Indian Regiments marching in Paris Bastille Day Parade, 14 July 2023

(Notice: I have not written a post in almost three months, but am making up with this post...) Time has gone by very quickly since my last post in early May on my trip to the North Georgia Mountains. When I returned to my house in Cobb County, GA., the water heater needed to be replaced. Then in June I traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to spend time with my daughter Celine and her family. I had planned to write a post on this visit but had to return to my house in Georgia in early July because two trees had fallen on the roof.

As I am writing this post my air conditioning unit stopped working on Friday in the upper part of the house in Nashville. My bedroom temperature went up to 97 F (36 C,) making it difficult to have a good night sleep. The Weather Forecast Channel on TV just told us to expect more warm days coming up - feeling like 117 F (47.2C) in Nashville. Scientists are saying that this month of July 2023 has been the warmest on record so far and might even be the warmest the planet has experienced in 120,000 years! But, no fear, my hairdresser in Georgia told me last week that there is no climate change, it's just a "liberal" plot ... (Cartoon courtesy New Orleans The Times Picayune.)

Through the plantation shutters next to my laptop desk I can see little birds getting a relief from the heat in the small water dish I placed on the front porch. It is the bottom dish of a large planter. I also placed a "Mosquito Dunk" tablet in it to avoid mosquito larvae (non toxic to birds, pets, animals or humans) that I purchased on Amazon. I like watching all the different birds having a good time, sometimes up to 6 or 8 of them at a time.

In spite of my house problems I was able to watch the Paris 14 of July celebrations on the French Military Armed Forces website and also on the Mayor of Paris website. The French National Holiday is called "Le 14 Juillet" (14 July) but English speaking people call it "Bastille Day" after the storming of the Bastille prison in 1789 during the French Revolution (however, in France, no one would know what you mean if you asked about Bastille Day.) What people don't realize here is that there were only 3 prisoners in the huge Bastille jail then. The people had stormed it because it contained arms and ammunitions, not to free the 3 prisoners. In previous posts I explained the history of the holiday; please look under Bastille Day on the right side of my blog.

The celebrations start on the evening of July 13 with a torchlight procession, that is, participants in many cities and villages walk down streets holding torches or lanterns/lampoons in their hands, following a local band, then go on to a public square for public dancing. On the morning of the 14 there is the traditional Défilé Militaire du 14 juillet, or Bastille Day Military Parade, down the Champs-Elysees. Started in 1880, it is one of the oldest military parades in the world. It is the main official event honoring French military regiments and includes each year different invited foreign guests and regiments. This is one of the main occasions when you will see many French flags all around. French people respect their flag but the rest of the time they don't have it on their cars, or flown from their houses, etc. You will see it in official places like schools, police stations, customs check-points, and in support of the national teams during international competitions but you won't find it in front of a commercial business, or on tee-shirts, baseball caps, clothes or other decorative objects. As in many European countries (apart from the UK that is a constitutional monarchy)people placing out too many national flags are frown upon and considered to be extreme-right extremists, or uber nationalists. In addition, there is no "Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag" in France like in the United States. Again, most European citizens of democratic countries would find it quite bizarre, not saying undemocratic, incredibly creepy and borderline fascistic.

For 2023, the Bastille Day parade included 6,500 people (5,100 of them marching,) 64 planes, 28 helicopters, 157 ground vehicles, 62 motorcycles, 200 horses and 86 dogs. Nearly 15 countries were invited to the parade including India, this year guest of honor. Prime Minister Norendra Modi watched the parade alongside French President Emmanuel Macron. It was also the 25th anniversary of the India-France Strategic Partnership and the 70th anniversary of the Patrouille de France. The Patrouille had their traditional aerial display that included French-made Indian war planes. Vehicles on display included the Caesar anti-missile batteries that France is providing to Ukraine, and Ukrainian officials were also invited to join Pres. Macron in the VIP seats. Below Patrouille de France (courtesy Ministeres des Armees.)

Another highlight were students from partner African military schools (Benin, Congo-Brazzavile, Gabon, Madagascar, Ivory Coast and Senegal) marching with residents of French military schools. Below photos of two of the African military schools in the parade, from Madagascar on top photo and Ivory Coast on the bottom. (Courtesy Madagascar Tribune.)

