Let the Gardening Begin!

 The weather the past few days has been warm and sunny and of course one's thoughts turn to gardening.  At least I start planning and working outdoors.   I have planted some vegetable and flower seeds in pots in the greenhouse.  I need to start thinning them and letting them grow a bit more before transferring to larger pots.

I have to open the door and vent of the greenhouse or it will get very hot inside - close to 100 degrees on a sunny day.  I have taken most of my house/porch/patio plants out of the greenhouse.  They made it through the cold winter just fine.

Yesterday I started potting some perennials coming up in the flower bed.
 Two pots of English ivy on the back, left side.  The other pots contain yellow coreopsis that will be twice this size in a week.  I made a seed bed beside the fence and sowed seed I have saved from last year, including large hibiscus, large zinnias, large marigolds (Inca), and black-eyed Susans.

Pansies are starting to bloom again in the flower bed by the patio.  I gave the rabbit a new coat of paint this spring and glued his ears back on, using some liquid nail mixture.  So far, so good.  They haven't fallen off yet!

This flower bed will have amaryllis blooming and lamb's ears and other perennials that will cover the mulch this spring and summer.

St. Francis goes back to the early 80s when James wanted to buy a statue for the flower bed.  He wanted to buy a large statue of Jesus, but I suggested this small one of St. Francis instead.  His head has broken off so many times when he topples over, etc.  I used liquid nails on it last week and gave him a new coat of paint also.  He is standing near the English vine that was damaged a little by our cold weather.  It is putting on new growth and will be pretty this spring.

The large purple and yellow iris are starting to grow and they usually are in full bloom late April.  A good low maintenance plant.

We are going to have a small vegetable garden again this year, including tomatoes, different varieties of peppers, cucumbers and squash, and herbs.  I started my seeds in the greenhouse and will put them in the garden around Easter, which is late this year - April 24.

You can take the girl off the farm, but you can't take the farm away from the girl!!

Jim's Latest Project

Ron Gilmer - Dec 1977 in MN

About two weeks ago Jim decided to go through our collection of about 2,000 35mm color slides and digitize them and put selected ones on a CD and make copies for our family.  He keeps calling me to come look at one he has decided to keep.  Ah, such memories - going back many, many years and looking at our family members growing up (and growing old-er).


The photo here was taken at home in Wayzata, Minnesota in December of 1977 when Ron came to visit us.  He was back in Texas in college and came home for Christmas.  While at home, he helped a neighbor who was building the house in the background of this photo.  Ron came home for lunch and his beard was frozen and I took this photo.

Jim in Bill's MG, 1977

Nell in new kitchen in Paris,
TX  1976

Ron and James at Lake Superior, 1977

Jim already had the slides filed by date (month and year).  He is keeping them in that order, plus adding captions of the names, occasion, location, etc.  Working a few hours each day, he hopes to have them all done by the end of February.

He will put the photos on a CD and we can have a slide show at our next family gathering.  Plus he will give our family copies to keep.  The slides are over 30 years old and beginning to fade.  He has been touching them up and other editing when needed, plus cropping some of them.

We stopped taking photos or making slides when digital cameras arrived on the scene several years ago.
Slide projectors are a thing of the past, except for using them hooked up to computers. We bought an Epson slide projector a couple of years ago and replacement bulbs for those projectors are over $200!   Maybe by the time our bulb blows out, they will have newer and less expensive ways of showing pictures on a screen.

Speaking of screens, have you tried to buy one of those "dinosaurs"  lately?  Nobody seems to use a movie screen anymore; instead they project pictures on a blank wall or built in screens in home theaters.  My nephew has a home theater in his basement.  We use the back of a door to look at our photos when we project them.

Technology is growing faster than I can keep up with it.  Yesterday I did a power point presentation at a club meeting, using slides from a tour earlier in the week.   I had the CD in the laptop, hooked up the projector, turned everything on and guess what!  I couldn't remember my password to turn on the computer.   I had to call Jim at home to ask him what it was.   From now on, all the info I need to use the laptop and projector will be included in the computer bag.

Our President's Day visit to the American Village

Nancy Brunson, George Washington, Caitlin 

Hines, Gaye Hines, Nell Gilmer, Donna Clark,

 Charlene Martin at Mount Vernon

On Monday, Feb. 21 - President's Day - Jim and I went with a group of DAR members and their guests to the American Village in Montevallo, AL  for a day of special events and a birthday party for George Washington.  Check it out at   www.americanvillage.org
Click on "Watch the Video" at the bottom of the homepage to get an idea of what takes place at Amer. Village.  Then look at The Photo Gallery on the left side of the home page, at the bottom, for lots of photos of events taking place at American Village.


