On Vacation in The Who Dat Nation!

And the Saints came marching in!

I became a Saints fan with the rest of the world when they returned to the Superdome on September 25  in 2006.  It was a memorable night for anyone who has ever lived on or loved the Gulf Coast.

So I was delighted to  accept a generous  invitation to attend la meilleure partie dans l’histoire du football in New Orleans Sunday nite.  We bounced into Louisiana at sunrise (the roads are awful) and, for Sharon, a glimpse of the Superdome from I-10 was akin to that of an emigrant’s first sight of the Statue of Liberty.

Deborah & Jerry's home

The courtyard swimming pool

We stayed in Jerry and Deborah’s guest house ‘fableaux’ in the Garden District Sunday and Monday. They were the consummate hosts for the consummate Super Bowl Party.

After dropping our bags we headed out in the general direction of the French Quarter and the King Arthur and Carrollton Mardi Gras parades.

View from the guest house

Along the way we encountered kindred spirits of every size and denomination and Who Dat was an immediate celebrity, photographed by and with everyone who was anyone!

Who Dat with Bobblehead

And of course, he was a Mardi Gras bead magnet.

We found a home in a small restaurant/bar on Chartres Street and settled in with a couple dozen oysters and drinks. (<< We were staying at a hotel on Chartres Street, which we believed was pronounced Char-tre. We learned one night while trying to get directions from some amused locals that the street name is pronounced Char-der, which is more southern than French. Go figure.>> from Virtual Tourist)

Ya gotta love those college kids!

We shared the evening with a table of polite college kids, WWL fanatics, and rabid fans sporting jerseys for every member of the team. (I thought WWL was the World Wrestling League until

WWL addicts... Saints Radio

I was instructed it was AM Radio 870, Home of The  Saints… I stand corrected! You can stream that live at WWL.COM to watch and hear coverage of the parade tonite)

Jersey City

It was a dream game and we were all brothers and sisters of The Nation at the “3 – 2 – 1 countdown” and  we poured out into the streets.  Men who probably hadn’t cried since childhood were sobbing and the chant was deafening.

Who Dat!

“Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?”

We learned later that I-10 had become a parking lot as people abandoned their cars in the jam and walked to The Quarter to join the celebration.  It was remarkably peaceful in spite of the river of beer running down the street, only 3 people were shot on Bourbon Street but no one was killed.

Three... Two... One...

After a few wrong turns we returned to the guest house on Magazine Street and collapsed.

Monday morning we headed back to Alabama and laughed as we watched west-bound traffic on I-10 back up as the fans tried to get to the airport to welcome the heroes back home.  The airport spokeswoman begged those stopped on the overpasses to get off the roofs of their cars – “we don’t want y’all falling on the cars stopped on I-10,” she said.

And if you were planning to go to the parade tonight, you’re too late. The WWL newscast announced gridlock at 2:00, three hours before the parade starts.

Who Dat!

Surprise!

Pecans and Meyer Lemons

Before I left for my delayed Christmas celebration in Kentucky I stopped by a  farm recommended by knowledgable ’locals’ for fresh pecans, the Underwood Farm on Highway 98 near Foley.  This family farm is the home of the prize-winning Surprise Pecan, so named because when interviewed about their awards it was described as a ‘Surprise ‘! Evidently the graft was so successful the resulting nuts won all the county fairs, and the family has propagated and now sells nursery stock to the public.

Photo of pecans from Wikipedia

I don’t think there is any relationship here with Paula Deen’s famous ‘Surprise Pecan Pie’, but I think it would be a better pie with the Underwood’s Surprise Pecans!

Information about the successful graft is available in an article in the American Pomological Society Journal written by W.D. Goff, L. E Tunnel, and R. McDaneil. But the best source of information is the proprietors as they crack and bag your purchase in the little shop on the farm.

They had sold out of “Surprise” pecans by the time I got there, but I have had excellent reports on the “Pensacola Clusters” I bought there.

And coincidentally, the Underwoods also supply the Farmer’s Co-op in Elberta with nursery stock.

I had stopped by the Co-op in search of a small Meyer Lemon tree (small enough to pack in the car with all the Christmas presents, the dog, the cat, and the pecans) and I was referred to Gary Underwood.

Potted Meyer Lemon, photo courtesy of Lucky Stone

Surprise! It was the same Underwood family who owned the Pecan Farm down the road. A call went out to Gary Underwood and the small flowering Meyer Lemon tree was delivered to the Pecan Farm for me the next day!

