Deep Fried Kudzu

Really enjoy Shapiro’s in Indianapolis, and so happy to get to visit this summer as part of our Ohio-ish trip, as we did last year as part of our Detroit-ish trip!  Both times, we’ve visited the downtown location — an old-school cafeteria line where one orders sandwiches made on the spot, and sides/salads/desserts ready for the choosing.

Pics interspersed here are from both visits.

Start with desserts and salads

This is how they do deviled eggs:

Cafeteria style, just sliding the tray down until it’s time to put that pastrami on order:

…they also other entrees, like orange roughy, stuffed peppers, swiss steak, short ribs, meatloaf, and lots more…

Here’s where the entree ordering happens — sliced right in front, here

…and these are the latkes!

the requisite Cel-Ray

oh hi, black cherry

a Reuben with coleslaw instead of sauerkraut (so a Rachel  and still pastrami, but they call it a NY Reuben)

Plain pastrami

Reuben

They have other counters, for take-home. Meats and cheeses

Breads

Dessert

It’s quick and yummy and we’re getting in the groove of thinking it’s a summertime thing now to go up there. Also, I’m completely in love with the museum of art in Indianapolis — Newfields — and that’s going to require a 1x/year visit. More on Newfields soon. xoxo!

Artwork by Nall
Birmingham AL, 2009.

Doing a bit of a rewind on a post from 2009 because I was thinking of the late Don Coley, who passed away in 2013, and the magical world he created in Marion, Alabama:

Don was an artist and an encourager of other artists. He made what made him happy.

He sold other people’s art, his art, plants from the yard, and antiques and junk he’d found everywhere

It was a vibe.

Don:

…and one of his pieces showing the little town and the cotton fields all around

I actually bought my George Kornegay piece from Don

Don painted a lot, but closer to our visit, he’d been given a kiln as was digging clay, making his own pottery

Another of Don’s ;arger paintings here.

I remember thinking I’ll just take this cabinet and everything inside it (and I think there was a Nicola Marschall painting in this room too

One of the funniest things is that Don sold a Venus de Milo statue to a gentleman who owns a gas station, and they placed it between the pumps (those old ’70s analog pumps: the numbers that roll). Av’s friend Al Benn did a story about it in 2007 because a woman would come by at night and dress the statue:

Perry County’s Venus de Milo lives between two gas pumps and has had her armless, near-naked body draped in everything from a colorful boa to a maternity outfit.

Unlike the original Venus, which is on display at the Louvre in Paris and attracts thousands of tourists each year, the one here is outside a convenience store where folks drop by to get some hoop cheese, saltines and RC colas.

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The mystery clothier began adding some color to the gray statute about two weeks after her arrival, initially draping a pink-and-yellow boa around her neck.

After that, Venus wound up in a one-piece orange bathing suit. A few weeks later, she was decked out in a maternity outfit, complete with pillow. Soon, a larger pillow was added, apparently by someone who wanted to show her “progress.”

Then, the “blessed event” arrived — a “baby” with bright yellow hair, chubby cheeks and a green dress. She was carefully placed in a metal carrier and draped around Venus’ neck.

There have been a couple of fires in the last week or so to historic buildings — one in Ashville, Alabama to the circa 1820, two-story (sooooo uncommon to see a two-story in this style) dog trot, called the Looney House.  It’s been on the National Register since 1974. The home, which was tended to by a county historical society, had previouly been open as a museum. It has half-dovetail corners pegged with dowels and Flemish-bond brick chimneys, and at one point the home was covered in some sort of siding.  Floors are heart pine.

From the historic marker:
John Looney and his son, Henry, served in General Andrew Jackson’s volunteer company which built Fort Strother on the Coosa River and later fought at Horseshoe Bend in 1814. Looney’s family of nine moved from Maury Co. Tenn. To homestead 1817 in St. Clair County. Land patent granted in 1822. The two story log house with double dog-trot is a rare example of pioneer architecture in Alabama.

These images are from a visit in 2011:

Donations for repair to the St Clair Historical Society, and they’re selling a special t-shirt as part of the campaign.

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The other fire was in Lafayette County, Mississippi, at the 1844 College Hill Presbyterian Church, the church where William Faulkner married Estelle in 1929. Just a quick note since I’m a bit of a Faulknerphile ( #funfact, Merle Haggard was a fan): since they were both married, the wedding likely happened on the front porch of the church parsonage since they were both divorced. Only the minister’s wife and Estelle’s sister were witnesses to the event.

I don’t have an image of the church, but their website is showing drone footage of the damage.

It’s hungry.
Birmingham AL, 2009.

Quite possibly the most famous rest area in all of Alabama; people love to have their pictures taken here in Townley.

2009:

By 2018, many additions:

including a privacy partition:

Welcome you’ll! 

2022, nature is threatening to take over:

A little more about this later, but I’ve promised pics of our chicken coop for a while now — this is the run being built, where the girls spend most of their day when they’re not sleeping or laying. We have a (metal) screen door at the end so it’s easy for us to enter. The slope of the tin roof keeps water away

It’s surrounded by concrete patio stones so predators can’t dig underneath to get in.

Their “house” is a play-pretend house like one would have in a backyard. We outfitted it with nests for egg-laying and dowels running the length for them to sleep on.

et viola! This was built in 2014 and has done so, so, so well. This year, we reinforced the bottom of the playhouse with plywood for protection against coyotes and raccoons, which we have since there are woods behind our home.

This is the late, great Nelle Harper Lee, who I named because she really did enjoy her privacy. She was an Americauna and layed beautiful blue/green eggs.

Her sisters are Tallulah and Zelda, who are 8 years old now, old for a bantam hen (their life expectancy is 4-8 years). Many sources will discuss how bantams only lay for 2-3 years, but our girls layed for over six years. Even now, Zelda will lay the occasional egg! I know it’s her because everyone else either lays brown, peach, or blue/green eggs, and hers are beautiful white and more oblong.

We use sand as the floor media as it dries so quickly and we almost never have to do anything to it. No smell. It’s great. Any questions, just email me!

Mary shrine
Chilton County AL, 2009.

We had a fun time at our visit to the Atlanta Botanical Garden — they’re hosting Origami in the Garden, an exhibit of 18 installations of ~70 sculptures. I was glad we were able to use our reciprocal priveliges (we’re members at the Huntsville Botanical Garden) as tickets for entry at Atlanta are almost $25pp on weekdays.  Our family membership in H’ville costs $125/year so it’s easy for us to have the membership pay for itself multiple times over the course of a year.

If you’re interested in membership at a botanical garden, the reciprocals are through the American Horticultural Society, with relationships at 345+ gardens in the US and Canada.

The gardens here were established in the 1970s and are on 30+ acres.

It’s really a lovely site, and was terrific to see an outdoor demo kitchen in their edible garden area.

My favorite area was the greenhouse featuring all kinds of orchids

Apostolic Faith Churco of Jesus Christ Temple
Sawyerville AL, 2009.