A Walk at the Fair

Sheila, Mother, and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the 43rd Chiaha Harvest Fair today. As I type this I can hear the music from the festival stage directly across the river. (Our proximity to Ridge Ferry Park is often a blessing, sometimes a curse.) It's been years since I have been to Chiaha. Our late (RIP) Out and About Georgia's Rome magazine was the official magazine of the Heritage Holidays (of which Chiaha is a member event) for several years so we used to be there every year with boxes of magazines to distribute and the trusty Yashica camera to capture images for future editions.

Today we were stirred to attend by a gracious invitation from our blogging friend, The Questing Parson, who helped Ms. Parson set up her display of gorgeous stained glass. I'll bet he wishes she'd stick to her pretty windows and window hangings -- those concrete benches with inlaid stain-glass designs look heavy! We enjoyed seeing her art and meeting the artist and her daughter, and other friends who happened by during our visit. Unfortunately our timing was off and we missed the parson altogether.

Our purchases were few. We had our fried peach pies, of course. I didn't see the free cider from the big iron kettle, a tradition from the earliest days of the annual festival that must have somehow fallen by the wayside.

At the library booth we picked up a used copy of Jimmy Carter's Christmas in Plains.

At Joe Cook's booth we admired his beautiful nature photography and purchased a copy of the two wildflower guides with his photography: Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains by Leonard M. Adkins with photographs by Joe Cook; and Wildflowers of the Appalachian Trail, 2nd edition also by Leonard Adkins with photographs by Joe and Monica Cook. The AT book won the Design and Artistic Merit Category in the 1999 National Outdoor Book Awards. Both books are lovely, high-quality soft-bound books with full page color photographs of the wildflowers and facing page description of the flower and information about its bloom season, its leaves and stems, and its range as well as several paragraphs of commentary by Atkins.

{Excuse me while I rant a moment}


Cartoon from CRBI. Used without permission. If anyone objects please let me know and I'll take it down.

Joe's day job is as director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative. Please let your state and local officials know your opinion of the interbasin transfer of water. The Atlanta folks are currently diverting millions of gallons of water a day from our watershed (the Etowah) to theirs (the Chattahoochee) and NOT returning even the treated wastewater that results. If the new Georgia water plan is approved that will increase. Now I figure it's not the fault of the flora and fauna (including Homo sapiens) that inhabit the Etowah/Coosa/Alabama River basin that a gazillion people decided to live on a little bitty (Chattahoochee) river in North central Georgia. We shouldn't have to have to lose our livelihoods, recreational lakes, and, in the case of some critters and plants, our lives, to flush Atlanta toilets! If they want our water they should at least have to pay for the infrastructure to allow the return of wastewater to the Coosa. We are willing to put up with modest transfers IF the wastewater is returned to replenish the Coosa.

{End of rant}

Thanks for the invite, Parson. Sorry we missed you.