The City Federal Building was originally constructed as the Jefferson County Savings Bank. The 325-foot-tall Neoclassical skyscraper is located on the corner of 2nd Avenue North and 21st …

Viewing historic photos of Alabama offers a glimpse into the state’s past from the 1800s and early

See the side of her with family, friends and her adorable cocker spaniels.

Alt-right members and neo-Nazis protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee monument in Charlottesville, Virginia, but it has little to do with Southern heritage.

I am writing tonight about my favorite Mall and the memories. Eastwood Mall had it's Grand Opening on August 25, 1960. It would have been 51 years old this month. It is no more... I love this advertisement of 73 degrees Year Round! . It was a first in Alabama inside stores. This is a quote from the news and advertising for the 1960 Grand Opening ,A New Era of Shopping in Birmingham Alabama. "Living comforts of the next decade have become breathtaking reality in the Heart of Dixie. These are sights of the 1970s about which other cities talk. In Birmingham, they exist. A masterpiece of shopping luxury never before seen in the Deep South." It had a Bowling Alley with a Giant Sphere on top of the building that lit up at night. It had a lounge called the Boom Boom Room. Great Wagon Ho Restaurant in the parking lot. It did change names through the years but still had the mule driver and wagon. You knew you were at Eastwood mall when you seen this landmark... The Mall also had a Krispy Kreme in the Parking Lot. How many malls have one of these?.... Not our new malls! This was The Spot in the Mall.. I remember it being bigger for some reason.Look at those Ultra-Modern Lights... lol When my mom and aunts would shop, this was the place to met back at.. The Money Fountain.. People would throw change in the fountain and make wishes.. We being kids would play in the water.. I remember many times waiting at this fountain.. You know.. Way before cell phones... I remember all the aunts taking their little ones.. (US) you have to remember we were in the age group of 1 thur 10 years old.. 6 of us kiddies..( before my Brother) and 3 aunts. And saying to each.. " Meet ya'll back here at The Fountain at whatever time!" Loved Aunt Gloria Big Station Wagon, It hauled us all! That cage on the right was a giant Bird Cage! I loved looking at it. This mall had it all. No rain hitting you, 73 degree temp all the time, and main department stores like: Aladdin Cleaners, Bell Brothers Shoes, Colonial Stores, Duane's Shoes, Eastwood Barber Shop, Gordon's Quality Jewelers, Happy House Shops, Hill's Food Store (later to become Winn-Dixie), Kinney Shoes, S. S. Kresge (dime store chain which evolved into the present-day Kmart), Kroger, Lerner Shops, Liggett Drug, Kiddieland, Mall Record Shop & Appliance Center, J. J. Newberry's, Olan Mills, JCPenney, a Top Value Stamps redemption center, Wendy's Sportswear, and an Alabama ABC Package Store ... It was also to have had a Heliport for Helicopters to land.. But that never came about.. I wonder Why? Oh... Across the street was the best McDonald's ! It had a bridge that went over a creek where there was a playground. That is were we kids always wanted to eat. My daughter's first shopping trip at 2 months old was to Eastwood Mall and this McDonald's in 1982. Had to go baby shopping at Parsian's Store! The Theater opened on Christmas Day 1964. It had a breezeway connecting it to the Hill's Winn Dixie and new Pasquale's Pizza. There as also to be.. A Go-Cart Track.. Now that would have been something back then... Well.. it was not to be. A Birmingham Retailer - Pizitz came in and they built a big department store at one end. End of Go-Carts. I never knew any of this.. I was not even born when it opened. I was born in 1965. My family had shopped for most of it's 46 year run.. I found a site about landmarks in Birmingham. It is a great site to look at pictures and read about the city I grow up on the outskirts of. Demo 2006 This was the end of Eastwood Mall. No more inside Mall. It had a great run. At the time the Best Mall In The South and we did not even know it!!! It did change over the years. Updates and remodeling went on.. Boy, it had it's Neon going on in the 1980's. I better not forget to mention it had the Pioneer Cafeteria, that is where the little elderly ladies went to meet their friends for lunch all dressed up. When I was older, I got to go see them.. lol I didn't care to much for the Cafeteria style food. Get a tray and move down the line .... where you pointed at what you wanted slopped on your plate... Reminded me of the Vegas Vacation movie.. buffet scene were Eddie says, Give some of that green stuff and don't go skimpy on me".... lol I guess change has to happen.. I don't have to like it. All the shops and malls have moved out of Birmingham. Everything is in the suburbs. I still have Brookwood Village Mall - Built 1975 and The Galleria Mall built 1986. The Galleria is going down fast.. Shops are moving out of it and into they call " Open Air Malls".. Give me a break.. I do not want to have to get out of my car and go inside a store to come out and walk two stores down to go into another store to come out of it get back in my car to drive to the other side of the street to go into another store. All while it may be raining, freezing, or 102 degrees. I want that 72 degrees year round. lol I guess it is what is the "IN THING" now... I don't have to like it.. I just don't go to those places.. Well, I have shared enough tonight... Now you know how I feel about Malls... I still have nothing.... lol I better get back to stitching soon... Till Later...

A collection of 20 photos from Alabama during the Great Depression illustrates the harsh realities of life in the

Coffee table book features old and new images of such familiar Magic City landmarks as the Alabama Theatre, Rickwood Field, Sloss Furnaces and Vulcan.

