Healing Gardens

"Nature is but another name for health," said Thoreau.

Studies show that gardens can reduce stress and pain in less than three to five minutes!

This mural was painted by Hayesville High School art students at the Master Gardener's project in Hayesville, NC.  This little garden is located beside the "Clay County Progress," and may be missed by folks unless you "slow down and smell the roses," to enjoy this lovely garden.

This lovely fountain is located at the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Hayesville, NC.  Elizabeth Rybecci and Father John Rice created the healing gardens at this sanctuary. 

This is a view of the entrance to the Good Shepherd Church.

One characteristic of a healing garden is a place to sit, relax, and pray.

Master Gardeners included birdhouses in their healing garden in Hayesville.

You'll also find a birdbath with birdhouses in this healing garden.

You may sit on a bench and savor the peace here.

Color and beauty are major characteristics of a healing garden.

The pathway at a healing garden needs to be accessible and somewhat meandering.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,

the song of the birds for mirth,

one is nearer to God's heart in a garden

than anywhere else on earth.

From "Garden Thoughts" by Dorothy Gurney

This is the steeple at Good Shepherd Church.

This little girl is located in the healing garden at Good Shepherd Church.

There's a garden glowing

with the light

of the Good Shepherd,

"tis the beautiful

Garden of Prayer.

Hardscapes such as statues fit with a healing garden.  This angel graces the garden at Good Shepherd Church in Hayesville, NC.

Healing Gardens blend soil and the soul.

Studies find that patients recover faster if they have a window view of nature.

Goldenrods

A torch that lights
the fields at fall,
glowing like gold
on the roadsides.

You outshine other wildflowers
putting on a show,
and pulse in the wind;
a torch that lights.

I've longed for cooler weather
on hot summer days,
glorious goldenrods adorning
the fields at fall.

Summer scorched the skin
of tender plants,
you sprang forth just in time,
glowing like gold.

Who is the champion
of autumn's fashion show?
It is the goldenrod
burning on the road banks.
            --Brenda Kay Ledford

The goldenrods, Joe-Pye weeds, iron weeds, and purple asters are blooming now.  These wildflowers testify that fall cannot be far away.  You can see the leaves taking on a golden glow in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I hope we will have a brilliant, colorful foliage show.  I've heard over the radio that the apples are abundant this year in our region.  I'm looking forward to autumn.  I'm grateful to live in an area where each season has its beauty.

 

A morning glory glows on cornstalks.

 

 

                                                 Paint ponies overlook Shooting Creek.

  
                                                 Soon foliage will shimmer like a box of crayons.

Georgia Mountain Fair

The Georgia Mountain Fair highlights a pioneer village, crafts, a museum, carnival rides, popular musical performances, and food in Hiawassee, Georgia. 

Check for the dates at the website:  www.GeorgiaMountainFairgrounds.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Georgia Mountain Fair includes a pioneer village.  It features an authentically recreated mountain town of yesterday with a mercantile store, one-roomed school, log cabins, barn, corncrib, and smokehouse.

 

You'll see authentic demonstrations of moonshine stilling, board splitting, black smithing, quilting, singing and picking.

 

Also, the fair provides lots of food.  Fried apple pies. Ice-cold lemonade, cotton candy, apple cider, and ice-cream!  Savor an ice-cream cone under the shade of an oak and enjoy the bluegrass music floating on a breeze across the fairgrounds.

 

For information, go to:  www.GeorgiaMountainFairgrounds.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summertime

Stray sun rays ricochet through
a layer of marshmallow clouds
on this July morning.

A rain crow coos
on Joe Knob and predicts
an evening shower.

The zinnias ballet dance
in pink, purple, and peach dresses,
on a guest of wind.

A cluster of mushrooms
sprinkles the yard with popcorn.
My neighbor's beagle digs holes,

nothing squelches his hunter's instinct.
My shoes slush through mud:
picking a bucket of blackberries.

I steal a peek
at the bluebird eggs,
wings flutter from the nest.

Mama bluebird keeps watch
on the power lines,
kathydids scrape fiddles on the ridge.
                      --Brenda Kay Ledford

Fourth of July

The Flag Goes By
Hats Off!
Along the street there comes
a blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
a flash of color beneath the sky;
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

Blue and crimson and white it shines,
over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
Hats off!
The colors before us fly;
but more than the flag is passing by:
sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
fought to make and to save the State;
weary marches and sinking ships,
cheers of victory on dying lips;
signs of a nation great and strong.
              --Henry Holcomb Bennett

I wish all of my blogger friends a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center

North of Vogel Lake in the North Georgia Mountains, Highway 129 carved out of the mountainside, is the home of Byron Herbert Reece.  The buildings now standing relate to part of his life.

Reece was a  respected poet and novelist of Georgia, and won many literary honors both nationally and statewide.  He was strongly moved by the old mountain folk ballads.  His stimulation in poetry (at an early age) came mostly from the Bible.  He was a farmer and poet who taught at Young Harris College.

The above photo is known as a Double Crib Barn, found on Appalachian farms from Kentucky to Arkansas.  The barn had a number of cribs that served as storage for fodder, or pens for cattle, mules, and pigs.

This is a photo of Byron Herbert Reece shucking corn in the field.

The above three photos are the Poetry Trail located at the Reece Heritage Center.  You'll find Reece's verse carved in stone and may sit on a bench and reflect on his poetry.

This is the Mulberry Hall where Byron Herbert Reece wrote.  He built this writing studio and would muse and write here.

This is young Byron Herbert Reece composing poetry in his writing studio.

Corn cribs were used to store and dry corn still on the cob.

Bags of cornmeal after the corn was ground.

Smokehouses were a necessity before refrigeration and every farm had one.  

The chicken coop had a small fenced in area to shelter chickens and contained nesting boxes.

This was the kitchen where the mountain women cooked on a wood stove.

The Welcome Center at the Byron Herbert Reece Farm and Heritage Center.

To contact the Reece Center:

Call:  (706)-745-2034

E-mail:  reecesociety@gmail.com

www.ByronHerbertReeceSociety.org 

Father's Day

Our family going to church.  Back row, Barbara, Daddy, Mama.  Front row:  Brenda & Harold.

My father worked hard
to pay the bills,
take care of our family,
provide and protect.

A bi-vocational preacher,
he pastored many Baptist churches,
ran a bulldozer on construction jobs,
my father worked hard.

He loved his family,
instilled within us faith,
worked sunrise to sunset
to pay the bills.

On the front porch
during hot, summer evenings,
he told Irish folk tales,
took care of his family.

His eyes were sky blue,
hands gentle with beast and child,
Daddy sacrificed his health
to provide and protect.
       --Brenda Kay Ledford

I hope my blogger friends have a blessed Father's Day!

Fathers are very important.  Please tell your father or a father figure in your life, how much they mean to you.