Pansy Shopping!

All the pretty colors!

Making it all fit! Notice Melanie's bee hive for her yard.

packed in the Explorer

My tray of pansies.

My chicken planter that Lady Melanie bought me.

One of the reasons why we went down to Birmingham, yesterday was to go " pansy shopping" with Lady Melanie. She has a special nursery that she visits often and what fun it was. There were two white doves, just walking around and roosting on things inside the shop. ..along with lots of fun things for your garden. Outside were the most beautiful pansies that I have ever seen...ever! It was so hard for Lady Melanie and I to pick the ones to take home with us. We ooohhhhed and ahhhhed over them all. Of course my eyes kept going towards the ones with purple in them. Lady Melanie found a " beehive" lawn ornament that she just had to have since she has a real beehive in her back yard. ( and she gave us another jar of her harvested honey from this summer) THEN....she turned around and bought me a "chicken planter" for an outside present! A fun day AND presents too!!!! It's a good thing we took the Explorer and not a car.....we were packed in by the end of the day.

" THE Club"!

The front door!

The Fountain we had a view of from the dining room

Lady Melanie pointing out the different buildings of " down town Birmingham".

What a great day we had, today! We got up early and got all dressed up....I mean...Chuck in a coat and tie and me in a dress and boots. We figured it had been about four years since we both were all dressed up...can you believe that? We left the house around 8:00 am and headed to Lady Melanie's house, in Birmingham. When we arrived, she had "tea and short bread, warm out of the oven" waiting for us. We enjoyed it all in her parlor while she and I exchanged presents. Soon it was time to leave for a morning of " antiquing". The first place we went, we hit the jack pot and they were having a " garage sale" out in the parking lot. People in Birmingham, have some really neat junk for cheap. I bought a set of crystal candle sticks, the last chair for the front porch table ( and it was ONLY $5!!! ) and a green crystal lamp for my bedroom. Chuck found a $250 bike rack for the back of the Explorer for only $10. Lady Melanie, found lots of things....lets see: A doll high chair for her Grand baby's kitchen, three crystal decanters and a folding tea table. THEN, she bought me a cute little "chicken utensil holder". We had a few minutes to kill before we were to meet Lady Melanie's daughter,Kellet, SIL , Josh and baby Lillie at " The Club", so we stopped at our favorite dime store in Birmingham....."Smiths". I even bought some writing papers for " a dime" a piece. It was time to drive up the mountain and have lunch at " The Club" with a breath taking view. The Club was built in the 1950's and it was probably the most exquisite place in Birmingham in it's time because it still is very impressive even today. Kellet and Josh treated us to a wonderful lunch. We enjoyed the food, the service, the view and the special people we were with. Thank you Lady Melanie, Kellet, Josh and Baby Lillie.

It's a Green House again!

Since we are suppose to get our first frost tonight, Chuck rewrapped the green house yesterday morning while I cleaned out the "girls mansion". I think the girls were happy to get a clean house. We're going to have to figure out how to wrap the bottom of the nesting boxes with chicken wire though because one or two of them have been laying their eggs "UNDER" the boxes instead of in them. I happen to look under there at the beginning of the week and I found "seven!!!!" eggs. I didn't know how long they had been under there so I had to get rid of them. Now, we look under there every morning when we go down to collect the eggs. There has been at least one egg under there. I'm happy to report that "Miss Prissy" is feeling more at home in "the mansion" and goes out in the yard every day with the other girls. She still is a nervous little thing though.

Chuck took the stag horns out of the oak tree in front of the barn and put them in the green house for the winter. I put all the other plants in. There is even room for the BNOE stag horn that I gave her a few years ago, to spend the winter. Chuck spent this afternoon, running electricity to the green house so we can have the heater in there. The heater is set to come on if it gets down to 40 degrees. Hopefully I won't lose any plants this winter like I did last year when they were in the barn and it got below freezing inside the barn. I don't even want to " think" about what we went through last winter. ..lol. We're just sooooo glad it's not this time last year for sure!!!!

Brought Presents!!

Cardinal picture

Lavender toile vase

Puzzle of our land

towels from Gene's Mom

Lady Melanie presents

Not only did we have fun with Gene and George's visit, but they brought tons of presents! Gene's Mom sent a house warming present up with them. It was two beautiful towels with pretty embroidered blue flowers on them. You can guess what bathroom those are going in. MINE! They look so pretty in there. ...almost too pretty to use but I'm using them. On the way up, Gene and George stopped at " Lady Melanie"s ( she is Gene's cousin) in Birmingham. She also sent a gift bag full of presents. All " purple" things for me actually. Several little dishes with pretty purple flowers on them. ....a cream pitcher, a little plate, a small bowl with a lid and a little rectangle plate that Gene and I decided would be perfect to put my bracelets in. Speaking of bracelets there was a purple and pearl bracelet, a beautiful matching necklace (which she made) AND a precious little purple flower circle pin on the bag. Then! there was a little " Tea Party for Two" book that was all done in purple. I think Lady Melanie knows how much I love purple! After all of that, Gene hands me another bag of presents from them! There was a really funny "rooster pin", a pair of giraffe playing cards and a set of giraffe pencils, along with a saying that fits us over the years." Sit long, talk much, laugh often". We've done all of that every time we get together. Then, the best of all there was a " jigsaw puzzle" of the map of our land. All 22 acres of it. It even has our house on it!!!!! It is the most awesome present!!!! I can't wait to put it together, which I think it's going to be very, very hard but Chuck is good with maps so I'm sure it won't take us very long. I have never liked it when people "frame" puzzles but I think we are going to have to "frame" this one. The " present giving" wasn't over. Friday, when Gene and George had to go to a little town a few miles away to talk to some students, they stopped at this little Antique store and Gene found me the most beautiful " lavender and white, toile vase". It is the neatest vase ever!!! Then, she had also bought me a framed picture of two cardinals, to go in the sun room, since I had said I was going to put " birds" and " gardening" stuff in there. We have so many cardinals on the land and enjoy watching them come to our feeders. Its really nice to have such " thoughtful" friends that have shared in our dreams. We feel very loved. Thank you everyone for such wonderful presents!!!!