Coffee table book features old and new images of such familiar Magic City landmarks as the Alabama Theatre, Rickwood Field, Sloss Furnaces and Vulcan.

A collection of 20 photos from Alabama during the Great Depression illustrates the harsh realities of life in the

Coffee table book features old and new images of such familiar Magic City landmarks as the Alabama Theatre, Rickwood Field, Sloss Furnaces and Vulcan.

Viewing historic photos of Alabama offers a glimpse into the state’s past from the 1800s and early

Coffee table book features old and new images of such familiar Magic City landmarks as the Alabama Theatre, Rickwood Field, Sloss Furnaces and Vulcan.

Coffee table book features old and new images of such familiar Magic City landmarks as the Alabama Theatre, Rickwood Field, Sloss Furnaces and Vulcan.

I am writing tonight about my favorite Mall and the memories. Eastwood Mall had it's Grand Opening on August 25, 1960. It would have been 51 years old this month. It is no more... I love this advertisement of 73 degrees Year Round! . It was a first in Alabama inside stores. This is a quote from the news and advertising for the 1960 Grand Opening ,A New Era of Shopping in Birmingham Alabama. "Living comforts of the next decade have become breathtaking reality in the Heart of Dixie. These are sights of the 1970s about which other cities talk. In Birmingham, they exist. A masterpiece of shopping luxury never before seen in the Deep South." It had a Bowling Alley with a Giant Sphere on top of the building that lit up at night. It had a lounge called the Boom Boom Room. Great Wagon Ho Restaurant in the parking lot. It did change names through the years but still had the mule driver and wagon. You knew you were at Eastwood mall when you seen this landmark... The Mall also had a Krispy Kreme in the Parking Lot. How many malls have one of these?.... Not our new malls! This was The Spot in the Mall.. I remember it being bigger for some reason.Look at those Ultra-Modern Lights... lol When my mom and aunts would shop, this was the place to met back at.. The Money Fountain.. People would throw change in the fountain and make wishes.. We being kids would play in the water.. I remember many times waiting at this fountain.. You know.. Way before cell phones... I remember all the aunts taking their little ones.. (US) you have to remember we were in the age group of 1 thur 10 years old.. 6 of us kiddies..( before my Brother) and 3 aunts. And saying to each.. " Meet ya'll back here at The Fountain at whatever time!" Loved Aunt Gloria Big Station Wagon, It hauled us all! That cage on the right was a giant Bird Cage! I loved looking at it. This mall had it all. No rain hitting you, 73 degree temp all the time, and main department stores like: Aladdin Cleaners, Bell Brothers Shoes, Colonial Stores, Duane's Shoes, Eastwood Barber Shop, Gordon's Quality Jewelers, Happy House Shops, Hill's Food Store (later to become Winn-Dixie), Kinney Shoes, S. S. Kresge (dime store chain which evolved into the present-day Kmart), Kroger, Lerner Shops, Liggett Drug, Kiddieland, Mall Record Shop & Appliance Center, J. J. Newberry's, Olan Mills, JCPenney, a Top Value Stamps redemption center, Wendy's Sportswear, and an Alabama ABC Package Store ... It was also to have had a Heliport for Helicopters to land.. But that never came about.. I wonder Why? Oh... Across the street was the best McDonald's ! It had a bridge that went over a creek where there was a playground. That is were we kids always wanted to eat. My daughter's first shopping trip at 2 months old was to Eastwood Mall and this McDonald's in 1982. Had to go baby shopping at Parsian's Store! The Theater opened on Christmas Day 1964. It had a breezeway connecting it to the Hill's Winn Dixie and new Pasquale's Pizza. There as also to be.. A Go-Cart Track.. Now that would have been something back then... Well.. it was not to be. A Birmingham Retailer - Pizitz came in and they built a big department store at one end. End of Go-Carts. I never knew any of this.. I was not even born when it opened. I was born in 1965. My family had shopped for most of it's 46 year run.. I found a site about landmarks in Birmingham. It is a great site to look at pictures and read about the city I grow up on the outskirts of. Demo 2006 This was the end of Eastwood Mall. No more inside Mall. It had a great run. At the time the Best Mall In The South and we did not even know it!!! It did change over the years. Updates and remodeling went on.. Boy, it had it's Neon going on in the 1980's. I better not forget to mention it had the Pioneer Cafeteria, that is where the little elderly ladies went to meet their friends for lunch all dressed up. When I was older, I got to go see them.. lol I didn't care to much for the Cafeteria style food. Get a tray and move down the line .... where you pointed at what you wanted slopped on your plate... Reminded me of the Vegas Vacation movie.. buffet scene were Eddie says, Give some of that green stuff and don't go skimpy on me".... lol I guess change has to happen.. I don't have to like it. All the shops and malls have moved out of Birmingham. Everything is in the suburbs. I still have Brookwood Village Mall - Built 1975 and The Galleria Mall built 1986. The Galleria is going down fast.. Shops are moving out of it and into they call " Open Air Malls".. Give me a break.. I do not want to have to get out of my car and go inside a store to come out and walk two stores down to go into another store to come out of it get back in my car to drive to the other side of the street to go into another store. All while it may be raining, freezing, or 102 degrees. I want that 72 degrees year round. lol I guess it is what is the "IN THING" now... I don't have to like it.. I just don't go to those places.. Well, I have shared enough tonight... Now you know how I feel about Malls... I still have nothing.... lol I better get back to stitching soon... Till Later...

