2019 Jun 4, 💐 🌷Trip to Atlanta Botanical Gardens and the Imaginary World of Alice's Wonderland

Today started out in the upper 60s and cloudy it was a great day for traveling. We were up before the sun and on our way by 5:30AM for a 4 1/2 drive to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. 

We took the scenic route through Huntsville, Scottsboro, and several small towns to Atlanta Ga taking I-75 into downtown. 

 Veteran's Memorial Park Chattooga County Georgia "Dick Dowdy's Park" Summerville, GA
is where we stopped to take pictures of the War Memorials of Chattooga County, Couey's Log Cabin, Summerville's Train Depot, and the turntable.

Veteran's Memorial Park Chattooga County Georgia 

Couey's Log Cabin

Train Turntable

Summersville's Train Depot 

We spent several hours strolling through the botanical gardens looking at all the breathtaking plants and Alice in Wonderland Characters.

We ate breakfast at McDonald's in Scottsboro and dinner at Red Lobster in Oxford Alabama. 

Admiral's Feast 

We also took the scenic route home. From Cullman, we took I-65 to Athens, then 72.
We did stop at Wendy's for a chocolate frost.

Hubby did not want a frosty so we stopped at Dairy Queen for a creamsicle. 

We were home by 8:30PM

We were halfway to Atlanta when I realized I had forgotten to bring my cell phone and my sunglasses at Red Lobster. 
(Valley Head, Alabama where we stopped to take a picture of Valley Head Drug Mural is where I realized I had left my cell phone at home)
I had to use hubby's cell phone to take pictures and airdrop them when I got home. I did go back to get my glasses before we left the restaurant. 

I had a great day.

Imaginary World of Alice's Wonderland 
We were greeted at the Admissions desk, paid our fee, were given a garden map, walked through the double doors, and began our whimsical journey looking for treasures.
We were looking for eleven characters from the Imaginary World of Alice's Wonderland

Our first encounter was PEGASUS the flying winged horse, a child of Olympians & Poseidon.

Pegasus was covered in brown plants, and his wings, tail, and mane were covered in green plants. He appeared to be in a slow Trott.

Pegasus 

At the Kendeda Canopy Walk, hidden by a canopy of trees and shrubs, was the Mammoth.

The Mammoth was covered in Greenery, except for his white tusk, which helped keep him hidden from view

Mammoth 

Earth Goddess was nestled in the Cascade Gardens next to the cascading waterfall.

The Earth Goddess's face and hand were comprised of green plants.

Her hair covered in multi-color plants, flowed down her head onto the ground.

Her eyes were closed and water flowed through her fingers as the serenity of it all touched her soul. 

Earth Goddess 

The Giant Phoenix was perched along the wall of the Astor Overlook. His body was covered in brown plants. The tip of his feathers was covered in green plants, and his wings spread wide.

Eyes of an eagle, hungry enough to eat a man.

Giant Phoenix 

Sea Maid (Mermaid)

Sitting in the fountain near the Rose Garden we saw a beautiful mermaid.
The sea-maid was covered in green plants and her brown(plant) hair flowed down to her waist, her tail folded beneath her.

A trio of camels lined the Anne Cox Chamber Flower Walk.
They were composed of brown bushy plants, with a little greenery on their faces. The mats/blanket upon their backs was covered in multi-colors of green plants
On one of the camels sat a rider his upper body was covered in greenery, his pants a reddish-brown, and his boots matched the matt. 
The baskets the camels were carrying were covered in red, green, and brown plants.

Camels 

The camels were covered with green mats carrying baskets of red, purple, green, and brown.
Stepping carefully along the flower walk.

Dragon

We saw the larger-than-life, fire-eating dragon standing guard over the plants in the Rock Garden, ready to breathe fire on offenders. 
The dragon was covered in a mixture of greens, &  browns with brown spikes down his back. His upper wings were brown the underside green. A fierce creature to behold. 

the White Rabbit

The not-so-white rabbit's body was covered in green plants, his ears, and nose in pink plants, and his boat was covered in reddish-brown plants. Atop the cane in his hand was his tall green hat.

Floating in the pond among the greenery sat the not-so-white rabbit. It was the rabbit that Alice had followed down the rabbit hole.

The Queen of Hearts Chess Game

Within sight of the not-so-white rabbit stood the Three of Hearts, the Ace of Hearts, the chess players on a green and white chessboard lined with heart-shaped green and brown trees waiting to capture Alice but Alice was asleep in the nearby garden. 

