Friday's Agenda: Watch The Royal Wedding In London

Friday's Agenda: Watch The Royal Wedding In London

April 29, 2011

I'm going to bed after American Idol to get my zzzzzzzz so I can get up before 4:00 A.M. EST to watch the all the royal wedding coverage on TV.

Three Quotes For You

Three Quotes For You

#1

Jazz is the sound of God laughing.

Collen Shaddox

#2

I Believe In America, And I Believe in our people.

Gen. Colin Powell

#3

I Believe That Freedom Is Contagious.

Harold Hongiu Koh

These three quotes were from our April book club selection, This I Believe, edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman in association with NPR. Go to my other blog PiedmontReaders over on the right to learn more about this book.

What Is This?

What Is This?

The answer: Lots of uniform holes made by a hungry woodpecker or two in our pear trees.

We have three Bradford pear trees in our yard and all three have these holes marching around the trunk. I wonder how long it takes a woodpecker to make one hole to get a bug buried inside the trunk?

What Is This?

What Is This?

I will tell you tomorrow.

In Your Easter Bonnet

In Your Easter Bonnet

Jennifer and Jeanine

1982

Happy Easter Everybody!

Happy Easter Everybody!

My Bleeding Heart In Bloom For Easter

My Bleeding Heart In Bloom For Easter

Goosey Goose, do you want to step inside and help me dye eggs this morning?

Happy Earth Day 2011

Price Of Gas In Alexandria

Price Of Gas In Alexandria, VA

April 8, 2011

Old Town Alexandria: Union Street

Below is a crabapple tree in bloom on the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

My Peonies Are Up!

My Peonies Are Up!

They are breaking ground in the lamium bed.

Sometime in May they will be standing tall and in full bloom.

I'm looking forward to those pink blossoms.

Pink Cherry Trees In Haymarket

Pink Cherry Trees In Haymarket

Above is the weeping pink cherry tree we planted in 2004.

Jennifer and Terry gave us this tree for our 30'th wedding anniversary.

Below is our neighbor's pink Kousa cherry tree.

Pink Cherries In Washington D.C.

Pink Cherries In Washington D.C.

These big old trees were a gift many years ago from Japan to the United States.

Take a look.

The cherries ring the tidal basin.

This fence marring the view of the trees is up to protect

the newest monument being built:

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.

Friday, April 8 there were lots of tourists visiting D.C.

and checking out the petals on the trees.

Even with the rain there were tourists in cars and on this green trolley.

Cherry Trees In Bloom In Haymarket

Cherry Trees In Bloom In Haymarket

These white cherry trees are in our community of Piedmont.

We have about three different types of cherry trees.

This type blooms the earliest.

Piedmont Vista Drive is lined with these cherry trees.

Take a look.

Buds And Blooms In Haymarket

Buds And Blooms In Haymarket

Jack and I were delighted to get home and discover that spring had finally sprung here in Virginia.

The saucer magnolia trees were in bloom by the swing,

Our three Bradford pear trees were in bloom also.

Three Souvenirs

Three Souvenirs

Above is a photo of the magazine that the folks in Natchez, Mississippi published for their spring home and garden festival. But notice that they don't call it a festival like we do up here in Virginia. They call it a pilgrimage. For some reason I find that a little strange. In the past I have always related the word pilgrimage to a sacred trip. For instance, those of the Jewish faith might make a pilgrimage to the wailing wall in Jerusalem while Catholics might make a pilgrimage to Bethlehem. And Muslims might make a pilgrimage to Mecca while good Mormons would try to see the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City. So I am puzzled. Why a pilgrimage (sacred journey) to Natchez?

Here's my second souvenir. It is an historical novel by one of the descendants of one of the former owners of a plantation home in Natchez. This great novel centers around the still existing Natchez home that is called The Burn and the occupants who lived there before, during and after the Civil War. The year 2011 marks a four year memorial celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. This book has got me into thinking about the causes and consequences of the Civil War. By the way, burn in Scottish means brook and so this home in Natchez sat by a brook or burn.