Thoughts about our garden. “We desire,” the Emporer dictated, “that in the garden there should be all kinds of plants.” Charlemagne the Great I do a lot of writing about gardens, but our own personal garden has never been the subject of this blog. Our garden is always a backdrop to my thinking about gardens and gardening—a sort of character in my story whose face is never revealed. There are many reasons for this: first, our garden is just in the process of being established; I’m a terrible photographer and our garden is surrounded on three sides by unattractive roads and on one side by our unattractive house; and mostly because the act of gardening feels profoundly personal to me. It was designed for us, for our own pleasure, so the idea of opening for public consumption is a bit terrifying to me. BEFORE: The garden area when we bought the house. But I love other blogs that openly share their own gardens. James Golden’s View from Federal Twist is a brilliant blog about two wonderful gardens. That James bears his own soul through the garden is a source of endless inspiration to me. I’m just not that brave. And Scott Weber’s Rhone Street Garden is another fantastic blog. Scott transforms his small garden into and endless expanse through the lens of his camera. Through his images, I see and enjoy Scott’s garden much in the way he probably does. Nasella tenuissima and Salvia 'Caradonna' So in homage to other bloggers who bravely open their own gardens to public scrutiny, I am adding a few images of our own “in-process” garden. This spring marks two full years since I began smothering a triangular wedge of lawn in our sunny side yard. This area was too small to be a usable lawn, and too close to the road to be an enjoyable outdoor use area, so it seemed like a practical area for a garden. The sipping terrace which my brother-in-law calls the "duck blind" in late summer The house we bought was a neglected mid-century ranch which we essentially gutted, so my wife and I have poured our resources and time into renovating the house room by room. The only way to afford the renovation was to do everything ourselves, so that has left little time and money for the garden. The assembly of plants—and assembly is a much more accurate term than design—is a result of what we could get cheaply, what we could divide, what was available, and what would survive the mid-summer heat and humidity. This approach is probably entirely familiar to most gardeners, yet entirely problematic from my point of view as a designer. The garden becomes a product of impulse purchases and ad hoc decisions, not careful planning. Kniphofia 'Salley's Comet' with Pleioblastus viridistriatus, Nepeta "Walker's Low' and Eschscholzia californica But I’ve decided to embrace this non-designed approach. Design has its limitations, too. Any designer who has ever installed a garden, walked away, and then visited that garden five years later learns that design is not a singular vision set to paper; design is a thousand of little decisions and actions made through the life of the garden. Iris 'Persian Berry', one of the most exquisite colors I've ever seen With no real design to speak of, the garden has only a sort of guiding philosophy: plant only that which gives us pleasure. To use an admittedly pretentious term, our garden is a sort of “pleasaunce” by default, an archaic term for pleasure-garden. The concept of a pleasure garden is a bit antiquated these days. We are now much more likely to call non-food bearing gardens ornamental gardens. But “ornamental” is such a poor descriptive phrase. Who picks plants like they would pick wallpaper? To match their exterior trim? The worst gardens are those that aim to be merely decorative. No, we pick plants to live with us because they give us pleasure. I was recently re-acquainted with the idea of pleasure gardens when I re-read one of my favorite garden books, Rose Standish Nichols’ English Pleasure Gardens. It is a book I often pick up, read a chapter, and then put it away for a while. This century-old book is a compelling story of the English garden as viewed through three centuries of garden history. Throughout the book, one theme keeps emerging throughout the millennia: gardens exist for our pleasure. Christopher Lloyd’s writings have also been an inspiration of late. Perhaps I’ve spent too many years designing gardens, too many years of balancing client’s desires with safe plant selections. I love the almost garish quality of Dixter’s Long Border. The way it thumbs its nose at “tasteful” gray, pink, and blue color harmonies. The way it mixes tropicals, shrubs, perennials into one boisterous expression. Like Dixter, I would love a garden dedicated to nothing but horticultural craftsmanship. ''Beware of harboring too many plants in your garden of which the adjectives graceful and charming perpetually spring to your besotted lips,'' Lloyd warns as he clutches a black-leafed Canna. I love that. Dixter’s great triumph (and perhaps its downfall) is that it employs every tool in the planter’s toolkit all at once. The result is a hot mess, but one of the purest expressions of horticultural exuberance I’ve ever known. And what a joy that is. Cotinus 'Royal Purple' center (coppiced yearly), Savlia sclarea, Miscanthus 'Morning Light' and Alliums Perhaps all gardening is an attempt to re-create Eden, but our garden has absolutely no paradisiacal qualities. As a result of its placement next to an ugly house and an ugly road, we’ve adopted a more postlapsarian style. In the border, we have an ecumenical selection of wetland plants, desert grasses, South African bulbs, native forbs, and color foliage shrubs. Anything goes as long as it goes. The other side of our yard, we are beginning another more restrained garden evocative of a woodland edge. But in the border, there is no room for restraint, only more and more plants. Nasella tenuissima, Salvia 'Caradonna' and Allium 'Purple Sensation' In this blog, I am often guilty of heaping too much meaning on gardens, burying a simple act under too many metaphors. Perhaps it is an effort to justify my own profession, to add more significance to my calling than actually exists. If a garden exists simply for our own pleasure, what then? Perhaps that is enough. All I know is that gardening is hard work that reveals many agonies and few ecstasies. So despite the garden’s many flaws and failings, when the afternoon sun hits a patch of Feather grass and silhouettes the violet stems of Salvia ‘Caradonna’, it is enough for me. For now, I am pleased. Phlomis tuberosa and Hibiscus 'Fantasia' The ever ubiquitious, but entirely useful Spiraea 'Goldflamme' with Zahara Zinnias Our native-ish garden, planted this srping.

