Mooresville



double click on the pic of the sign and it will get larger so you can read it.



                                       

We finally made it to Mooresville.  We had heard so much about it and I can see why.  Last week the news anchor  on the noon news, said it was the best kept secret about Alabama.  It's this little neighborhood that was built in the early 1800's.  It's about three streets wide and three streets long.  The oldest working Post Office in Alabama is there.  The houses are just beautiful and you can tell they are from the 1800's.  One house even had a clay tennis court.  First, Chuck and I walked up and down the streets and then we got in the explorer and drove them.  If I had to live in a neighborhood again, Mooresville would be the one I'd pick.  We're going to go back around Christmas time.  Something tells me that the whole neighborhood is going to be decorated.  Charlotte said that sometimes they have " walking tours" and you can even go inside some of the homes.  I sure hope I can find out when the next one is.  I kept telling Chuck as we walked around, that I wish I could see what the houses looked like inside.  Maybe some day, I will know. 

Across the Pond.

There is this " outdoor" shop that we see advertised on TV all the time and we went past it on the way to the orchard, yesterday.  So, on the way back, we stopped.  It sure was an entertaining place to visit.  They had everything you would ever want for your yard....including $600-$800 a piece... coy for your fish pond.  You can even eat lunch there in a cute little cafe.  ( we didn't eat there)  Now, when we see it on TV, we will know what the place looks like in person.

Apples, Apples, Peaches....

Scott's Orchard is on the Alabama/Tennessee border.  In fact, part of their orchard is in Tn. and the other half in Ala.  Chuck had looked on line to see if they had an early crop of apples and it had said they did.  Wellllllll, when we got there, they only had a few and they were the tail end of the early crop.  We missed it by one day.  They were going to go out to pick the next crop and make their wonderful apple cider, today.....I KNOW!  We will just have to go back in the beginning of October.  It's really not that far to go and we can look for our special Halloween pumpkin on that trip.  They also had some pretty peaches, but we had just bought some at the Farmer's Market in Decatur.  I think I will make an apple cake, some apple sauce and maybe a tart with the basket that we bought. 

Farmer's Market

We started our day with stopping at Decatur's Farmer's Market.  It's open every morning during the summer.  Everything there, is grown local. So many pretty veggies, it's hard to choose from.  We ended up getting some peaches, beautiful tomatoes, shelled zipper peas and a cantaloupe.  We stuck them all in the cooler in the explorer and took off for the TN. border. 

Not Just Company



sewing Debbie!




I hate ladders!





Chuck's tie pillow




sewing chair





Sun room love seat.




sun room chase

 I can't believe that Debbie finally came to Brambly Pines!  We've been talking on the phone for almost two years, planning on her coming up.  She drove up from Florida, last Wednesday and got here around dinner time.  There was time for the " tour" of the house, the garden, the girls house and the barn, before dark.  Thursday, I showed her around Moulton and we did a little shopping.  Thursday night, she went to Book Club with me and it happened to be out at Betty's house ( who is in Quilt Guild with me) because the book we read this month was called " The Good Bye Quilt".  Betty offered to have the meeting at her house and have a " bed turning".....which is layering all the quilts she had made and pulled them off one at a time to show each one.  I knew Debbie would enjoy going with me, since she also quilts.  It was fun having everyone meet Deb and her everyone.   We had plans on spending the next day, going to the orchard on the TN border, showing Debbie Huntsville and then going to check out Mooresville. ( some place Chuck and I have never been)  The plans got changed because Debbie didn't feel well, riding in the car along with the heat, so we came back home and as she felt better, she offered to do some projects.  First we stenciled the saying that I had in the TV room in the Florida house, over the kitchen windows and Debbie had promised me that when we moved into the new house, she would come up and help me with the saying.  It turned out to be easy because we only used the words to the stencil and not the scroll to it.  Next, project was covering the computer chair that I had Chuck bring up from the barn, to use at my sewing machines.  I knew Deb could do a much better job of it then me and it turned out sooooo cute!  Then, I had a " tie pillow" all cut out and ready to sew since about a year before we even moved.  I dug that out and we finished that.  It's so pretty, in the black/white chair in Chuck's room.  Next!!!!!!  Debbie recovered the cushion to the chase in the sun room and when she got that finished, she did the cushion to the love seat and made the two pillows for it also.  You don't know how happy I was to have those cushions done!!!!!  I had done the two chair cushions when we first moved in and I couldn't make myself tackle the others.  Thank you!! thank you!! thank you!! Debbie!!!! The " over 100 year old wicker" that's in the sun room, actually came from Debbie.  She didn't have a use for it any more when she moved and I traded her a HUGE! Stag horn fern for it.  I think it was a perfect trade for both of us.  Debbie is the kind of company everyone should have.  In fact, she is off to visit a friend in Kansas City to help with her son's wedding.  In a week, she is heading back this way and stopping in St. Louis to visit friends and maybe some in TN.  Then, she will come back here to spend one or two nights before heading for home.  I told her I wasn't sad when she left the other day like I am when all my other company leaves, because I knew she would be back in just a week.  When she leaves again....then I will be sad.  She promises to come back though and I'm going to hold her to it.  We have always been " project friends" if it wasn't at her house, it was at mine.  We haven't lost that, even though we are now 12 hours apart. 