The Shaggy Dog is sitting at the Garden House waiting for someone to stroke his long green fur.

Cheshire Cat and Sleeping by Alice 

The Cheshire cat was sitting in the tree watching Alice sleep.
Alice's dress was covered in blue flowers, her hair in yellow flowers that surrounded her face as she lay sleeping in a bed of flowers, grass, and red, yellow, and white mushrooms.
Her face, socks, and belt were covered in green plants.
The Cheshire cat was covered in multi-greens with pink inner ears, big blue/green eyes with a wide mischievous grin that showed his white teeth.

At the Botanical Gardens 

We saw Picture plants Although pretty on the outside, the interior of a pitcher plant is quite sinister for visiting bugs. Once lured into a cup (a pitcher) by sweet-smelling nectars and flashy colors, the insect is greeted with downward-pointing hairs. Insects are captured by slipping and falling off the hairs and into a liquid at the bottom of the pitcher. They die by drowning in this liquid. Acids and enzymes then break down the insect into a soup, which is used by the plant for nutrition.

Picture Plant 

We saw Water lilies, Roses, Catci, tropical plants, and eatable plants. Plants inside hothouses, in a dry climate, in humid climates.

We saw turtles, male California quails, and blue, green, and yellow poison dart frogs. 

We saw trees of different species and sizes, fountains, and several eating places closed except for one.

Chihuly Glass Art

Orchids

Water Lilies 

A couple of pieces of Chihuly Glass Art one hanging in the great hall(greenish-yellow tubular glass shapes) and another atop a fountain (blue swirling glass) in the Rose garden.

The garden's directions were easy to follow, and the foliage & flowers were breathtaking. It was a trip worth taking. 
I took hundreds of pictures and still could not capture all of its beauty.

2019 May 15, Day Trip Decatur's Historic & Parks Gardens 💐 🌷

Hubby and I had a great day. I was not sure if we were going anywhere because by 10AM it looked like rain but we decided to go anyway. 
We rode to Decatur stopping at Old Bank Park Garden took pictures of the garden.

Old Bank Street Park Garden 

Next, we rode to Frazier Park. (Never been to this park) I was surprised at how beautiful and serene. It had blooming Hydrangeas, and Magnolia trees were in bloom, as other shrubs, trees, and flowers along a running stream with a cross bridge. 

Frazier Park 

We rode over to Albany to Delano Rose Walk and the Children's Riverwild Playground, splash pad, and Garden. We had taken the grandkids to play in the park when they were small. The River Wild Garden Walkway was new to us. 

DragonFly 

River wild Park 

Toad Frog 

Swamp Rabbit 

Tortoise 

Delano Park Rose Garden

We loved the Frogs, Toads, Beavers, Fireflies, Turtles, butterflies, signs, and statues throughout the Garden. By the time we reached the Rose Garden, it had begun to sprinkle. A landscaper working in the garden, I said a little rain cannot hurt but he said I cannot get my work done in the rain. I kept on taking pictures but the rain got harder. I looked around and the gardener had disappeared, he had gone back to his truck to keep from getting wet. I started back to the car and the rain began to come down hard but I made it to the car before I got too wet. We rode to Huntsville to get the oil changed in our car by the time they finished the sun had come out, so we rode back to Decatur so I could finish taking pictures.

Pink Rose 

Entrance Way lined with Snow Queen Hydrangeas

We were getting hungry, and we did not eat lunch because we had stopped at the Shell Gas Station where they sell hot food and bought some corn fritters. Hubby had been wanting some. We also stopped at McDonald's for hot apple pie.
We ended up eating at Jack's on hwy 31 because we could not decide where to stop in Decatur. But that was okay because we both liked Jack's

Music History Recording Studios of Muscle Shoals, Florence & Sheffield, Alabama

Welcome to
City of Muscle Shoals
Hit Recording
Capital of the World

The Singing River Sculpture (Sheffield)
Legend of the Singing River 
The Yuchi and other early inhabitants who lived along the banks of the mighty Tennessee River held the legend of the Spirit Woman who lived in the river, protected them, and sang to them. If the river was angry, She sang to them loudly; if the river was peaceful, She sang softly and sweetly, sometimes humming a comforting lullaby. 
Some say that all they heard was the high waters' mighty rush and roar over the mussel shoals, or at other times, the calm low waters babbling through the river rocks. Others say She is real and can still be seen in the early morning mist, hovering over the waters, just as She did many years ago. In her honor, they called it the Singing River, and in her honor, we named these sculptures the Singing River Sculptures. 

