GARDEN FEST

We went to a festival at the Botanical Gardens last month. Despite the cold weather, people turned out to see (and participate in) demonstrations of making apple cider, butter, doughnuts, and other fun things.

This was a working spinning wheel:

And a weaver on a loom

And best of all were the musicians. There was much foot-tapping and singing going on!

The gardens are a neat place to spend a couple of hours, even without festivals going on.

COTTON GIN FESTIVAL PARADE

Ever heard of a cotton gin? Cotton farmers take their cotton to them to get the seeds taken out. Not many of them around now, not like fifty years ago.

But last week, we went to a festival celebrating them. The parade was mostly tractors. All kinds of tractors. Old tractors, new tractors, high tractors, low tractors, red tractors, green tractors...

They must have come from every little town in the vicinity. And the drivers ranged from weather-beaten farmers to mothers/fathers/grandparents with children to Santa Claus himself. Here are some pix my guy took:

The line stretched on forever, it seemed. For over an hour we watched tractors, some pulling trailers with people. There were also cotton pickers, pickup trucks; and a few horse groups:

The crowd was large. I couldn't believe so many people turned out to see a bunch of farmers driving their tractors through the little town of Bostwick! This was just before the parade started:

And this was about halfway through the parade. By that time, I was wishing I had someone's shoulders to sit on!

Afterward, we saw people walking around with stalks of cotton and discovered a nearby field was open for picking. We were tired and we've picked cotton before, so we skipped this part.

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People lined up to tour the cotton gin even though it wouldn't start working till an hour or so later. We were too pooped to wait, but my guy did go through the empty building.

Oh, and I naturally found something good to eat. This funnel cake was one of the best I've had!

Small town festivals! You've got to love 'em!

JULY 4TH CELEBRATIONS

All across America, people celebrated the Fourth of July last Tuesday. I was a little disappointed at the lack of hoopla here in our new home. I'm accustomed to a lot of activities on the Fouruth, but here, the fireworks display was on Saturday before the Fourth.

The county we lived in ten years ago, went all out -- hosting a festival, dance and other activities at the fairgrounds.along with a splendid steam engine parade. The island we just left enjoyed a golf cart parade with veterans showcased, as well as the Sunshine Craft Festival before fireworks that evening.

But this time, we had to settle for a simple reading of the Declaration of Independence. My Indivisible chapter hosted it. Maybe a hundred people showed up, with a local author giving a quick review of Georgia's three representatives. George Walton was only twenty-seven when he signed while Lyman Hall was fifty-three. Both men later served as governors of the state and had counties named for them. (During Hall's term, the legislation creating the University of Georgia was passed: it is the first university in the country chartered by a state government.) Button Gwinnett, alas, had failed at business and farming before getting into politics. He might have done well politicking except that he died about a year after signing the Declaration. Seems he got into an argument with another notable Georgian that led to a duel, and they shot each other. McIntosh survived his wound; Gwinnett did not.

After the brief history lesson, several members (along with their children and grandchildren) each read a sentence or two of the document. When it began describing King George's terrible actions, I couldn't help but think they sounded awfully familiar. A lot like what this President has been doing, as a matter of fact! I later heard that NPR's tweeting of the entire declaration outraged this President's supporters who thought NPR was maligning him.

Finally, three naturalized Americans gave short summaries on what being an American meant to them. I was reminded again that all of us, unless we are pure native Americans, were immigrants or are descended from immigrants.

The gathering lasted less than an hour and was held in the lovely yard of a local restaurant. As far as I know, it was the only acknowledgement of how America came to be.

Here are some photos, courtesy of my guy.

This is the crowd gathering:

Some people had to sit on the ledge:

Others had to sit on the pavers:

This is the beginning of the line of readers:

If I remember correctly, this was the last reader:

And I believe this is one of the naturalized Americans:

BLESSING OF THE FLEET

Sunday, we went up the road to a shrimping community for their annual Blessing of the Fleet. We went early, even though the actual blessing didn't occur until mid afternoon. But we figured with the weather warming -- finally -- we'd better go while it was pleasant. We actually got there before it was technically open for business, though a few booths were open. Not the funnelcake one, sadly.

Anyway, while several shrimp boats came out to be blessed, we saw only a few decked out. I think the poor economy and the poor shrimping has put a damper on the festival. With the sun bearing down, we decided to call it a day before the big event. My guy did get a few pix.

These were docked up from the bandstand:

In this one you can see the bandstand behind the back of the boat on the left. This boat actually belongs to the University of Georgia Marine Extension Service and helps in research about fishing methods, bottom mapping, etc. The third one in the rear had its lines all decorated with tinsel. Wish we had a better shot.

Here we have part of the booths that go along with the Blessing festival. The road was blocked off and the tents set up on each side. There were lots more but this was a nice shaded view. As you can see, this was about an hour before official opening time so it wasn't a bit crowded. Just the way I like it.

I'm happy to see all the festivals springing up again. This winter was just too quiet!