Today, I took a stroll around our local communities.

The first thing I notice is an owl perched on the corner on the First Baptist Church on Elm Street. I was excited to see such a rarity out in broad daylight so I snapped picture after picture amazed at how still he stood there and then I started to wonder why this owl wasn’t moving; it just stood there letting me photograph him.

After closer inspection with my camera, I realized that it wasn’t real; instead it was just a ceramic figurine of an owl.

So now the question why? I contacted the church and was told the owl had been there for years; in fact, one person walking by the church told me she remembers the owl being there in the 1980s.

No one at the church could remember who placed the owl there but the question still remained. Why was it there?
According to the Department of Natural Resources (Georgia), fake owls are used to keep what some people consider “nuisance birds” away from their property.

Let’s say, balconies for instance: Folks get tired of cleaning bird poo from their property, so, a fake ‘owl’ (being predatory) would keep birds away.

Some buildings made of glass will have these owls close by to keep birds from flying into the building and harming themselves as well. So now, we know what the owl is doing at church everyday.

Porterdale is one of many small towns that were based around textile mills. The mills were the centerpiece of the area and employed the majority of the local population.

The old part of the mill is the Mill Loft apartments, a place of residence for many who want to live in a place full of history and a place that sits along side the Yellow River.

Bill Walls, a longtime bus driver for Newton County, lives here with his wife and their two dogs. I caught up with Walls as he took the dogs for their walk. “My wife and I love living in a small town and next to the water is great,” Walls said. He and his wife and their dogs plan to move to Florida as soon as he fully retires.

There’s just something about the warm spring weather in the South that makes me want to stay outside long after the sun has set. The true beauty in nature is when you and your loved ones venture out and enjoy it together. I hope you take time to discover the true beauty this weekend.