But call before you make the drive because the pecans were selling fast when I was there.  (251-943-8056) And check back with the Underwoods next fall when the Surprise Pecans are harvested.

A Star Fell on Alabama Last Night

The newscaster said it would look like a “slow-moving shooting star” and to use binoculars instead of a telescope to make tracking easier in the cloudless sky. 

So at 6:04 I went out on the deck at sunset and looked to the northwest. There were no visible stars over the fading horizon and when it first appeared I thought it was a distant airplane, but it was silent. 

Tried to catch it.... didn't succeed

 

It followed the trajectory on the International Space Station maps and, as it passed overhead, I could make out a horizontal structure reflecting light from the setting sun with my binoculars.  It ’set’ in the southeast  about 3 minutes after it appeared. 

Photo of ISS taken with binoculars and a digital camera on Ethan Siegel's 'Lazy Astronomer' website

 

Orbiting at about 240 miles about the earth at speeds of 17,500 mph it seems incredible we can see this manned, man-made satellite with our naked eyes.  In fact, sightings this good aren’t commonplace. 

Although the ISS orbits the earth every 90 minutes it can best been seen at the moment of sunrise and sunset when the viewer is in the dark and the spacecraft is in the sun, when weather is perfect, and the path is directly overhead.  NASA has an excellent website that shows the ISS location on the globe in realtime                                                      http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html 

And Spaceweather has an application to generate a chart of visible satellites based on zip codes        http://spaceweather.com/flybys/ 

The International Space Station as seen by the departing Space Shuttle Atlantis on 25 November 2009

 

According to the scientists at NASA we will have another opportunity to see the ISS on February 1 at 6:26 in the morning, if the weather cooperates. 

And for those of you who think the International Space Station has little to do with your everyday life, think again if you are a football fan. According to MSNBC,  “The crew of space shuttle Atlantis plans to deliver to the Pro Football Hall of Fame a coin that traveled into space for use in the official coin toss at Super Bowl XLIV.” 

So, Thumbs Up from New Orleans at 06:25:44 am on February 1 from all the Saints fans!  

Update: There were no stars or space stations in view this morning at 6:25 because of thick clouds. Maybe Punxsutawney Phil won’t be able to see his shadow tomorrow either!

Oh no she didn’t!

Oh yes she did!

Katy-Did move right into my house with my tortured basil and rosemary plants.  In addition to the insects, I also have at least one frog and two or three lizards (you’d have to ask Isabelle for an exact count – she has been keeping vigil ) hiding in the pots I dragged inside.

We are all huddled together in defense of the awful north wind blasting all my tenderly loved outdoor kiwi, lantana, kumquats, Meyer lemons, etc., etc….

We have 25 mph gusts of arctic winds and are anticipating breaking a 20 year record this weekend – not a record anyone wants to break.

I have been a ‘nanny’ this week for a 13-year-old and I’m in awe of her ability to sleep through anything. When Kermit, the little green Hyla cinerea,  started singing I thought my fire alarm had been activated. Sophie, Isabelle and I cautiously approached the front door as we tracked the origin of the noise. We never saw Kermit, but when I realized the problem was an unhappy frog I relocated Isabelle to the bathroom and Sophie to the bedroom. My charge, Leah, never moved!

I’m pretty sure all my tropical plants are long-dead, and my attempts to keep the outside spigots from freezing have only constipated Sophie. She can’t get down to the yard now because of the solid sheet of ice on the steps beside the faucet…..

I want this to be over!

Who discovered America?

Although Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, we now know he did not discover America. In fact, when he landed in the Caribbean on October 12, he ‘discovered’ people already living there.  

And the evidence that a Norse explorer beat Columbus by 500 years is so convincing that in 1964 Congress named October 9 Leif Erikson Day in honor of his achievement.    

But I received some books for Christmas that propose the Welch Prince Madog (or Madawg or Madoc) was the first European to reach the United States, and that he landed at Fort Morgan!  

When Hatchett Chandler was the Custodian at Fort Morgan he researched and promoted the idea that the Welch Prince sailed into Mobile Bay in 1170, stopping first at the end of the peninsula, now called Fort Morgan, before making his way up the Alabama and Coosa Rivers. Mr. Chandler joined many historians at that time who pointed to evidence of Roman coins found at one of three ‘pre-Columbus’ stone forts, old documents found in England and Wales,  http://www.alabamawelsh.com/Madocstory.html, and the legends of the Mandan tribe of “White Indians” who spoke Welch, http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bowen/mandans.html.   