There were 15 people in our group and 10 of those were DAR members.  We used our church "people mover" bus for the 3-hour drive to Montevallo.  This was my 3rd trip, but first time for most of the others.

Learning the Virginia Reel

 In the photo here, we are in one of the rooms at Mt Vernon and the girls in costume were telling us about the special parties and dances held at Mt Vernon.  They invited some children to join them for the Virginia Reel.

Thomas Jefferson (from Elba)

Next we went to the Assembly room where we listened to Thomas Jefferson talk about his place in history.  We learned that Mr. Jefferson was from Elba!  The son of our friends Jack and Jane Brunson.  He's a great actor and knew a lot about Thomas Jefferson.  He answered many questions from people in the audience.

Jim taking over as President

Nell and Jim at Mt Vernon

 We visited a replica of the Oval Office and Jim wanted his picture made at the President's desk.  There were big windows behind him so it was hard to get a photo.  The seal on the blue rug is beautiful.

This photo on the right was taken in front of the replica of Mt. Vernon.  This was where the events all began at noon, with cupcakes celebrating George Washington's Birthday.

Mr. Washington welcoming us

President Washington walked out to the steps of Mt. Vernon and welcomed guests to his house.  He wasn't wearing his white wig so I almost didn't recognize him (plus he seems to have gained a little weight in his old age).

We visited the home of John Adams and others when they lived in Philadelphia - called The President's House.  Toured the replica of the courthouse in Philadelphia and went inside the chapel, a replica of the one where Patrick Henry delivered his famous speech.  He wasn't there yesterday.   We heard him when we attended the dedication of the chapel in 2006.

It was a fun day and we especially enjoyed the interaction of children attending the events.  They were so attentive to the costumed speakers and listened to every word, and many asked questions.

We left to return home at 3 pm, and toured the campus of the University of Montevallo, a beautiful old campus, on the way back to I-65 to head home.  Had a great day.

Apartments for Rent!

Hope we have this many guests!

Saw some purple martins this morning outside our bedroom window. I watched to see if they were inspecting  apartments in our new purple martin birdhouse in the back yard.  They didn't check it out while I was watching.  Once you get some birds building nests in your birdhouse, you will have that same family returning year after year.


Papa Smith used to have several gourds hanging from a pole. He cut holes in the gourds for the birds to nest.  I could never talk Jim into letting me have gourds but he did allow the beautiful birdhouse that I got from Bill and girls last Nov. for my birthday.  Ronnie helped him install the steel pole in cement when he was here Thanksgiving.  It is a telescoping pole that is easy to raise and lower.  We lowered the pole recently when we were expecting strong winds.  Maybe I can lower the pole and check the progress of eggs hatching when we have a family taking residence, and see the baby birds.


Purple martins are supposed to help control the mosquito population.  They feed on insects. My veg. garden plot is nearby.  I'm hoping they will eat the insects that invade the garden this summer.


We have had a big variety of bird visitors this winter at our bird feeder in the back yard.  First the big birds (blue jays, cardinals, doves, red wing blackbirds) come and eat.  Then they move on and smaller birds move in for breakfast. Then the tiny wrens and other little birds play around for awhile.  It's so much fun watching them.  I don't know how many big bags of wild bird seed we have bought this cold winter.  The feeder has 2 sides and I have to fill it often.


When we were pruning the shrubery the past couple of weeks, we found so many bird nests.  Mocking birds love to build nests in the climbing rose bushes, among the wicked thorns.  Others built nests in the trees.  We have several bluebird boxes and all of them were used one or more times last summer.

Our purple martin bird house
Pole is raised about 15 feet

We had a lot of red wing blackbirds this year for the first time.  We had those at the farm and I thought they nested near wet areas.  There's no water around where we live now.


Too bad I can't get close enough to get some photographs.  They fly away when they see me at the window with my camera and zoom lens pointed at them!!


Wish we could get rid of the noisy crows and most lately lots of buzzards seem to be roosting in the woods in front of us.


I never see a large flock of blackbirds without remembering the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Birds".

There's a Strange Kind of Hush, All over the World Tonight

One of their first albums

Peter Noon - 45 years later

Last night I went to a concert sponsored by the Coffee County Arts Alliance at Elba High school auditorium.   It was great!  I went to see Herman's Hermits (an older version of the 1963 group).

