I have been feeling very blessed lately and I want to be able to share all of the good news with our readers.

This past weekend proved to be an interesting one in that I covered the Autumn Leaves Festival for the first time in a very long time. I don’t think that going into it I had any idea of how hard the festival is to cover. I ended up wading through a sea of people trying to make it from one end of the street and then back to The News office.

While at the festival on Saturday, I went by the Sabika booth where I was told by a good friend that the owner of the company, Karin Mayr, was going to be there and it was a pretty big deal. When I went to the booth, I ran into my longtime friend and co-worker Eleanor Powell. That’s when I knew this thing had to be big.

As I was talking to Mayr’s daughter, Alexandra Gracik, who had never meet me a day before this event, I explained that I had not had the opportunity to buy any of their jewelery. She immediately went over and got a small black bag from her sister and presented me with a necklace. She even was so kind to put it on me because my hands were full with my camera and notepad.

I was so honored that they would give me such a beautiful necklace. My friends who love the jewelery said that the stones in the necklace were retired, so it is an honor indeed to own such a beautiful piece of jewelry.

Also while I was there, I was talking with Sabika consultant Michella Huff, who does the landscaping for the city, about a problem I’m having with my yard. We’ve walked on the grass so much in the backyard, the ground is hard. And, try as I may to grow grass back there for several years, I’m having to switch to plan B. I asked her what type of plant I can put back there that would be drought tolerant and sturdy enough to walk on.

As I was explaining the situation to her, she said as a service to city residents, she will come out and give free landscaping advice. I thought, how cool is that? So sometime in the near future, I’m going to get a bona fide landscaper to come take a look at my yard and give me helpful advice to make it a prettier space.

I am truly thankful for the spontaneous generosity from this past weekend. I’ll be sure to pay it forward for someone in the near future.

Mondee Tilley is a staff reporter with The Mount Airy News. She can be reached at mtilley@heartlandpublications.com or at 719-1930.