In tribute to the 80th anniversary of the disappearance of Jean Moulin, the French civil servant hero who created the National Council of the French Resistance, musicians played the "Chant des partisants," a song that is a symbol of indomitable spirit against evil. This was the French Resistance anthem during World War II. Jean Moulin, 1899-1943, the leader of the Resistance, was tortured by the Nazis in one prison after another and died in 1943 in a train taking him to Germany. An international orchestra, made up of 80 musicians from France and 14 partner countries (Canada, The Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States) played for the parade until the Patrouille de France flew over.

The parade included a 269 member tri-services contingent of the Indian Armed Forces with 77 marching personnel and 38 band members (including the Rajputana Rifles Regiment Band,) led by Captain Aman Jagtap. The Indian Navy contingent was being led by Commander Vrat Baghel, while Squadron Leader Sindhu Reddy lead the Indian Air Force contingent. The Punjab Regiment had been selected to represent the Indian Army for this Bastille Day celebrations. The Punjab Regiment, one of the oldest Infantry Regiments of the Indian Army that traces its origins to 1761, had participated in both World Wars as well as post-independence operations. Historically, 107 years ago, the Punjab Regiment had marched down the Champs-Elysees for the 14 July 1916 parade, after taking part in some battles of World War I. (Photos courtesy Ministere des Armees, La Ville de Paris, and the Élysée Palace.) Please click on collage to enlarge.

Below are vintage photographs and postcards of the Punjab Regiment at the 14 July parade of 1916 and at the rail station Gare du Nord (below right.) Top left photo is a French lady pinning a flower in gratitude on one of the Indian soldiers' lapel.

World War I began on August 4, 1914, after Great Britain declared war against Germany. When the British Army requested military support from their Indian colony, Sikhs, Pendjabis and Gurkas arrived in Marseille, France. On September 26, 1914, the British Punjab's 20th troop of the Lahore Division and of the 129th Baluchis of pre-partition India were the first colonial force to deploy in Europe. They trained in Marseille while waiting to be sent to the front lines. Below are vintage postcards of the Anglo-Indian regiments in Marseille, France in Sept. 1914.

Then these Anglo-Indian troops went to Toulouse and Orleans, France, on their way north. Between September 1914 and October 1918, 140,000 Indian troops arrived to fight in France and Belgium. Below are vintage postcards of them in France.

As you can see there were quite a few Indian troops in the First World War, but I have never heard about them in the US - they must have been forgotten here. I tried to find books in English on this subject, but could not, but I did find books published in France. Below a couple of them plus an article on the Excelsior Journal published in France on December 14, 1914, showing injured Indian soldiers.

In the north of France they took part in an offensive near Neuve-Chapelle from March 10 to 13, 1915, earning the Battle Honors "Loos" and "France and Flanders" - over 8,550 were killed and as many as 50,000 more were wounded. In total about 10,000 Indian soldiers died in France during the First World War. Several monuments in their honor were erected in France, notably the Neuve-Chapelle Memorial. It was inaugurated on 7 October, 1927, by Marshal Foch, and attended by the Maharaja of Karputhala, Rudyard Kipling and a large contingent of Indian veterans representing units that fought in France, including Sikhs, Dogras and Garhwalis. Marshal Ferdinand Foch (French, 1851-1919,) the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces (and generally considered the leader most reponsible for the Allied victory,) gave a speech, including this: "Return to your homes in the distant, sun-bathed East and proclaim how your countrymen drenched with their blood the cold northern land of France and Flanders, and how they delivered it by their ardent spirit from the firm grip of a determined army; tell all India that we shall watch over their graves with the devotion due to all our dead. We shall cherish above all the memory of their example. They showed us the way, they made the first steps towards the final victory." Speaking after the war, Marshal Foch said the Indian Army had delivered the war's first decisive steps to victory; they were critical in stemming the tide of the German invasion of Belgium and France. Without their early arrival, the port of Calais would not have been saved, the Western Front would have been breached and the British Expeditionary Forces annihilated. Below photos of the Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial.

