Looking Back at 2009

January 16-19 - we took a road trip to Sarasota, FL to visit my sister Judy and her husband Guy. James always looked forward to visiting them. Judy would take him to see the circus headquarters and shopping, just the two of them.
January 28 – James had gall bladder surgery at SE Medical Center in Dothan. This was the day the workers came and poured cement to enlarge our front driveway. Also on that day Gappa Wise came and started removing the bricks from the back of our bedroom wall to add a bathroom. We were surprised when we got home from the hospital on Jan. 31 to see the new driveway turn-around and a tarpaulin covering the back of our bedroom.


February 2 - James was taken to the ER in Opp due to complications following surgery and he died at 8:30 pm that night. He had multiple problems and his system just shut down and he stopped breathing.
February 5 – funeral at 2 p.m. for James at Elba United Methodist Church. The church was filled with friends and family on that very, very cold day (in the 20’s). James did not like cold weather and I had problem sleeping that night because I kept thinking he was freezing out in the cold cemetery.
March - Jim spent most of March getting physical therapy for sciatic nerve pain in his hip and leg.
March 11-12 - Jim went with me to Auburn to the annual state DAR meeting.
March 27-30 – Jim’s brother Larry and wife Suzi came from Virginia Beach for a week-end with us. We met them at airport in Montgomery. Jim and Larry spent the week-end reminiscing about their mother who passed away in Sept. 2008, and of course talking about James. Weather was so bad they couldn’t come to his funeral.

April 12 – Easter Sunday and spring break for Bill’s girls. He took Katie and Caroline on a cruise for a week. Nerissa had her spring break earlier.
April 30 – we took a road trip to Austin, TX to see Ron and Cindy and granddaughters Liz and Ally, and their new home. Had planned the trip in April for about a year, to see the bluebonnets and there weren’t many last year, and they were all gone.

May 3 – Dedication day for Habitat for Humanity home in Elba. I wasn’t present but was recognized for landscaping the home as a Master Gardening project.
May - our new bathroom was completed and furnished and clothes moved into the “his and hers” walk-in closets.
June 6 – Granddaughter Katie graduated from West Florence (SC) High School. We 
gave her a bicycle to have for transportation when she went to College of Charleston that fall. Couldn’t have a car on campus due to lack of parking spaces.
June 8-17 - long road trip from Florence to Charlotte to Greensboro, NC and then sisters got together at Cyndi’s (niece) in Emporia, VA on Sun. June 14 to celebrate Jake’s graduation from high school. On to Nanticoke, MD for a couple of days visiting Chris and Al. We got back to Elba on Wednesday, June 18.
July 14-21 - vacation time.
July 15 – celebrated Bill’s 51st and Jim’s 75th birthdays with a cookout at Alice and Jerry’s house in Charlotte, SC.
July 16 - Jim’s 1952 high school class reunion in Harrisburg, NC – Jim was one of the organizers and worked long and hard on getting this together and everybody had a great time.
Jul 18-20 – traveled to Olive Hill, KY to the Logan family reunion. The cousins got together on Sat. night and then the big covered dish luncheon was on Sunday in Vanceburg, KY.
Jul 20 – spent the night at Black Mountain, NC with Nell’s sister Carolyn and husband Dave and stayed at their B&B. Returned to Elba on July 21.
August 7-15 – Grandma Camp: just Caroline this year. We had fun doing this with her for a week.
Aug 21 – Nell had surgery on her eyelids at Eye South, Dr. Bryant. She spent the week-end putting ice packs on her eyes and wondered why she ever decided to have that surgery. But later it paid off since her eyesight improved so much.
August 11- went to Florence, SC to help Katie move to her dorm at College of Charleston.

