Underground Railroad

Underground Railroad sampler quilt

(double click on pic and it will become bigger so you can read it)

Betty, the commercial  lady

Every year, our Quilt Guild goes on a "mystery trip".  No one knows where we are going except for Anna Lou who sets them up.  It's a whole day worth of fun.  Well, this year the surprise was, we weren't going anywhere.  Our treat was two great ladies coming to our meeting place and giving a talk on the " Underground Railroad quilts".  We all had to stay out in the lobby until it was time for all of us to walk in together.  Everyone's first comment was ..."hey! aren't you the commercial lady?"..ha.  Yes, we have all seen Betty on an insurance commercial on several of our local channels.  It was filmed at her home and with the quilt that she brought to show us about her family.  Her friend Flora ( not sure how she spells her name) was a world of information about the quilts that were used for the Underground Railroad.  She had made a sampler quilt with all the code blocks that were used.  She told stories on how the slaves made it all the way from the south to Canada to  be safe.  The ladies have made the trip themselves and had a scrapbook to show us of their trip, ending at a museum in Canada.  Even though we didn't get in a bus and travel to another state for our mystery trip, it was one right up there at the top of a fun time.   Everyone decided that they were glad that we didn't have to go out in the cold for the day.  Yes, everyone is wondering if Spring warm weather is ever going to get here this year.  After everyone helped fold up all the quilts and pack everything away, we headed to Ruby Tuesday for a nice lunch together.   Now we will all wonder what next year's "mystery trip" will bring us.  

Export Warehouse

Our next to last stop for the day was at this huge export warehouse.  You could have furnished half your house with stuff from there.  Well, at least decorated it, any ways.  They had everything from furniture, rugs, dishes, and stuff for your yard and patio.  It was really fun walking around and checking out all the prices.
   Our last stop for the day was at Trader Joe's...an organic grocery store.  Andrea did her grocery shopping while Shell and I ohhhed and ahhhhed over all of the cut flowers.  I ended up buying a bunch of cherry branches that were beginning to bloom.
  After taking Shell back to her house, it was time to pack up and  head for home.  It was a fun weekend.  We did a lot!!

The Pfunky Griddle

Andrea and Cason

Wearing our " green"

St. Patty's Day green pancakes

Cooking our own breakfast

Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

The start of our second day in Nashville, we all decided to go to the "Pfunky Griddle" where you cook your own breakfast on griddles in the middle of the table.  I had mixed feelings about that...ha.  As much as I don't like to cook, it was weird for me to pay to cook my own breakfast.  It had it's good points though.  All your food was hot and if it got cold, ya just put it back on the griddle to warm it up.  They had everything you could want for breakfast.  Shell had pancakes and they brought out two pitchers full of batter.  As she poured it onto the griddle she thought her eyes weren't seeing things right.  She asked us if her pancakes looked green to us.  Yep!  they were green!  After all, it was St. Patty's Day.  We all had a fun time and was over full when we left.  In fact, I didn't eat another thing for the rest of the day.

Grand Ole Opry

Shell and I were to meet up with Andrea and Cason  at the mall behind the " Grand Ole Opry Hotel" around dinner time.  Andrea and Cason were going to spend a few hours in the arcade.  After walking in there, I was ready to walk right out. It was the nosiest place I have ever been in my whole life!!  Shell and I walked around the mall and had dinner at the food court before walking over to the "Grand Ole Opry Hotel".  The last time we were there was around 1998.  We had spent the night in Nashville on our way to Illinois for the last time when we went up to clean out my Auntie Barbara's house.  It was a really fun day but I was glad to get back to Shell's house and put my feet up.  Andrea and Cason came wandering in a couple of hours later.  Andrea came down with a terrible headache in the middle of the night, bless her heart.  I wonder if spending three hours in the nosiest place in the world had anything to do with it?....I'm just saying......

Farmer's Market

The next stop was the Nashville Farmer's Market. ...were you can buy everything from crawl fish to every fruit and vegetable you can think of.  All fresh and pretty!  There was even a nursery that had herbs, plants and  flowers.  You just wanted to take it all home with you.

