2021 April 17, Mooresville Walking Tour and Huntsville Botanical Gardens

It was a great turnout at Mooresville, for I had to park along the side of the road and walk several blocks.

 We began at the Post Office, which closed at 10:00 A.M., so if you wanted to go inside, you had to arrive by 9:45 A.M.

 We saw a couple of churches, a tavern, and several homes, and our guide shared the history of the small town with us. 

We saw a beautiful little cottage that is now Lyla's Little House of Mooresville. "All the sweet that's fit to eat!"

Stage Coach Stop 

Lyla's Little House of Mooresville

Brick Church

The brick church had been owned by several different denominations but was now owned by the town and used for weddings and town hall meetings. We walked inside the Brick Church, the Post Office, and the Tavern. Our guide distributed several booklets on Historic Mooresville's Bicentennial, Est. 1818, but ran out. It was a lovely day for the tour. It was a little cool but warmed up quickly. I left before it ended because I couldn't hold it in any longer. I stopped at Cracker Barrel in Madison to use the restroom. 

 My next stop was the Botanical Gardens. I first visited the Butterfly House and saw one butterfly, a few turtles, and several children. I was so thirsty that I bought an Orange Crush drink and finished it before I left the gardens. 

 Walked through the Children's Garden to the newly built Birdwatching building. Meet a man there who was building a new home and was getting ideas for his lawn. (shrubs, flowers, and such). Had a pleasant, relaxing visit to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens?

Field of Wildflowers

Squirrel

I strolled through the wooded area along the less-traveled paths. I saw several Robin Redbreast, rabbits, and squirrels. As I walked near the pond, I saw many turtles basking in the sun. Yellow and White Wildflowers were blooming everywhere. They were so pretty. I also walked through the herb garden.

 I had a great day, but was tired from all that walking, and I still had to drive an hour or more home.

2008 ~ June 1-6, Spending time with family in Whigham, GA

Day 1: June 1, Sunday 2008 

We picked up Dakota at 10:00 A.M. at McDonald's in Killen, Alabama. He had been visiting his grandparents in Russellville, and we were taking him home.

We stopped at Peach Park in Clanton, Alabama, to use the restrooms, have a picnic, and let the kids play in the park.

Peach Park is a fruit market where they sell watermelons, peaches, and peach ice cream. 

The park had a garden to stroll through with swings, a frog pond, a large waterfall behind the store building, and a nice playground on top of the hill behind the store. 

It was too hot and muggy to stay outside, so we loaded up and headed down the I-65 toward Montgomery. 

In Montgomery, we took I-85 toward Atlanta, GA, then south on 231 toward Dothan, AL.  

We stopped in Dothan, AL, to fill up with gas. Then, we rode over to Dothan Area Botanical Gardens and walked through the park, which took us about an hour and a half, stopping to take some pictures.

Raised beds of flowers, Dothan Botanical Gardens

Dakota Dothan Botanical Gardens

Marcus Dothan Botanical Gardens

The Aermotor Chicago Dothan Botanical Gardens

Lora and Meadow Dothan Botanical Gardens

At the park, we saw the rose garden, daylilies, camellias, azaleas, the butterfly garden, and the vegetable garden.

The first 14 acres of Southern Gardens include roses, herbs, daylilies, camellias, native azaleas, a meditation and butterfly garden, plus a demonstration garden, a nature trail, wooded areas, and a 1-acre pond.

We arrived at Andy's around 6 P.M., and we played the word game on the game channel. 

Lora, Meadow, and I slept in Sierra's room.

Day 2: June 2, Monday 2008 

We all stayed at Andy's while Charity went to her doctor's appointment in Dothan.

When Charity returned, she said that her doctor had postponed her test because her mouth had not healed enough for her to be put to sleep.

Lora and I spent the day washing clothes and cleaning the house. 

Twice, I walked to the end of the road.

For supper, we ate fresh potatoes, squash, "buffalo" meat loaf, and chocolate cake. 

All the kids went to Vacation Bible School. 

Day 3: June 3, Tuesday 2008 

Today we are going to the Wiregrass Commons Mall while Charity goes to her dentist appointment in Dothan.

Charity takes Lora's van after she drops off everyone at Wiregrass Mall and goes to her appointment.

We spend the morning shopping, and the kids ride the Carrousel and the train.

We eat lunch at Dante's Pizza, where everyone enjoys a slice.

Lora bought Marcus a video game, Charity bought Dakota a pair of shoes, and she bought herself some clothes. 

There is a slow leak in one of the tires on Lora's van, so we stopped at Sears to get it fixed.

The man who knows how to fix that special type of tire has gone home.

Lora has air in the tire, and we ride back to Whigham.

Sierra and Madison are at camp, and camp ends at 3 P.M.

We are still in Dothan. Charity calls Andy, and she tells him to pick up the girls at camp.

That night, all the kids went to vacation bible school. Nevada said someone had hurt his feelings, and he added, "I am not going back to that church." 

I walked to the end of the road. 

