Birdbath?

"MY! What a big birdbath we have!"

That seems to be the thought of this feathered friend who stopped to perch upon the park bench and check out the city fountain.

Tutu's Market

I stopped here on Friday to pick up a few Easter basket goodies, and everything was so colorful - just had to take a picture. This is Tutu's Market, a fruit-vegetable-flower-gift shop. The hot-pink plastic awning lets the sun shine through, giving the merchandise that bright glow. There are lots of unique items from baby, graduation, Easter and other special occasion gifts.

He is Risen!

"He is Risen!" is the Easter proclamation today in Christian churches all over the world.

Here, a stained-glass window at Selma's Church Street United Methodist Church depicts Christ's invitation to "Come Unto Me."

Common Ground

"Stop and consider life is but a day.
A fragile dewdrop on its perilous way
From a tree's summit."

So reads one faded etching on a monument in Selma's "outdoor museum" known as Old Live Oak Cemetery.

Another tells about a 15-year-old boy "who was fatally injured in the railraod disaster at Dunklin Bridge, Feb. 21, 1879."

A marble lamb with broken feet lies next to this inscription:
"Beneath this stone in sweet repose is laid a mother's dearest pride."
An infant rests there.

A spire memorializes "Our Pastor...who fell at the Battle of Selma, April 2, 1865."

Elsewhere, sculpted crosses, angels, mausoleums and markers denote the contributions of the town's former citizens: mothers who died suddenly, children who succumbed to infectious disease, scores of Confederate soldiers, a former slave who became the state's first black congressman, the first woman (a Suffragette) elected to the state legislature, U.S. senators, a U.S. vice president and founder of Selma, a naval commander.

"There is glory in graves," read the words on the towering monument above them all...and all share common ground now - near the high banks of the Alabama River.

Good Friday Cross

"By now it was noon, and darkness fell across the whole land for three hours, until three o'clock. The light from the sun was gone...and suddenly the thick veil hanging in the Temple split apart. Then Jesus shouted, 'Father, I commit my spirit to you,' and with those words he died."

The photograph of a cross monument laden with Spanish Moss was taken at Old Live Oak Cemetery.

April and Azaleas

If it's April in Selma, then there must be azaleas. Looking down an Old Town street, this yard and many others are banked with the showy flower. But watch out! A freeze may be coming this weekend. Glad I have already caught most of the Spring Show on camera.

King Monument

A monument to American Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a popular tourist site outside Brown Chapel AME Church. Brown Chapel was a headquarters for the voting rights movement in Selma during the 1960s, and King led numerous mass meetings there. King was assassinated in Memphis, TN. on April 4, 1968.

The Peter Cottontails

Mr. and Mrs. Peter Cottontail and family are dressed in their Easter finery, greeting visitors in an alcove of the public library children's department. Hmmmm, it looks like there's a giant golden egg yet to be hidden and found by some lucky youngster!

The Lady Banksia Rose

If Selma had an official flower, it would be the Lady Banksia Rose. These dainty blossoms have no thorns and bloom prolifically in early April. Here, they flourish at the municipal complex and are most everywhere else one goes in town.

Selma's Legend of the Lady Banksia...One hundred forty-two years ago today, much of Selma was looted and burned in one of the last battles of the Civil War. The Rev. Arthur Small, young pastor of the Presbyterian Church, was among 2,000 volunteer defenders, but he went ahead and preached his sermon before Union troops arrived. That sermon was to be his last. He died in battle, and when his body was laid upon the steps of the church manse, it is said that the Lady Banksia rosebush nearby cried its petals upon the beloved pastor's body. Small is buried in Old Live Oak Cemetery.

The Yankees are Coming!

Get the fortifications ready, because I do declare, the Yankees are coming!

That's not exactly an April Fool's joke, because on this day in 1865, Union Gen. J.H. Wilson's troops skirmished with what was left of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's troops just north of Selma. Forrest was wounded by a Yankee sword but shot the soldier dead. In this photo, the Battle of Selma Committee is rebuilding fortifications for the 20th reenactment. So, the "Yankees" really are coming for a friendly "virtual reality" history lesson.