, opinions, friendships, heartaches, employment, desires, doubts, and all the other daily difficulties humans live with. Most of the tales truly poignant, with elements of so many human emotions from hilarity to unbridled grief, racism, love for fellow man and beast, struggles with day-to-day doubts and fears.
… the big wide window, facing 52nd street. The view in the photo is actually from the street facing the front of the house, as is obvious. The people who live here have put forth the effort to dig and relocate the bulbs a couple of times over the years since the first moved in. House purchased in 2010, and those lilies might have been passed along in the following year – then dug up and divided a time. More than once, in order for them to spread the length of that sidewalk from porch steps to curb at the edge of the street.
The flower goes by several generic names: often known as ‘hurricane’ lily as they bloom in the fall- at the time the seasonal flooding occurs when the southeastern US is inundated by those rains that blow in from the Gulf of Mexico or south Atlantic Ocean along the coast. Also known as ‘surprise’ lily, as it seems like you have forgotten where you planted the bulbs months ago, then those thin stalks suddenly start to shoot up out of the lawn, or mulch in a bed, where you did not expect. Due to the complex shape of the open bloom, it might also be referred to as ‘spider lily’. Officially, the name is Lycoris.
Causing you say ‘surprise!’ to enjoy the colorful blooms for few days before they fade. Like the foliage on most bulb plants- imperative you do not dig, or cut the leaves back: the greenery is supplying the bulb with the energy it needs to bloom again. Just let it rest, and the long narrow green leaves will eventually die off, with the bulb resting below the surface over winter and spring to produce these amazing flowers again in the fall. Right on schedule after a drenching rain,when you have completely forgotten they were ever planted. Or just given up on them ever blooming again…
… back to TN from a medical appt. in Atlanta on Tuesday. A little side trip through the Georgia National Cemetery, across the wooded, red clay rolling hills of north Georgia, over seven hundred acres has been set aside for internment of US Military servicemen and women. Purchased by Atlanta real estate developer, Scott Hudgens, who was a WW II veteran, the property was donated to the Veterans Administration that provides maintenance and upkeep of the acres. Located near Canton in northwest GA, just east of I-75, on property with steep hillsides, deep ravines, densely forested, there are internments of veterans and family members five days a week. None on weekends. About five services per day, including those who have been cremated, with ashes interred or scattered in an area set aside for this purpose.
This property is actually the third in Georgia dedicated specifically for this use: formerly a hunting preserve, it was originally land that belonged to the Cherokee Nation. More recently, after the Time of Removal when the Indigenous people were forcibly removed to Oklahoma, much of the property has had timber cut and sold for logging purposes. There are also cemeteries in Marietta, and a National Historic Site at Andersonville, where POWs were imprisoned during the Civil War, as well as one on Ft. Benning proper, but not part of DOD, administered by VA. This one, on the military base that is ‘Home of the Infantry, near Columbus, GA, is rapidly filling, with another cemetery currently being used just across into Alabama, on military property at Ft. Mitchell, Alabama.
This photo, found on cell phone, was taken early in the year: Decidious trees still bare of leaves, but you can see the brightly colored lavender blooms of the spring-flowering red bud there just behind the sign as vehicles enter the gates.
… by prolific legal writer John Grisham. A number of his publications have been read and reviewed here: most paperback versions: all interesting, well written, dog-eared, recycled and passed around over time. The list of his work printed inside the front cover numbers nine, with the publishing date indicating this one was printed in 1999. Seems quite feasible there could easily be a dozen more in the decades since, that have been written and enjoyed by his fan base. According to internet research: currently he has published 47 books, not all legal thrillers, but in a variety of genres.
One of the interesting traits that seem consistent with his various published works is the Grisham method of devoting himself to research before composing. All have such details that flesh out the characters, subject matter, story lines. The people and circumstances of their lives are unique to each book, but provide fascinating insights into situations and environments the reader is rarely privy to. In this case, details about the lives of beyond-wealthy attorneys who are completely out of touch with work-a-day humans. And people who depend on the mercy of soup-kitchens, shelters for sleeping in freezing weather, kindness of complete strangers for basic necessities: clothing, shoes, water.
At first glance, when found in a Little Free Library on Virginia Ave., my thought was ‘The Lincoln Lawyer” made into a movie about an attorney who used his vehicle as a mobile office.
Michael Brock is an attorney, working in a high rise office building, as an employee of Drake and Sweeney, a large high-powered firm with four hundred attorneys. Followed into work one morning, by a homeless man, Brock and others are briefly held hostage, before the situation is resolved by a SWAT team. The death of the homeless man, who apparently only wanted to be seen and heard, rather than feeling as if his needs were ignored and he was invisible, causes Brock to seek out a man, Mordecai, who is a ‘street lawyer’. Serving the needs of this segment of the population, Brock is compelled to quit his well-paying job, recruited to become part of the team of the attorneys who focus on the basic survival needs of these people who fall through the cracks of society: with no permanent address, little income, lack of the things most consider necessities like food, clothing, shelter, warm coats, shoes.
The research involved in telling the compelling story was fascinating: providing many small details one would not consider when thinking of the culture and environment this group of people accepts as a way of life. From standing in lines in soup kitchens for hot meal, to finding shoes in cold weather, it is difficult to imagine some of the challenges that complicate the lives of the underserved. Sleeping in public places – city park benches, doorways of commcecain cities large and small, the population often becomes invisible. Often rounded up en masse to be literally ‘vanished’, loaded onto buses to make the problem disappear, those who are struggling in so many ways often seem to have no ‘voice’, feel ignored, unseen and without recourse when politicians are making promises they cannot keep.
Interesting and surprise ending. Clearly a lesson in compassion as a description of what life is like on the streets. Although the lead character had the resources and where-with-all to avoid some of what happened, the hardships that befall someone with little funding, struggling with daily necessities is painfully apparent in then narrative.
