Tag Archives: Alabama

Healthy in Huntsville

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Daughter Liz with son, Nolan Thomas, at Garden Cove

One of my older daughter’s favorite places to shop in Huntsville, Ala., is Garden Cove Produce, 628 Meridian St., and I love going along with her. Liz is a vegetarian and cooks organic for her family when possible, and Garden Cove is a mecca for that kind of diet. Just walking into the produce section is an education — there are fresh fruits and vegetables from all over the world. But don’t be intimidated! The helpful staff has all sorts of cooking tips and suggestions if you need help. The grocery part of Garden Cove also has a great selection of non-perishable foods along the lines of a Fresh Market or Whole Foods, much of it organic and natural and most of it hard to find anywhere else in Huntsville. On the other side of the store is a holistic-type drugstore, with cosmetics, health/beauty products and supplements along with some food items such as teas, breakfast cereals and bulk grains. We go there for lunch — it’s self-serve to-go freshly made sandwiches and soup. Visit http://www.gardencoveproduce.com/index.html for details — Garden Cove is closed Saturdays and open various hours on the other days, so check before you go. The other thing — besides the selection — I love about Garden Cove is the people who shop there: Folks with different backgrounds, nationalities, ethnicities and incomes all come here to get good food at good prices. It’s invigorating to be a part of that.

Box Supper

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This was the yummy picnic we concert-goers got Thursday night at the outdoor performance Sounds at Sundown in Florence, Ala. Ensembles from the Shoals Symphony at UNA (University of North Alabama) performed in the backyard of the Rosenbaum House, the only structure in the state designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. And as good as the music was, you know food always gets my full attention. This tasted as good as it looked, and it’s exactly the way I like to eat: small bites of lots of different things. Here’s what was packed so elegantly into our beribboned boxes: Pasta and vegetable salad, crackers, fresh grapes and a lovely strawberry, stuffed olive (olives in a cheese-straw-like dough), two miniature round crustless sandwiches (with maybe

My friends Henry and Sarah Gaede enjoy music, food and good company at Sounds at Sundown.

My friends Henry and Sarah Gaede enjoy music, food and good company at Sounds at Sundown.

chicken and some other salad?), two small meat-and-cheese wraps, a petit four and a cheese trio of pecan-crusted cheese ball, cheese-stuffed grape tomato and a bite of spicy and peppery jack cheese. Lovely! I’m always happy at any event when the food is from Rhoda P’s Catering Service in Florence — she always, without fail, does a stellar job. We also got bottled water and you could buy glasses of wine.

If you haven’t been to the Rosenbaum house, go. Now. This treasure has been lovingly restored and is fascinating. I know very little about Frank Lloyd Wright and even less about architecture, but I’m amazed at Wright’s talent and vision every time I visit. Every inch of every space is functional and organic and so stylish is an elegantly spare way. Visit http://www.wrightinalabama.com/ to learn more.

Street Talk

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I do not understand this street sign, which is in a neighborhood I pass through about a dozen times a day. My husband says it’s very simple: The sign is at a crosswalk at an intersection and it’s telling drivers to yield to pedestrians as they walk across the street on the crosswalk. Then why, I wonder, doesn’t the sign just say “Yield to Pedestrians” like every other “yield to pedestrian” sign does? Are yellow triangles not good enough anymore? Are the street-sign makers afraid we drivers don’t know what “pedestrian” means and so have resorted to hieroglyphics? By the time a typical driver (say, me) has translated the sign — which seems to be quite small in proportion to its stated purpose of protecting pedestrians — there’s a line of irate drivers honking in frustration. And why the extra cautionary arrow to especially avoid pedestrians “from here to?” I want to know: From here to where? If we have to be told to yield to pedestrians beginning at a certain point, then we need that ending point, too. Do not leave us hanging, infinitive-wise. Besides, shouldn’t we always yield to anybody out walking in the street, whether there’s a sign instructing us to do so or not? Just common courtesy, seems to me.

Inquiring minds …

Art on the Move

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I know that graffiti on railroad cars is vandalism. It’s against the law, expensive for the railroad company to remove and dangerous for the artists. I know all that. And I certainly would not want to come outside to get in my car and see that an artist had used it as a free canvas and then have to drive it around like that. When you look at it that way, railroad graffiti is destructive, wasteful and just plain wrong. Yet, I’m fascinated with it. When I’m stopped at a train (which happens a lot where I live), it’s a pleasure to sit and watch the art roll by. I wonder where it came from, who did it and why. I know that some of what I’m looking at is probably gang-related or obscene and I’m too ignorant to realize it — but sometimes art is subversive, so that’s OK.

I’m so enthralled with railroad graffiti that I bought this book, “Freight Train Graffiti,” by Roger Gastman, Darin Rowland and Ian Sattler (about $22 from Amazon, soft cover). It’s a valuable pop-culture and art resource. It does a super job of explaining graffiti techniques and why — and how — railroad graffiti evolved and why artist risk their lives to do this. The best part is the pages and pages of graffiti-ed railroad cars, with clues on how to identify individual artists. I passed this book on to my art-teacher son-in-law and he uses it in class.

At least, admiring the graffiti makes the train stops go faster!

Mountain Time

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                                                                                               My daughter’s in-laws live on a mountain (OK — I guess it’s only a really really big hill, comparatively speaking) in northwest Alabama. I love going to visit — you can see why. Thankfully, they consider me part of the family, so I get to go often!

