V called and said i should come home; all the trees are blooming in the city. I packed up 5 hens and one giant puppy into a smallish car and headed out around 5 pm. The mountains were blue and shrouded in mist. I watched them fade in the rear view mirror. The weekend people are coming in; the traffic thickened northbound a little more every twenty miles i travelled south. Some of them were packed to the gills with bikes and jet skis and the dreaded forest destroying 4 wheelers. Im glad i live on the rural side of the county, not the tourist side where the lake and all the rental cabins are. Lots of boats are headed north too. Theres a big bass tournament this weekend just over the border in North Carolina. And then there is the big news:
The Georgia Legislature passed HR 1773 this week, naming Blue Ridge as the trout capital of jawja. why?
...."According to the resolution, Fannin County is home to 13 bodies of water that have been designated by the Georgia DNR as trout waters -- actually over 550 miles of pristine streams, including The Toccoa River's diverse tailwater, which can be fished all year. Fannin County is also home to the federal trout hatchery in the Chattahoochee National Forest....."
30 minutes away from Chickory my ears pop with altitude change and the landscape opens up to a sunnier sky. Somebody flashed their headlights and i slowed to 65 just in time to innocently glide by a county mounty. A wreck in the next half hour turns the northbound into a parking lot for miles backing all the way to the super slab I-75. I switch to an urban station for the big bass and prepare for a hell for leather street gauntlet. I like this. I enjoy traffic and frenzied lane changing and driving nuttiness now because i know it will only be for a few days and then i can return to the chill life for restoration.
Atlanta is in full spring flower and its beauty is the counterpoint to the country. The city is a beauty of manicured lawns, landscaping and hardscapes of brick and wrought iron and rock; spring bulbs and pretty people walking their pretty dogs through glittering canyons of high rise condos. The parking lot at Saks and Nordstrom are filled; and the Tavern at Phipps is overflowing with a see and be scene. When i reach my destination - home -i find the pear and cherry in full flower and the lilac and clematis ready to bud out. Eastern Redbuds and Tulip Poplars are vibrant in color too as are the camellias. The one in our front yard is heavy with flowers and looks like it might fall over from the weight of them.
Here i have a sample of flowering pear, quince and white cherry blossoms; violets ; and what everyone calls a tulip tree, but i don't know for sure.
Tonight V and I are going to a concert at the Fabulous Fox Theatre to see the "Jimi Hendrix Experience Tour: Celebrating the Music and Legacy of Jimi Hendrix". The venue is like an incredibly ornate Egyptian ballroom with a dash of moroccan architecture and the acoustics are pretty good as it isnt too large. I love going there and we can take the MARTA train with only a few blocks of walking from the station. I hate parking downtown. Ive had my car wrecked twice by valets.
It will be a fun people watching crowd there will be a lot of rock in rollers and their mols (like me and V) and the line up of players sounds promising too: Eric Johnson, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Living Color, Johnny Lang, Joe Satriani, Robert Randolph, Los Lobos, Ernie Isley and Billy Cox who played woodstock with Jimi. Im pretty excited, not just about the show, but about having a date with V. Now that we spend so much time apart, our times together are more eventful and much more fun. I will try and get some photos of the "scene" for Moi's fashion blog. The theme? I dont know, maybe aging hippy chicks?