After shooting the tour bus for yesterday's Skywatch Friday photo, I turned 180 degrees and shot a "riverwatch" photo. Here is a peek of the Alabama River from Bienville Park. Thanks to more rainfall, the river level is higher this year and should provide many more recreational opportunities for boaters and skiers and fishermen. 
A motorcoach tour bus from this company in Baltimore, Md., stopped at Bienville Park on Water Avenue Wednesday while its occupants visited the National Voting Rights Museum. Selma attracts numerous tour bus groups to its Civil Rights sites. In the background at far right is the Harmony Club, formerly a Jewish social club, now a private residence. 
It's election time! County and state posts are next Tuesday, and Selma elections for mayor and council are August 26. Vote next week, and vote again in August. Just don't forget to vote!
I noticed this painting at a recent art show and realized that this lifestyle has nearly vanished. Not many people today live on farms, much less tenant farms, and even fewer have yard chickens to feed. The old, wood-frame tenant houses are about gone too. I don't know if this depiction is that of a tenant house, but a restored one would make a good living-history museum.
The Brooke Cannon, located on the grounds of Selma City Hall, underwent extensive restoration this past year. The historic marker placed near it reads:
Today is Memorial Day in the USA when we remember all the men and women who died serving our country. This monument located at the Federal Building on Alabama Avenue honors Lt. John T. Melvin, the first American Naval officer killed in World War I. Melvin was a Selma native who gave his life when a torpedo from a German submarine hit the U.S. ship Alcedo in November 1917.
After a brief face-off with a labrador retriever in our neighborhood, this turtle wasted no time getting to where it was going.
Periwinkles have been planted in the flower beds in front of Selma City Hall. From here you can see most of downtown on Broad Street. Usually, these parking places are taken, but I caught them empty at midday for a "broad" view.
Here's the Full Flower Moon for May 2008! It seems to be spotlighting this hanging bouganvilla!
Florals and stripes complement each other at this downtown Selma intersection. The building with the striped awning is a jewelry store, while the flower bed is one of many along Broad Street. 
U.S. Highway 80 East from Selma to Montgomery offers beautiful views of the countryside. The historic route through Lowndes County is generally not crowded, and travelers can take side trips to river campgrounds and parks. 
There's nothing like a train to keep little ones entertained. This Crayola-colored choo-choo chugged merrily around the walking track at last weekend's Valley Grande Founders' Day festival.
Selma, Alabama may not have the proliferation of alligators that Naples, Florida has, but we do have an occasional one, most often the kind sculpted by Charlie "Tin Man" Lucas. This gator is created with a post-hole digger, bicycle pump, tomato cage and ...? I think it makes interesting yard art!
It was a dark and dreary day.
But, these shiny, yellow flowers reached in all directions to lift the melancholy.
This sky over Selma gets fluffy clouds plus the decorative trimming of the First Baptist Church educational building. 
Bottle Tree Bob of Marbury, Alabama, brought a whole orchard of bottle trees to the Riverview Arts and Crafts Festival. While some people once thought that bottle trees would keep away evil spirits, today they have become a popular garden sculpture. How 'bout those haint-blue bottles? Check out the bottle tree I posted at Picket Fences here in Selma. 
A tisket, a tasket...no green and yellow basket? No, no, no...but there are blue ones and multi-colored ones, and I know the basket weaver would be glad to make whatever color your heart desires! These hand-woven baskets of all colors, shapes and sizes were for sale at the Riverview Arts and Crafts Festival. Which one would you choose?
These gems from the earth are made of mud from indigenous clays of Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Anna Bastida molds the clay into geode bowls (top) and ceramic platters with leaf, moss or bark prints (bottom). She sometimes recycles broken glass by melting it into her sculptures. The artist was in Selma Saturday for the Riverview Arts and Crafts Festival, which was canceled the previous weekend due to rain. 
Here is Byrd Elementary School's Learning Tree. A marker placed by the Alabama Forestry Commission states that the live oak once shaded Judge William Byrd's home, and the judge "championed the rights of students to a good education." The school was established in 1916 and is still educating children in Selma.
This is one photo I HEARD coming. Our house is on the direct route of the air ambulance from Birmingham. We hear the medical helicopter flying over as it heads to Vaughan Regional Medical Center. Later, we hear it flying back, transporting a critically ill patient to the larger, more specialized medical facilities in Alabama's largest city. Thankfully, we don't hear the helicopters often.
(Note: I am assuming this is one of the air ambulances. Due to the sun and the fact that this copter was directly over me, I didn't get to see the medical symbol on its side.)
Today is Skywatch Friday, so fly on over to Wiggers World for more sky views.
A lot of elbow grease went into cleaning up this historic downtown structure to transform it into Speir Land Company. The circa 1920' s building still has original, beaded heart pine on the ceiling inside and under the awning outside. Carpet and hardwood were added for interior flooring. Shutters, ceiling fans,a few relics from an old store, and professional landscaping completed the new look. Now, it's like a little oasis just one block off Broad Street. (Note: This is the single-story, painted building in front of the multi-story brick building which used to be a furniture store.)
So what did this building used to be?
Two scents compete for the nose in early May: mild, sweet honeysuckle and strong, sinus-killing privet. Here's the honeysuckle, the only one I dare get close enough to for a photo. It's the vine you can eat, or at least pull the bloom apart to get the nectar. Anybody else ever do that as a child? Now, I understand that cats like honeysuckle, because an ingredient in its wood is used in catnip! 
The weather, the season and the location are perfect for a picnic! There aren't many people at Grist State Park this time of year. Temperatures are in the 80s, and mosquitoes haven't arrived just yet. Just right for an uncrowded picnic! 
These colorful clowns entertained Sunday evening at the annual Christian street festival, a time of praise and worship, food, balloons and socializing. It is held downtown between First Baptist, First Presbyterian and Church Street United Methodist churches. Singing groups included the Selma Community Choir, Freedom Foundation chorus, Angelic Harmonizers and others. Attendees brought along folding chairs, babies in strollers and appetites for free samples of fresh-fried catfish nuggets, hush puppies and Pepsi. 
Do you suppose these geese at Grist State Park are no longer on honking terms!
"Sanctuary" is an intriguing sculpture by Ted Whisenhunt, associate professor of art at Judson College in Marion, and it earned a blue ribbon at the March 2008 Arts Revive show in Selma.
Any idea about the background for the theme?
The "little house" has a pole inside that is topped with an upside-down, blue bottle. Why are the outside poles painted white on the bottom?
I really don't know what the artist was thinking when he designed this, but being a native of Alabama, I might have an idea!
Oh yes! Whisenhunt not only teaches art. He is lead singer and a musician with the Kudzu String Band.
Old Glory proudly waves against a clear, blue sky and alongside a communications tower in downtown Selma.
The Roman numerals on First Presbyterian Church's tower serve as the town clock. A carillon plays after the hour rings. The clock is located at a main downtown intersection across from City Hall. |
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