Sweet Home Alabama, Where the Skies are so Blue!

These pictures were taken of the valley outside of Wedowee.  For all of you who have left Alabama.  The old saying "Home is where the heart is."  At my hubby's class reunion, many of his classmates had traveled all over the country and Europe and lived in  many places.  When it came to retiring, many of them moved back to Alabama.  There is no place like home no matter where you lived, worked, or traveled.

"Sweet home Alabama where the skies are so blue.
Sweet home Alabama, Lord, I'm coming home to you.
Sweet home Alabama where the skies are so blue.
Sweet home Alabama, Lord, I'm coming home to you."

Old Fredonia (Cumbee) Store

 This is a bit of history for Fredonia as well as for those rural families who once shopped there.  It has family sentiments and memories of a Fallin boy stopping there for a soda on his way to Roanoke.  On the photo, I used a paint daub technique with dark brush strokes to give the  building an antique color wash.


This is a side view of the Fredonia Store.  I used a dry brush technique with highlighted accents.  It should be preserved as an historical site for the area.  

Red Alabama Garden Bed

Does the Letter A stand for University of Alabama or just the State of Alabama?  Is this a Wedowee tradition to use beds for gardens or a Alabama thing?

Early Morning Sunrise at Lake Wedowee

We decided to go to Wedowee for breakfast and stopped at Lake Wedowee for some early morning pictures.  We caught the sunrise and the stillness of the lake with no motorboats or people around.  It was a looking glass of blue tranquility.

Sixes Mill - Site of Fort Sixes, used as a Cherokee Indian Removal Fort

I remember this old mill from my childhood. When I stayed with my grandparents every summer in Cherokee County, they would visit the old Sixes Mill and I remember it was located on a dirt road like most of the roads in the county.  It is now part of a historical park in Canton, Georgia.  I did not realize its' historical significance.  Fort Sixes is located there which was used as a Cherokee Indiana removal fort.  This location is listed in the Trail of Tears.  I wonder how many of my own relatives were removed from the area.  My mother's ancestors were Cherokees from North Georgia.  Her ancestor married a white man and they lived around Greenville at the time of the Trail of Tears in 1838.

 

 

 

The one room school house in Sixes Georgia where  my mother attended as a child. 

Carry me Away to Wisconsin!

My significant other will be traveling to Wisconsin in a few weeks.  How can he be so lucky!  The fall leaves have turned and he will see such brilliant colors.  I am so jealous!

The Sky Touches the Earth

Wisconsin is where the sky touches the earth in fields of green.  It gives me the same optical sensation of the ocean and sky touching in the distances.  Beautiful lakes and heavens.

On the Road to "Gold Nugget" Town

Had to post one great scenic veiw of North Georgia since so many family members are from the north Georgia area.  Picture taken on our way to historical Dahlonega.  Gold nugget town!  My great-great grandfather, Samuel Hillhouse, was a gold digger in the North Georgia mountains.

Sunset At 312 Bridge

After dinner at Wildflower Cafe, we drove over the 312 Bridge.  We have friends who live on the Intracoastal water, they said that every evening there is a completely different sunset with a different story to tell.  No two sunsets are the same.  I believe them.  We drive over this bridge a lot and the view is always beautiful and different.

Old Barns Never Go out of Style - They become Picture Frames

The fad is to tear down an old barn and sell the wood to make tables, fireplace mantles and picture frames.  I would rather have the old barn left standing and used for farming but at least, some of them are being recycled.  Attached is a video sent to me from my hubby about Old Barns.

Ode to Clouds in Minnesota

These photos were taken by DW Fallin in his travels through Minnesota.  Reminds me of the poem "Ode To The West Wind" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.  It goes llike this:
"Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,

Loose clouds like Earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean"
It is a very long poem and I cannot do it justice here.

Holston Lake - Arbingdon, Virginia

This is one of my favorite pictures from traveling this past summer.  This barn was located outside of Arbingdon, Virginia on Holston Lake.  It was idyllic in its country setting.  This was the most beautiful site at Holston Lake.  When we drove to the parks and camp grounds, there were literary thousands of campers scattered in disarray around the banks of the lake.  I never saw so many people jammed together.  The over population and crowded camp grounds ruin the beauty of the lake and the surrounding country side.  I am very glad that Florida controls how many campers are allowed in the parks. That is not the case with Lake Holston.  I believe a lot of these sites were privately owned and jammed as many campers together as they could squeeze into a space.

Amish Fences of Stone

These fences of rocks are from the Amish park "Rockome Gardens in Arcola, Illinois.  They were originally built in 1937.  It is thought the formation of the arches and crosses were inspired by the Catholic Holy Ghost Park in Dickeyville, WI..

My Mother's Flowers - From Generation to Generation

Generations of flowers.  My mother planted her mother's flowers as her mother planted her mother's flowers.  Seedlings from these plants have been passed down several generations.  They are over 100 years old.