Hatchett Chandler published little booklets of essays, letters, photographs, and historical documents he entitled, “Little Gems From Fort Morgan” and I was privileged to receive issues number 23 and 74 as Christmas gifts.  

The story of Mr. Chandler’s love affair with Fort Morgan was detailed by Kathryn Tucker Windham in her book, “Alabama, One Big Front Porch.” His story begins on page 16 and is accessible online, courtesy of Google Books  http://books.google.com/books?id=hozNwPLWFEIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=alabama+one+big+front+porch&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false   

It should be required reading for anyone who has ever made the pilgrimage to the historic site, and for the Alabama legislators who have failed to support the efforts to preserve and promote this “Little Gem” that guards our Mobile Bay.  

This plaque, dedicated to Prince Madog by the Virginia Cavalier chapter of the DAR, has been removed from Fort Morgan.

Fun at the Fort!

Fresnel Lens

I celebrated the shortest day of the year by spending part of the afternoon inside the Fresnel Lens of the Sand Island Lighthouse – a sure cure for seasonal affective disorder!  https://health.google.com/health/ref/Seasonal+affective+disorder

I needed some new photos for the Fort Morgan website and Janice Neitzel was kind enough to offer her help. Her work can already be seen on the ‘Wildlife’ and ‘Photo Gallery’ pages of the site, so I knew she would add some interesting and unique perspective to the project.

We fought the mosquitos courageously and got some good shots of the exterior of the fort.

Paul and Janice on the south wall of the fort

Many thanks to Paul and Penny for their informative and interesting additions to the tour.

Then we took refuge inside the museum for a rare opportunity to take photos of the 2nd Order Fresnel Lens on loan from the Coast Guard. http://www.dauphinislandhistory.org/si_light/si_alha_history.htm

Janice gets the good shot

I highly recommend adding a trip to Fort Morgan to visit the Fresnel Lens to your traditional Winter Solstice celebration next year! http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091221-winter-solstice-2009-first-day-winter-shortest-day-year.html

Some "light therapy" for Janice

She said, “Yes”!

I have loved Erin since I first met her, so I have been smiling for the past few weeks knowing Sam was carrying that ring around, planning the perfect time and place to propose.

At 11:09 last night I received this photo from his phone.

I am honored and delighted to introduce the future Dr. Erin Patrick Wornall!!

Erin and Pickles

 

Self-portrait of the happy couple at 1:00 am December 20! Congratulations to Sam and Erin!

It’s that wonderful time of the year… again!

\'Click\' here to see a Country Christmas!

I “elfed” the kids!

Gnome Home

With all the rain lately (no complaints) it is no surprise we’ve had sprouts of fungi. But we were stopped in our tracks when Sophie &  I walked to the beach yesterday.

Fort Morgan Fungi

How cute is this?

I have a passing familiarity with the Smurfs ( my boys are 30 and 25) so I looked carefully for inhabitants.  I honestly thought these could be the winter homes of Papa Smurf and Smurfette… it does get cold in Belgium in December .  But there were no signs of the traditional doors and windows.

smurf house

I researched the fancy mushrooms and discover they were probably Fly Agarics?

A mushroom website claims : <<The classic cartoon mushroom. Amanita muscaria or Fly Agaric which is said to be hallucinogenic in small quantities (but lethal in larger amounts)>>.

And the   Shroomery.org website     (is there really a non-profit shroom website???) has an interesting article with recipes and folklore. http://www.shroomery.org/10224/Hunting-Fly-Agarics-in-North-America.

We have an entire field of these fungi in Surfside, but I’m not harvesting any to sauté with my steak.

field of shrooms

If you decide to look for them,  look for the blue elves….

I am waayy to old to consider any kind of recipe with these mushrooms… and I caution anyone looking for these fungi, to look for inhabitants!

smurf house

I’ve been mooned!

Betsy and Terry were here for the last great week of kayaking in the gulf. 

 The water was crystal clear and the surf was low. We kayaked for hours over fleets of manta rays, scuttling  blue crabs, and silly leaping mullet. And Betsy even paddled within 10 feet of a family of  dolphins frolicking just off the sand bar. It was amazing. 

But Ida had ushered in the jelly fish, and they were always at our elbows as we paddled about in our recreational kayaks, just inches from our hands.  ACK! 

Terry had been intrigued by the gelatinous creatures and assured us he had stepped on several, with no adverse effects – he lied! 

On Friday we resolved to take the ferry across to Dauphin Island, but it was COLD .  

