Sunday Afternoon

Charlie

We named the new dog and are going to get him neutered and vetted and see if he can calm down and if not, we will return him and he will have a better shot at a new family with all his vet care out of the way for free for them. 

Growing up, our parents dumped so many litters at the pound, Matt and I both feel like donating to spay and neuter adoptable pets is a good way to help balance that out, even if we may never come up even, we can help one at a time. 

I once saved money for a year and bought my mother the kind of $250 dog she had pined for and she let it die for lack of a $10 vaccine.  She neglected it to the point that it was dying in the neighbor's bushes and he called me and I took it to the vet and ended up paying $15 to have it put to sleep.  Things like that stick in me like barbs, I want to help another animals to help make up for mistakes like that in my past. 

 On to our day!  I think Crawford Bottoms is the prettiest section of Morgan County.  We drive through as often as possible, today we had a destination in mind-the Yellow Bluff property owned by a climbing club in Huntsville.  They have a trail and don't deny public access to the property as long as simple rules are followed.  The trail is not long, but the area is beautiful.  It's worth the stop!

I thought the cliff wall would be a better trailbed!

Southern fox grapes or...scuppernong!  YUMMERS

The more time you spend looking at this dead snake, the worse it gets.

Ren Faire

We went Saturday to the Alabama Ren Faire over in Florence.  We have gone several times in the past, but have not made it for one reason or another for the past 2-3 years.  This year, we needed new cloaks!  I have one, but Ben has taken it over, Chan's is too small and Matt has never had one.  After getting there and realizing the great deal I got on our cloaks a few years back is truly a thing of the past, we decided $300 for 4 new cloaks was not the best use of our money!  It seems the merchants chat more these days and undercutting each other is no longer the norm.  They price their cloaks at $75 and up for all of them made with any kind of decent material.  The one Matt REALLY liked was $140.  *sigh*

Back home on ebay, we found satin lined velvet cloaks for under $40 shipped.  So, that's the plan for now.  Unless anyone has a great local source they are willing to share.

I did not take many shots at the faire, it was enough to just walk around and hear the music and the people all talking and laughing, to smell the foods on the chilly breeze and to see the riot of colors and costumes-everything from tubby fairies in Spandex to very well-done trolls and wizards, we saw Link and Westley and several Captain Sparrow's.  And the usual smattering of little boys dressed as knights and little girls dressed as ladies.  The same garb our guys used to dress up in.

 

After tanking up on ribbon fries, homemade cream soda and a slab of chocolate-dipped cheesecake, all right out of a Chaucer story, so they were authentic foods, we went through downtown Sheffield on the way back home. 

I loved the old industrial buildings, I want to head back one day and get more pictures while not huddled in my car with the heat blasting and This American Life playing.  Neither luxury was one I was willing to go without to get better photos on this particular afternoon...