{400} Oak Trees: what my dreams are made of

Well, it is really no secret that I've had quite the long standing love affair with the South. Say...since I was 12 years old and read through Gone with the Wind one Summer like it was a nursery rhyme. A really long, petulent nursery rhyme.   Fast forward to Nicholas Sparks and every novel he's ever written and every movie that's ever been translated to a screenplay and well there you have it. This place {collective deep sigh}:   

Source: Uploaded by user via Jessica on Pinterest

   The Wormsloe Plantation in Savannah, GA. It was on my travel bucket list when I went to visit, oh a year and  half ago, but...I never made it. I half suspect that I had to keep something still on the list so that I'd have a good reason to go back again. I think that in this year that I've declared to be one where I get back to what makes me think and dream and feel free again - the one that feels authentically me again, travel is a must.  I must go see this beautiful place that haunts my happy thoughts.   You see, in the movie version of my life, I live in a place like this. My driveway has 400 sentinel oak trees that welcome me home every day and an army of 400,000 crickets that lull me to sleep every night.    The only thing that could make this better is if I was at home watching these movies  next to my fireplace while listening to the rain beat down on my tin roof.   Be still my mossy oak tree driveway lined, balmy weather, accent lovin' heart. Be still. It's coming all in due time.   <3   This blog post was brought you you courtesty of: the ABC Family channel and their full night of Nicholas Sparks-esq movies.

My {Southern} Bonaventure

If you look closely at a tree, you'll notice it's knots and dead branches, just like our bodies.  What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully.

~ Matthew Fox

One of my absolute favorite things about photography is that it can transport you to

a different, unseen, past or forgotten moment in time. 

It.is.time-travel.

I love being able to visually walk in someone else's shoes or share a moment from my life-in-pictures with someone who may never get to travel to the places I've been blessed to have seen.

Last year, this day exactly, July 13th, I was in Savannah, GA and more specifically I was wandering through the hauntingly beautiful, moss-draped tree canopy of the Bonaventure Cemetery.

The cemetery is a short drive from Downtown Savannah, near the end of a well-established neighborhood.

This caution sign, least of my worries, was more of a beacon. 

I love the character in the drapery of the trees in this part of the country.

Someday, I will live where trees like this are indigenous.

Even now, a year later, I have hardly posted these pictures. 

Always with intention to share them with all my friends and family, somehow they got lost in "edit" and stuck in a file, not to be resurrected until today.

I wandered the Cemetery for the better part of two hours, camera in hand. 

I took hundreds of pictures in that time.

Every row, every around the corner was a snapshot back in time.

Off the beaten path, no major roadways nearby, with hardly a breeze, as I walked around, I stepped carefully over grave markers, respecting that was on hollowed ground.

All I could hear was the hum of insects and the occasional cry of a bird overhead. 

I could attempt to describe the vastness of the row and rows of family names and plots centuries old, but as they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words."

I did not stumble upon this place by chance.

My very intention for visiting Savannah, GA last Summer was for this cemetery.

I have been in love with the South since I was a kid.

When I was a kid there was no Internet or Kindle.

There was the library, where you had to fill out a paper application to get a paper card to gain access to get inside to short-term "borrow" a book that belonged to the community.
There were books, mostly old ones, an occasional few new ones.

They were short books, there were hardbacks, there were a few on tape, but then, there were the novels.

At the ripe age of twelve, I read (devoured) Gone With The Wind.

After I spend the better part of a week turning through the used, and worn pages of that library rental, I turned it in and then I checked out the VHS tapes. 

In words and cinematography, it was Southern love at first sight. 

    

This gravesite is a library, rows of plots the shelves, headstones the books.

Each one bearing a name with a set of beginning and end dates, the - in between, the summation of an entire life that left me wondering what stories each of the people buried beneath the soil lived.

This place, this historical site, completely drew me in. 

I studied the faces of the sculptures, reveled in the vines that grew over markers, stood in awe underneath the trees that stood tall and surrounded this place like sentinels.

This cemetery, hauntingly beautiful and comfortably quiet, was like going back in a time untouched.

There was hardly anyone else visiting that day.

A small handful of others, adventurers, off-the-path wanderers, with their own cameras in hand {my fellow photographers, we recognized each other}.
We smiled quietly at each other as we passed in silence.

Even void of color and light, these images are beautiful.

They are both bold & delicate.

They are a question & and an answer.

"To forget one's ancestors is to be a brook without a source, a tree without root" ~ Chinese proverb

This trip, this place, this day is one of my favorite pages in my Book of Wanderlust.

These pictures are my memory, my tribute to the history of this place, to the people buried here,
and they are my gift to you, my reader.


~ Lauren

WIWW & the {Wallflowers}

  It's Wednesday & this is what I wore…

(well, really, this is more about where I wore it, why I wore it, and who I wore it to go see)

This is picture heavy, because that's just what I do.

the evening's dress code was "smart-casual"

for s&g, I put on my old glasses for the smart part... 

smart might look cute, but LASIK is just more convenient

I do miss those frames though...maybe next week's dress code will be "faux-smart-casual"

{oh bracelets, you will now always be the secondary bling on my wrist
I just love this new tattoo so much, it's my forever accessory}

On the way to our "smart-casual" event, we made a couple of stops.



1) the Berkeley Bare Essentuals store, where I scored a great deal and had a nice chat with a new acquaintance. Seriously, I should own stock in BE by now.

2) Philz Coffee, for a Mojito Mocha, yes you heard right, mint IN the coffee…and it was waaay worth the long-short detour.

{score for frequent buyer cards!  & a coffee shop where you can leave your favorite mug behind for when you come back and visit again}

What I Wore Wednesday:

army green shirt and black leggings from Target (old)

coral blousy tank (Ross)

Carlos Santana boots (Ross from last year and a steal at $50!, I get more compliments on these boots than any other shoes I own)

{love the Bay Bridge}

Our route down Embarcadero to Bay St was s-l-o-w as m-o-l-a-s-s-e-s, but the music was good, the weather was beautiful, and the company was great. Nevermind that pesky fire that burned down Pier 29 and shut down the street (that explains it!), we eventually found a new route and just made the show as the doors opened.



Last week my friend, and fellow blogger, Lynn, announced on Facebook that she had won tickets to see a private taping of the Wallflowers by Live! from (((the Artists Den)))

Remember them? They're still around and they have a new album coming out.

I admit, I don't really follow the band, but I am a huge music lover and so I volunteered (and had to beg, borrow, and practically steal for a couple of hours of time off to be able to go) to take the extra ticket and run off to the city for the night.

{the Wallflowers and front man Jakob Dylan, oh what a voice}

Bimbos on Columbus St, despite the name, is beautifully aged and very classy.

Even classier, the Ladies room attendant was name Millie Jean and she was just the sweetest thing.

Who needs Cinderalla's Mirror when you have Millie Jean to call you "babygirl", tell you how pretty you look, and remind you to untuck your shirt from your panties before you walk out into the crowd.

Every girl should have a Millie Jean.

{this is Lynn...framed by the Bimbo sign}

The show was great, the crowd was definitely smart, totally casual, and very, very San Francisco.

Here's to Wednesdays and to the Wallflowers!!!