Sept 26 - helped our pastor and his wife move into an apartment and store most of their furniture. The parsonage had to be abandoned due to black mold coming in from underneath the house. Did not know that they would be in that apartment for almost 2 months!
October 3 – Our 56th wedding anniversary. Also Grimes family reunion. Our family was hostess this year. Good attendance. Reunion was held at picnic pavilion at Curtis (New Ebenezer Baptist Church).
October 10 – 24th Curtis School Reunion – Judy and Guy spent the week-end with us.
October 23 – Nell went with Master Gardeners on a trip to Birmingham to Aldridge Botanical Gardens and stopped over at Petals from the Past in Jamison, AL.
November 11th – Debbie Davidson, James’ friend in Winston-Salem, died.
November 20-28 - Florence, SC. Attended Caroline’s Mock Trial competition in Lexington, NC on Sat., Nov. 21. She was awarded “Most effective Attorney” in the SC State Middle Schools competion.
Nov 25 – Nell turned 75 and celebrated with a party at Bill’s house in SC.
Nov 26 – spent the day at Sunset Beach, NC for Thanksgiving Day with lots of relatives attending.
December 3-9 – another road trip!! Austin, TX to attend Liz’s graduation from University of TX on Sunday, Dec. 6th.
Dec 8 – James’ birthday. We left Austin at 9 am that day to start home (2 day trip)
Dec 18 – had a Christmas luncheon for Nell’s cousins.
Dec. 25 - spent Christmas alone, just the 2 of us, for the first time in 55 years! Went to several Christmas gatherings at Nell’s cousins. Ate Christmas dinner with cousin Tom and wife Sharon.
Dec 27 – Aunt Ida turned 90. Went to visit her at her home in Brewton on our way home from TX earlier in Dec.

Getting ready for a new and better year – 2010.

Christmas Day 2009

Christmas Day is almost over and it was a good one.
After having spent half the night under "tornado watch", we were surprised to wake up and see the sun shining. After breakfast, we went into the living room

and took turns opening our gifts under the tree.

I got to go first and I'm holding a gift from our son Bill.
It's a machine that you stack 35mm slides in and convert them to digatal images on the computer so you can put them on a CD and make copies. Also can do the same with negatives. We have lots of old slides of the boys when they were younger and the color is fading so I hope to transfer them very soon.

Santa brought me an under the shelf AM/FM radio and 7" pull-down screen TV to use in the kitchen. I have been looking for one of those so I was very surprised to get one.

Jim was hoping to get a new brierwood pipe. He got

3 pipes and was very happy. Bill ordered one online and it came from the Ukraine, the one Jim is holding in the photo. Ron also gave him two pipes. They are hard to find and you almost have to order them online. A local service station keeps pipe tobacco in store for him. He also got some clothes, chocolate candy, a new LED flashlight, a Clemson sweatshirt, and a bunch more.

Even before we started opening our gifts, our phone started ringing; family calling to wish us

Merry Christmas. We were either calling people or they were calling us throughout the day. What fun! And we were all sending pictures on email throughout the day.

My cousins Tom and Sharon invited us to have Christmas dinner with them and their children from Orlando. Tom's sister Kathy and her family also came. What a spread! Turkey, ham, chicken and dumplings, all kinds of veggies, hot rolls, cranberry casserole (I brought this dish) and a table filled with desserts of all kinds. We had a lot of fun recalling Christmas with our grandparents on the farm, many years ago. We also talked about James and how he loved Christmas and things he would do and say. Talking about him helps us not to be so sad.

Now the temperature is dropping almost freezing. We have a fire going in the fireplace and just being lazy. Turned off the TV for awhile and enjoying the peace and quiet. It has been a nice Christmas Day. God bless everyone!

Christmas Eve is Here

It's time of year when the stockings are hung by the chimney by care, and the kids are being tucked in their beds - my favorite time of the year. Since Dec. 1955 we have "Played Santa" for our 3 boys and their children.


This year we are alone :-(  By this time of the year, James would be so "keyed up" he didn't want to hear Christmas music or even talk about Christmas. It got worse as he got older and last year was really bad for him since he wasn't in good health and very nervous. We had no idea it would be his last Christmas with us.



Our extended family of cousins here in Elba have made sure we keep busy and we've been invited to all of their Christmas celebrations.


I invited them to a Christmas luncheon last Friday (Dec 18) and we've been going to other dinners and parties ever since. Last night we went to Chip and Linda's family gathering for soup and sandwiches (and lots of other goodies) and homemade desserts. It was such a nice time, singing carols, eating, meeting our cousin Stan's fiancee' and her 3 young children for the first time. Her husband was killed in an auto accident 3 years ago and her children are now 5,7, and 10. She is an elem. school teacher in Enterprise and Stan is a coach and teacher in Enterprise High School. They are getting married in April at the beach. Stan's parents, Betty and Bo, are so excited about getting granddaughters - finally. They already have 2 grandsons.