Herman's Hermits is an English beat or pop band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as Herman & The Hermits. 

Peter Noone a few years ago

I remember our boys had records of this group and I was amazed that I remembered so many of the tunes after all these years.  I guess I heard them so much when the boys would play them on their stereo (no headphones back then so everybody had to listed to the music when it was playing).


He had the audience participating and singing along several times.  Remember "Mrs. Brown: you have a Lovely Daughter"?  He has a beautiful tenor voice on that one.  And that crazy song "Henry the VIII, I Am" -  that was so much fun singing along.


Teenagers who grew up with this music were in the audience with their own children and grandchildren.  Unlike modern day music, at least you could understand the words of the songs.


Jim elected not to go with me; said he didn't know that group.  He would have remembered once he heard the songs being played.  He missed a fun-filled evening.








.  

Spring is here!!

Spring has arrived!  Daffodils are blooming and the sun is bright orange.  I even went outside without a coat  to get the newspaper this morning.  With a few more days of sun we will have flowers everywhere.  It has been a bitter, frigid winter.  Certainly not typical Alabama weather.


The sun was bright orange this morning.  Soon won't be able to see it when all the leaves come out on the trees.


We have set aside tomorrow (Friday) to finish pruning shrubs and trees and fertilize them.  Have seeds growing in pots in the greenhouse already to put in the garden and flowerbeds in a few weeks.


Growing up on a farm, spring brings so many memories to light.  I remember our daddy plowing a garden spot and planting a big garden.  We would follow behind the plow and pick up earth worms to use to go fishing.  When it rained, we would remove our shoes and go "bogging" in the freshly plowed dirt. Usually did this a little later, in March, when it wasn't so cold.


We used to go to the woods and find wild honeysuckles blooming (native azaleas they call them now) and large purple violets - the first harbingers of spring on the farm.

Church Homecoming was a great success!

Homecoming at church last Sunday was great!  We had about 200 more than we usually have at church on Sunday, or over 300.  The 100 year old sanctuary was completely filled (except for the front rows?).  The tall steel embossed ceiling is just as it was when it was built 100 years ago.  The gas lights have been replaced with electric lights.  The big pot belly stoves have been replaced with central air and heat.  Red carpet covers the wooden floor.

In the next photo you see across the room when ministers were standing and being introduced.  Over 100 people were seated in the back part of the sanctuary where there were once Sunday School rooms.

A local florist wanted to furnish the altar flower arrangement and it was beautiful.  The flowers were placed around our beautiful brass cross at the front of the room.

The service included lighting a memory candle in memory of all the saints of the church.  Two families came to the front of the church to light a candle in  memory of two of our older members who passed away in the past few weeks.  The big pillar candle burned throughout the service.

Another great event was the baptism of a baby, whose family goes a long way back in the history of our church - the Vaughan family.  He can always say that he was baptized on the 100th anniversary of the sanctuary.

After the service was over, everybody went next door to the Fellowship Hall for lunch.  There was so much food that some never got put on the serving table.  Ham, fried and baked chicken was provided by two Sunday School classes and everybody brought vegetables, salads, desserts and rolls.  The dessert table was a sight to behold!!

Nobody went away hungry!  Plates were taken to shut-ins who could not attend.  The best part of meal time was all the visiting taking place.  Former pastors and their families did a lot of visiting. 



There were old photos and scrap books displayed on the edge of the stage where people could go by and look at them.

As people left, they were given a DVD with some of the members talking about the history of the church (this was on a VHS tape made in 2001 and transferred to a DVD for homecoming).

It was indeed a great day!

Getting ready for spring

Despite the morning temperature of 25 degrees, I went ahead with plans today to work in my greenhouse and plant some seeds.  I filled a lot of small pots with potting soil (designed for growing seeds) and planted Homestead tomatoes, red and green peppers, cucumbers, zucchini squash, chives, and some marigolds and zinnias.  I also planted some blazing star seeds that a friend gave me.

Now I will sit back and wait for them to come up and grow large enough to transplant in the yard.  The pots are small so I will have to keep the plants watered.  this is the first time I've started plants in the greenhouse.  Last spring I had so many plants I propagated for our master gardener sale that I didn't have room for growing plants from seeds.

Seeds are expensive and you only get a few in each package.  It's so hard to plant 3 tiny seeds in a pot. And when they come up you need to thin them.

Last summer we had tomatoes throughout the summer and lots of peppers.  The cucumber vines kept us supplies with cucumbers all summer, as did the zucchini.  I hope this year we will have another good year gardening.