Day 4: June 4, Wednesday 2008 

Charity, Meadow, and Montana are going with Lora to Tallahassee, FL, to get Lora's flat fixed. They dropped the girls off at camp.

They were gone all day.

I walked to the end of the road twice.

Day 5: June 5, Thursday 2008 

I walked to the end of the road.

Lora cooked a peach cobbler for dinner.

Charity carried Madison and Sierra to camp.

Dakota and Marcus, Jr., went to a friend's house to swim, and they both got sunburned.

Day 6: June 6, Friday 2008 

This is the girls' last day at camp. Lora, Meadow, and I stayed to watch the girls' program, which lasted two hours.

It was very hot in the non-air-conditioned building,  with gnats swarming everywhere. 

We were each given handheld fans to work off the knots and to cool ourselves.

After the program, they had a picnic with watermelons, cookies, sandwiches, and drinks.

It had been a long, hot morning, and finally, the camp program was over.

We took Sierra home and up Marcus, and started our six-hour trip back. 

We stopped at Sonic for lunch. I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich with fries and a Diet Coke.

We stopped to fill up with gas, which cost Lora $60.00; it was ten cents cheaper when paying with cash.

The trip home was pleasant, with a couple of stops to use the restroom.

Lora dropped me off at 9:30 P.M. My husband was still at work and didn't get home until 10 P.M.

2015 ~ Tuesday, June 2, Rosenbaum House Museum Florence, Alabama

For entertainment, we went to the Rosenbaum House built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1939.

The group waiting to go inside (from Virginia)

It reminded me of a really nice passenger train with the close proximity of each room, how everything was built into the house, in the boy's room the bunk beds built into the walls as were the closets, cabinets, & draws.

Boys Room 

I loved how the many doors leading outside opened outside instead of inside.

How the light filtered inside the home where you could take a book from the long bookshelf to read from the light that filtered in from the long windows.

Living or entertaining room with a long row of shelves for his many books

In each room you could see outside so you could watch the birds, the squirrels and the rain, also they had their own private botanical garden with Japanese Maples, a flowing fountain and this could be viewed from the boy's room, or the room for entertaining.

I loved the house!

Frank Lloyd Wright grew up in the low green hill country of Wisconsin, where he was inspired by sketches of the local river and the arch of oak trees on the surrounding riverbanks.

He used his nature as an important factor in hi tranquil designs.

Wright's design of homes was influenced by the forms of nature, the stretches of rivers and the sky.

His home and studio were in Oak Park Chicago, Illinois. In his home, he used a design of windows that let nature inside.

Letting nature inside view from the bedroom 

It had long compressed hallways and geometric patterns in the windows and throughout the house.

Wright was an apprentice of Sullivan an architect in the early 1900s.

Compressed hallways

Wright wanted to get away from the victorian style.  In his design of the Winslow home, he used the arch, and he used the color of the earth which gave the home a sense of feeling.

In his design of the Moore home, he used the horizontal form and a more private form.

Wright used an arch for the entryway, an arch for the fireplace and he used his open form design throughout the home.

In his design of the Thomas Gale home, Wright's use of light brought the outside inside, which gave the house a unique effect.

Wright used the laws of nature to create his architecture. His opening outside and nature come inside. 

In 1902 Wright designed the Susan Lawrence Dane home. Wright had $60,000 to design the home and it was a masterpiece of prairie architecture.

Wright had butterfly lamps hanging from the ceilings, he used color of golden glass elegant pieces locked in time.

Wrights used repeated shapes and designs or prairie architecture. His patterns of music and design gave unity to the Unity Temple he built-in 1904.

He used the cubic design, open rooms(where the walls seem to disappear) with the light of nature coming inside. 

His space within was to give unity. In 1908 Wright built the Robbie home which had perpetual horizontal motion.

He used his open design with wrap-around windows, free-standing rooms, with the color of trees to represent the organic architecture. His use of space within on his roofs and walls takes the home inside out.

The roof and lighting 

One of Wright's greatest designs is the Johnson Wax Building, where he uses mushroom columns and glass tubing of windows, a remarkable building.

Architecture critic Peter Blake wrote in 1960 that during the 1930s Wright built four structures of a beauty unexcelled in American before or since. Three of these are Falling Water, The Johnson Wax Administrative Building and Taliesin West. The fourth is the Rosenbaum House 

Some of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture 

Some of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture 

Front of the house

In 1935, Wright built and designed for the man and his environment. The building had its own waterfall. The building and its surroundings enhanced each other. He painted the home a dried Rhododendron color.

A home where man and nature interlock.

Wright continued to create architecture until his death in 1959, at the age of 91.

Why I like Wright's architecture is because of the way he created beauty in everyday life.

His use of life and nature in his homes brought a unique quality that will last for several lifetimes.

Wright created form and substance in his architecture.

He understood the importance of a home and family life.

He loved nature and he knew how to create that form in his architecture.

I loved the Rosenbaum home with the simplistic yet unique design, how Wright used simple nature to create such a livable environment.

It's not a home everyone would enjoy but if you love light, and nature then you would love this home.

I loved it!