Again in World War II, 1.5 million Anglo-Indian soldiers (including Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs) came to defend Africa and Europe. 130,000 of them came to France where thousands died or were wounded. They earned 16 Battle Honors and 14 Theatre Honors. On May 28, 1940, 300 Indian soldiers (all of them Muslims) and 23 British troops evacuated the city of Dunkirk, but their story has been mostly forgotten, as well as in movies about Dunkirk. Read about it here or on the BBC report here. (World War Two: The forgotten Indian soldiers of Dunkirk.) Numerous soldiers hailing from former French trading posts in India - now in present day Pondicherry/Puducherry - also fought in France. France never forgot the suffering and heroism of all these men. President Macron tweeted "This 14 July, soldiers and Rafale aircraft from India are marching and flying alongside our troops. We honor the memory of those who fough with the French in the two World Wars." Photo below British Indian Army Service Corps on parade in France in 1940 (courtesy Wikipedia.)

Another unsung hero coming from India was Noor Inayat Khan (1914-1944) the descendant of Indian royalty. She was the daughter of an Indian Sufi mystic, Inayat Khan, born in Bombay. He lived in Europe as a musician and teacher of Sufism where he became the head of the "Sufi Order of the West." Her mother was an American, Ora Ray Baker, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Noor, also known as Nora Baker, was an SOE agent under the French Resistance, her code name was "Madeleine." She was the first female wireless operator sent from the UK to aid the French Resistance during World War II. She was betrayed, captured, tortured then executed at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany. On January 16, 1946, French President Charles de Gaulle awarded her the Croix de Guerre (highest civilian honor.) She was also honored with the British S. George Cross. There is a plaque (shown below) outside her family home in Suresnes, France. A band plays there every year on Bastille Day. A square in the city of Suresnes has been named Cours Madeleine after her. Photos courtesy the National Archives and Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust: top left Noor and her mother Ora, next to Noor playing her veena instrument; bottom photo of Noor's family.

A school in Suresnes, a city 9.3 km (5.7 miles) from the center of Paris, is named after her.

French history with India is a long one, over three centuries, from 1674 to 1954. I remember when I was a small girl studying in Paris public primary school, France still had trading posts in India. I had to memorize their difficult to pronounce names. They sounded so exotic - I dreamed of visiting these far-away places. I have not yet, but it's still on my list... In 1673, under the reign of French King Louis XIV, France purchased Chandernagore from the Mughal Governor of Bengal. The following year France purchased Pondicherry from the Sultan of Bijapur, and other parts of south India. After the Treaty of Paris of 1763 France only kept five "comptoirs" (or trading posts) in India: Pondicherry, Chandernagor, Karikal, Mahe and Yanaon. (I still remember their names!) When India obtained its independence from the UK in 1947, talks were taken to return four of the French comptoirs to the Indian Union. This was done on November 1, 1954. However the people of Pondicherry were pro-French and feared the overpowering weight of the Indian administrative machinery. After several years of negotiations, an agreement was reached between France and India and a treaty was ratified by the French Parliament in July 1962. By this treaty Pondicherry became Indian Territory and its inhabitants Indian nationals. However, France gave them a six-month opportunity to obtain French citizenship - 8000 of them signed up. It was difficult for them to decide as they were Indians but also went to French schools, spoke French and had been imbued with French culture.

Of course, now sixty-two years later, the French influence in Pondicherry is fading away, but still...it retains some French culture, for example the headgear of the policemen represents the design adopted in France. There are many French-style houses left along the Bay of Bengal. Pondicherry has a large "French" area in town, with French city streets, cobblestones, restaurants, etc. French is one of the official languages of the Pondicherry's government. A French church, built in 1855, offers mass in three languages - Tamil, French and English. Many streets have retained their French names. There are still 5,500 French-Indian and French people living there, many retire there from France as well. A few years ago the film "The Life of Pi" was filmed in Pondicherry, starting with a scene in the shaded and peaceful Jardins Botaniques. (Photos courtesy Pondy Tourism.)

Pondicherry, Pondichéry in French, Pondy for short or Puducherry, as it is officially known, is not a large town. It is about 150 miles from the large city of Chennai (was Madras) on the south eastern coast of India. It's a little bit of France in India. The French Quarter is reminiscent of the New Orleans French Quarter. There is a French Consulate (see their sign in the heading photo) French school and college, The Alliance Francaise, French bakeries and shops and, of course, the celebrations of the 14 of July, or Bastille Day in India.