The Most Fun Thing!

I had the most fun of all summer, a couple evenings ago....digging my sweet potatoes!  On the way to the " Watermelon Festival", we saw a man sitting on the back of his truck which was FULL of sweet potatoes...for sale.   That is why I knew it was time to dig mine.  Just from planting six plants in the Spring, I got a whole BIG bucket full. The vines took over half of the garden all summer but it was worth it.   It's a little weird not washing the dirt off of them but that is what I was told to do.  I'm sure I will be tired of eating sweet potatoes before they are all gone, because Chuck doesn't like them, but I will share with Shell when she comes up.  Since I didn't wash them, they are suppose to last for months in a cool place.  Of course I had to taste one already.  I made roasted veggies for dinner the next night and cut one up to go with regular ( for Chuck) potatoes, yellow squash, asparagus and some carrots ( from the garden) .  It was the sweetest sweet potato that I have ever had.  ...no kidding.  Next summer I will have sweet potatoes taking over the garden again.  They are the most fun thing that I have grown......so far. 

Watermelon Festival...second time around.



watermelons the size of a kid!





Chuck's hand! Now that's one BIG watermelon!!!!

This weekend was the " Watermelon Festival" again. We have gone to a lot of the festivals around here and there are a few that we will go back to again.  This was one of them.  Not that there is anything to do with watermelons there, except for all the watermelon you can eat, for FREE! and I guess they have a watermelon contest. There were three HUGE!...I mean HUGE!!!! watermelons there. I don't know how they even lifted them to get them there.   One of the banks did paint their windows with cute watermelons this year.  There are lots of craft booths, an old car and tractor show, but since it's down the main street in town, you can go into the stores also.  There is one antique/junk store that Chuck liked going into last year, so we went in again.  Last year we bought our andirons for the fire place, but this year I bought two antique books.  One of them was" The Tale of Buster Bumble Bee" that had a  copy right of...1819! and the other one was an old "Bobbsey Twins in the Country".  I read all the Bobbsey Twins books when I was little so I was tickled to have found this one.There wasn't any date inside the book, but I know it is older than the ones that read in the 1950's.  I just knew when I asked the man how much they were going to be, he was going to say $20 each....BUT! he said "$1" each!  I couldn't believe it.  I told Chuck it was the " find" for the day.  I just love books and was so happy to have them!  After having my last  " homemade ice cream" for the season and all the watermelon I could eat, which was three big pieces, ( one yellow meat and two red)  we headed for home.   Will we go again next summer?....maybe...after all ,since watermelon is one of my favorite foods and I can eat all I want, I think we will go again.  Plus, ya never know what we might find in that " antique/junk store". 

Babies!

Look who lives at the BNOE!  Two of the cutest baby kittens ever!  They just melt my heart and makes me want a baby kitten living at our house.  It's been so long ( 41 years) since we have had a kitten.  As you know, our kitties just seem to "show up" at our house.  Well, we did go to the pound and picked Annabelle but she was already two years old.  I have to remind myself to go over to the BNOE as much as I can to play with the new babies ( they don't have names yet because the sex hasn't been determined), they will be big kitties before we turn around. 

A Day in the Garden

Chuck digging potatoes



New Rose Trellis




Getting the Garden ready for Fall



It's time to get the garden ready for Fall.  We spent one whole day down there last week.....weeding, tilling and pulling things up out of the garden.  The birds and squirrels ate all of the large sunflowers so Chuck pulled those up.  The cucumbers got pulled.  I'm gonna miss those even though it got to be crazy on how many cukes I picked every day.  Chuck dug up a few potatoes...which we had for dinner that night, along with cabbage and carrots from the garden.  There is just something about veggies from the garden....they taste different....the flavors are more intense.  There are still three grape tomato plants which are producing every day and some peppers that are surrounded with sweet potato vines that have taken over half of the garden.  I can't wait to dig those up but that won't happen for a couple more months.  When I see little ole men sitting on the backs of their pick up trucks, full of sweet potatoes, for sale, then I'll know it's time to dig mine.  The BNOE gave me a rose bush when we first moved here and said it only bloomed once in the Spring and then it grew all " leggy".  Well, she was right!  It bloomed the first Spring we were here and then I cut it back as it got " leggy".  It did the same thing this last Spring so I got to thinking that just maybe it might be a "climber" so I let it grow all summer without trimming it.  It grew to almost the top of the lean to so I asked Chuck to please make a trellis for it.  It still hasn't bloomed all summer but I'm just going to let it be for the winter and see what happens next year with it.  If anything, if I end up getting rid of it, I have a nice trellis to plant another "climber" on.  It didn't cost anything....Chuck made it from scrap lumber from building the house.  I can't believe that summer is almost over and I will be planning next year's garden.  I already have some plans in my head.