All in all we had a great time and I do love exploring new places. The last day in Savannah I got to visit a lovely needlepoint store which carried a little bit of knitting. I was met by a fine gentleman who was wearing a beautiful entrelac sweater of Noro Kureyon. I really should have taken his picture.
There were 2 themes about our time in Savannah that I wanted to share. The first was the gigantic deal that St Patrick's Day is there. It would appear that they decorate for this Irish holiday the way that most places decorate for Christmas. Every store was decked out in green and there were St Patrick's day deals offered to tourists that began Feb. 20th and went right through until the big day on March 17th when the city is descended upon by revellers from all over the continent, of all races and nationalities, for the big parade. Apparently there was a time when 1/3 of the population of Savannah were refugees from the Irish potato famine. Of course, that would include Scarlett O'Hara's father and probably many others throughout the history of Georgia.
The other major theme that one runs into throughout Savannah is a literary one, in the form of John Berendt's book: "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil". For those of you who don't know this book/movie, I would highly recommend it. The author is actually a reporter who writes his stories in the most interesting style, that makes you believe that you are getting the best of a great murder mystery combined with the excellent detail of a colourful magazine article. One of the main characters in this book has got to be the city of Savannah herself. Most people that I know who had visited the city had done so because of the book. It's like reading about a wonderful grand Dame that you just have to meet. On the cover of the book is a photograph of "The Bird Girl", a statue which was originally in Bonaventure cemetery (the garden of the title) and is truly a piece of exquisite beauty. You can see a version of the sculpture in this picture along with copies of the book and CD's of the spoken version, and Dvds of the movie (starring Kevin Spacey).
Having been such a big fan of the book and the author (played by John Cusack in the movie) I had to pick up a copy of his next book: The City of Falling Angels which is about the fire which destroyed the opera house in Venice a few years ago. I can't wait to get into it.
But back to the real world. Bills to pay and yarn to sort will only be put off for so long.
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