Bastille Day is a yearly festival in Pondy. On the evening of the 13th there is a lantern march along the Beach Promenade followed by a public dancing for 600 people. Several buildings are illuminated in blue, white and red after the French flag. The police band plays national songs of India and France as part of the celebration. On the 14th, there is a march to the monuments honoring French-Indians and Indians who died in the wars and also to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi (that is illuminated in the tri-colors.) In the evening of the 14th traditional fireworks are fired in front of the French Consulate. I don't think another foreign country in Asia (or anywhere else) sponsors an official French Bastille Day.

Meanwhile, in Paris, on this July 14, 2023, the crowd attended the usual free concert followed by the fireworks shot from the Eiffel Tower. (Photos courtesy City of Paris.)

Another day in the mountains...

The weekend before I visited the Hamilton Rhododendron Gardens in Hiawassee, GA. (see my previous post here ) was the beginning of their weekend festivals. There were some vendors' tents but they were closed, apart from one that was partly opened. You could see the rustic wood pieces for sale. Before I left the gardens I checked to see if someone was in this tent, but there was no one, although I was able to get a business card of the wood craftsman. In 2019 a large hackberry tree in front of my house in Nashville was struck by lightning and had to be cut down. A piece of the tree was given to me and it fit on top of a plant stand I had. So I was interested in a little table I had seen under the tent in the garden as a match for my plant stand.

Upon return to the lodge I called the wood artisan and left a message. He called me back and told me he had some pieces for sale in his house and only lived about 6 miles away in Young Harris, GA. We agreed that I would go there the next morning early, before 9 am as I had to meet a friend in Hiawassee at 10:30 am. He gave me his address and said I could find it easily with my GPS. I got up at 6 am the next morning to pack and have a quick breakfast. I was able to take a photo of the sunrise over the lake as pictured in my header photo. I checked Google Maps and saw his house in the middle of woods on a hill. Below is a map of the aread where I was. It is located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains on the border of Georgia and North Carolina. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

I placed the address in my car GPS and drove away. Upon reaching Young Harris my GPS told me to turn right on GA State Route 66, then left, then a bit later right, then further on left, then right again, then left and then it said "You have reached your destination." I was on a hill with no houses anywhere near. I called him and he told me two roads had the same name and I was on the wrong one. My GPS was useless then and I could not remember all the turns. After a while I tried to call him again but I was on a tiny road on a hill and there was no cellular signal. I kept driving but the road was twisting up the mountain. I was totally lost.

I had seen a house on the side, among the trees, and started going back toward their driveway to ask for directions. Then I remembered that I was in the US, and asking directions can be dangerous. The red marker on the map below shows where his house was and the black cross near the North Carolina border, in the mountains, was where I went.

I gingerly turned around (as by then the road was one lane) and after twists and turns somehow got back on the main road where my cell phone worked again and he came and met me. I did find a small table at his house and bought it. Then I had to find my way back to the main road again... not easy. This little trip should have taken me 45 minutes but ended taking almost 2 hours (I was lost for a long time...) Luckily I made it back to Hiawassee by 10:30 am to meet my Swiss friend. Then after a nice visit with a strong cup of coffee and a tasty piece of almond cake I drove down the road again toward Bavarian-style Helen, Georgia. It was a lovely morning and the route around the mountains is scenic but I had forgotten that it is steep hill mountain driving on a winding road with blind curves. Although I am used to these mountain roads if I don't use the interstate highways between Tennessee and Georgia, but I had to keep my eyes on the road and not the blubbling stream along the highway.

Arriving in Helen, I stopped at the Betty's Country Store. The first time my husband and I drove to Hiawassee we stopped at Betty's Country Store to buy a snack for our baby daughters. That was back in 1975. The store had opened in 1973 and was quite small, selling mostly fruits, vegetables and snacks. Now it had expanded quite a lot, like a large supermarket, with meat, beer and wines, etc., and eating areas outdoors.

I drove about 1.5 miles down to the village of Sautee-Nacoochee and stopped at the Nora Mill Granary Grist Mill and Country Store (one of the southeast's last working grist mill.) A small dam on the Chattahoochee River was built there in 1824, and later, in 1876, a grist mill was established selling grits, flours and cornmeal. The mill is four stories tall and has 1,500 pound French Burr Mill stones, a 100-foot wooden raceway and a water turbine. A gold prospector, John Martin, built the mill in 1876. In 1901 it was purchased by Dr. Lamartine G. Hardman who named the mill after his sister Nora.

