I cannot believe the holiday season has already come and gone. I had a fantastic time with my family and friends, and I definitely did my fair share of feasting. We had ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, cranberry sauce and rolls. Dessert was just as delectable with pecan pies, apple pies and carrot cake. I must have eaten my entire weight in food three times over! Oh, but it was so worth it. Unfortunately, the holidays are a heavy-eating season, and many people find themselves eating too much and exercising too little during the holiday months. Well, I am determined to enjoy all of the holiday treats this year but also avoid the excess weight gain, which is why I plan to start walking a mile a day. I hope to build up to 3 miles by spring.

Heron Bay has a number of places to walk from the communities wide sidewalks to a variety of trails. In fact the trail system at Heron Bay Golf & Country Club is the perfect place to take a power walk yet decompress at the same time. How can you be stressed out while surrounded by nature?

For all of my neighbors at Heron Bay, I hope you consider walking with me! After all birds of a feather walk together! It may be a bit cold outside, but it is the perfect time to walk off  holiday weight and work on New Year’s Resolutions – just after the holidays. I’ll see you on the trails!

It’s Thanksgiving – where has this year gone? At Thanksgiving time, I enjoy the tradition of reflecting on the past year and recognizing all that I am thankful for. I also love to hear what others are thankful for. Since we all have different values and priorities, it’s nice to hear what is important to others. By sharing our values with each other, we can appreciate things in life that we may have taken for granted before. So, I am here today to share with you all the things in my life that I cherish and feel incredibly lucky to have, and I hope you’ll share yours with me as well.

First and foremost, I am thankful for my amazing family. Helen, Spalding and Haley are everything to me. They are my pillars of support and their unconditional love is something I feel truly blessed to have.

Something else that I am thankful for is my health. I am no chick anymore, but my body is quite strong – I am able to fly, walk, swim and do all the things (more…)

As if spending a day at the Heron Bay aquatic center isn’t entertaining enough with the mushroom fountains, waterslides and pools, there was a celebrity siting there the other day. The Eat Mor Chicken cow stopped by to see the kids and parents and give away some free Chik-fil-A samples, which is only one more thing to add to the long list of features that makes Heron Bay so unique and such a wonderful community to raise a family. A summer day at Heron Bay is full of fun and surprises, as these kids were not expecting to meet the Eat Mor Chicken Cow that they have seen all over billboards in Atlanta and on t.v. commercials. Even better, the cow came bearing gifts – chicken strips, samples of new Chick-fil-A sauces and other goodies for children and parents alike.  Luckily for those that missed it, Henry Heron was also on scene to relay the details of the day on his journal.

Henry the Heron, here, your newest neighbor in Heron Bay.

I wanted to tell you a little about my family. Helen, my lovely wife, is a Great White Heron. She earned her masters degree in education after graduating at the top of the flock at a prestigious Ivy Nest school in New England. (We Heron’s have high IQs – check us out on Wikipedia). She is a wonderful mother to our nestlings and our egg.

Spalding is my son, and please forgive him if he buzzes you over the lake. You’ll see us practicing at the Driving Range and playing the golf course most Saturday’s. All that practice is necessary since Canongate at Heron Bay was recently ranked the 7th toughest course in Atlanta in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. In addition to Golf and Fishing, Spalding is also quite the soccer player! I am certain he will be spending a lot of time at the neighborhood sports field with his new Heron Bay friends!

Haley is our daughter – 6 going on 16! She’s likely to insist at some point that I share with you ideas about conservation and recycling. It’s very important to her. When she’s not playing on the playground with friends, you’ll probably find her working on her backwing at the tennis courts or identifying new plant species along the nature trails. And if she seems angry when you see her, you can assume Spalding’s not far away.

As for the egg…only time will tell. We’ll have to start thinking about names soon!

Henry the Heron, here, pilot, typical American father with a wife and two and a half kids (that is to say, two nestlings and an egg), and your newest neighbor at Heron Bay.

I just signed the contract to build my dream home in the gated neighborhood of Lakeview at Heron Bay. My lovely new home will be right on the water. The decision to build a home in Heron Bay was easy; after all, Heron Bay won the Greater Atlanta Home Builder’s Association’s Community of the Year and received the Grand Award in the Outstanding Development category from the Georgia Urban Forest Council for their efforts in tree preservation. As a heron, preservation of our natural environment is of the highest importance. So I am very proud to call Heron Bay home.

I have a birds-eye view of this place, so I’m using this journal to make sure my neighbors and friends know what’s going on and to share my general reflections on this wonderful life at Heron Bay. I hope you’ll find helpful information here about the neighborhood, its news, updates and events, as well as environmental tips to help you conserve.

Since I’m new here, I guess I should start by introducing my family and myself. I’m a Blue Heron, a native of Henry County. I’ve come a long way personally, but I’m so grateful that Minerva Properties, Heron Bay’s developer, is environmentally aware and chose to conserve so much green space. Being a heron, I know a lot about the environment. I even still have country cousins around here. Though we may not associate as much as we should these days, I still like to know they have safe homes. Next time, I’ll tell you about my family.