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.








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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).