Now the mill has been run by four generation of the Fain family. They still use the original stones to make flours, grits, cornmeal, etc. They sell other products like jams, salsa, hot sauces, syrups, local honeys and pre-packaged products such as pioneer's porridge, pancake and waffle mixes, biscuit and bread mixes amd more. The old-fashioned country store attached to the mill is quaint and it is fun to walk around and look at everything for sale, which I did and took numerous photos.

An assortment of kitchen items were also for sale such as cast iron cookware, cookbooks, wooden mixing bowls and trays, old-fashioned candles and other attractive kitchen gifts.

I walked out to the breezeway and porch that overlooks the Chattahoochee River. Large trout could be seen gathering at the foot of the dam.

It was a warm and sunny day. Watching the trout from the deck and listening to the bubbling river below was vey relaxing after all the mountain driving.

Back inside I took more photos of interesting old items on the walls.

There was also information on how the mill operates. It uses turbines rather than the water wheels used by most mills of that time. It gives an idea on how flour was produced in the past, and how this mill has kept producing stone-ground grains for almost 150 years. The mill is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Before I left I purchased a few items, some requested by my daughters, and a few for me, as shown below. I make my own jams but I bought a couple that were a mixture, to taste and see if I'd like to try making them - T.O.E jam (tangering, orange, elderberry) and Five Pepper Strawberry jelly (strawberry, green bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, Thai pepper, cayenne pepper, habanero pepper.) For the people who cannot drive to the North Georgia Mountains to buy their products Nora Mill has an online store, click here for it. Once you click on the online store link you will see all the different items for sale, and they ship.

Then it was time to hit the road again. I could have driven down the highway to Atlanta but that would have meant crossing the city during rush hour... Instead I cut across the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains to Talking Rock, GA. to join highway I-575 down to my area, close to Kennesaw Mountain. It was a small two lane road from Nacoochee to Talking Rock with many curves, but there was hardly any traffic, and it was scenic.

I arrived home at 5:30 pm, quite tired and hungry as I had had no lunch. I unloaded the car and noticed that my newly purchased table (made of maple) was a lot smoother and shinier than the piece of hackberry wood I had placed on top of my plant stand. Later, I called the wood artisan to ask him what I should do. He suggested that I bring my piece of wood back to him and he would work on it. Well, now, will I dare go back and get lost in the mountains once more? I told him I may come back in a couple of months...

There was no fresh food in the house and I did not feel like eating a frozen dinner, so I drove to the local diner. They serve fresh meals with large portions. I usually can bring food home for a couple more meals. I had a meat, two vegetables and a side of coleslaw salad. Then the server came and asked what dessert I had selected. I told him I was full and ate only a third of my meal. He said he would bring me a take-out box and asked again what dessert I wanted. I repeated I desired no dessert to which he replied "you have to select a dessert." I asked him why? He said "because someone has paid for your meal and dessert is included." I asked him who had paid and he said he was not at liberty to tell me. So I selected a piece of strawberry cake to take home. When he brought it to me he said "a funny thing happened - someone else wanted to pay for your meal and I said 'too late, her meal is already paid for'. I was astounded and asked him if this occurred often in his restaurant. He told me he had been working there for a long while and he could think of no other time this took place for one of his customers. I was speechless.

What a day it had been - getting lost on primitive roads in the North Georgia Mountains after sunrise, and being afraid to ask for directions, then having two different patrons wishing to buy my dinner at sunset. How about that! Certainly a day to remember.

The mountains are calling, and I must go ...

In a letter to his sister Sarah in September 1873, John Muir (Scottish-American environmentalist, naturalist, author and more, 1838-1914) was recalling his longest and hardest trip into the mountains, but still felt determined to be off again, working in the mountains... He would wake up at 4:30 am and start writing ... he told her "The mountains are calling and I must go, and I will work on while I can..." I have this quotation painted on a piece of wood in my kitchen (that I bought in Dahlonega, a southern Appalachian mountain village in Georgia.)