Thoughts about our garden. “We desire,” the Emporer dictated, “that in the garden there should be all kinds of plants.” Charlemagne the Great I do a lot of writing about gardens, but our own personal garden has never been the subject of this blog. Our garden is always a backdrop to my thinking about gardens and gardening—a sort of character in my story whose face is never revealed. There are many reasons for this: first, our garden is just in the process of being established; I’m a terrible photographer and our garden is surrounded on three sides by unattractive roads and on one side by our unattractive house; and mostly because the act of gardening feels profoundly personal to me. It was designed for us, for our own pleasure, so the idea of opening for public consumption is a bit terrifying to me. BEFORE: The garden area when we bought the house. But I love other blogs that openly share their own gardens. James Golden’s View from Federal Twist is a brilliant blog about two wonderful gardens. That James bears his own soul through the garden is a source of endless inspiration to me. I’m just not that brave. And Scott Weber’s Rhone Street Garden is another fantastic blog. Scott transforms his small garden into and endless expanse through the lens of his camera. Through his images, I see and enjoy Scott’s garden much in the way he probably does. Nasella tenuissima and Salvia 'Caradonna' So in homage to other bloggers who bravely open their own gardens to public scrutiny, I am adding a few images of our own “in-process” garden. This spring marks two full years since I began smothering a triangular wedge of lawn in our sunny side yard. This area was too small to be a usable lawn, and too close to the road to be an enjoyable outdoor use area, so it seemed like a practical area for a garden. The sipping terrace which my brother-in-law calls the "duck blind" in late summer The house we bought was a neglected mid-century ranch which we essentially gutted, so my wife and I have poured our resources and time into renovating the house room by room. The only way to afford the renovation was to do everything ourselves, so that has left little time and money for the garden. The assembly of plants—and assembly is a much more accurate term than design—is a result of what we could get cheaply, what we could divide, what was available, and what would survive the mid-summer heat and humidity. This approach is probably entirely familiar to most gardeners, yet entirely problematic from my point of view as a designer. The garden becomes a product of impulse purchases and ad hoc decisions, not careful planning. Kniphofia 'Salley's Comet' with Pleioblastus viridistriatus, Nepeta "Walker's Low' and Eschscholzia californica But I’ve decided to embrace this non-designed approach. Design has its limitations, too. Any designer who has ever installed a garden, walked away, and then visited that garden five years later learns that design is not a singular vision set to paper; design is a thousand of little decisions and actions made through the life of the garden. Iris 'Persian Berry', one of the most exquisite colors I've ever seen With no real design to speak of, the garden has only a sort of guiding philosophy: plant only that which gives us pleasure. To use an admittedly pretentious term, our garden is a sort of “pleasaunce” by default, an archaic term for pleasure-garden. The concept of a pleasure garden is a bit antiquated these days. We are now much more likely to call non-food bearing gardens ornamental gardens. But “ornamental” is such a poor descriptive phrase. Who picks plants like they would pick wallpaper? To match their exterior trim? The worst gardens are those that aim to be merely decorative. No, we pick plants to live with us because they give us pleasure. I was recently re-acquainted with the idea of pleasure gardens when I re-read one of my favorite garden books, Rose Standish Nichols’ English Pleasure Gardens. It is a book I often pick up, read a chapter, and then put it away for a while. This century-old book is a compelling story of the English garden as viewed through three centuries of garden history. Throughout the book, one theme keeps emerging throughout the millennia: gardens exist for our pleasure. Christopher Lloyd’s writings have also been an inspiration of late. Perhaps I’ve spent too many years designing gardens, too many years of balancing client’s desires with safe plant selections. I love the almost garish quality of Dixter’s Long Border. The way it thumbs its nose at “tasteful” gray, pink, and blue color harmonies. The way it mixes tropicals, shrubs, perennials into one boisterous expression. Like Dixter, I would love a garden dedicated to nothing but horticultural craftsmanship. ''Beware of harboring too many plants in your garden of which the adjectives graceful and charming perpetually spring to your besotted lips,'' Lloyd warns as he clutches a black-leafed Canna. I love that. Dixter’s great triumph (and perhaps its downfall) is that it employs every tool in the planter’s toolkit all at once. The result is a hot mess, but one of the purest expressions of horticultural exuberance I’ve ever known. And what a joy that is. Cotinus 'Royal Purple' center (coppiced yearly), Savlia sclarea, Miscanthus 'Morning Light' and Alliums Perhaps all gardening is an attempt to re-create Eden, but our garden has absolutely no paradisiacal qualities. As a result of its placement next to an ugly house and an ugly road, we’ve adopted a more postlapsarian style. In the border, we have an ecumenical selection of wetland plants, desert grasses, South African bulbs, native forbs, and color foliage shrubs. Anything goes as long as it goes. The other side of our yard, we are beginning another more restrained garden evocative of a woodland edge. But in the border, there is no room for restraint, only more and more plants. Nasella tenuissima, Salvia 'Caradonna' and Allium 'Purple Sensation' In this blog, I am often guilty of heaping too much meaning on gardens, burying a simple act under too many metaphors. Perhaps it is an effort to justify my own profession, to add more significance to my calling than actually exists. If a garden exists simply for our own pleasure, what then? Perhaps that is enough. All I know is that gardening is hard work that reveals many agonies and few ecstasies. So despite the garden’s many flaws and failings, when the afternoon sun hits a patch of Feather grass and silhouettes the violet stems of Salvia ‘Caradonna’, it is enough for me. For now, I am pleased. Phlomis tuberosa and Hibiscus 'Fantasia' The ever ubiquitious, but entirely useful Spiraea 'Goldflamme' with Zahara Zinnias Our native-ish garden, planted this srping.

