Friday, May 10, 2024

 


Gardens at Bayonne is proud to support the Stories from the Journey project, from Never Remove the Cornerstone author, Byron Coleman, also an instructor with the Discover Your Roots Free Family Research Seminar (https://discoveryourrootsga.org/), with this great fundraiser program with the Fayetteville, Georgia Tidal Wave Auto Spa.

Tickets may be purchased from any Gardens at Bayonne representative at the bargain price of $10.00, entitling the bearer, a $30.00 value car wash!  The current lowest price for a car wash at the Tidal Wave Fayetteville, Georgia location lists for $12.00! It makes sense to get a ticket, just to get a premium wash for $2.00 less than the basic wash. 

Win, win!


"Oh I don't wash my car at those places, I wash my car (or have it washed) by hand, Byron!"

Great! Donate $10 to the cause and 'gift' the ticket to someone like me, who frequently visits the Tidal Wave Auto Spa!

Kevin Brake, Tidal Wave's Site Leader and I appreciate your support of our community's businesses.

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Stories from the garden - October 2020

 

Do this as if it was ‘sacred’—It is!

Aunt Bertha had moved from the Tremé to the East New Orleans neighborhood we called ‘The Goose’ along with my mother, step-father and four siblings in the Spring of 1964.  Shortly after her husband, Gus (Uncle ‘Tand’), her sister, Dora (the one called ‘Shosh’), and Shosh’s husband, (George) passed away before 1960, Aunt Bertha came to live with my mom’s young family in the yellow house in the Tremé.

Aunt Bertha, one of my maternal great-grandfather’s (Peter) sisters was seventy-six years old in the Fall of 1968 when she was still a ‘strong walker,’ but at this point, she demanded one of her great-nephews as an ‘assistant’ on those, now less-frequent walks to ‘take care of her business’—pay utility bills, eye doctor, ear clinic visits, and so on.  The fact was, she still could outpace me and most of my siblings as well as my Uncle Bennie’s, so we all were less than eager to accompany Aunt Bertha on her grueling ‘appointments on foot.’  In spite of her petite stature—it is doubtful she exceeded four-foot-eight inches tall, yet rapid steps, even in high heels, made up for any physical limitations she had.

I was ‘volunteered’ this afternoon of Tuesday, November 5, 1968 to accompany Aunt Bertha to a “walk down the street.”  I had no choice, nor did I question where our destination was, I ‘cooperated’ without protest and was panting like ‘puma running down his prey’ when some ninety seconds later we arrived approximately five-hundred thirty-five feet from our departure point to the local elementary school which was our polling place for the 1968 General Election.   

I watched from the room just outside where the voting booths were stationed, as I took care to be quiet and waited as Aunt Bertha went to the polling administrators and had her credentials checked and signed to vote.  Seconds later, she entered the opened gray-colored vinyl curtained cubicle, pulled the lever, an obnoxious bell-like sound rang simultaneous with the closing of the curtains.  The faint sounds of clicking could be heard from where I stood, patiently waiting, however, I could not detect from which of the now, six closed booths housing voters the clicking sounds originated.  I surmised all of the voters were ‘clicking.’  

Aunt Bertha emerged from the ‘magic’ booth with the same irritating sound of the bell with the curtains parting.  She removed her eyeglasses and carefully placed them in her purse without interrupting her movement towards me and a ‘regal countenance’ on her face said volumes of how she felt about exercising her ‘sacred right.’

The equally brisk walk home was not without incident, as I huffed trying to keep pace, I asked.  “Aunt Bertha, who did you vote for?”

Now, there are ways elders teach the younger generation that oftentimes, ‘sting like hell’ for many years afterwards, however, the point is usually well made, regardless of the pain inflicted.  This was such a lesson.  Aunt Bertha replied, again without breaking stride, “That’s the same thing as asking me to tell you my Social Security Number!  Did you notice the curtains around the booth?  You do know why they put the curtains there, right?”

Lesson over.

I repeated that one-tenth of a mile walk to that same elementary school on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 7, 1972.  This time, I stood in line behind an elderly black woman, undoubtedly an octogenarian, who apparently observed that I was pretty young to be in that particular line awaiting ‘our turn to close the curtains and perform our civic duty.’

“How old are you, dear?” The petite woman whispered while turning inconspicuously so as to insure a degree of privacy in her query.

“I’m eighteen, as of the end of last month, ma’am!” I responded in like confidence and discretion.

“The first time I was allowed to vote, we had to be able to read and write and own property!”  The lovely older woman confided, almost matter-of-factly.

I think of that lovely old lady in that line, more than forty-five years ago, every time I cast a vote at a polling place. I think of the lesson (and so many other ones) Aunt Bertha taught in her gruff, but loving manner.  I was so fortunate to have learned how precious a ‘right’ and the related ‘responsibility’ to exercise I had inherited from those incredible people who preceded me.

The following year after Aunt Bertha taught me the importance of the right to cast a vote, on a sunny, summer day in June 1969, she transitioned from human existence, quietly and privately.

PBS American Portrait Project

It’s your story. Have you joined in the conversation? Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) storytelling project AMERICAN PORTRAIT is a collection of stories contributed by people all over the country – a portrait designed to show and explain what it really means to be an American today.

And that story may have drastically changed over the past few weeks or months. With a health pandemic and countrywide protests, this national storytelling project is more important than ever – it’s a recorded history. So even if you took part in the project earlier, we encourage you to go back and look at some of the new prompts. If you are just getting started, it’s easy! Go to https://www.lpb.org/americanportrait to see the simple instructions on how to upload your entry

Monday, July 29, 2019

Gardens at Bayonne introduces the 'Word of the Day!"