Betsy & Terry on the ferry

 When we arrived on Dauphin Island we headed to the Estuarium.   http://estuarium.disl.org/

 My boys were grown and gone by the time it opened (and I was traumatized by repeated visits to the USS Alabama in the heat of August) so I had never visited the aquarium on Dauphin Island. I’m sorry, I had missed an amazing experience  ’for want of  a child’!

 The Estuarium was fabulous, but a display of moon jelly fish was educational. They do sting!  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelia_aurita

 

 Later,  we took off on the scenic Dauphin Island bicycle paths for lunch at Barnacle Bill’s (call to be sure they have crab cakes), then to the Audubon park before returning on the ferry.

 I would recommend the trip as a 4-star destination! 

(It sure beats my adventure  with Betsy into the Bon Secour Wildlife Area where she stepped on a Pygmy Rattlesnake or our attempts to collect driftwood!  )

ACK

Moon jellies

On the Third Day of Thanksgiving

Heartburn!

I survived a three-day Thanksgiving celebration with heartburn and only a few extra pounds!

I celebrated the first day of Thanksgiving on the traditional Thursday with Sybil and Ed in Gulf Shores.  I brined and smoked the Cornish Game Hens and it was my best effort, ever. 

Brinin' Brinin' Brinin', Keep those birdies Brinin'... Roll Tide!

I discovered that most of the cooks here also brine their birds, but they generally deep-fry their poultry. This is the recommended recipe, and I will certainly use again… The secret is the Zataraine’s Crab Boil!!!   You would never guess those babies were soaked in our favorite shrimp spices,

My Daddy would love it.

<<2 Gal Water*
2 Cups Kosher Salt*
3 Cups Sugar*
1/4 Cup Zatarains Liquid Crab Boil**
4 TBS Black Pepper
1 TBS Dried Rosemary
1 TBS Thyme
1/4 Cup Molasses
1/4 Cup White Wine (not Cooking Wine)
1/4 Cup Worcestershire

*Essential Ingredients
**Makes it slightly spicy but really good

The ingredients with an asterisk are the necessary ingredients and all the rest is just optional to make it taste really good.
How to Brine the Cornish Hens

So you have mixed up the ingredients and maybe added a few ingredients of your own or even left off a few things based on your knowledge of your family’s tastes.

Now place the cornish hens down in the brine using a plate or similar heavy object to hold them under the water. You will need to keep the brine mixture between 33 and 39 degrees and the easiest way to do this is to set it in your fridge however, you may not have room so you can use ice to keep the mix cold if you need to.

Let the hens brine for about 4 hours.

After 4 hours have expired.. remove the hens from the brine and rinse them really well under cool water paying special attention to the area under the wing and thigh.>>

Smoked hen

Dinner was terrific and it was great fun to have young, international guests who weren’t familiar with our traditional Thanksgiving fare!

Sybil's Thanksgiving table

The second day of Thanksgiving was celebrated with Alabama friends who postponed their dinner to coincide with the Iron Bowl, the gridiron battle between Alabama and Auburn. We met at a condo at The Dunes and managed to survive the game in spite of the ‘friendly’ rivalry. 

Sister and Memory.... in the kitchen with Paula Deen's 'lost' sisters

My contribution for that dinner included stuffing balls, scalloped oysters, rolls, and a chocolate ganache cake!

Sam's favorite stuffing recipe!

Death by chocolate!

And my third day of Thanksgiving was celebrated in Pine Apple with the Batemans. We wandered into town and fell into a time warp to a 1950’s era village festival.  We dined on fair food, chatted with neighbors, cheered the parade, and sold raffle tickets.

Miss Olene and Leah & Sharon Bateman wait for Santa

The Bluegrass music was excellent!

Bluegrass in the gazebo

And the drive home that nite was typically glorious, I’m thankful for Thanksgiving in Alabama…  

Another Alabama sunset

Delusions of grandeur…

Blue Angels on our shoulders?

Last year I was convinced the Blue Angels could see me waving from my deck, and that was the reason they performed so many breath-taking maneuvers right over my little house.

They fly faster than my shutter speed...

Since that time I have learned that almost everyone up and down the Fort Morgan Road suffers from the same grand delusion.

Absolutely everyone runs outside (you can see them on their decks with binoculars and cameras) but some people wave flags and others write messages in the sand as The Blue Angels thunder down the coast… and we’re all convinced they can see us, at 700 mph, as we frantically vie for their attention.

Well… they’re back at their home station at Forrest Sherman Field, Naval Air Station in Pensacola and I swear they’re even more impressive than last year.