A collection of 20 photos from Alabama during the Great Depression illustrates the harsh realities of life in the

I am writing tonight about my favorite Mall and the memories. Eastwood Mall had it's Grand Opening on August 25, 1960. It would have been 51 years old this month. It is no more... I love this advertisement of 73 degrees Year Round! . It was a first in Alabama inside stores. This is a quote from the news and advertising for the 1960 Grand Opening ,A New Era of Shopping in Birmingham Alabama. "Living comforts of the next decade have become breathtaking reality in the Heart of Dixie. These are sights of the 1970s about which other cities talk. In Birmingham, they exist. A masterpiece of shopping luxury never before seen in the Deep South." It had a Bowling Alley with a Giant Sphere on top of the building that lit up at night. It had a lounge called the Boom Boom Room. Great Wagon Ho Restaurant in the parking lot. It did change names through the years but still had the mule driver and wagon. You knew you were at Eastwood mall when you seen this landmark... The Mall also had a Krispy Kreme in the Parking Lot. How many malls have one of these?.... Not our new malls! This was The Spot in the Mall.. I remember it being bigger for some reason.Look at those Ultra-Modern Lights... lol When my mom and aunts would shop, this was the place to met back at.. The Money Fountain.. People would throw change in the fountain and make wishes.. We being kids would play in the water.. I remember many times waiting at this fountain.. You know.. Way before cell phones... I remember all the aunts taking their little ones.. (US) you have to remember we were in the age group of 1 thur 10 years old.. 6 of us kiddies..( before my Brother) and 3 aunts. And saying to each.. " Meet ya'll back here at The Fountain at whatever time!" Loved Aunt Gloria Big Station Wagon, It hauled us all! That cage on the right was a giant Bird Cage! I loved looking at it. This mall had it all. No rain hitting you, 73 degree temp all the time, and main department stores like: Aladdin Cleaners, Bell Brothers Shoes, Colonial Stores, Duane's Shoes, Eastwood Barber Shop, Gordon's Quality Jewelers, Happy House Shops, Hill's Food Store (later to become Winn-Dixie), Kinney Shoes, S. S. Kresge (dime store chain which evolved into the present-day Kmart), Kroger, Lerner Shops, Liggett Drug, Kiddieland, Mall Record Shop & Appliance Center, J. J. Newberry's, Olan Mills, JCPenney, a Top Value Stamps redemption center, Wendy's Sportswear, and an Alabama ABC Package Store ... It was also to have had a Heliport for Helicopters to land.. But that never came about.. I wonder Why? Oh... Across the street was the best McDonald's ! It had a bridge that went over a creek where there was a playground. That is were we kids always wanted to eat. My daughter's first shopping trip at 2 months old was to Eastwood Mall and this McDonald's in 1982. Had to go baby shopping at Parsian's Store! The Theater opened on Christmas Day 1964. It had a breezeway connecting it to the Hill's Winn Dixie and new Pasquale's Pizza. There as also to be.. A Go-Cart Track.. Now that would have been something back then... Well.. it was not to be. A Birmingham Retailer - Pizitz came in and they built a big department store at one end. End of Go-Carts. I never knew any of this.. I was not even born when it opened. I was born in 1965. My family had shopped for most of it's 46 year run.. I found a site about landmarks in Birmingham. It is a great site to look at pictures and read about the city I grow up on the outskirts of. Demo 2006 This was the end of Eastwood Mall. No more inside Mall. It had a great run. At the time the Best Mall In The South and we did not even know it!!! It did change over the years. Updates and remodeling went on.. Boy, it had it's Neon going on in the 1980's. I better not forget to mention it had the Pioneer Cafeteria, that is where the little elderly ladies went to meet their friends for lunch all dressed up. When I was older, I got to go see them.. lol I didn't care to much for the Cafeteria style food. Get a tray and move down the line .... where you pointed at what you wanted slopped on your plate... Reminded me of the Vegas Vacation movie.. buffet scene were Eddie says, Give some of that green stuff and don't go skimpy on me".... lol I guess change has to happen.. I don't have to like it. All the shops and malls have moved out of Birmingham. Everything is in the suburbs. I still have Brookwood Village Mall - Built 1975 and The Galleria Mall built 1986. The Galleria is going down fast.. Shops are moving out of it and into they call " Open Air Malls".. Give me a break.. I do not want to have to get out of my car and go inside a store to come out and walk two stores down to go into another store to come out of it get back in my car to drive to the other side of the street to go into another store. All while it may be raining, freezing, or 102 degrees. I want that 72 degrees year round. lol I guess it is what is the "IN THING" now... I don't have to like it.. I just don't go to those places.. Well, I have shared enough tonight... Now you know how I feel about Malls... I still have nothing.... lol I better get back to stitching soon... Till Later...