The Word of the Day (WOTD)


How powerful! A single word. That single word is borne out of a single thought.

How appropriate that the first word selected for this maiden effort is: ephemeral

e·phem·er·al

/əˈfem(ə)rəl/


adjective
1.
lasting for a very short time.
"fashions are ephemeral"
synonyms: transitory, transient, fleeting, passing, short-lived, momentary, brief, short, cursory, te
mporary, impermanent, short-term; More
noun
1.
an ephemeral plant.



The idea that a solitary word invokes, subtly, an effort to understand what is meant at the
moment the word is presented. Communication at an elementary level; transmission, initially
presented in written form, reception by another, often gently coaxing an attempt to pronounce
the lone word.

The real magic in this exercise, occurs when both the transmitter and the receiver endeavor to
define the word! The embryonic word offers an explosion of the thought connected with what
began as a single utterance, now has blossomed.

Brilliant!

See the word of the day on twitter at:  https://twitter.com/AtBayonne

Thursday, May 9, 2019

'Buried' kousa

About eight years ago, I planted a four-foot tall kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) in the rear of the center garden at the rear of the property at Ciel sur terre.  Then life happened!  First, I got busy with foster parent training, then with fostering three beautiful young children.  If, that wasn’t enough distractions to cause me to neglect all gardening tasks, I underwent a quad-bypass heart surgery in the spring of 2015!  The weeds were relentless and soon all evidence of the small ornamental tree had succumbed to the more hardy English ivy and wild blackberries.  I had accepted the notion that many gardeners realize many times in their artistic experience—some things you plant will not survive, no matter how resilient they are—face it!

As with most gardeners facing the death of a favorite plant, I mourned briefly and swore off planting another one of these lovely gems.  But to my surprise, last week I glanced out of the dining room window, west through the thicket, now depressingly out of control with undesired overgrowth of everything gardeners detest as undesirable and there was the most beautiful patch of snow-white bracts of my precious kousa dogwood!


The moral of this story, is that from time-to-time the Lazarus Effect of sorts do occur in the plant kingdom—enjoy the journey of gardening!

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Happy New Year!



Farewell 2016!  Greetings 2017!

Seven generations ago the Bayonne name began on a journey in this country.  As quoted by my friend Neil deGrasse Tyson:  "It's time to get going again; come with me!"

Fascinating things are happening everywhere and the camellias and  hellebores are in bloom in Southern Georgia!  I even witnessed redbud (Cercis canadensis) in bloom at the entrance of one of our county's high schools!

Camellia Japonica "Jupiter"

Helleborus "Double Pink"

Here at Gardens at Bayonne, we have embarked on the "quest" to display color in the garden all year round!






Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Take the SunRail to Winter Park!

What began as a long-awaited ride on the Greater Orlando area's commuter train attraction, a subtle recommendation, just over a year, the seed was planted that we consider riding the SunRail, currently servicing twelve stops from Volusia County, Orange County and ending through Downtown Orlando. Representatives from Gardens at Bayonne embarked on an adventure that began with the impressive train ride from Debary, Florida.

We toured the bi-level car, the upper level, which was richly equipped with tables and warm, plush seating was pleasant to look at and comfortable for a longer journey.  We used the free WiFi and had no difficulty hearing the other party on our phone calls with the train in full throttle.  The sleek, high-tech MPIMP32PH-Q diesel locomotive moved smoothly and swiftly (averaging more than forty-five miles per hour) from the Debary station, our starting point, through Sanford, Lake Mary, and then to the Longwood station. The discussion between our party easily settled on the topic of gardening as we approached the Altamonte Springs station. We visited several residential gardens in the Central Florida region in the past two decades and recalled many spectacular gardens in Altamonte Springs.  We were still discussing the beauty of the gardens we had visited and noticed we had just departed from Maitland and was rapidly approaching Winter Park.

Although our dinner plans had been orchestrated to commence at the award-winning Bosphorus (Turkish Cuisine) on Park Avenue in Winter Park, a surprising unscheduled stop at the Winter Park Central Park became the most visually stimulating part of the adventure! Our gracious hostess, Mrs. Rebecca Nedd Francis, with the loving support of her husband, Bennie Francis ushered us through a beautiful park, lined with generous concrete and brick pathways, allowing for a small family of four to walk side-by-side.  At every few meters, the most intriguing and inspiring views kept us eager to see the next exhibit, such as the fall trees segmented panels, with vibrant sky-blue and rich autumn golds and browns spread across six, ample and solidly-anchored screens, several fountains and a most impressive rose garden.

The peacock, the city's mascot, dons various conspicuous locations, including the rose garden's center piece fountain as well as at the top of the SunRail Winter Park Station.






This crown jewel of parks in Winter Park, Florida is a must see, particularly if you have the opportunity to tour this remarkable place while being with people you love and admire, share some common interests and can stand being tantalized with the anticipation of "breaking bread"at the end of the day at Bosphorous Turkish Cusine, complete with baklava for desert!









Well,  I won't boast to you (not too much) about the mouth-watering details of that tremendous experience, after all, this site is dedicated to the subject of gardening, so instead, you'll have to settle for a sampling of some fantastic roses, courtesy Winter Park Central Park!





Check back soon, Bayonne Gardens will share more of the tours from around the world!



Stunning!





For more information on Winter Park, Florida, please visit: https://cityofwinterpark.org/

For more information on the SunRail, see:http://sunrail.com/

For information about Bosphorous Turkish Cuisine, see:  http://bosphorousrestaurant.com/