Centennial Park

Queen of the World!

Playing soccer, flying kites and enjoying the warm weather. 

The Parthenon

I had a chance to spend the weekend with Shell in Nashville when Andrea asked if I wanted to ride up with her and her son Cason.  They were going on a little Spring break spend the day.  I turned it into a whole weekend when I asked Shell if she could put us up over night.  On Saturday, after unloading the SUV at Shell's, Andrea and Cason took off to do what they had planned for the day and Shell and I spent the day spending time at several different places in Nashville.  First stop was Centennial Park where the Parthenon is.  It was actually constructed in 1897 for the Centennial celebration, out of wood, plaster and bricks.  It was to be a temporary exhibit but the Nashvillians protested to it's demolition at the close of the celebration.  The original building stood until 1921.  This time a permanent structure was finished in 1931.
  Also in the park was an old train and the bow of a ship made out of cement and copper.  There was a huge field where people were enjoying the warm weather, playing soccer, flying kites and just laying around on blankets in the sun.  It made you want to go buy a kite and run around, flying it.  What a nice start to a bright sunny day!

A Trip to Birmingham

Scared-y Pit Wine Cellar

Yes, you are seeing right!  That is seven CASES of Deinhard wine lining the wall of the scared-y pit.  It's one of our favorite wines and there is a story behind it all.  In 1988 when Chuck and I were so lucky to spend 17 days in Europe with the Blomberg's, Marina, Chuck and I set out for a day trip up the Rhine River to look for the Deinhard Winery.  We actually found it and spent half the day having a private tour and wine tasting.  Ever since then, we drink Deinhard wine.  That is when we can find it.  When we lived in Florida, we were lucky to buy it at Total Wine ( a new chain store) but it is really hard to find here in Alabama.  I had bought two bottles the last time I was down in Florida and paid $12.99 a bottle.  Well, we have a good friend who works in the wine business ( Lady Melanie's son) and he was able to locate us our wine.  Get this.......The store that he works at, had 8 cases that they were selling for ....are you sitting down?.....$1.99 a bottle!!!!  It's almost past it's "sell by date" but they tasted it and said it was fine.   We told them that we would take four of the cases.  No...they aren't all for us.  One case goes to our friend Charlie and one case goes to Charlotte/Raimey and 1/2 case goes to Shell.  I think we will be set for the summer for wine.  We only ordered four cases but Lady Melanie had bought three cases and told us that they were a present to Chuck for the rest of the year.  What a nice present!!!!!  So, Chuck loaded up seven cases of wine in the back of the Explorer and now they have a home in the scared-y pit.  I'm thinking if we have to run down stairs to the scared-y pit this Spring because of bad weather, at least we'll have something to drink.  :-)  Thank you to Lady Melanie and Sir Wiley Scott!!!!!!!

Llama Poop!

Freckles the spitting llama

Freckles buddy...doesn't spit

Freckles

Pile of llama poop!

Charlotte shoving 

Shoveling away

truck full of llama poop!!

Charlotte has been telling me how good llama poop is for the garden and our flower bed plants for over a year now.  There is a petting zoo about five miles down the road where kids have their birthday parties and that is how Charlotte got to be friends with the lady who owns it.  Ben had his birthday there.  They own three llamas which means lots of llama poop!  The lady said we were welcome to come shovel poop any time we would like.  Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be shoveling llama poop into empty chicken feed bags on a Saturday morning. It's funny how such a big animal can have such little poop.    I just kept thinking about the best garden we have ever had once I spread all that poop around and tilled.  I hope there will be truth in the pudding....we'll see in a couple of months.

A Little Dusting

Well, we finally got our "winter snow"...if you want to call it that.  It did snow all day but it was above freezing so it melted as soon as it touched anything.  It was so pretty watching it come down all day.  As the day went on, the flakes got bigger. Once the sun went down and the temperature dropped, it started accumulating a little.  I would love to have the eight inches we had two winters ago, but since it didn't happen, I'm ready for Spring.  I'm getting itchy to get out there and work in the garden and the yard.  Things are starting to "bud" and it won't be long before everything is blooming.  One of my favorite times of the year.