Savannah

The Smithsonian Folkways Collection

Real voices of real people with real emotion. Much of the collection is freely available and downloadable on iTunesU. As Pete Seeger said … “If you’re ever feeling a little down … listen to what these people have to say!” Music from the heart and soul. And what music! Enjoy.

The Smithsonian Folkways Collection

The secrets of a garlic grower

The secrets of a garlic grower. Very nice Sunday reading … just in case you haven’t found anything else!

Savannah Book Festival Every February

What exactly is the Savannah Book Festival?

The Savannah Book Festival is a fun, informative and entertaining three-day event in February that celebrates books and the written word. We bring in authors from around the country to Savannah, who then present their work to audiences of booklovers eager to hear what they have to say.

Here is a link to the site!

Newsletter: 16 September 2010

Mid-September is invigorating. Fresh. new. The hot, humid lazy summer’s behind us. It’s an encouraging month. It’s a forward-looking month.

Here in Paris, after a hint of the weather to come, the air is a little cooler, the clouds a bit higher, the days not quite so long. September is the background to the beginning of the year.

September is a school month.

Who doesn’t remember having to wake up, getting washed and dressed, gathering books and notebooks, pencil, paper and ruler, just in time for a quick breakfast and … out: September waiting for you outside on the doorstep.

It was the same whether you were student … or teacher … or a mother or father getting ready for your day.

September is optimistic.

It’s organizational. It’s putting things into order. And planning on how to get everything done on time. By Thursday. Schools mean … tests, too! But that’s not yet. This is September. We’ve got time … We’ve JUST started!

There are hundreds of schools in Paris and thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of students. Paris is a student’s paradise. And the center of the paradise is the Luxembourg Gardens, haven of peace in the whirlwind of the city, where students young and not so young anymore, do what we need to do most: learn to live in the outside world. September is the background.

September is an autumn color month. Yellows and gold and shades of browns and reds and crimson. Dark greens.

September is, perhaps, the most hospitable month of the year over here. There’s the shade of the chestnut trees and the sun streaming through, just right, so you can sit outdoors and if it does get too cool … you throw on a sweater, a pullover, a jacket … or go into a nearby (yes, smokeless!) café where you can appreciate the aroma of coffee.

September welcomes the world.

Paris and Savannah are extraordinary places to be in September. We have so much to learn! From our pasts, from each other.

September is here. October’s not so far off. What’s on your schedule? Good luck! Study, work hard, you won’t regret it! There’s so much more to be said about September … but it’s already 8:30 …and I’ve gotta go!

Sister Cities

Charleston and Savannah are sister cities. Both are located on the Atlantic coast and were among the earliest towns founded by the British.

If you’re going to Savannah, you might also want to visit Charleston. If you’re going to Charleston, you MUST visit Savannah!

In either direction, be sure to spend the day in Beaufort.

Pronounce BEW FUR T

The New York Times just published …

36 hours in Charleston!

36 hours in Savannah

While I strongly suggest you spend much, much longer in Savannah, here’s what the NYT suggested a while back … This needs some updating but it might give a taste to some of readers who’ve never had the opportunity to spend …

36 hours in Savannah.

Here are just a few Savannah scenes:

paris savannah newsletter 10

Notes from a weekend out at sea – by Catherine Rendon.

Some mornings the tide brings in lots of sand dollars. This is what it brought in this morning!

by Catherine Rendon,

This past weekend we went sailing on an old wooden boat, a 30ft Morris, named “Joy”. The captain, Michael Richter, is the first mate of the R(esearch) V(essel) “Savannah” –Skidaway Oceanographic Institute’s boat. Michael and Paul are diving buddies and friends. “Joy” is heavy and slow and her teak deck is weathered. I started and finished the last of Larsen’s Millenium trilogy, my feet overhanging the bow occasionally being splashed or having the water cover my feet. The water like wall paper with a design of random cannonball jellyfish patterned here and there. On our first day out we saw four big old turtles swimming out at sea. They saw us too, big and heavy and quiet.

In the evening when we anchored we were surrounded by dolphin and were so close we could hear them breathing. They sound just like people. It was odd, looking at the night sky up on deck and hearing these familiar sighs and breaths so close by and not know them. They probably felt almost at home with our similar noises just above them. Yesterday we sailed back at a steady six knots from Hilton Head. We saw dolphins,pelicans diving and terns sitting on an old floating log, plus plenty of fish jumping. We sailed into a late summer squall/ It was beautiful. Turner would have liked all the greys. Then it was sunny again and we docked. We got back and jumped into the pool and got all the salt off ourselves. We had swum in the sea off of “Joy” but the current was ripping. We anchored near a shrimper whose anchor dragged all night and by morning he
was a distant silhouette.