I am writing tonight about my favorite Mall and the memories. Eastwood Mall had it's Grand Opening on August 25, 1960. It would have been 51 years old this month. It is no more... I love this advertisement of 73 degrees Year Round! . It was a first in Alabama inside stores. This is a quote from the news and advertising for the 1960 Grand Opening ,A New Era of Shopping in Birmingham Alabama. "Living comforts of the next decade have become breathtaking reality in the Heart of Dixie. These are sights of the 1970s about which other cities talk. In Birmingham, they exist. A masterpiece of shopping luxury never before seen in the Deep South." It had a Bowling Alley with a Giant Sphere on top of the building that lit up at night. It had a lounge called the Boom Boom Room. Great Wagon Ho Restaurant in the parking lot. It did change names through the years but still had the mule driver and wagon. You knew you were at Eastwood mall when you seen this landmark... The Mall also had a Krispy Kreme in the Parking Lot. How many malls have one of these?.... Not our new malls! This was The Spot in the Mall.. I remember it being bigger for some reason.Look at those Ultra-Modern Lights... lol When my mom and aunts would shop, this was the place to met back at.. The Money Fountain.. People would throw change in the fountain and make wishes.. We being kids would play in the water.. I remember many times waiting at this fountain.. You know.. Way before cell phones... I remember all the aunts taking their little ones.. (US) you have to remember we were in the age group of 1 thur 10 years old.. 6 of us kiddies..( before my Brother) and 3 aunts. And saying to each.. " Meet ya'll back here at The Fountain at whatever time!" Loved Aunt Gloria Big Station Wagon, It hauled us all! That cage on the right was a giant Bird Cage! I loved looking at it. This mall had it all. No rain hitting you, 73 degree temp all the time, and main department stores like: Aladdin Cleaners, Bell Brothers Shoes, Colonial Stores, Duane's Shoes, Eastwood Barber Shop, Gordon's Quality Jewelers, Happy House Shops, Hill's Food Store (later to become Winn-Dixie), Kinney Shoes, S. S. Kresge (dime store chain which evolved into the present-day Kmart), Kroger, Lerner Shops, Liggett Drug, Kiddieland, Mall Record Shop & Appliance Center, J. J. Newberry's, Olan Mills, JCPenney, a Top Value Stamps redemption center, Wendy's Sportswear, and an Alabama ABC Package Store ... It was also to have had a Heliport for Helicopters to land.. But that never came about.. I wonder Why? Oh... Across the street was the best McDonald's ! It had a bridge that went over a creek where there was a playground. That is were we kids always wanted to eat. My daughter's first shopping trip at 2 months old was to Eastwood Mall and this McDonald's in 1982. Had to go baby shopping at Parsian's Store! The Theater opened on Christmas Day 1964. It had a breezeway connecting it to the Hill's Winn Dixie and new Pasquale's Pizza. There as also to be.. A Go-Cart Track.. Now that would have been something back then... Well.. it was not to be. A Birmingham Retailer - Pizitz came in and they built a big department store at one end. End of Go-Carts. I never knew any of this.. I was not even born when it opened. I was born in 1965. My family had shopped for most of it's 46 year run.. I found a site about landmarks in Birmingham. It is a great site to look at pictures and read about the city I grow up on the outskirts of. Demo 2006 This was the end of Eastwood Mall. No more inside Mall. It had a great run. At the time the Best Mall In The South and we did not even know it!!! It did change over the years. Updates and remodeling went on.. Boy, it had it's Neon going on in the 1980's. I better not forget to mention it had the Pioneer Cafeteria, that is where the little elderly ladies went to meet their friends for lunch all dressed up. When I was older, I got to go see them.. lol I didn't care to much for the Cafeteria style food. Get a tray and move down the line .... where you pointed at what you wanted slopped on your plate... Reminded me of the Vegas Vacation movie.. buffet scene were Eddie says, Give some of that green stuff and don't go skimpy on me".... lol I guess change has to happen.. I don't have to like it. All the shops and malls have moved out of Birmingham. Everything is in the suburbs. I still have Brookwood Village Mall - Built 1975 and The Galleria Mall built 1986. The Galleria is going down fast.. Shops are moving out of it and into they call " Open Air Malls".. Give me a break.. I do not want to have to get out of my car and go inside a store to come out and walk two stores down to go into another store to come out of it get back in my car to drive to the other side of the street to go into another store. All while it may be raining, freezing, or 102 degrees. I want that 72 degrees year round. lol I guess it is what is the "IN THING" now... I don't have to like it.. I just don't go to those places.. Well, I have shared enough tonight... Now you know how I feel about Malls... I still have nothing.... lol I better get back to stitching soon... Till Later...

Viewing historic photos of Alabama offers a glimpse into the state’s past from the 1800s and early

See the side of her with family, friends and her adorable cocker spaniels.

A collection of 20 photos from Alabama during the Great Depression illustrates the harsh realities of life in the

Historical photos showcase farming life in Alabama during the

Viewing historic photos of Alabama offers a glimpse into the state’s past from the 1800s and early

A collection of 20 photos from Alabama during the Great Depression illustrates the harsh realities of life in the

Coffee table book features old and new images of such familiar Magic City landmarks as the Alabama Theatre, Rickwood Field, Sloss Furnaces and Vulcan.

