Varoom - Varoom - 1965 Ford

Why don't they make trucks like this anymore? ...oh those big heavy muscle trucks...when you are inside you feel like you are in an army tanker....

Eddy who owns the truck has worked on it for quite a few years. The mechanical parts are in good shape...as I pressed the gas pedal, the engine responded to the pressure by hmmmmmming a balanced rhthym. Eddy started from the inside out and his next moves would have been to start working on the comestics of the truck. He and his next door neighbor Clouse, are the grease monkeys.

Painting a Gourd !!!!

I bought this gourd at a thrift shop. at the time it was a natural tan color. When I got back from Florida I had this urge to paint...so I did. I wanted to paint this gourd for my Dad for Father's Day. I found two quotes from two men he always seemed to admire, John Wooden, and Norman Vincent Peale and painted the quotes on the surface. "Enthusiasm Makes the Difference", (NVP) and "Its What you Learn after You Know it All that Counts", (JW).

I had fun painting the waves of color around the opening. I hope my dad doesn't mind, but he will need to smooth the edges (if he wants). This can be done with the right tools. If I were a birdy - I would want to live inside this gourd.

Checking it out with a critical eye before it is packaged and shipped to California, where they live.

St. Augustine, Florida

Cool place to eat...as I waited for my lunch order, I looked around at all the antiques and thrift items. It was like a thrift store and a resturant in the same place...what a concept.

Boats floating in the bay. The water comes in from the Pacific.

St. Augustine recently had two weeks of record breaking rainfall....although the day I was there, the sun was shining and the water was glistening.

The Town Wall

Castillo De San Marcos

The oldest fort in the United States which is located on Matwnzos Bay in St. Augustine.

Surrounded by beautiful sand and tall palm trees.

You are able to tour inside. It has a draw bridge and replicas of the cannons used to defent this territory.

Feathers left for sale...

These abstract eagle feathers are still for sale. They range in prices from $25.00 - $30.00 and can be shipped anywhere in the USA......

What a talented group of women to meet and work with. From left to right:
Lillian from Columbia, South Carolina.
Cynthia from Stone Mountain, Georgia.
Me - from Oklahoma.
Joan - from Statesville, North Carolina.
Sharon - from Buffalo, New York.
Janet Compton - from Paris, Kentucky.

Custom order of feathers!!!

They were soldered while using a black and copper patina. The customer wanted thee specific colors. They were then accented with glass beads, and vintage jewlery.

Then, they were edged out in copper foiling.

First, the pieces were hand cut.

Highs and Lows in Alabama

I was working lots of hours while in Selma, Alabama. I was tired having already been out on the road for three weeks...but my spirit grew more tired while staying here. I sensed unrest in the community, lots of poverty around me. While here in the area I met some great people, dedicated staff, and saw lots of beautiful little children. Jim emailed me that week and told me that Selma was the Butterfly Capital of Alabama. While my friends and I decided to head down town...I saw all the butterflies around town. Seeing something like butterflies, the art, something creative and colorful, my spirits had been lifted.

A little factoid.....

Butterfly Capital - Selma, Alabama
In 1989, the Alabama State Legislature designated Selma the "Butterfly Capital of Alabama." The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is Alabama's butterfly mascot.
In October, 2008, the Dallas County Arts Alliance in cooperation with the City and local businesses commissioned more than 40 butterfly sculptures placed throughout Downtown Selma.

After we visited the National Voting Museum, we walked to the edge of the road and looked at the bridge. It was a pretty heavy moment to think of all that occured there. While I was there for the week, I sensed still much "unrest" in this community.... people still not accepting the differences of each other. A discussion with a friend while there made us realize that hate, anger, unforgiveness, prejudice, selfishness has no color....that these emotions don't care what color as long as they can live long in the hearts of all men and women.

Brief History from: http://www.nps.gov/history/nR/travel/civilrights/al4.htm

The Selma-to-Montgomery March for voting rights ended three weeks--and three events--that represented the political and emotional peak of the modern civil rights movement. On "Bloody Sunday," March 7, 1965, some 600 civil rights marchers headed east out of Selma on U.S. Route 80. They got only as far as the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks away, where state and local lawmen attacked them with billy clubs and tear gas and drove them back into Selma. Two days later on March 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., led a "symbolic" march to the bridge. Then civil rights leaders sought court protection for a third, full-scale march from Selma to the state capitol in Montgomery. Federal District Court Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., weighed the right of mobility against the right to march and ruled in favor of the demonstrators. "The law is clear that the right to petition one's government for the redress of grievances may be exercised in large groups...," said Judge Johnson, "and these rights may be exercised by marching, even along public highways." On Sunday, March 21, about 3,200 marchers set out for Montgomery, walking 12 miles a day and sleeping in fields. By the time they reached the capitol on Thursday, March 25, they were 25,000-strong. Less than five months after the last of the three marches, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965--the best possible redress of grievances.

We visited the the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute which is not far from the bridge. The museum states that it "strives to remind the world of the struggle that took place in order for all Americans to have the right to vote, regardless of race, education or wealth". Quote from museum literature.

My Kentucky Derby Team

Rae, me, Atah, Cathy, Marty, Silvia - learning more about Head Start together.

It was the Monday right after the Kentucky Derby upset. This hotel had fun with their decorations. When we arrived in Louisville, there were real red roses on display everywhere.

It is a big event in this state.

Giddy -up!

The surprize winner - Mine That Bird !

Lush green pastures while driving through Kentucky

Green as far as the eye can see.

Winding road I was traveling on.

This is outside of the town area in rural Kentucky.

I started to see old sheds and barns everywhere. I stopped to capture ones most interesting to me.

Hometown of Abe Lincoln

Monument in the center of town. Sultpure of young Abe.


Pretty amazing sculture. He was a tall man.

Stories of the artist who sculpted this piece. It reads: The bronze seated statue was created by Adolph W. Weinman as part of the 1909 Abraham Lincoln Centennial commemoration efforts. The statue was officially dedicated on May 30th 1909.

The artist sits underneath his work with a friend.

I had a few minutes and checked out this museum. The exhibits were all of Abe Lincoln and the significant people in his life as he grew up and as he served as President. It was a wax museum ran by a retired school teacher and principal.

A collage of old barns and sheds

Small country church along the way called Union Band Baptist Church.

As the main structures of farms, barns evoke a sense of tradition and security, of closeness to the land and community with the people who built them.
Each one I saw told such a long story...wish I could have stayed around to listen.

Even today the rural barn raising presents a forceful image of community spirit. Just as many farmers built their barns before they built their houses, so too many farm families look to their old barns as links with their past. Old barns, furthermore, are often community landmarks and make the past present. Such buildings embody ethnic traditions and local customs; they reflect changing farming practices and advances in building technology.

My favorite.

Carved from a 56,000 pound Red Oak Tree!!!

This was so interesting - I had to stop and take a look.

This wood tree sculpture was so cool...but I wondered what was up in his nose....what do you think it was?

It was an old empty wasp's nest. Someone needs to get up there and knock it out....

He looks a little tired...to me.