👣👣👣👣 2015 April 11 Saturday, Civil War Walking Tour, Car Show, Grand Opening

I took two of my grandsons to the Civil War Walking tour in Tuscumbia. We were a little early, so we went inside the bookstore and browsed.
Everyone met at Cold Water Book Store and departed at 11 A.M. As we walked up Main Street, our guide talked about Tuscumbia's history and its role in the Civil War.
We stopped at the Courthouse under one of the large trees for shade as our guide talked.
On MaStreeteet stands a monument that honors the brave soldiers who gave their lives.

Confederate Monument

Tuscumbia Courthouse

We stopped at the First Presbyterian Church, and before we went inside, we listened to a woman play Lorena on her banjo.
Lorena is an antebellum song written by Rev. Henry L. Webster after a broken engagement. It became a favorite of soldiers of both sides during the American Civil War.

The years creep slowly by, Lorena,
Snow is on the grass again.
The sun's low down in the sky, Lorena,
The frost gleams where the flowers have been.
But the heart throbs on as warmly now,
As when the summer days were night;
Oh! the sun can never dip so low,
A down affection's cloudless sky.

First Presbyterian Church

This church has balcony seating, bagpipes that still sound great, and a stained glass window.
This church is where the Keller Family attended; Mr Keller served in the Civil War.
Services are still held in this church, and the piano is played beautifully by a longtime member.

The street was in full bloom with white and pink dogwoods.

Dogwood

We stopped at several houses along the way, and our guide explained how each owner played a role in the war. 

We finished the walking tour at 12 P.M.
We stopped at Krispy Kreme to pick up two dozen donuts.
Our next stop was at the grand opening of CE Pools, where we enjoyed a grilled hamburger and a bowl of Sue's banana pudding.

We still had time to attend the 5th Annual car show at TM Rogers.
We saw a pink Trucking Magazine, a green Chevrolet truck with Lee Radial GT tires.
Rusty old Ford truck, red Corvette, Yellow SS Camaro.
The boys got to sit behind the wheel of a Vintage GB.
There were tractors, trucks, and cars of all shapes and sizes.

Montana 

Nevada 

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!

🎄🎄🎄🎄2014 ~ Dec 22, Christmas with Kids and Grandkids

Monday night was our big Christmas Party.
We ordered six pizzas
1. Two Cheese Pizzas

2. Two ham and Pineapple pizzas. 

Two Pepperoni Pizzas 

Two Chocolate Cookie Pizzas
Hannah made cheese dip, another dip with chips
Jake and Lindsey brought hot wings and fries
Ronald brought drinks
I brought drinks, paper plates, Cups, and Cocktail weiners.

Ron, Andy, Nevada, Montana, Sierra, Hubby Mike, Hannah, Jake, Lindsey, and I were at the party.
Dakota had to work late because his girlfriend didn't come, and Charity was sick.
Madison, Marcus, and Meadow did not come.
Hannah's boyfriend was sick with the flu, and he did not come. As you can see, several family members were missing due to illness.

We swapped gifts.
Hubby and I received two gift cards from Places to Eat, some Mary Kay, and hair products.
We had a great time reminiscing.
Jake took out the project book he had done in the fifth grade on his grandmother.

Mike and Ron discussed their childhood experiences and the many mishaps they encountered.
Mike told the story about his grandfather trying to drive up a steep hill in his old red truck.
How the truck struggled to get up the hill, how it would get about halfway up, only to roll back down.
This is how his grandfather finally put the pedal to the metal to reach the top.

He told the story about his grandfather working on a project at Mr. Stewart's.
How his grandfather got frustrated, started cursing, and left for the day.
His grandfather returns the next day to finish the job after he has cooled off.
Women were visiting the Stewarts' home that day, and I am sure they heard his grandfather's angry words.

Mike told many stories of mishaps that happened at work.
Mike could write a book on the funny mishaps that happened to him.
Jake told the story about the time he broke a window in the front door of his great-grandfather's house.
He said my great-grandfather got in his old Buick and came after me.
He said that my great-grandfather had one of his grandsons catch me.
He said my great-grandfather whipped me and left the mark of AD on my backside.

Both of my sons were mowing the lawn by the age of five. Ron said I can remember not being tall enough to reach the handle.
He told how their grandfather worked on the lawnmowers before they could cut the grass, which sometimes took hours.

The boys said that we always dreaded coming home from school because if Paw was in the garden, we knew we would have to work.
They said we just wanted to stay on the school bus.
The boys discussed how they spent their summer vacations working in the garden.
Ron talked about his dog Patmae. He said that once she got bitten by a snake, and another time she got into a fight with another dog and was injured, and how he took care of her.

I could listen to the boys go on for hours.

Chapter 3 Making a decision

Chapter 3

Sally’s passion for history got her a scholarship to South Africa. She would be helping and observing the ways of life of the people in Africa especially the children.

Her plans were to live in Africa for one year.

Sally was very delighted about her upcoming trip and could not wait to tell John. 

Sally and Billy had been estranged for many years and their boys were now rambunctious teenagers.

Her sons Sam and Thomas were thrilled about living in Africa. 

Both boys loved creatures both great and small especially the endangered animal.

The family would be leaving at the end of the boy’s school term, which ended May 30.

March was a bitterly cold month and Sally had just a couple of months to make sure that she and her boys had everything they needed for their upcoming trip.

They would need several shots to prevent diseases and passports for travel, which sometimes it can take several months to receive.

Sally was going to miss her weekly calls to John. 

Sally secretly hoped that John would accept the position her University was offering.

Cambridge University wanted to send someone with a Ph.D. in farming to Africa.  

They wanted to teach the local people to farm and harvest their vegetables with the use of irrigation.

John had just received the package from Cambridge inviting him to join the research in farming in Africa.

Sally had said that she was going to Africa to teach and her boys would be there to help whoever went on the farming scholarship.

Would John has enough time to get his passport, & shots and be able to fly to Africa with Sally and the boys?

John was troubled about making the right decision

Should she go or should he stay? His mind was muddled right now; maybe he should sleep on that thought.

John did not want Sally and the boys to go alone.

He knew she could take care of herself for she had taken self-defense classes and the boys were big and strong.

John loved farming, the environment, and people.

This would be a great opportunity for him.

John could experiment with his new farming techniques on fertile and infertile soil.

John would be getting a grant from Cambridge as well as keeping his current position.

John tossed all night, thoughts running through his mind.

The sun came streaming into his bedroom window. It was time to get up.

John had made his decision.