My third and final souvenir you will have to see on my daughter's blog over on the right. I found a Tshirt for our grandson and when he came over I had him model it for me and Grandpa. See Jenn's blog for more of Jack Aidan's reaction to his souvenir.

Selma To Montgomery//Montgomery To Selma

Selma To Montgomery//Montgomery To Selma

Jack and I made the trip that Martin Luther King, Jr. made during the '60s Civil Rights Movement in reverse. Martin Luther King, Jr. marched from Selma to Montgomery. Jack and I drove this historic road and bridge going from Montgomery to Selma after touring the state capitol, the visitor's center in this historic railroad building above and the Hank Williams Museum.

As we drove we came to realize that we were in probably one of the poorest parts of one of the poorest states in the union. We noticed so many abandoned unpainted farmhouses and rusted out machinery lying in the fields. They looked like they had been there for over forty years. Jack and I commented that this historic road and bridge needs another march for economic development.

How can you tell if you are in a depressed area? One, there are very few chain restaurants and two, there are no Starbucks within miles. Jack and I dearly love a Starbucks break when we are traveling on the road. We discovered that in some parts of Alabama you are not going to get a barista fixing you a nice latte.

Who Is This?

This is a bust of a country singer who hailed from Montgomery, Alabama.

He died in the back seat of his blue Cadillac convertible car in 1953 of a heart attack

at the very young age of twenty nine.

He recorded the hit song Your Cheatin Heart.

Who was he?

Look below.

While in Montgomery, Alabama we spent a half hour touring this small quaint museum

dedicated to promoting the memory of Hank Williams.

Kawliga

Are you old enough to remember when every joint and honky tonk bar had a jukebox? It was a social gathering. Today everyone has their own music on their Ipod so they don't have a chance to gather like folks in the last century used to do around a jukebox. Too bad.

Lunch In Selma, Alabama's Downtowner Restaurant

Lunch In Selma, Alabama's Downtowner Restaurant

How can you tell that you are in a small town?

When you are eating in a cafe and the locals ask you where you are from,

what you are doing here,

and where are going next.

That's exactly what happened to us when we ate in this cafe.

I told Jack we better eat up and get out of town before they publish our pictures

in the local Selma newspaper with the headline: Out of Town Folks In Selma This Week.

Southern food for Jack: fried chicken livers, fried green tomatoes,

pea casserole? and a baked apple.

Southern food for Joann: turkey with dressing and cranberry jelly,

fried green tomatoes, buttered lima beans and that pea casserole.

Former State Capitol Building Of Alabama

Former State Capitol Building Of Alabama

Montgomery, Alabama

*

Look at this beautiful building. It looks as big as the United States Capitol Building in Washington D.C. We toured this capitol and learned that it was here that the articles of confederation of the Confederate States of America was created.

Here's another view of the front with its two upper wrought iron porches.

On the lawn of the old capitol building is a statue of President Jefferson Davis, the one and only president of the Confederate States of America. Read more about this on the plaque below.

April 12, 1865 General Robert E.Lee of the Confederate State of America surrendered to General Ullyses S. Grant at Appomatox Courthouse in Virginia. The reason why the United State flag was raised over the capitol. The south had lost the war and they were once again apart of the United States of America.

This is one of the circular staircases in the capitol building.

Here is a view of the capitol building's beautiful and ornate dome.

A view of one of the old chambers of the state legislature from the visitors' balcony.

The state has restored the chambers to look like the era before the start of the civil war. Notice the brass spittoon on the floral carpet.

And here is a nice potbelly stove to heat one of the chambers.

On the first floor I found a painting of Mississppi's past Governor George Wallace and a painting of George's wife, Lurleen Wallace. Take a look above and below. I don't have fond memories of George Wallace's fight against civil rights in the 1960's.