On August 3, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed the proclamation declaring the first Sunday of September after Labor Day of each year as ‘National Grandparents Day’ to honor grandparents.  These are photos of grandmother's flowers.  Happy Grandparents Day!

Old Wagons for Weary Travelers

I visited Wisconsin this summer and was very impressed with the landscaping of local country folks.  Some of it was very elaborate for homes located on county roads between small towns.  We trespass onto a private driveway so I  could get a picture of the old wagon sitting next to the lake.  They built a bridge and a rock garden on the hillside.  A lot of money was invested for landscaping that you could not see from their house.  I guess it was for us weary travelers who could not believe it when they saw it.  After all, we had to turn around and go back for a second look. 

Butterfly Waltz at Lake Junaluska

We drove around Lake Junaluska and saw several "butterfly bushes" with hundreds of butterflies waltzing from one flower to another.  I have never witness so  many in natural surroundings.  I tried to concentrate on one landing on the top of the bush.  It was a waltz to remember.

There were hundreds of ducks but the grace of two swarms and their reflection in the water was simply Divine.

Two ducks were sitting on a log and the reflection of the evergreen tree and the ducks merge together in the water.

A "chautauqua" Place to be bless - Lake Junaluska

The cross with it's silhouette against the heaven is being bless with rays of sunlight.  .Lake Junaluska is where the United Methodist Church has it's World Methodist Council headquarters.  Many assemblies and meetings are held here throughout the year.  The park around the lake is used by many local residents.  People were walking, jogging and enjoying the beautiful  mountain atmosphere. 

This is the view from the outdoor assembly area where the cross stood.  We definitely want to go back and stay longer.

Dowdells's Knob - The Last Visit

In 1945, a weary Roosevelt visited Dowdell's Knob and ask his secret service men to leave him alone in the car, walk up the road, and not come back until they heard the car horn.  He stay there alone for 2 hours enjoying his last visit with nature.  He died two days later.

Silver Dragonfly

There are many different types of dragonflies with different colors.  This one's colors blended with the plant post.  Silver dragonfly jewelry is very popular but the natural beauty of a live dragonfly can't be matched.

Another pictures from a different angle in B&W.

Melody's Garden

We visited Melody and her husband Tom in Mosinee, Wisconsin.  They own a farm and raise sheep.  She has a green thumb and had a vegetable garden as well as many flower beds.

A lot of bird houses and old country sink was located at the entrance of her vegetable garden.

VanCleve, Kentucky - Mothers & their Colts

Mothers and their colts at VanCleve, Kentucky across from the Kentucky Mountain Bible College.  This pasture was located along side the Kentucky River.

Hiwassee River, Cherokee County

We visited the Hiwassee River in Cherokee County, North Carolina.  I thought Cherokee County was a poor county from the conditions of the houses and farms we saw while driving through the mountains.  The homes may not be elaborate but these people were rich in the beauty and glory of their rivers and mountains. 

Young Osprey at Vaill Point

For several months, people walking the trail at Vaill Point would stop us and ask if we saw the Bald Eagle.  This evening we finally saw the big beautiful bird in a bare tree at the marsh.  These birds love large towering trees with bare branches.  After examining the picture of his profile, I believe it is a young Osprey with a white breast and black wings.

He picked the tallest tree in the marsh were he could see wide and far for his prey. The scenery looked gorgeous in blue and silver sheen skyline.

Ghost Stories of the St. Augustine Lighthouse

We visited the lighthouse this evening and there was a large cocktail party. The light house is surrounded by trees.  They had very unusual lower branches that reached out across the lawn like long hands.  I walked around the back and took several pictures of the lighthouse towering over my head.  I did some research on the ghost stories.  "The lighthouse and surrounding buildings have a long history of supposed paranormal activity. Allegedly, visitors and workers have seen moving shadows, heard voices and unexplained sounds, and seen the figures of two little girls standing on the lighthouse catwalk (who purportedly were daughters of Hezekiah Pittee, Superintendent of Lighthouse Construction, during the 1870s; the girls drowned in a tragic accident during the building of the tower). Other reports are of a woman seen on the lighthouse stairway or walking in the yard outside the buildings, and the figure of a man who roams the basement.  Stories like these have led The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) to the scene where they shot an episode of the SyFy show Ghost Hunters. During this episode, TAPS claims to have captured a few mysterious incidents on video in the lighthouse such as a disembodied voice of a woman crying "help me" and a shadowy figure was supposedly recorded on video moving about the stairs above them." 

A most unusual growth of an Oak Tree branch.

Ode to An Old Truck in the Kentucky Foothills

People always telling me

you've gotta get rid of this truck.

It's old and it's rusty

It's just a piece of junk.

I smile and I tell them

this ole pickup truck

Has been a good ole workhorse

It got me through mud & muck.

She may not be much to look at now

But she was dependable to the core.

She's helped me work this farm

For twenty years or more.

There's too many memories to keep

that can't be beat. 

.