Tomorrow we are invited to have Christmas dinner (1 pm) with cousin Tom and Sharon and their family (Janet & Ed, and Jimmy from Orlando).


We will get up in the morning at our regular time, have breakfast, and then open our presents. I'm sure by that time we will be getting phone calls from the granddaughters in SC and TX. James is gone but he will be here with us in spirit tomorrow, as he was today. And we will have made it through our first Christmas without him. Christmas will never be the same without his "Ho, Ho, Ho's" echoing throughout the house.


James is pictured here opening his gifts on Christmas morning, Dec. 2008, wearing his new shirt with "Best Pals Forever" and Santa on his shirt.

Remembering our Loved Ones at Christmas

Saturday, Jim and I went out 8 miles into the country to New Ebenezer Church to the cemetery to place some Christmas flowers on family graves.

First we put a white poinsettia on our plot and a railroad conductor

figurine dressed in a Santa suit near James' marker. He loved railroads and Santa so this was just for him! This will be our first Christmas in 53 years without having James around to celebrate Christmas, his favorite time of the year.

Our family plot is behind that of my parents, Lawrence and Ruth Wilson . We placed a big red silk poinsettia on their site.

Then I went to the first row of graves and placed a red poinsettia
on Mama and Papa Wilson's graves.

There is a beautiful arrangement on top of their monument and neither I nor my cousins know who placed it there. My grandmother Wilson's father, James Shorter Grimes, was the first person to be buried in this cemetery in 1903. Many of those buried in this cemetery are related to the Grimes families.

The cemetery was filled with pretty flowers and is well kept, with a large American flag waving over the graves on a flagpole donated by Hayes Funeral Home. We visit about once a month to check on the flowers and to pay our respect to our loved ones. We buried our son there to be near other family members.

First Cousins' Christmas Luncheon

I have several first cousins living in Elba now, and my brother Perry. I decided to have a special Christmas luncheon and invited all of them to come.

We are all pictured here in our den, after lunch.
My brother Perry Wilson and his wife Carol live in Elba. My 5 sisters live in MD, NC, and FL so none of them could be here.

The first cousins are all children of my father's sister. One cousin, Billy, lives in NC and he and his wife Lorrie could not be here with us.

The table was set with our Christmas dishes and a pretty Christmas table cloth. I plann the luncheon to include things we had for Christmas when we were growing up on the farm. We usually had chicken instead of turkey.

Our menu included chicken keiv (breasts), butterbeans, fluffy white rice, broccoli salad, apple & cranberry casserole, French rolls, tea and coffee. The most nostalgic item was the Lane Cake, made by my Mama Wilson's recipe and flavored with lots of blackberry wine.

Everybody enjoyed their meal and several had to hurry back to work. We got to visit longer with some of the cousins. I should have been standing on a stool in the back. I think I am the shortest of all at 5'.

Some of us will be gathering at Kathy and Bobby's home for Christmas Eve, after we go to communion at church that evening.

As you get older, it's so important to keep in touch with your family. We are enjoying being with our cousins since our boys and their families won't be coming for Christmas this year. We recently spent a week with each of them so we are staying home for Christmas.

We have been busy going to church cantatas (3 last Sunday!), dinners, and other events. Today we went to a Christmas Open House and later to Lowe's to look at dishwashers. We seem to always have one "ailing" appliance.

Today was a great day - lots of sunshine for a change. But also very cold. It's one of those days that you go about thinking "it's good to be alive and well, and enjoying life".

Oldest Granddaughter graduates from College in TX

We drove to Austin, TX recently to be there for our oldest granddaughter Elizabeth's graduation from the University of Texas on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009. She got a B.S. in Marine Biology and plans to go on to graduate school in a year. Liz is almost 26. She took 7 years to earn her 4-year Bachelor's degree. Her dad (our son Ron) took the same amount of time to graduate so he couldn't say anything to her! She changed her major from Architecture after her sophomore year when she went to California for a year. She came back to UT and decided to major in something she enjoyed - the water. While in CA she took up surfing and she has always enjoyed camping, hiking, scuba diving, and fishing. I am pictured above with Liz and our son Ron.