Betsy and Terry were down from Kentucky last week and I had Betsy on the deck railing waving my UK and UL banners like a demented traffic control flagman.  Sophie hid under the table, but Terry came outside to watch the show.  Betsy waved them in so low that on one pass she swore she could see their faces!

Betsy waves them in

A few days later we took our bicycles over to Dauphin Island on the ferry, and we realized the Angels turned back towards Pensacola when they neared the end of the Fort Morgan peninsula.  Soooooooo,  it dawned on us they were probably reaching the edge of their airspace just over Surfside Shores and they performed one last maneuver before turning back.

Evidently my  personal air show is just a happy accident of geography instead of favoritism…

But I have a plan!

I have three cans of fluorescent paint Alberta left to me when she moved to Arkansas and I still have Brad’s ladder leaning against the back of the house. So I can spray-paint a giant ‘HELLO’ on my metal roof in lime green, and I think I’ve found a way to tie a banner to the dog…

(NOT my photo) Honestly, they are closer than this!

Official Blue Angel website  http://www.blueangels.navy.mil (turn your speakers up!)

Hurricane Ida

The Eye of the Storm

I turned on the news when I awoke this morning and watched as the local weatherman on Dauphin Island explained that Ida had crossed over the barrier islands and was in Mobile Bay with landfall expected around 7:00 AM.  The satellite radar showed the rain had moved northeast of us on Fort Morgan and it was foggy and quiet outside.

I fed the dog, walked around the yard (a limb from the pine tree had narrowly missed the boat parked in my back yard for safety!) and got ready to take Sophie for a walk.

Northwest wall

Then it hit!

A blast of cold air roared across from the bay and two blackened pine trees snapped half-way off on the edge of the pond.  Sophie changed her mind about a walk and I came back in and turned on the TV. This time the weatherman was hanging on to his coat and was yelling into the microphone, the temperature had dropped almost 10 degrees.

We had been in the eye of the storm! I didn’t realize that, and I’m pretty sure the weatherman on Dauphin Island didn’t know.

Sophie refused to go back outside, so I drove down to the beach to get a look at the Gulf.

Debris washed up under GRITS house

The only real damage I saw was an overturned porta-potty and debris blown from a dumpster that should have been emptied a month ago. ( We were picking up debris from this construction site during the Coastal Cleanup.)

too much trash

The surf had washed under the houses on the beach, and the end of the walkway at ‘Million Dollar View’ was gone, again… but that was the extent of the damage here from Ida.

So long, Ida!

Hurricane Ida

Day Two…

We walked to the beach, but couldn’t walk on the beach. Even at low tide the surf was under some of the houses on the beach.

Low tide this morning

I dragged the deck furniture into the garage and the plants into the house, then cooked a chicken and some snacks because Sharon and Leah were coming over to ‘ride out the storm’.

We watched Arrested Development and played Loaded Questions until Leah decided we should take a walk to the beach. At 9:00 pm, as the tropical storm approached Fort Morgan, we set out. Sharon and I wore conventional rain coats, but Leah was sheathed in a commercial trash bag.

Leah's hurricane fashion

She stayed dry but Sharon and I were soaked to the bone. Too funny!

Storm chasers

And now we’re cooking pizza and settling in for landfall.

My first hurricane party has been great fun, so far…..

Hurricane Ida

Day One…

It looks like Ida is drawing a bead on Surfside Shores on the Fort Morgan Peninsula!  She is a category two now with winds over 75 mph.

The weather here is breezy but still beautiful.  Sophie and I were alone on the beach, but that’s not unusual.

The local experts predict the cool water in the gulf will slow the winds and it will probably deteriorate to a tropical storm before it hits land.

But I’m sure the ‘talking heads’ on morning TV will blow it all out of proportion and the entire Gulf Coast will take a real financial hit this week. Thanks Dianne, Harry & Matt!

Sunday morning

However, this might be a good time to check on my hurricane shutters, I’ve been meaning to do that all summer…

Zenyatta

You go, Girl!

Banished to the Bedroom

By a ‘Bama ballgame!

I was frantically searching for the Breeders’ Cup on my computer after the local TV station abruptly switched coverage to a FOOTBALL GAME in the middle of the day! Astonishing, and terribly disappointing…

The phone rang and I jumped in the car and headed to the Bateman’s for barbecued ribs. No one turns down an invitation to the Batemans when Horton is grilling, so the house was filled with both Bama and LSU fans shouting at the television when I arrived.

