Month: August 2010

…so… that’s kind-of a strange thing to say.


But he *is* back home.  Well, his body is, anyway.


Last week, Rev. Howard Finster’s body was exhumed from Silver Hill Cemetery in Georgia (he had been a pastor at Silver Hill Baptist for a time) and moved to Head Springs Cemetery in Valley Head, Alabama so that he could be closer to his family.


Howard’s wife, Pauline, has been requesting that since all their people – from both sides – are in that cemetery, that he, and she when the time comes, be there.

“Before I knew it, it was done. It was kind of like daddy had a hand in it. It all happened too easy. Do you know what I’m saying?” Ms. Bradshaw said.

Pauline, who’s living in Atlanta with Ms. Bradshaw, came up to watch the journey.

“I had mother there at Silver Hill when they dug him up. Then we followed the truck over to Head Springs and (Pastor) Ken Johnson had a prayer over his grave when they buried him in Head Springs. She was sitting there in an air-conditioned car when they buried him,” Ms. Bradshaw said. “She says I’m so glad we’ve got your daddy moved. It’s not bothering her now. She’s at peace now.”

More here.


Well, we were on our way to Chattanooga this weekend and Valley Head is not far off the route at all, so we went by…sure enough…




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There’s some Paradise Gardens news going on too.    The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation put it on its 2010 Places in Peril list.  And back in March, Chattooga County was considering purchasing it:

The county recently received a $70,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to put toward buying the property. Mr. Winters said the rest of the purchase price, which has not been agreed on, would be privately raised.

He said buying the property would use “zero county dollars.” After buying Paradise Gardens, the county only would have to provide normal maintenance service such as clearing drainage ditches and would not be renovating any of the buildings, he said.

Tommy Littleton, who runs Paradise Gardens Park and Museum, said county ownership probably would help with securing grants. He said such funding has been the gardens’ “primary hurdle” because donors said they wanted to be sure their beneficiary is stable and secure before giving.

I love Elvis.  

A friend sent me a list of restaurants in the Clarion-Ledger last week stated were ‘must-eat’ restaurants in Mississippi.  It was funny that they mentioned nine restaurants and we’ve been to six of them….don’t these look good…


Pie from the Crystal Grill in Greenwood:

Tamales from Doe’s in Greenville (this is the pic that I sold for use at Gourmet when they did a feature on Doe’s):

Fried chicken at the Old Country Store in Lorman (how did I not get a pic of the actual chicken!?).  This is the chicken that Alton Brown went on & on about – a list of all his stops during the ‘Feasting on Asphalt’ shows are here:

The little biscuits – along with my mint julep – at Stanton Hall in Natchez:

Caramel cake at Primo’s: 

Beef ribs at Leatha’s in Hattiesburg:

The three places we haven’t been to yet are Tom’s Original Fried Pies in Jackson, The Shed barbecue in Ocean Springs (there are six locations now!), and po boys at Lil’ Ray’s in Gulfport.


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Another friend who likes the show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives sent me the link to all the places that have been featured, with a nice Google Map here.


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The September issue of Food & Wine has an emphasis on Southern Food.  The back page features Chocolate-Peanut Butter Moon Pies by the pastry chef at Nashville’s City House.  “She models hers on the classic, but also on the excellently named Goo-Goo Clusters, a peanut candy invented in Nashville in 1912.  She spreads crispy sugar cookies with chocolate and peanut butter, then sandwiches them around a marshmallow filling.”  Nice!


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Today’s lunch was a little cornbread biscuit filled with chicken salad (lots of Vidalia and dill!):

Yum!

Next Thursday, August 19, there will be a meeting at the Southern Cultural Heritage Foundation in Vicksburg about the future of Margaret’s Grocery.


It’s been deeded to Miss Margaret (who passed away) and Reverend Dennis’ church, but real preservation work will need to be done, best by those familiar with the process.  


Rev. Dennis will be at the meeting at the SCHF.  The meeting is described this way:

“Join the Mississippi Arts Commission in a grassroots campaign to preserve Vicksburg’s unique visionary art destination: Margaret’s Grocery. 

Convene on ways to help preserve Margaret’s Grocery as a cultural tourism destination. 

Document memories and experiences with Rev. Dennis and Miss Margaret at our story station. 

Sign up to be a part of the preservation effort.”

If you can attend, you can RSVP here.

I spent yesterday afternoon with my friend Wade Wharton, the gentleman who the city of Huntsville had taken to court over his art environment a couple of years ago.  He’s been working on many new projects – can’t wait to show:

This is going to be Jack and the Beanstalk made from rakes – he’s going to start making the Jack figure soon:

Chigger:

(thankfully we didn’t get any chigger bites but mosquitoes got me at least ten times)


He’s known for his bottle trees – he probably has the most and largest bottle trees in the state – but for this one he used those gorgeous old insulators:

Bombay Sapphire Gin bottles – so pretty:

My favorite is the Volkswagen man:

Flywheel flowers:

This dragonfly is so much larger than it appears here:

A set of several pics here and from a previous visit are here in my Flickr set.


The entire property is this lush garden full of bamboo, flowers, bonsai:

Incredible handcrafted outdoor rooms, giant metal mobiles, a greenhouse…  Just look how this rock is planted.  I need to have the number for the photography department at Southern Living programmed into my cell phone.

Here he is…

What would the world be like without dreamers and do-ers?  Here we have both.  Love you, Mr. Wharton!




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P.S. Mr. Wharton welcomes visitors.  You can see him at the end of Nassau Drive in Huntsville, Alabama.  He also sells blue bottles for fellow bottle tree aficionados, and bamboo too.  He’s been a treasure to the Botanical Gardens up there – even helped start their fern garden – and is a font of information on plants.  


P.P.S. You’ll love him too.

On a field trip today – back on Thursday with some great new pics of one of my favorite art environments!