We're so happy she completed the first phase of her college. She wants to go to graduate school and can't apply until next Dec. so she plans to work for a year. She will be looking at schools that offer graduate study in Marine Biology. We would like for her to go to a school on the east coast (Woods Bay,MA or Charleston,SC) but I think she would like to go to Hawaii). We'll have to wait and see where she decides to go. In the photo, I am presenting

her with a graduation gift from Jim and me.


On Sat. before graduation we spent the day watching football on the big screen TV in their spacious den with a fire in the fireplace. It was extremely cold while we were there, unusual weather for Austin. We watched AL beat FL, and later TX beat NE. Both were such good games. Our other granddaughter Allison came home from North Texas Univ. for the week-end but we didn't see too much of her. She had to go to San Marcos to get certified for her scuba diving class at school. She hopes to graduate next Dec.


Liz came over on Sat. and made tamales for dinner - from scratch! They were so good, and especially so since we didn't eat until the game was over, almost 9 p.m. Her friend Chad cooked the chicken on the grill early in the afternoon and then she pulled it apart and put some on the tamales and then steamed a big pot for dinner. She made her green verde sauce from scratch. Yummmmm.....


Ron and Cindy have a beautiful home in Glen Lake area, on top of one of the many hills surrounding Austin. The Colorado River and Lake Travis are located at the foot of their hill. Ron is taking a break from work and enjoying being at home. He has a big home office and enjoys his 3-screen computer monitor. He has a deer lease with 2 other friends and spends a lot of time there at their cabin. His wife Cindy is an accountant and her office is nearby, near the bottom of the hill.

We went to the large UT arena for graduation on Sunday afternoon at 2:30. The ceremony lasted about 2 hrs. They had graduation on Sat. also for other groups. After graduation we went with Liz and some of her friends to eat at a place students go to eat. Food was great.

On Monday, Elizabeth came to take me shopping - just the 2 of us. We had a good time. She spent a lot of time with us in the summers when she was growing up. Then we left on Tuesday to come back to Ala. It takes us 2 days to get to Austin. On the way out there, it snowed all morning in LA and the Houston, TX area. When we started home a few days later, there was dense fog and rain. It was a tiring trip but we had a wonderful visit with our son and his family. Just wish we could be with them more often.

Cindy loves animals and they have 4 big dogs and 3 pretty cats, who all stay inside. They have pet doors to go in and out. They took the 2 biggest dogs to the kennel while we were there (great dane and dalmation). Pictured here on the back porch with Cindy are Liz's dogs Luna and Marley. The white/black spot dog is Lily, Cindy's dog. Their animals are all very well behaved. Pictured is Lily carrying her dish to the kitchen which means she wants something to eat. Cinnamon (cat) likes her perch so she can look down on the other animals, and so they won't bother her!

Advent and Hanging of the Greens

Last Sunday was a special day at Elba United Methodist Church. It was the first Sunday of Advent and the Jackson family lit the purple candle. At the close of the service, we sang one of my favorite hymns, "Emanuel, Emanuel".

We returned to church at 6 P.M. for the Hanging of the Greens service. The Hanging of the Greens is a service for the first Sunday in Advent. It is based on the English tradtion of decorating the home with wreaths, garlands, a Christmas tree, and evergreens for Advent and Christmas. In a church setting, it readies the sanctuary (and church members) for the season.

Hymns were sung as various things took place. There were several presentations including, hanging of the greens, lighting of the candles, bringing in the large red poinsettias for two tall stands near the altar, and placing the creche figures on the altar table. The big chrismon tree stands on the left side of the sanctuary near the front. The tiny white lights were turned out and the many white christmon symbols were glowing with light on them.

At the close of the service, all who were present were invited to the fellowship hall for a youth sponsored chili and baked potato supper and lots of desserts. It was a great ending to the special day.

Celebrating Thanksgiving at the beach in NC

We spent Thanksgiving at the beach in Emerald Isle, NC with several of my sisters and their family members.


Gathered there to help Chris and Al celebrate their 50th anniversary - 6 months early.
They weren't sure what they would be doing on the actual date in July and wanted to celebrate early with all of us there.  Chris made an interesting cake which we ate mid afternoon, after the big turkey dinner.

