The Cherry Blossom Festival and Tour Part 2

When I last left y'all we were finishing up the tour of the Woodruff House. From there we got on the bus and headed though town and out to Mr. Fickling's House. Mr. William Fickling was a realtor and in 1949 fell in love with the Yoshino Cherry Tree growing in his back yard! He took a trip to Washington DC in the 1950's and saw the cherry trees there were just like the one in his back yard. He came home and started planting the trees all over town. Since he was in the real estate business he gave trees to his clients to plant at their new homes. We now have around 300,000 cherry tree in Macon! Just beautiful at the peak blooming time...which looks like right now!
Read more about him at http://www.cherryblossom.com/about-the-festival/
We went to the driveway of Mr. Fickling's house...his son still lives there so I am told!

We also went to Wesley Woods Neighborhood. I couldn't get any pictures... it is a winding road in a old neighborhood. But it was very pretty. They are planting newer trees now amongst the old...the old trees only live 20 or so years. Replanting is going on here and there...but still pretty!

After Wesley Woods we were on the way back downtown when....the bus broke down! We blew a hose. We had to wait about 30-45 minutes before the replacement bus came. Then we headed downtown to St Joseph Catholic Church. That was worth the wait...gorgeous!!

Such beautiful stained glass!!
St. Patrick's window...It was just St. Patrick's Day remember!!



This is over the front door!

And finally in honor of the Easter season...The Last Supper. (sorry... it's a touch blurry)

We had a great time and enjoyed our afternoon! Next spring come down to Macon and enjoy The Cherry Blossom Festival too!

Find out more info here at their website! http://www.cherryblossom.com

The Cherry Blossom Festival and Tour! Part 1

Yesterday I took the afternoon off to enjoy The Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon, GA. I had a few orders to finish but a girl needs time off every now and then. Plus I knew they would be waiting on me when I got back!

Sweet Mama and I went to Central City Park in downtown Macon where the fair part of the festival takes place. That's where the rides and fair food is...as well as all of the vendors. They say that The Cherry Blossom is the largest festival in the US ... it lasts two weeks. We have more cherry trees than Washington, DC! People come from all over to see the beautiful trees.

We got our tickets and made our way to the bus. It was a charter bus full of senior citizens. WE ahd people from Iowa, New York, Alabama, North Carolina...and many more. I was one of the youngest ones on the bus...if you can believe it! We had a guide that rode with us telling all the inside scoop on the town and festival plus a few bad jokes!

Now... I moved here when Sweet Mama was first diagnosed with her sinus cancer. I got here two days before the surgery and jumped into the role of caregiver right away. So I had no knowledge of the history of Macon...

Sweet Mama wanted me to take the tour...her side of the family is from this part of Georgia. Dad's is from Savannah and I know the history there! So I was up for it, as long as the weather held out and the trees cooperated! They have the festival preset with the dates every year. So some years the trees are blooming and some years they are not. This year we finally got around to going! The trees begain to bloom Tuesday and Wednesday of this week...and it wasn't raining...yet!
Here is our afternoon!

I noticed in the above photo, when I downloaded it to the computer, that the above vendor is selling "Pot Roast Sundaes"! Who knew... Never got to it due to delays...but more on that later.

From there we when to the Woodruff House and took the tour of it! It sits on top of a large hill that over looks Macon.

Here is the view!
And our bus...Yep we drove up like we owned the place!


Check out the front door. This was all I could get because it was open. It was only a single door not a double...

Here are a few of the room. Notice the single beds...Sweet Mama has those beds since she was 12 years old! These are spool beds hand-carved by slaves...the spools look like spools of thread. Sweet Mama's are reproductions but still just as beautiful!


The house has three floors but we were only allowed on two. The third floor is considered attict and where the servants lived. Don't you just love this spiral staircase. It had a beautiful window at the top but it didn't show up in this picture!

Now on to the trees!

Part two coming next!

Whew!