I was escorted by Leah into her newly decorated bedroom, and with genuine southern hospitality, she found the Breeders’ Cup race on her television and made sure I was comfortable before she returned to melee in the living room.

"I'm too pretty to be a 'bama fan"

Leah Bateman's LSU mascot

Leah is an established artist and budding photographer, so she joined me (while I snacked on those delicious ribs) during half-time to show me her latest creations.

Her beloved Mango had returned from a visit to the neighbors with ‘accidental’ red and white stripes, so she ‘tagged’ and photographed their pooch.

LSU Tiger

As game time neared and the rivalry heated up, Leah decorated Mango with purple and gold fingerpaints and sent her back across the dunes to make a bold statement!

Leah documented the entire  ‘dog fight’ with her new camera.

The game was ending, with LSU behind, as the horses loaded into the starting gate for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.  I made so much noise as  Quality Road balked, delaying the race, that I had more spectators cheering in the bedroom as Zenyatta moved to the outside and thundered down the stretch.

Zenyatta and jockey Mike Smith in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita. by HorsePhotos.com

It was a perfect ending to a perfect day, and the best ribs I have ever tasted.  Alabama might beat Louisiana in football, but they can’t touch real Cajun cooking!

And Miss Leah has progressed from printing fish and fingerpainting dogs to photography…

Good work, Leah!

Leah's butterfly

Leah's photo for Veteran's Day, November 11, 2009

It’s a BEAUTIFUL day in the neighborhood…

Full moon, startlingly beautiful sunrise, and no one on the beach this morning…

and, finally some shells on the beach at low tide.

The water in the Gulf was endlessly clear and calm.

And the sunset was spectacular, again!    

Pine Apple

in the Heart of the Black Belt

My friends recently purchased a farm with a quaint historic cottage in Pine Apple, Alabama.

Pine Apple is the home of the Annual Front Porch Tour where the tourists are invited to “sit a spell and visit” in Old-Fashioned Southern Style. I can’t think of a more beautiful place for a Front Porch Tour, and Sharon is already thinking about hors d’ ouevre to serve on her new front porch next spring. (But many of us think they should just open a restaurant, I would certainly drive to Pine Apple to eat at Bateman’s Bistro and I think the Tyrannosaurus Rex would be the perfect mascot!)

The Bateman kitchen

http://www.pineapplealabama.com/frontporch.htm

I was treated to a weekend at the farm and we mixed a little shopping and touring with the cleaning and moving on our ‘to do’ list.

We dutifully watered the beans,

Bateman Beans

although they had already grown over an inch in one week in the rich black soil. The Black Belt is a fertile crescent along the Alabama River, and the region grows a variety of imaginative folk artists in addition to the celebrated cotton crop.  In the nearby town of Camden Sharon and I stumbled out of a hardware/hunting store and into a unique gallery, Black Belt Treasures,  a non-profit showcase for local artisans, including the renowned Gees Bend Quilters.

Black Belt Treasures

http://blackbelttreasures.com/ 

The region has become the heart of hunting in Alabama, and there are many farms for lease and camps for rent in Wilcox County. Hunter Appreciation Day is the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Pine Apple and the parade starts at the Moore Academy School.

Sophie enjoys the fire

The Alabama Black Belt Nature and Heritage Trail guide boasts Pine Apple is home to some unique ‘funerary’ decorations, and Sharon and I set out every evening to find them, but failed.

A 'lost symbol' in Pine Apple??

http://www.wilcoxareachamber.org/tourism.htm

I am looking forward to returning to Pine Apple to continue the quest! I’ll take a longer book and bigger bottle of wine.

Lynne's room

Is a Bobcat a Wildcat?

Sunset 10/24/09

I saw one tonight.

I was driving home after running to a friend’s house at half-time, so I could get home in time for the Kentucky game… and I saw a Bobcat.

Sunset 10/24/09

Maybe it was because my little electric car is so quiet, but I got a good look at him/her as it crossed the road near Morgantown. I didn’t get a photo because I was gaping as it stopped at the edge of the road and looked at my car, and then loped across the dune… by the time I thought of the camera the moment was gone.

I knew they lived here, but seeing one tonite was an omen…. the Kentucky Wildcats will win tonight!

Sunset 10/24/09

So… no picture to post of a Bobcat, but I did get a photo of our spectacular sunset tonite from the deck when I got home.

Sunset 10/24/09

Wish you were here!

Sending ocean breezes and best wishes to Kentucky!

Sunset 10/24/09