It was fun being together with our family and warm enough to enjoy walking on the beach.


We also celebrated my 75th  birthday (again) while there.

My 75th birthday party

We arrived at our son Bill's home in Florence, SC on Sat., Nov. 19th after spending the day in Lexington, SC, attending our granddaughter Caroline's Mock Trial competition. Her school made it to the final (4th) round but didn't make the final cut. This was the state final so there were so many middle school students at the courthouse that day. Caroline won a very nice award as "The Most Effective Lawyer" in the 3rd round. She was so happy.

We got to spend some time with the other granddaughters on Tues -Fri. On Wednesday afternoon, they planned a big birthday party for me before taking me to dinner at the Outback Restaurant. Bill and the girls decorated the table and put the gifts in place while I was getting ready to go to the restaurant. They wanted to surprise me; and they did indeed. Even had a birthday cake for the event.

I received two big packages. One contained a floor lamp with a reading lamp, which I had told Jim I wanted. The other package was something I needed also, a new portable mixer and a new can opener. When you get older you ask for things you need to replace instead of diamonds!!

Then we all (6 of us) went to the Outback for dinner. We enjoyed a large blooming onion appetizer and then steak. The waiters came and sang Happy Birthday to me and brought me a big ice cream dessert (which I shared with my family).

It was a great birthday celebration and somehow I don't feel like I'm 3/4th of a century old. On Thanksgiving Day at the beach, I was honored again when they sang Happy Birthday to me.

This year I received a lot of cards and had fun reading the messages in them.

And Ladies of the Club

In the 1980's I remember reading an interesting book "And Ladies of the Club". It took the author 50 years to write the book and she was in a nursing home when it was finally published. I remember that some ladies started a book club and they could only have a limited number of members. You couldn't join without an invitation, and you had to wait for an opening (someone moved away, died, etc.). I remember the book had about 1400 pages and I thought I'd never finish it.

My book club that I belong to is not that restricted. We don't even have a name. We meet the 3rd Tuesday of each month downtown at Just Folk Coffeehouse.

We select 3 books at the time and each person talks about the book selection for the month when we get together. This month it was a good mystery by Michael Connelly. It always so interesting to hear each person's comments. While we agree on lots of things, we also have differences. My comments about the book and the main character, a lawyer, were that I hope I never have to have a lawyer representing me in court! Others in the group had the same comments. It was an easy book to read, read it in one day.

I love to read and usually just for fun. But when you read a book club selection, you take notes about things you would like to discuss, etc. I was so anxious to find out the meaning of the title "brass verdict" and didn't find out until the end of the book. That's probably why I didn't put the book down until I finished it (a rainy day so I didn't feel guilty for taking the entire day to read).

Now I'm reading "The Help" and we aren't discussing this book until next spring. I haven't read the Dec. selection yet since I will borrow a copy from one of our members. Sometimes I get my own paperback copy of the selection of the month, or borrow a copy from the library.

The atmosphere of the coffeehouse is great for sitting around a big table, drinking latte or expresso coffee, eating a sandwich. I ate before I went today because I thought they might think my sandwich a bit strange - a pineapple sandwich. I grew up eating those. I even saw one on a menu at Sprayberry's Restaurant in Newnan, GA once.

Next month we will have a little fun. Our leader suggested we each wrap up a book we no longer want to keep and we will exchange them. I already have in mind one I will take.

I suggested we read Julia Child's biography and each prepare one of her dishes to share for lunch. Didn't have any "takers" for this!

For the past week I have tried to read in the evening and I get so relaxed I fall asleep before 9 P.M. I read best early in the morning when I can stay awake. So, my advice for people who have trouble falling asleep - get a good book to read and get comfortable you'll be asleep in no time. Good night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Doing My Civic Duty

Last Saturday Jim and I were volunteers - selling tickets at the main gate, at the big Barbecue Bash at the old football stadium in downtown Elba, working 2-4 P.M. This photo was taken just before Jim was stung by a yellow jacket on his right hand that was full of money. He saw the bee in the act of stinging him!

This was the 2nd year for the big barbecue cook-off and there was a big crowd of people coming all day long (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Winners of the cook-off (professional and backyard) were announced at 5 pm. The cooks came from all over SE Ala, GA and NW FL. They came a day or two early and camped near the stadium and set up their cookers. Lots of smoke coming from the campground on Saturday morning, and ahh... the smell of barbecue cooking was great.