1951 Dexter Johnson's Recording Studio

Bluegrass musician and uncle of Swampers guitarist Jimmy Johnson established the Shoals area’s first professional recording studio in his garage, a decade before Rick Hall’s FAME opened its doors.

Recording Studios(Alabama Music Hall of Fame)
Dexter Johnson's Recording Studio c1951
Charles Stanfield's Mobile Recording Studio c.1955
Tune Recording Studios c.1957
Spar Recording Studio c.1958
Fred Bevis Recording Studio c. 1967
Woodrich Recording Studio c.1973
Joe Wilson Recording Studio c.1973
Paradox Recording Studio c.1975
Cactus Recording Studio c.1980
Audio Workshop c1984

1956 Tune Records,123 E Alabama Ave Florence, Al. 

The Shoals’ first record label and publishing company, released a single by Bobby Denton called “A Fallen Star” which laid the foundation for the emergence of the area’s recording industry. (James Joiner, Walter Stovall, Kelso Herston, and Marvin Wilson) (Junior Thompson recorded Who's Knocking/How Come You Do Me 1956)

This Concertone tape recorder was used by James Joiner in this Tune Records Studio, one of the first studios in the Muscle Shoals area to make commercial recordings
(Alabama Music Hall of Fame)

1959 SPAR Music, 123 1/2 E Alabama Ave Florence, Al. 

(Stafford Publishing and Recording) 

above the City Drug Store in downtown Florence, was the brainchild of the “local bohemian type” 

(Tom Stafford), the birthplace of the Muscle Shoals music scene, and the precursor to FAME Studios.

Original Site of FAME Recording Studio early 1960s

This marks the site of the pioneering music company of Florence Al Music Enterprises FAME, a name that became renowned worldwide as the home of "the Muscle Shoals Sound".

FAME was founded in the early 1960s by three young local entrepreneurs (Rick Hall, Billy Sherrill, and Tom Stafford)  who improvised make-shift studios in a vacant room above the City Drug Store that once stood there. FAME's earliest recording sessions launched the careers of such music business legends as Arthur Alexander, Rick Hall, Billy Sherrell, Norbert Putnam, David Briggs, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, and many others. 

Original Site of FAME Recording Studio early 1960s
Following the limited success, the partnership dissolved. Rick Hall took the publishing company and FAME name in return for the studio equipment. He relocated the studio to an empty tobacco warehouse in Muscle Shoals. His next recording "You Better Move On" by Arthur Alexander, was acclaimed as the Shoal's first worldwide bestseller.
Over the next several decades FAME recording studios became one of the most successful producers of rhythm and blues, pop, and country music in the world. Rick Hall became known as the "Father of the Muscle Shoals Sound".

1961 FAME (Rick Hall) 603 Avalon Ave., Muscle Shoals, AL was the first successful professional recording studio in the state of Alabama, producing hits by Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Clarence Carter,  the Osmonds, and countless others.

2015 Fame Recording Studios where it all Started 

Fame Recording Studios where it all Started in 2011

FAME Recording Studios Home of the Muscle Shoals Sound (2009)
(Muscle Shoals Municipal Building)

Rich Hall on his own in Muscle Shoals
Fame Studio at Old Candy and Tobacco Warehouse
(Singing River Statue Muscle Shoals)

1963 Quin Ivy Recording Studios  

1965 Norala Sound Studio,104 E 2n St Sheffield, Al 

Founded by FAME songwriter and WLAY disc jockey (Quin Ivy), gave the world Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman” and brought Jerry Wexler and Atlantic Records to the Shoals

Percy Sledge's "When a Man loves a woman"
Hospital orderly Percy Sledge recorded 'When a Man Loves a Woman' at Quin Ivy's studio in 1966. Mr. Sledge's breakup with a girlfriend inspired the lyrics credited to songwriters Calvin Lewis and Andrew Wright.

The release featured Marlin Greene (guitar), Spooner Oldham (Farfisa organ), Albert 'Junior' Lowe (bass), Roger Hawkins (drums), Jack Peck (trumpet), Bill Coifed (tenor sax), and Don Pollard (alto sax). Greene and Ivy produced the cut. At the request of Roger Hawkins, Ivy played the recording for Rick Hall, owner of FAME Studios. Hall felt it had hit potential and contacted Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler, who released it. The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was Atlantic's first certified gold record. Rolling Stone magazine ranks it number 54 among the best songs of all time.

