doorways

Life is a series of pathways and doorways.

The doorway to life is always open;
with welcoming arms she calls you in.
Some doors are large and some are small,
but no matter the size they have one thing in common.

To let you in to a room or a garden,
a new slant on life that's sure to be different.
A door to a church where we go to pray,
a door to a heart where we long to stay.

Red doors or brown doors,
tin ones or wooden,
some with bars and padlocks
to form a prison.

I remember a door in a small town in Cornwall with a porch made of wood,
surrounded by creepers, so quaint, so welcoming, so olde world charming.
A door to a cottage built long long ago.

Doorways to pubs and doorways to schools;
No matter our age,
our gender or colour,
we all go through doors on our way to our goals.

We have to enter new doors each fresh day to take us forever onwards;
To open new chapters in life's endless search for avenues of learning.

Doors by Tricia McGill, Australia

~photo - vintage doors, Railroad Street, Royston, Georgia, 4 February, 2009

snowed in

The snow fell on Sunday afternoon in big beautiful flakes, quickly blanketing the small town of Royston, creating a picture perfect winter day.

Now on Monday night after 24 hours of no electricity, I am ready for the snow to leave. Hey, we got a snow day off of work, it was good while it lasted.

snow slide show

window shopping

Shopping in downtown Royston, mostly just window shopping or looking, but I had to get this little folk art 'Quilt Barn'. I saw some nice old quilts which were about $55. I guess that is a good price, but just looking for now.

I met some nice people, shop owners trying to make a living. This is not a tourist town, so there is not much traffic to sustain the shops. One man said Royston is a great place to live if you work somewhere else.

The antiques are interesting to look at, they bring back memories of furniture and furnishings seen at my grandparents' house. But I have never been one to buy anything like that, we have way more 'stuff' than we need at home already. It is fun to look at, something to do after work, just walking around town.

hitting the trail

Rice Creek in Virginia Bryant State Park

Leave only footprints...

Sliding Rock

Virginia Bryant State Park, Franklin County, Georgia

Back in the hiking shoes once again! Sunday was a beautiful February day, sunny and 60s, perfect for being outside and hiking.

We went to nearby Virginia Bryant State Park and did some hiking and geocaching. It was good to be outside again and on the trail.

The park was not too crowded today, a few campers, picnickers, hikers. But when we rounded the bend in the narrow park road and saw the extensive parking lots and the wide creek with sliding rock, we could almost envision the crowds that would come here in the summer.

art and antiques

On a walking tour of downtown Royston, Georgia -
mural of forest, mountains, do you see the train?

Window shopping at Once Upon a Time Antique Store

Ty Cobb mural honoring hometown boy

dusty antique Triumph TR6 in local garage window

its in the details

Royston, Georgia - Lots of brick in this town, almost all of the downtown buildings are brick with a lot of detail and design built in.


The entire downtown is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

A lot of the buildings are empty, there are several antiques stores and a couple of restaurants. Pictured above in the Mercer Building is a scrapbooking store.



Speaking of brick, a brick company representative came to the job yesterday and took us out to lunch! She is about our age and instead of talking shop, she told us about her family, kids, grandkids, and her 88-year-old father. She described how she made her father a lap quilt for his 85th birthday using some of his old bib overalls, salvaging parts of them that weren't worn out after years of hard work on the farm.

The lunch was enjoyable, the food delicious - we ate at Bob's Small Town Grille (formerly a dry goods store) in the historic Holbrook building circa 1922.