The event was sponsored by Elba Chamber of Commerce and we were recruited to work by my cousin Stevie Sauls wife Denise. We couldn't turn her down. She's such a hard worker for the chamber. Besides, we had fun seeing all the people (and eating barbecue).


There were lots of inflatables at the back of the exhibits where children could play, and a stage set up near the stadium seats for music groups as well as an amateur hour where local people perform (and they were all great).

Finding Myself

The sun is shining, O Happy Day!


"Remember life is not about finding yourself; it's about creating yourself." Those words hit me in the face and woke me up this morning. I jumped out of bed at 5:53 this morning to see if the clouds had disappeared. I am so tired of dark, rainy, dreary weather for the past several days, thanks to Hurricane Ida.


Guess what! The sun is "rising" in the east and the sky is getting bright. Now I can ago about my life as if it has meaning. I have good days, bad days, and days in the middle! I'm glad I have mostly good days.


I was inspired by the following info I read this morning in Life's Lessons by Ron Herring (interim pastor at our old church in Paris, TX):


"Life is like that for all of us...some days we soar, some days we run, and some days we can barely crawl! We have days of great inspiration and activity...followed by days of "nothing"!

The truth is, sometimes we don't feel very "inspired". In fact, sometimes we don't feel anything...however, life goes on. Life doesn't revolve around how well we think or feel. The key to success in life is not in soaring along with days of inspiration (don't get me wrong...those days are great). The key to success in life is in the ability to "keep plugging" when there is no inspiration.

Longfellow said it this way, "The heights of great men reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight; but they, while others slept, were toiling onward in the night."


For days we were so busy putting together our greenhouse kit that nothing else mattered. Then suddenly it was almost completed when the rains set in and we had to stop.


 I scrambled around looking for things to do that were short term while waiting for the rain to stop, i.e. making banana nut bread for Thanksgiving, cutting out the last big Teddy bear from an old quilt (made each of 5 granddaughters one for their 18 birthday and I'm working on Caroline's now altho she is only 14), designing and printing invitations to a DAR Good Citizen luncheon, and completing the church membership roll audit and directory, etc. Yesterday I went to the country to the Farmers Coop store to buy some cracked pecans to pick out, so I can have them for holiday baking. While there, I went down the hill to the cemetery to visit with James a bit. I didn't have to look for projects to do when he was living. He was a big "project" that took up a lot of my time. I just wish I could have done more for him. He loved the costumes I used to make for him. When I would be busy with some of my "projects" he would often say, "Can you stop and spend some time with me?"


I love working on projects, especially when they turn out well. I looked outside this morning and saw the sparkling white greenhouse which looked like a white ghost. We left the heat lamp on all night to check the temperature this morning. It's very humid and warm inside the greenhouse but in the low 40s outside. I think it might just keep our house plants warm and cozy this winter.


When it gets a little warmer outside today, we will be busy building shelves and moving plants into the warm environment for the next few 3 months. That's how long winter is in South Alabama.

Waiting for "Ida" to come blow our greenhouse down

News of Hurricane Ida over the past few days was not very welcome to us since we were in the process of assembling a greenhouse kit we bought from Sam's Club.


Now it has been downgraded to a tropical storm and that means lots and lots of rain. We're hoping the winds won't do a lot of damage here tonight.


Jim is pictured here inside the greenhouse making sure all the nuts and bolts are tight. We anchored the base of the house with metal poles driven into the ground (which is hard clay).


One of the toughest tasks was assembling and hanging a Dutch door. We finally got it hanging so it will open and close.


After "Ida" leaves us, we will build the racks and shelves inside and put all our house plants in the greenhouse for the winter. I hope there's room for the plants I am propogating in some small pots. Plus the many small ferns I have growing - for next summer.


We will be adding a heat lamp for cold weather. I can only imagine the fresh oxygen inside the little house this winter. I will put a chair there for us to go out and sit a spell among all the green plants and get fresh doses of oxygen every day. Maybe this could be our solarium. Too bad there's not room for a hot tub inside the area!

I don't have any other projects planned for the near future. This one just about did us in. We're getting too old for projects such as this.