Yesterday morning I woke up to find this in the front yard! The crime scene was only limited to these few pine trees...Those guys must be baseball players 'cause it did get pretty high up! I wonder if the perps know that they had the wrong house? Mom and I don't seem to be the type to encourage this type of behavior. I don't think I know anyone who would want to roll this house...the one guy who would, claimed to be 5 hrs away and could prove it! I do seem to remember a time during high school when I was prone to a few incidents myself. But that was long ago...back in the day! ;)

Mom didn't seem too upset over it...like she did 4 years ago when the house was egged. That was a mess! There was egg everywhere...even some that made it over the roof and into the back yard! We had to power wash the house and windows and it still smelled like egg. FYI...We live in a neighborhood that has a few teens living across the street. There was a guy who lived next door but graduated 4 yrs ago...I think he was the intended victim! The street has no street lights and tends to be very dark. Mom has a motion detector on the front porch light...but you have to be sort of close for it to go off. It did scare off the eggers, but not after they threw a dozen eggs. Needless to say we spent the afternoon at Lowe's looking at lights!

So I cleaned up the yard after improvising a new tool the lift the paper off the pine tree limbs. It took about an hour but it was a beautiful day! I had to have Skippy come over and get the ones that were too high for me to reach. When I woke up this morning I slowly peeked out the front window half expecting to see it again but it was clean and pretty. Maybe the rain kept them away.

Ya know, their Mama is going to be pretty ticked off when she finds out that 6 rolls of her top-of-the-line toilet paper is missing! Amateurs...we only used the cheap stuff.

It's Cherry Blossom Time!

It's Cherry Blossom time here in Middle Georgia! The Cherry Blossom Festival has started in Macon and will last two weeks! Macon has the largest amount of Yoshino cherry trees in the world! It is so pretty here when they bloom. This year, because of the cold weather we have had, the tress are a little late in blooming. Mine is covered in buds which are trying to open...maybe in a few more days!

Welcome Spring and Think Pink!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day to one and all! It's not the best day for a parade in Savannah but I was reminiscing and found this photo from the one St Patrick's Day parade I was in... Now keep in mind it was a few years back...like last century! I was in a play and the theatre had an entry so we all walked to promote the show...all 3 1/2 miles...in the rain. I'm the one with the umbrella! I am wearing a 1960's wool shift dress that was my mom's (notice the belt..it's a rope!) We were such fashion statements! Not the best of ideas, walking in the rain, since it was a musical and the show started in a week or so. It was Camelot..and yes, I was Guinevere. I don't think anyone got sick... Ah the memories...

Wishing you and yours a happy St Patrick's Day! Now off to eat my green grits!! :)

New Additions

Here's the latest additions to my Esty shop! I whipped them up today but not before the sun when down. Hence the picture on the ironing board! I've got a few more designs to make...even a microwave oven potholder which is so cute!

Today was a busy day. I had to take Sweet Mama to see her Radiation drs for a 6mos checkup. They were pleased with how she is doing. She had a MRI last Thursday at Emory in Atlanta and we are still waiting on the final results. Our surgeon wanted the radiaologists to take a final look at it since we saw him that day also. So we are waiting...although he even said it looked good. You know, the waiting part is so hard. Hopefully we will hear from him tomorrow.'

After we saw the doctor I had a few errands to run and then back to sewing! I got my old sewing machine back from the repair man the other day and it is perfect for sewing through thick things! Plus I love it!! So I decided to whip up these potholders for the shop! Sweet Mama thinks I need to add more things since the shop name is Aprons and MORE. She keeps asking where is the More? Well here is something...(I'm having a hard time typing because Beau is in my lap. He has gotten better but is so needy...I better go for now!) More pictures to come!!

Oh Happy Day!

I made it into The Handmade Gift Guide's March Etsy Features!! http://www.thehandmadegiftguide.com/ It will be listed on her blog for the whole month of March. I am so grateful for such exposure, she has lots of followers on her blog and Facebook fanpage. I love the Enchanted Forest BBQ apron...Sweet Mama named it! I even got a bolt of the fabric so I could make other things out of it. Maybe now I need to save it in case I sell a few more BBQ aprons!

Thank you so much to those of you who voted!