Percy Sledge was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. Spooner Oldham followed in 2009. Donna Jean Thatcher Godchaux, who sang backup on the hit, was inducted in 1994 with her husband Keith Godchaux and other members of the Grateful Dead

Producer Quin Ivy Norala and Quinvy Studios
 Record store owner and WLAY dis jockey Quin Ivy established North Alabama Recording 

Studio (NORALA) at 104 E. Second Street in Sheffield in 1965. He purchased used equipment, including Ampex 351 and Berlant mono tape recorders and a radio station console. Ivy-mounted egg cartons on the studio walls to deaden stray frequencies.

The first song recorded at NORALA was Florence native Donna Jean Thatcher's "I'm Out of Touch." Several months later Percy Sledge cut the classic "When A Man Loves A Woman." With proceeds from the Sledge session, Ivy completed a better-equipped studio across town in 1968 and named it Quinvy.

Ivy also produced Tony Borders, Buddy Causey, Jeanie Green, and Z.Z. Hill, Ben E. King, Mickey Buckings and The New Breed, Don Varner, the U.S. Male, and the Wee Jun.

1969 Muscle Shoals Sound Studio was the home of the Swampers(Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins) and the consummate 1970s hit factory, recording the Stones, the Staple Singers, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Rod Stewart, Bob Seger, and more. 

1969 Muscle Shoals Sound Studio
Muscle Municipal Building)

Muscle Shoals Sound 3613 Jackson Highway (2019)

1969 Widget Sound Studio in Sheffield, 3804 Jackson Hwy., Sheffield, AL 

a very near neighbor to Muscle Shoals Sound gave Woodford and Ivey’s Wishbone a workspace pre-1976 and gave the world Sailcat’s “Motorcycle Mama.”(by Ron Ballew) 

Widget Studio is the first step in the music field for Ronnie Ballew (left) owner; the first major production for "Peanut" Montgomery(center) and the studio's first waxing puts the voice of Al McLendon (right on record for the first time.
TIMES DAILY 

1972 Broadway Sound Studio, 1307 Broadway St., Sheffield, AL 

the successor to Norala carried the R&B tradition of its predecessor into the 1970s and gave birth to the “Southern rock” genre by recording Lynyrd Skynyrd's first demo. (Quin Ivy)

Broadway Sound Studio Est. 1972 (2008)
(Alabama Music Hall of Fame)

Broadway Sound studio with owner and producer David Johnson second right
(Sheffield Singing River Statue)

1973 Wishbone Recording Studio 
1920 Webster Avenue, Muscle Shoals, AL 

was a proving ground for songwriters like Mac McAnally and Robert Byrne and recorded albums by such legends as Roy Orbison and Hank Williams, Jr. (by Terry Woodford)

Wishbone Recording Studio Est 1973

Wishbone Studios (Photo furnished by Terry Woodford)
 (Singing River Statue Muscle Shoals) 

1974 Music Mill Recording Studio, 1108 E. Avalon Ave., Muscle Shoals, AL 

founded (by Al Cartee), was the first of the big local studios to specialize in country music, working with everyone from Narvel Felts and Roy Clark to Bobby Bare and Arthur Alexander.

1974 Music Mill Recording Studio (2008)
(Alabama Music Hall of Fame)

1978-85 Cypress Moon Studios

was the second home of the Swampers, (Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Barry Beckett, Roger Hawkins) where they reconnected with their R&B roots and got reacquainted with old friends like Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, and B.B. King.

Cypress Moon Studio (2019)

The world-changing Muscle Shoals Music
Legendary producer Jerry Wexler at Muscle Shoals Recording Studios' riverfront location
(Singing River Statue Sheffield)

1977 East Avalon Recording  2815 1/2 East Avalon Avenue Muscle Shoals, Alabama 35661 

Wishbone engineer Steve Moore purchased the studio from its builder and designer Joe Wilson and East Avalon Recorders was born in the "Hit Recording Capital of the World", Muscle Shoals, Alabama. 
The successful studio operated until around 1988.