A collection of 20 photos from Alabama during the Great Depression illustrates the harsh realities of life in the

See the side of her with family, friends and her adorable cocker spaniels.

Viewing historic photos of Alabama offers a glimpse into the state’s past from the 1800s and early

I am writing tonight about my favorite Mall and the memories. Eastwood Mall had it's Grand Opening on August 25, 1960. It would have been 51 years old this month. It is no more... I love this advertisement of 73 degrees Year Round! . It was a first in Alabama inside stores. This is a quote from the news and advertising for the 1960 Grand Opening ,A New Era of Shopping in Birmingham Alabama. "Living comforts of the next decade have become breathtaking reality in the Heart of Dixie. These are sights of the 1970s about which other cities talk. In Birmingham, they exist. A masterpiece of shopping luxury never before seen in the Deep South." It had a Bowling Alley with a Giant Sphere on top of the building that lit up at night. It had a lounge called the Boom Boom Room. Great Wagon Ho Restaurant in the parking lot. It did change names through the years but still had the mule driver and wagon. You knew you were at Eastwood mall when you seen this landmark... The Mall also had a Krispy Kreme in the Parking Lot. How many malls have one of these?.... Not our new malls! This was The Spot in the Mall.. I remember it being bigger for some reason.Look at those Ultra-Modern Lights... lol When my mom and aunts would shop, this was the place to met back at.. The Money Fountain.. People would throw change in the fountain and make wishes.. We being kids would play in the water.. I remember many times waiting at this fountain.. You know.. Way before cell phones... I remember all the aunts taking their little ones.. (US) you have to remember we were in the age group of 1 thur 10 years old.. 6 of us kiddies..( before my Brother) and 3 aunts. And saying to each.. " Meet ya'll back here at The Fountain at whatever time!" Loved Aunt Gloria Big Station Wagon, It hauled us all! That cage on the right was a giant Bird Cage! I loved looking at it. This mall had it all. No rain hitting you, 73 degree temp all the time, and main department stores like: Aladdin Cleaners, Bell Brothers Shoes, Colonial Stores, Duane's Shoes, Eastwood Barber Shop, Gordon's Quality Jewelers, Happy House Shops, Hill's Food Store (later to become Winn-Dixie), Kinney Shoes, S. S. Kresge (dime store chain which evolved into the present-day Kmart), Kroger, Lerner Shops, Liggett Drug, Kiddieland, Mall Record Shop & Appliance Center, J. J. Newberry's, Olan Mills, JCPenney, a Top Value Stamps redemption center, Wendy's Sportswear, and an Alabama ABC Package Store ... It was also to have had a Heliport for Helicopters to land.. But that never came about.. I wonder Why? Oh... Across the street was the best McDonald's ! It had a bridge that went over a creek where there was a playground. That is were we kids always wanted to eat. My daughter's first shopping trip at 2 months old was to Eastwood Mall and this McDonald's in 1982. Had to go baby shopping at Parsian's Store! The Theater opened on Christmas Day 1964. It had a breezeway connecting it to the Hill's Winn Dixie and new Pasquale's Pizza. There as also to be.. A Go-Cart Track.. Now that would have been something back then... Well.. it was not to be. A Birmingham Retailer - Pizitz came in and they built a big department store at one end. End of Go-Carts. I never knew any of this.. I was not even born when it opened. I was born in 1965. My family had shopped for most of it's 46 year run.. I found a site about landmarks in Birmingham. It is a great site to look at pictures and read about the city I grow up on the outskirts of. Demo 2006 This was the end of Eastwood Mall. No more inside Mall. It had a great run. At the time the Best Mall In The South and we did not even know it!!! It did change over the years. Updates and remodeling went on.. Boy, it had it's Neon going on in the 1980's. I better not forget to mention it had the Pioneer Cafeteria, that is where the little elderly ladies went to meet their friends for lunch all dressed up. When I was older, I got to go see them.. lol I didn't care to much for the Cafeteria style food. Get a tray and move down the line .... where you pointed at what you wanted slopped on your plate... Reminded me of the Vegas Vacation movie.. buffet scene were Eddie says, Give some of that green stuff and don't go skimpy on me".... lol I guess change has to happen.. I don't have to like it. All the shops and malls have moved out of Birmingham. Everything is in the suburbs. I still have Brookwood Village Mall - Built 1975 and The Galleria Mall built 1986. The Galleria is going down fast.. Shops are moving out of it and into they call " Open Air Malls".. Give me a break.. I do not want to have to get out of my car and go inside a store to come out and walk two stores down to go into another store to come out of it get back in my car to drive to the other side of the street to go into another store. All while it may be raining, freezing, or 102 degrees. I want that 72 degrees year round. lol I guess it is what is the "IN THING" now... I don't have to like it.. I just don't go to those places.. Well, I have shared enough tonight... Now you know how I feel about Malls... I still have nothing.... lol I better get back to stitching soon... Till Later...

Coffee table book features old and new images of such familiar Magic City landmarks as the Alabama Theatre, Rickwood Field, Sloss Furnaces and Vulcan.