Our daffodils (jonquils) will be in full bloom by this time next week, especially with a forecast of warm, sunny days for the next week.  Birds are flying about singing their mating calls.  We hope a martin family will come to our new martin house which is located near the greenhouse.

Ah, spring is upon us.  And I can hardly wait.

Joining the Dames of the Magna Charta

King John signing the Magna Charta in 1215

Who hasn't heard of the Magna Charta, but at the same time has no idea what it is all about?


 The Magna Charta resulted from the peace made between King John of England and about sixty of his rebelling barons in 1215. After preliminary negotiations with the barons through the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, as go-between, the King and his party met the barons on 15 June in a meadow known as Runnemede next to the Thames River. After several days of face-off discussions on the 19th the document language was agreed upon and the barons elected 25 of their number to be "Sureties", holding title to a few of the King's properties, including the Tower of London, to guarantee the King's compliance with the laws and liberties of the Magna Charta. at the same time has no idea what it is all about.  

When Englishmen left their homeland to establish colonies in the New World, they brought with them charters guaranteeing that they and their heirs would "have and enjoy all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects." Scant generations later, when these American colonists raised arms against their mother country, they were fighting not for new freedoms but to preserve liberties that dated to the 13th century.

When representatives of the young republic of the United States gathered to draft a constitution, they turned to the legal system they knew and admired--English common law as evolved from Magna Carta. The conceptual debt to the great charter is particularly obvious: the American Constitution is "the Supreme Law of the Land," just as the rights granted by Magna Carta were not to be arbitrarily canceled by subsequent English laws.

This week I mailed my application to the National office of the Dames of the Magna Charta, along with my sister Christine's and her daughter Joann's applications.  Chris has spent about 8 years researching our family (William Cole) back to one of the barons who lived in 1215 and served under King John.    One of my friends, a member of the Dames of the Magna Charta, Alabama Division, proposed us for membership.  


The next step in joining this prestigious society is to have our applications accepted and offered a formal invitation to join (that's when we send in $200 application fee).  

Men's Club at Elba United Methodist Church in 1953

(Click picture to enlarge)

This was the year we got married - 58 years ago this coming October.  I graduated from high school in May, 1952.  When I looked at this old photo someone gave me to display at the Homecoming/100th anniversary of our sanctuary on Feb 13, I recognized so many of these Elba men.

The photo was small and I cropped the top and bottom and made the photo large - like a large banner. I put a number on each of the men and then at the bottom of the photo I listed their number and name. I printed the photo as a poster photo, which included several 8-1/2 x 11 pages of prints.  Then I trimmed them and pasted them together like a puzzle on stiff foam board.  I will display this poster at homecoming at church this Sunday.  It will be in the display area with other old photos and items of interest.

Included in the poster above are Sheriff Tillman on the front row near the center.  His daughter Doris was one of my good friends.  Her mother cooked for the jail inmates.  The jail was a big brick, 2 story building just one block south of the court house.  We could walk by and see the prisoners in the cells behind bars.

There were many I could not identify so I have been going around town for the past week asking some of the "old timers" to help me identify people in the photo.  I lacked one person and I was so happy today to get an email from someone of town that I sent the photo to, and he gave me the name of that person.  I was so happy to get everybody identified (except for two who were partially hidden and we couldn't see their face).

Also included in the photo were store owners, lawyers, judges, farmers, my school principal (this was his 5th year as principal when this photo was made).

My friend printed out several  8x10 photos from small snapshots for me to mount on poster board.  Most of those in the photos are now deceased and were at one time well know members of our church.

Click to enlarge

My favorite photo is of the youth choir at Easter time in 1949. A member of our church brought this photo to me and wanted us to copy it for our display.  He said he was 17 in this photo.

He knew every name and as he pointed them out to me, he had a story behind each one.  One was his best friend in high school and he had not see him in over 60 years.  He said he would love to see him again, but he spent most of his life as a Nazarene preacher in other states.  I called his friend's brother who lives in Elba and asked about Freddie's friend and got his telephone number and called him out in Arizona.  I promised to send him pictures from homecoming.  He is 80 now and has retired after 60 years in the ministry.  Married a girl he met in college in Missouri and never came back to Elba to live.  I have heard from many who moved away after they grew up in Elba and they are planning to come back to homecoming.

It's going to be a great day and we're supposed to have good weather - sunny and in the 60s.  It's hard to believe the next 3 days we'll have a winter storm watch with snow and ice in parts of Alabama.