As for me, I'm not called to the mountains for work, but to lift my spirits and improve my outlook on life. In a 2013 post "Times goes by in a park..." I explained that since childhood I have lived near mountains or hills. High places have been a sort of refuge for me from the distress of the world. In time of sadness, such as those painful last weeks in Nashville after the school shootings in my neighborhood, I crave going to the mountains. On the first anniversary of the month my husband died I drove to the North Carolina and the North Georgia mountains to find solace in nature (see my post of Oct. 2019 "Lake Chatuge in the N GA Mountains." (I hope I can convey the feelings because as I get older I sometime search for words and they usually come back in French first (my native language) then I have to translate them into English!) A week or so ago, I drove to my house in Georgia then a couple of days later drove on to the North GA Mountains, to Hiawassee (population as of 2022: 961.) I stayed at a lodge on a hill overlooking Lake Chatuge. Fortunately, there was a lovely view of the lake and mountains from my little balcony.

A mile from this lodge is the Hamilton Rhododendron Gardens. The weekend before I arrived in Hiawassee was the start of their "Rhododendron Festival" which lasts five weekends from April 14 through May 14, 2023, with craft vendors, live music, plant sale, etc. The gardens are open all year long. From May through October the gardens also host moonlight concerts. Peak rhododendron viewing is usually from mid April through May.

I went there on Tuesday April 18 which was a bit early for this season; because of the unusual hard freeze this past winter most of the rhododendrons were not blooming yet, although some different varieties were in pots for sale (click on collage to enlarge and read panels.)

Fred R. Hamilton, Sr. (1914-1996) and his wife Hazel began growing rhododendrons in their Atlanta garden in 1952. There they collected native rhododendrons and azaleas. They also had a mountain getaway on the slopes of Lake Chatuge in Hiawassee, Georgia, where they developed hybrids and where, later, they relocated their 1000+ plants. In 1981 they donated them to Towns County in what is now known as the Hamilton Rhododendron Gardens. This 33 acre enchanting garden is located atop the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds campus. It contains more than 1,500 rhododendrons (400 varieties) as well as native azaleas, tulip magnolias, dogwoods, redbuds, hydrangeas, and wildflowers native to the Appalachian Mountains like Solomon's seal, wild ginger, lady slippers, trout lily, and trillium. In addition in 2018, as part of the Daffodil Project, and international campaign to plant 1.5 million daffodils worldwide as a tribute to the children lost in the Holocaust, 600 daffodil bulbs were added to the garden.

There were few visitors around the day I stopped by the gardens. It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. Even if most of the rhododendrons were not in bloom many of the azalea bushes were. Azaleas, with tubular and funnel shape flowers, are in the genus rhododendron; they are deciduous and lose their leaves in the fall. Rhododendrons, with bell shaped flowers, are evergreen and keep their leaves in winter. Fred Hamilton developed the yellow azalea, the only domestic yellow azalea in existence, which he named after his wife, Hazel (Rhododendron flammeum 'Hazel Hamilton'.)

I did not walk the whole 2 miles of mulched woodland trails through the property as some of the walking paths were winding down to the lake shore and were rather steep. There were many benches scattered along the way. I just traded in my old Nikon camera for a newer model and was testing it. Although to make sure, I also carried my Canon and small Sony (and then I even took photos with my cell phone, because why not.)

One of the most spectacular shrubs there was the "flame" azalea. It is native of the Appalachian Mountains. Mountain people call it also butterfly azalea or wild honeysuckle. The striking flowers certainly lighten the woodland like little fires.

There were small wood bridges along the trails.

I walked very slowly because I kept stopping to take closeups of the flowers.

As I made my way around the pine bark trail some bursting soft pink azalea shrubs lead me to the Bonnie Day arbor. I enjoyed resting on a bench for a little while.

Then I took the 'Cut Across Trail' to have a look at the Claude Brooks waterwheel. First a profusion of blooming hot pink rhododendrons greeted me at the Claudia Brooks overlook.

I took more closeups of some of the plants for sale next to the garden shop.

These stunning gardens are very peaceful and tranquil; an enchanting spot to relax and escape from it all. The Hamilton Rhododendron Gardens was designated a state botanical garden by the Georgia Legislature in 2003. It boasts the largest collection of rhododendron in the Southeast. Then it was time to return to the lodge.

A needed rest on my little balcony was welcome. Then as the evening grew I soaked in the beauty of the sky changing color over the lake.

"This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls." -John Muir, 1938.