1987 Avalon Recorders

1977 East Avalon Recording

East Avalon Studio
 (Singing River Statue Muscle Shoals)

1985-2005 Malaco Recording (at Cypress Moon)

used the Sheffield studios for its own artists, including Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, and Little Milton, while continuing to operate its own facility in Jackson. The Rhythm Section, minus Beckett, worked with other studio musicians at Malaco Records and at other studios.

Cypress Moon/Malaco Recording 

2006 The Nuthouse (Jimmy Nutt)

In March of 2006, Jimmy launched The NuttHouse Recording Studio in downtown Sheffield, Alabama. What was once a 1950s bank, now is the home of The NuttHouse Recording Studio.  
108 W 4th St, Sheffield, AL 35660

The Singing River Sculpture (Muscle Shoals)
The city served as the birthplace for early breakthroughs in the local music industry and later provided a home base for some of the area’s top studios. The first commercial recording to emerge from Muscle Shoals — the Bobby Denton single, A Fallen Star — was produced by James Joiner in the Second Street studios of WLAY Radio in 1957. Four years later in an old candy-and-tobacco warehouse on Wilson Dam Road, aspiring producer Rick Hall joined forces with bellhop-turned-singer Arthur Alexander to cut Muscle Shoals’ first national hit, the Southern Soul anthem, You Better Move On. In the wake of that success, Hall built FAME Recording Studios on Avalon Avenue in 1962. Artists ranging from Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and Etta James to Duane Allman, the Osmonds, and Bobby Gentry later recorded there. From 1970 to 1985, Muscle Shoals became known as “The Hit Recording Capital of the World” as FAME and Al Cartee’s Music Mill, Steve Moore’s East Avalon, and Terry Woodford and Clayton Ivey’s Wishbone Studios generated hits by Clarence Carter, Hank Williams Jr., the group Hot, George Jones, the Forester Sisters, Mac McAnally, Shenandoah, and many others. In 2011 Hall received the American Music Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2014 he was awarded the Grammy Trustees Award for his significant contribution to the recording industry.

In 1964 Mrs. Jewell Britton Wear began a career in the local music industry she founded Florence, Al 

JJ Records with Junior Thompson, Monty Olive, and the Hacker Brothers for that label.

She also established the Music Scene Column in Florence Times Tri-Cities Daily. It was the first column detailing the music in the industry. 

Label owned by Junior Thompson and Jewel Wear.

In 1964, Mrs. Wear began a career in the local music industry. She founded JJ Records with Junior Thompson. She also established the Music Scene column in the Florence Times-Tri-Cities Daily. It was the first column detailing the local music industry.

Thomas Reeder “Monty” Olive 

Taken From: 

April 2010 Newsletter Birmingham Record Collectors

From Killen, Alabama comes a piano player by the name of Monty Olive. Monty's style of playing and singing was compared to that of Fats Domino. Although he never got national airplay his recordings were very popular locally. 

He was another of those who made a musical instrument his "friend". Monty tells it this way. "I've never had a piano lesson. When I first started playing, I would get the melody of a tune set in my mind and try and find the proper keys for it. It was fun and I practiced it every day." Sounds easy, doesn't it? SURE!! 

Monty entertained in many cities across the country including D.C., Detroit, Dallas, and Panama City's Old Dutch Inn. From an interview in the Time Tri-Cities Daily, August 13th, 1957 Monty put it this way. "Everywhere I go I respond to the crowds. I feel the touch of my music. It's something you can't explain. I enjoy performing."

Rain Inside My Heart/Foggy River

Bell of Bar Room/Molly Darling

Mary Lee/Follow Me 

US Rockabilly singer, born Clen Houston Thompson Jr. Florence Alabama

Junior Thompson began in 1956 at Meteor Records from Memphis (Tennessee). He also made a demonstration in Sun Records in 1956, without success. In 1957, it passed to Tune (56), JJ' S, and Badd Records before disappearing from Show Business. He was a regular singer in Dixie Hayride (Florence, Alabama) in 1956. 

1967-1968 JJ’S RECORDS Jewell Wear 

Sit by my side/Jungle Girl 1967

House of Lost Lovers/Ooby Dooby 1967

Cry on My Shoulder/Jimmy Boy 1969

Fairyland Girl/Child Days 1969

I’ll Never Let You Go Little Darling/Sally Ann From Paris, France 1969

The Hackers 

1967 Ange Love/Keep on Running Girl 

Not sure of the location of JJ's Studio may have been located in her home.