Best Friends

Chuck and George making breakfast

George mashing the sweet potatoes for the pancakes.

The guys enjoying the porch.

Gene and I polishing the silver tea set.

Our Best Friends who own the other " twin house" came to visit. Gene had several schools to visit in the area, recruiting for Huntingdon college, where she is the head of the music dept. They were here several days and we enjoyed each one. We ate a lot of good food while they were here. Chuck and George were in charge of breakfast each day. One of the mornings, they made sweet potato pancakes from the left over sweet potatoes from dinner the night before. They were the BEST! Saturday night Gene and George took us out to dinner in Florence at the famous" Dales Steak House". It was like having dinner back in time....1962 exact. The waiter all dressed up in a red coat and tie.....the dimly lit room....soup, salad and then your entree. We skipped the dessert part because we were just too full from dinner. It was a fun night. Sunday afternoon, we were treated to a concert in Hartselle. The Trumpet and Piano Professors from Huntingdon, came up and preformed a very interesting and funny concert. Afterwards, cake and punch were served at a reception. We met some long time friends of Gene and George that live here in Moulton now. What nice people. I think we now have two more friends up here. After the concert and reception, we went out to dinner at our local Mexican Restaurant, which Gene and George treated us again! We were spoiled by their visit. Gene even helped me polish my silver tea set. You know that when your friend does that...she is more like a sister to you and that is how I feel about Gene. We have known them for over 38 years and we feel like part of their family. It's great being only three hours from them, instead of the eight that we used to be. Because of Gene and George, we live in " Sweet Home Alabama!"...and loving our lives.

Another pretty present

When Joyce and Cathie came to visit last weekend, they brought us a pretty house warming present. It was a beautiful casserole bowl with a lid, that had pretty fall leaves all around it. It will go so well with our Thanksgiving dishes. I can't wait to use it! It was a prefect present since it's Fall and we have such pretty leaves all around us. Thank you Cathie and Joyce!!!!

George!

Funny little George keeps us entertained. He " thinks" he wants to be a " house kitty" instead of a " TT kitty" but I know he would be scared if we let him in the house. PLUS...there are two kitties in the house that wouldn't be too happy with him. He is always looking in the windows or the back door. Tonight, Chuck was sitting at the kitchen table and I heard him laugh. When I went to see what was so funny, it was George up on the table with the pumpkins, looking in the window. When I came home from quilt guild the other day, he was sleeping on the chase on the back porch, like it was " his kitty bed". He's just too cute....you have to love him

Davy Crockett

Here are the pictures from our picnic lunch with Davy Crockett in the square of down town Lawrenceburg, yesterday. The statue was erected in 1922....telling about Davy's life. The other memorial was from the Mexican war. I don't really know much about Davy Crockett...only there was a TV show about him back in the ummmmmm the 70's? I guess I need to look for a book about Davy and learn another History lesson.

Cotton Gin

On the way home from the apple orchard, we stopped to look at a " cotton gin". There were lots of the huge bales waiting in line to go through the gin. A truck unloads the bale and then pushes it into the gin. I'm not sure what the process is but at the end, pretty white stacks, wrapped in plastic, are ready to go to ...where ever it goes, comes out to be stacked in the warehouse. Some where along the way, there are bales of dirty looking cotton produced that the sign said, it was good for your compost for your garden. You could buy it for $10 a bale. I wish there were someone there to tell us about the process but it was still fun seeing all of the cotton.

Another fun day!

holding a bunch of turnips

our apples, sweet potatoes, turnips, honey and blueberry butter. Also got apple cider and an apple/peach cook book. ....along with a big pumpkin!

Two days in a row, we have taken off to explore. First we headed to Huntsville and bought a dozen of Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee. ( it's cheaper to buy a dozen than just buy four, so we HAD to buy the whole dozen) We ended up in Tennessee again today but only by accident. We missed our turn off so we made a " legal and safe U turn".( as Cathie is always told to do, by Jonesie lol) After going a few miles out in the country, we did find the " apple orchard" that we were looking for. What a fun place! They had several kinds of apples and the price was great! $16 a bushel! Not only did they have apples but, all kinds of things. ....pumpkins ( for ONLY $4 each) sweet potatoes, honey, apple cider, turnips, jellies and blueberry butter, apple butter, cook books and a bunch of other things. We bought some of everything but the apple butter and jelly. ( we have plenty of that at home) The apples that we ended up buying were " 1/2 bushel of Granny Smith and 1/2 bushel of Golden Delicious. More apple butter making is in the near future for me. I want enough to last us until this time next year. We decided that when it comes " apple time" again next Fall....this is where we will go to get them.