But we will soon forget the problems we had building the greenhouse when we bring out the beautiful house plants next spring to decorate our back porch and carport.


We placed the greenhouse in the middle of the back yard in plain view of our breakfast room window. The bird feeder will be nearby so we can watch the birds while we eat and read the newspaper.


That's what you are supposed to do when you retire!  Sit back and take it easy?

My new Green House

I have wanted a greenhouse for a long time so I asked Jim to get me one for my birthday on Nov. 25th. Then I suggested he order it (a kit from Sam's Club) now so we could put it together and get all the outdoor plants inside before a cold spell. The kit arrived about 2 weeks ago and we just kept looking at the big cardboard boxes and wondering if we were going to be able to build this beautiful green house. The photo on the right is what it is supposed to look like when we finish.


Tuesday afternoon we opened the big boxes in the middle of the back yard and took all the thousand or more parts out to make sure nothing was missing (found an important template missing today).


Then we selected a spot to place the greenhouse. We wanted it in an area where we could see it from the back porch, or from the breakfast room window.


That done, we had to dig up a redbud tree and move it to another place. That little tree had roots all the way to China! Then we started putting the frame of the greenhouse together. What a chore! It's bad when you can't follow directions using drawings and pictures. They leave out a lot of steps, or at least for us it seems they do.

We laughed when the instructions stated that 2 people could put this greenhouse together in 1/2 day. It took us that long to unpack it and just lay out the parts. Today we finished "snapping" the frame together. The more you add, the heavier it gets. The next step is to start putting the "glass" into the frame. It isn't really glass but some kind of special material that looks like glass and can take the high temperatures. 


We probably will have it finished by this time next week. Can't wait to put all of my many green pot plants inside the greenhouse for the cold winter. We will have electricity and water connected to it (will have to pay someone to do that).


I'm thinking that on a cold winter day I will take a cup of coffee out to the greenhouse, a good book, and a chair with a cushion and spend some time in my "solarium" - and breathe in some good oxygen.


An added note: The banana tree we dug up last winter and took to a dump behind our house, came up this summer and I hadn't noticed it until a recent frost turned the large leaves yellow. It really stands out with all the tall weeds and trees. Maybe  next summer it will have some bananas on it.

Leaf Peepin' in North Alabama

We spent 3 days this week on a trip to north Alabama to visit the Bankhead National Forest area where we used to live in the little town of Haleyville in Winston County. It was raining when we got up Tuesday morning and it rained all day. We stopped along the way several times and arrived in Haleyville just as it was getting dark. We were amazed that the Imperial Inn was still operating and the Galley restaurant was just as we had left it 22 years ago.

We met some old friends, Nancy and Tom Stovall, for breakfast and got "caught up" on Haleyville news of the past 22 years. Tom told Jim he really didn't think he wanted to go back to the plant where they used to work - that it was so sad to see how the building had deteriorated over the past few years. Yes, it was very sad but we had to go see for ourselves.

Everything in the town looked pretty much the same; not many changes over the years. Later that morning we drove northeast of town toward the Bankhead National Forest to look for our old house. Had to get a map of Haleyville to find out way around and locate the road leading to our house! Once we started driving the 6 miles we remembered many of the landmarks along the way. The autumn leaves were beautiful, just as I remembered it in October 1986 when we moved to Haleyville.

We found our house and it looked pretty much the way it looked in 1987 when we left except for the landscaping. All the beautiful azaleas were gone, as were other flowers and trees. You could hardly see the house when we lived there. We had to hire a yardman to take care of all the flowers and big lawn. I guess the new owners didn't have time for all of that. 

We had a catfish pond at the edge of the yard and it was surrounded by azaleas and other flowering shrubs and trees. Not so anymore. There was a beautiful balsam tree at the edge of the water that I didn't remember.

We continued east from Haleyville to Double Springs, the county seat. It looked the same as when we lived there. We traveled on to Corinth National

Recreation area on beautiful Smith Lake and enjoyed the beautiful leaves while we had a picnic lunch. The weather was beautiful.

We continued east until we got to Cullman, and then headed south to spend the night in Opelika, AL.

The next day we spent going to cemeteries in that area, looking for graves of my ancestors.

More about that later.........