Getting ready for homecoming at church

On February 13, 2011, the sanctuary of Elba United Methodist Church will be 100 years old. I learned this when I became church historian last Nov.  I started reading about the history of the church and read an account in the Elba Clipper (local newspaper) dated 14 Feb. 1911, about the first service held in the new church.    I knew immediately that we must have a celebration for the 100th anniversary.

On Jan. 12th, I talked to  Stanley Carter, our  pastor, and he agreed that we should have Homecoming and an anniversary celebration on 13 Feb 2011.  With only 5 weeks to plan, I got busy.  I made invitations for Stanley to sign and mail to several former pastors who live in this area.  I wrote a letter to former members, friends, and others who live out of town and mailed out 92 letters.  Sent press releases to area newspapers.

Just one more week left to get ready for homecoming.  It's going to be a great day.  I've had so much fun gathering information, printing copies of old photos to display, writing weekly articles about the history of the church to insert in Sunday church bulletins, and meeting with committees working on meal planning, decorating, music, the service, etc.

I learned that our beautiful old sanctuary cost $11,000 to build in 1911.  The red bricks were made from red clay in our town and fired in a brick kiln near the banks of the river.  The beautiful stained glass windows were mostly funded by money collected to build a memorial to confederate soldiers on the courthouse square.  When  they couldn't collect enough money for a statue, the money was given to the church to purchase stained glass windows in memory of the Confederate soldiers from Coffee County.

Another window has written on it "Angus Vaughan and wife".   I've always wondered why he didn't put her name on the window too.  It's amazing that those windows are 100 years old and have withstood numerous storms over the years and 3 floods that got into the building.

The old bell hanging in the steeple was cast in 1908 by C.S. Bell Co in Hillsboro, OH.  Church bells could be ordered from Sears Roebuck at that time and cost about $70 (I looked this up in an 1897 Sears catalog).
Our bell is rung on Sunday mornings when it's time for church to begin at 10 a.m.

Our church has so much history.  Many of the older members were interviewed in 2001 after cleaning up from a flood in 1998, and talked about the history of the church.  A video tape was made.  Jim and I made 100 DVDs from this VHS tape to give to each family attending homecoming.

Today I learned that the weather next Friday, 2 days before homecoming, is forecast to be the coldest this year.  But in Alabama, the weather changes almost daily.  It might be 60 degrees on Feb. 13th!!  I'll keep my fingers crossed.   I told someone today that we will have a captive audience:  too cold to go to the lake or beach, no super bowl that day, no races - so people will have no excuse not to come to church.

What happened to January?

January has come and gone and I never got around to writing anything in my blog.  It has been a very cold winter with temperatures below freezing most days and many days in the teens.  Fireplace felt good.

We converted from an electric heat pump to a natural gas furnace. They came the coldest week of the year to install the new furnace.  First they removed all the ducts and put in new ones.  This meant we didn't have central for a week.  Used electric radiator type heaters and it kept the house warm, plus used a lot of kilowatt hours.                                                                  

After the heater was installed, and a new gas hot water heater, we got the painters back to finish painting that they started last fall.  Here you see them in the den painting the ceiling and woodwork.         

                                                                                    

Also in January our new electric stove arrived.  We ordered it in December from Sears.  Bo and Tom came on a Saturday and it took about 5 hours to fit it into the space the old one occupied.  Works like a charm.  Now I can bake and things won't burn. 

We aren't the only people remodeling.  Shown here is my brother Perry's "country condo".  He bought this 66' mobile home off Craig's List and had it brought to land at Pine Level that belongs to Carol's brother. Perry spends a lot of time at Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Pine Level and wanted a place to go when he's out there working.  Carol will have her art studio on the east end, with a lot of natural light. They were adding a deck on front when we went out to check on the progress last week. 

Jim snapped this picture of me on January 31st.  I was seated at my

computer one morning when he said "look up".  This is our work station wall.  The TV we use to watch the news at breakfast every morning, then my computer desk, with Jim's "Man Cave" behind me.  We spend a lot of time each day at our computers.  Jim reads newspapers first thing in the morning and I like to check my email and facebook.  Then I usually have some work to do on the computer. 

Tomorrow I will write about my latest project - planning for homecoming at Elba United Methodist Church and 100th anniversary of our church sanctuary - Feb 13, 2011. 

Note to Guy:  I'm back in business writing my blog.  Sorry you missed reading it every day.  I'll try to write more.