Spirit of Elba Award

This award was really a surprise for me. Usually just one of us goes to the annual Chamber of Commerce banquet and this year it was Jim's turn, and I would stay at home with James. Besides I had already bought a ticket to go to a dinner/play that Sat. night by myself. So when he asked me to go with him, I gave him several reasons why I didn't want to go. He kept asking me to please go with him, and so I said ok, and I'd get my cousin JoAnn and her husband to come stay with James. Jim knew about the award but didn't want to tell me.

We had been to a luncheon that day and had a big meal and were there about 2 hours. I was tired when I got home. I really didn't want to go to the Chamber dinner that night. But I got dressed and went along, even wearing high heel shoes and a formal dress (thanks to my sister Alice for giving me this dress a couple of years ago).

We arrived at the banquet at the appointed time, 7 P.M., and found some friends to sit with. We looked over the room and saw that most of the people there were much younger that we are. The Chamber is made up of working people not yet retired. It was refreshing to be in a young crowd for a change. Two businesses were honored; one for their 60th anniversary and another for their 50th anniversary. Then a couple of other business awards were presented, and then the Chamber Director asked me to please come to the podium for an award. I had no idea they were going to do this. I was presented the "Spirit of Elba" award which they don't present every year. They recalled some of the things I do for the city to make it a better place to live, etc.

I was very proud of this honor. Especially because it was given to me by a group of people that I know very well. Of course I didn't compete for this honor but was honored for doing things I enjoy doing and trying to improve our community. It was truly a memorable experience. And I'm so glad Jim convinced me to go with him.

The cooking lesson

Granddaughter Katie Adelaide Gilmer, age 10 in 2001, learns to make cookies - from scratch. Katie is the middle of three girls and the one that loves to cook. When she comes to visit us from S. C. every summer, she wants me to teach her how to cook. Her favorite is making chocolate chip cookies (she likes to lick the bowl and nibble on the chocolate chips). Katie is now 16 and this summer she had a job working at "Wally World", an amusement park where she lives. I wasn't surprised when I heard that she was spending some time making pizzas there. Most of the time she sold tickets for the rides and attractions, etc. She still works there, but limited hours during school. Katie's mother died when she was only 5, so her Aunt Alice (my sister) who lives about 1 1/2 hrs away in Fayetteville helps her with cooking lessons also. Plus her dad is a good cook.

One Christmas when all 3 girls were visiting us at the farm, we made a large gingerbread house. The gingerbread was so good that we could hardly wait until Christmas Day to start eating the house. They had so much fun decorating it. We got the decorations off the internet and made a pattern for the gingerbread pieces. After baking, the pieces were larger than the pattern and the house was much larger than we anticipated.

Folsom House front yard garden wins Garden of the Month

The birthplace home of former Alabama Gov. "Big Jim" Folsom was moved to Elba in 2002 from out in the northwest corner of Coffee County. Vandals were destroying the home and in order to preserve it, Coffee Co. Commissioners agreed to get the home moved and then gave it to the City of Elba.

It is located on city property next to the old jail. Plans are to restore the old home for school children to visit and learn how people lived in the early 1900's.

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In the meantime, I have worked hard to plant a southern heirloom garden in the front yard.

A wrought iron fence was made from scraps from Dorsey Trailers and designed and welded by the welding class at Elba High School.

In October 2007 the Folsom House garden was selected as

Garden of the Month for Oct 07.

Grimes Family Reunion Today

The Grimes family reunion took place today at New Ebenezer Baptist Church pavilion.  Here are some people who attended.

Tim Donaldson and daughter and son Timothy come every year.

Eva Deal lives in Dothan now.  Caroline and Paul brought her to the reunion.

Al and Lucy Martin with Lucy's son Kevin.

Pat and Mae Grimes - Mae was from the Phillipines.

Bill Grimes and family
Jimmy & Helen Blankenship

Moving to the City of Elba

This is what the yard looked like before we moved in November 2003.
Nothing in the yard except bermuda grass. Back yard was rather plain.

Window boxes were added to the front while we waited for shrubbery to grow.

West side of yard with trees we planted in 2004.

We planted this autumn blaze maple for color.

James hobby house on east side of porch. That banana tree has to go. It's too big.









Lady Banks rose behind swing arbor. Joe Meacham rooted this for me when we moved to Elba.

Flowers and gardens at Whispering Pines Farm

Hydrangea I rooted. Brought the cutting from GA

This rose bush was rooted from one in Albany, Ga that my 80 year old friend could document back to her great grandmother's home in Savannah. I figured it is about 200 years old. The pale pink roses are so fragrant, but the bush is covered with so many torns we try not to get too close. I rooted some and have them growing on our fence in the back yard in Elba.

 My favorite accomplishment was establishing a water garden in the spring area. We got so excited when we had our first water lily bloom. The cold winter killed it and I never got another one.



Daffodils were planted everywhere and the woods were alive in spring. The purple wild violets were growing in this marshy area when I was growing up. I was so happy to discover them again.




Elephant ears loved the bog area near the spring. The last photo is a view from our bedroom window looking east. This was a tangled mass of vines and trees when we moved to the farm.

Whispering Pines

Today I am posting several photos of developments at our farm, which we named WhisperingPines since we had about 80 acres of pines that we planted in 1983. I will list some of these improvements and you can look for them in the photos. First, we installed a picket fence in front of the house and painted it white. Using a mold and many bags of cement, we made "large, smooth river rocks" for the walkway in the front yard. I added an arbor on the right side of the house, leading to the lake.

We added a deck to connect the house and the mobile home that we used as a guest house. We built a screened porch on the back of the mobile home and this was a favorite spot to sit and enjoy the sunsets over the water.

We put a roof over the trailer and back porch and there was room at the end of the porch for a carport. We added a bedroom and den to the back of the house. We had to build a pole barn to house our tractor, lawn mowers, and other farm equipment. We bought a large storage building and it was located next to the barn. Jim had a workshop here and we had it filled to the roof with a big assortment of items we didn't want to get rid of - yet.

We cleared the woods beside the house and had a beautiful water garden where a spring came out of the ground under a big oak tree. This is the same spring where my mother did the family wash when I was small. What memories!! Tomorrow I will feature my plants and landscaping. We developed the area so much we couldn't maintain it. I felt like we were living in the middle of a park.