A collection of 20 photos from Alabama during the Great Depression illustrates the harsh realities of life in the

Thoughts about our garden. “We desire,” the Emporer dictated, “that in the garden there should be all kinds of plants.” Charlemagne the Great I do a lot of writing about gardens, but our own personal garden has never been the subject of this blog. Our garden is always a backdrop to my thinking about gardens and gardening—a sort of character in my story whose face is never revealed. There are many reasons for this: first, our garden is just in the process of being established; I’m a terrible photographer and our garden is surrounded on three sides by unattractive roads and on one side by our unattractive house; and mostly because the act of gardening feels profoundly personal to me. It was designed for us, for our own pleasure, so the idea of opening for public consumption is a bit terrifying to me. BEFORE: The garden area when we bought the house. But I love other blogs that openly share their own gardens. James Golden’s View from Federal Twist is a brilliant blog about two wonderful gardens. That James bears his own soul through the garden is a source of endless inspiration to me. I’m just not that brave. And Scott Weber’s Rhone Street Garden is another fantastic blog. Scott transforms his small garden into and endless expanse through the lens of his camera. Through his images, I see and enjoy Scott’s garden much in the way he probably does. Nasella tenuissima and Salvia 'Caradonna' So in homage to other bloggers who bravely open their own gardens to public scrutiny, I am adding a few images of our own “in-process” garden. This spring marks two full years since I began smothering a triangular wedge of lawn in our sunny side yard. This area was too small to be a usable lawn, and too close to the road to be an enjoyable outdoor use area, so it seemed like a practical area for a garden. The sipping terrace which my brother-in-law calls the "duck blind" in late summer The house we bought was a neglected mid-century ranch which we essentially gutted, so my wife and I have poured our resources and time into renovating the house room by room. The only way to afford the renovation was to do everything ourselves, so that has left little time and money for the garden. The assembly of plants—and assembly is a much more accurate term than design—is a result of what we could get cheaply, what we could divide, what was available, and what would survive the mid-summer heat and humidity. This approach is probably entirely familiar to most gardeners, yet entirely problematic from my point of view as a designer. The garden becomes a product of impulse purchases and ad hoc decisions, not careful planning. Kniphofia 'Salley's Comet' with Pleioblastus viridistriatus, Nepeta "Walker's Low' and Eschscholzia californica But I’ve decided to embrace this non-designed approach. Design has its limitations, too. Any designer who has ever installed a garden, walked away, and then visited that garden five years later learns that design is not a singular vision set to paper; design is a thousand of little decisions and actions made through the life of the garden. Iris 'Persian Berry', one of the most exquisite colors I've ever seen With no real design to speak of, the garden has only a sort of guiding philosophy: plant only that which gives us pleasure. To use an admittedly pretentious term, our garden is a sort of “pleasaunce” by default, an archaic term for pleasure-garden. The concept of a pleasure garden is a bit antiquated these days. We are now much more likely to call non-food bearing gardens ornamental gardens. But “ornamental” is such a poor descriptive phrase. Who picks plants like they would pick wallpaper? To match their exterior trim? The worst gardens are those that aim to be merely decorative. No, we pick plants to live with us because they give us pleasure. I was recently re-acquainted with the idea of pleasure gardens when I re-read one of my favorite garden books, Rose Standish Nichols’ English Pleasure Gardens. It is a book I often pick up, read a chapter, and then put it away for a while. This century-old book is a compelling story of the English garden as viewed through three centuries of garden history. Throughout the book, one theme keeps emerging throughout the millennia: gardens exist for our pleasure. Christopher Lloyd’s writings have also been an inspiration of late. Perhaps I’ve spent too many years designing gardens, too many years of balancing client’s desires with safe plant selections. I love the almost garish quality of Dixter’s Long Border. The way it thumbs its nose at “tasteful” gray, pink, and blue color harmonies. The way it mixes tropicals, shrubs, perennials into one boisterous expression. Like Dixter, I would love a garden dedicated to nothing but horticultural craftsmanship. ''Beware of harboring too many plants in your garden of which the adjectives graceful and charming perpetually spring to your besotted lips,'' Lloyd warns as he clutches a black-leafed Canna. I love that. Dixter’s great triumph (and perhaps its downfall) is that it employs every tool in the planter’s toolkit all at once. The result is a hot mess, but one of the purest expressions of horticultural exuberance I’ve ever known. And what a joy that is. Cotinus 'Royal Purple' center (coppiced yearly), Savlia sclarea, Miscanthus 'Morning Light' and Alliums Perhaps all gardening is an attempt to re-create Eden, but our garden has absolutely no paradisiacal qualities. As a result of its placement next to an ugly house and an ugly road, we’ve adopted a more postlapsarian style. In the border, we have an ecumenical selection of wetland plants, desert grasses, South African bulbs, native forbs, and color foliage shrubs. Anything goes as long as it goes. The other side of our yard, we are beginning another more restrained garden evocative of a woodland edge. But in the border, there is no room for restraint, only more and more plants. Nasella tenuissima, Salvia 'Caradonna' and Allium 'Purple Sensation' In this blog, I am often guilty of heaping too much meaning on gardens, burying a simple act under too many metaphors. Perhaps it is an effort to justify my own profession, to add more significance to my calling than actually exists. If a garden exists simply for our own pleasure, what then? Perhaps that is enough. All I know is that gardening is hard work that reveals many agonies and few ecstasies. So despite the garden’s many flaws and failings, when the afternoon sun hits a patch of Feather grass and silhouettes the violet stems of Salvia ‘Caradonna’, it is enough for me. For now, I am pleased. Phlomis tuberosa and Hibiscus 'Fantasia' The ever ubiquitious, but entirely useful Spiraea 'Goldflamme' with Zahara Zinnias Our native-ish garden, planted this srping.