History and Yard Sales

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You know how you always tell your parents, “You really should write those stories down.”? Well, my friend’s dad has done that, and the stories in  “Before and After” are fascinating. Woody Stanley, 93, was born in rural Colbert County, Alabama. He owned and operated several businesses and restaurants in the area and still lives there, where he’s just closing his latest venture — a restaurant-supply store. In his lifetime, as the book says, he’s gone from kerosene lamps and candlelight to TVA electricity, from mules and Model Ts to the space shuttle. Reading his book is like sitting down and talking to him and learning about the ways things used to be. Folks in this part of Alabama know him from the famous Woodymac Drive-In restaurants he owned from 1947 to 1968. Everybody went there for burgers and shakes. Even Elvis Presley ate there after his history-making concerts at the nearby Sheffield Community Center. You’ve got to read the book to find out what Elvis always ordered — and why! You need to read it, too, to see how Woody defused a potential racial conflict on a bus he was driving during World War II — before Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Woody also witnessed Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s visit to the Shoals to announce the beginning of TVA. My friend, Susan, said her dad wrote the book in about a year on a yellow pad with a pen at the dining room table. “He was inspired to write it because of the history and changes he’s witnessed and because he wanted to share things that ‘people in the last 30-40 years wouldn’t know about’,” Susan said. The book is $24, including shipping. Email jcant1@hughes.net to place an order or to pay by credit card with Paypal. Or mail a check to 1101 Brookford Place, Muscle Shoals, AL 3566. Or stop by Commercial Equipment Supply, 2613 North Jackson Hwy., Sheffield, this week to meet Woody as the store clearns out inventory with a yard sale, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday-Saturday. There are all sorts of great kitchen and restaurant items left – and Woody might even autograph a book for you!

Apprehension … and Celebration

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I used to get sort of excited when hurricane news took over TV. I mean, who doesn’t like the idea of cozily hunkering down in your home safe and sound while a big storm rages outside? But then Katrina came, and nothing would ever be the same. As Gustav approaches and people in New Orleans and others in the projected path get ready, we can only hope and pray that this time won’t be as bad.

But Alabama folks did get a diversion this weekend, as the Crimson Tide beat Clemson 34-10, effectively taunting naysayers: “We’re baaaaaack!” If you were in the Georgia Dome or watched it on TV (and really, wasn’t the entire state tuned in Saturday night? It would have been a great time to go to Wal-Mart if you needed to.), you could feel the power of the Tide. And everybody is asking this morning — it surely will be the main topic of conversation at church and Sunday dinner — “Is Nick Saban the One, after all? Is he the one destined to return us to greatness?” Stay tuned. It’ll be an interesting season.

And if you want to kick off a what we all hope will be a successful year, go to http://www.erolltide.com/ , where for $18.95 you can order a celebratory “Game Over” T-shirt with the Clemson score.

And oh, yeah, Auburn won, too.

Wine on Court

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Wine has come to downtown Florence, Ala.! While it surely was fun to buy wine at Mapleton Cellars (in the almost 200-year-old George Coulter House on South Pine Street), it’s equally fun to buy wine downtown now that The Wine Seller is open. The Mapleton folks needed the space back in their home, so they closed the business earlier this summer. But a new downtown wine shop is filling the empty niche Mapleton left. Open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, the Wine Seller is at 324 N. Court St., on the corner of Court and Seminary where Lori Davis Gallery most recently was located (and where Culpepper’s Bakery was 40 or so years ago — you almost still can smell the cinnamon rolls and cheese bread). The new shop is stocked with wine for any budget and any occasion, with a helpful staff to help you figure out what you need. But wait, there’s more! What’s wine without cheese? Find the perfect accompaniment to your bottle in a small cooler stocked with delicious hard-to-find-locally choices. There’s also crackers, bread, vinaigrettes, oils and other gourmet goodies, many under The Wine Seller’s own label. Plus, you can find jewelry and other gifts here. The store is elegant yet cozy, with space set up for wine tastings (planned for twice a month, including First Fridays) and other events such as after-hours private parties. Get on the e-mail list at wineseller@att.net or call 256.766.1568.

Glass As You’ve Never Seen It Before

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Most people think of “glass” as something you drink out of or something you sweep off the kitchen floor when you get too fumble-fingered. But go to the exhibit at Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts in Florence, Ala., and you’ll have a whole new appreciation for the word. Cal Breed, owner of Orbix Hot Glass studio in Fort Payne, truly is a master glass worker. You’ll be amazed at the shapes and colors he creates — the luminosity of his work and the subtleties of pattern and texture are mesmerizing. Be sure to watch the video, on a laptop in the lobby, before you see the exhibit — learning how Breed and his workers create their designs is fascinating. You’ll never take glass for granted again! All pieces on display are for sale, plus there are smaller pieces in the gift shop. As always, one of the best things about an exhibit at Kennedy-Douglass is that it’s absolutely free. All you have to do is walk in and admire. A reception for Breed is 5:30-8 p.m., Thursday, Sept.18 (the last day of the exhibit), also is free and open to everybody. Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts is at 217 E. Tuscaloosa St., on the north side of Wilson Park. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Call the center, (256) 760-6379, for details and visit http://www.orbixhotglass.com/ for more of Breed’s work.

Really?

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An empty storefront in downtown Florence, Ala.

A closer look at the signs on the doors. Who says nothing exciting ever happens downtown?