plantation review

This post will be short and sweet as I am giving a link to our Visitors Center website.  Also this link is really even better at showcasing downtown Thomasville. The linked websites will have a complete listing of activities that are taking place during the 87th Thomasville Rose Show and Festival.  I will be taking photos and blogging on events  for the 2008 Rose Show event.  So come back next week to see what interesting photos and activities I found. 

The new walking path around Cherokee Lake is getting a work out of it’s own. Walking around the lake is such a pleasure. The path is newly paved, with bridges and docks. There are benches and picnic tables along the path. People are fishing along the docks and banks. One person had a large stripe bass in a bucket he had caught. Picnic tables with cover for bringing lunches. Squirrels, geese, birds and ducks.  Turtles trying to get on a stump to sun themselves. Dogs are allowed on leash only. Owner gets to clean up behind your pet, please.

It takes about 20 minutes to complete one lap around, at a good walking pace.  When I am walking and meet someone along the path, they seem to feel obligated to speak and acknowledge you. At least we have not adopted such a big city attitude that it is normal to ignore others on the same path you are on. (aren’t we all?) Each of us have a beginning, headed toward our end, should we not acknowledge each other on our path? Sorry, waxing philosophical.

The lake is right next to the official rose gardens for Thomasville.  You can walk to the rose garden while you are at the lake. You get a double dose of beauty and nature,with the lake and then the rose garden.  Everyday seems to bring more people to this new delight for walking and relaxing.  Some of my friends like to walk downtown everyday or north down Clay Street. 

So thank you Thomasville for investing in and maintaining these great outdoor places to be appreciated by the fine citizens of our area.   More pictures of the park at my Webshots album.

What do all these people have in common?  They all spent the night in Thomasville Georgia, more than once.

As for President William McKinley, he began his 1895 campaign from Thomasville with the help of Marcus A. Hanna. Many a meeting of a political nature took place at the Hanna Estate. This was a winter home to the Hanna family, who had made their wealth in the Ohio iron and steel industries. Picture here is the restored home that once was a part of the McKinley whistle stop.

Jacqueline Kennedy came to Thomasville during her time of grief after her husband’s assassination. This was a time when she and the children seemed to completely disappear from public view and no one was telling where she was.  During her stay, not one photographer would train their lens on her or the children.   Thomasville residents learned that she was here after she attended Catholic mass at a very small little church.  The little church was moved from its original location and is now All Saints Episcopal Church.  

Joanne Woodward, made Thomasville her home until the second grade.   Knowing that Thomasville puts a lot of emphases on arts, culture and entertainment, I would not be surprised, if besides her mother, the culture here helped to encourage Ms. Woodward toward her theatrical career.

This is the little house that once was occupied by Joanne and her family.

wikipedia Joanne Woodward

The annual Victorian Christmas in Downtown Thomasville. 

I have said it before and I shall say it again, there is always something interesting going on somewhere close by.  December is non stop; if there is not enough going on here, just check in the next county, east or west, south or north. I can’t be at all that goes on and don’t really try, as it would tire me out.

I do enjoy the Victorian Christmas event and try to go every year.  It is like a big Victorian costume party, in that local, and not so local, come dressed in Victorian period clothing.  They collect these items over time and hold them for just this occasion.  So, it really is an event enjoyed by adults and children alike. 

These are some of the things that go on up and down a total of four (4) blocks of Broad Street.  Musical entertainment takes place all up and down the blocks as you walk.  A live nativity is done every year.  The snow machine pumps out the white stuff for the kids to enjoy.  I especially like the freeze models, like the one in this picture, a mime in the window display.  The Sons of Confederate Veterans Civil War Camp re-enactment. There are also carriage and wagon rides, mini-carousel and St. Nick with sleigh and reindeer.  Food is everywhere, of course, up and down the streets with tables and chairs.  What I enjoy the most are the smiles and just pure enjoyment seen on the faces of everyone as they are either a part of the show or visitor that likes to step back in time to a kinder more, gentle era.  Even more, that I did not get to see was going on.  The pictures I tried to take did not turn out as well as I would have liked, but they are at my photo album.

Part of the pride of Thomasville is the tremendous participation in restoration of historical homes and the downtown area.  Thomasville residents take their preservation of history and restoration seriously. They put their money where some only put their mouth… they simply do it!! The downtown is undergoing restoration on a large, serious scale. A lot of energy, enthusiasm and dollars are being put into our downtown area. But the rewards are worth it, just look at my previous blog, “Saturday Downtown Thomasville Stroll”.

The homes on Love Street and Warren Ave, near the downtown area, have been dealt a new lease on life over the past eight years. These are now home to many professionals, young and old.  It is a place where neighbors stroll the streets with their children, groups of young parents get together for kickball and flag football, and children play together in the green space at the corner.

“We all love the Warren-Love Street neighborhood, because it is so easy to walk to downtown community events, restaurants, and shopping.  The city tennis courts and the cultural center are also within short walking distance”.  (Quote by, Darlone Bailey Kaley).
“The neighborhood is special, because we all saw the potential to return to a simpler time and way of living, and we were willing to work to make it happen. There are still a few houses waiting to be completed, and we would love to have a few more great neighbors”!
Darlone Bailey Kaley- is an owner and resident of a home on Love Street.

Thomasville Landmarks and Historical Society are places to receive support and encouragement when taking on any of these restoration projects. Pictures of some of our fine older homes are in my photo album.

Feel free to leave comments, suggestions and just communicate, that’s what, we in the blogosphere want, is active readers!!!!

I love going to the Agrirama,  especially around Christmas. It would have been better if it had not been 80 degrees today. It’s more fun when there is a little nip in the air.  But no nip this year.  I remember, a couple years back, they had an area where you could shoot with a musket loader by taking aim at a wooden  rabbit. My husband showed his marksmanship, by nailing the wooden rabbit right in his little wooden head the first shot. I was impressed! This year, I enjoyed watching the sugar cane grinding (which brings back memories of my childhood) and the assembly of musicians that were on the porch of the Gibbs house. The Gibbs House belonged to the family of my daughter-in-law and has an interesting history, as all of these houses do.  Built in the early 1800’s, the homes at the Agrirama were donated by various families living in and around the area.  The mule in the picture was a rescued from the Katrina disaster, as he had been standing in water for eight days before being removed from the area.  He is now a unionized mule, as he only works one hour before he gets a ten-minute break :>)

I love the fact that the Agrirama is a working museum, which is a bit unusual. A working museum is not an everyday type of museum. You can get fresh corn meal and grits that have been grown, harvested and ground on the premises. The people who work at the museum really "work at the museum".  They can be assigned to tend a garden, feed chickens, work on a quilt or make some soap, to name only a few of the many off-the-grid chores.  At the Museum of Agriculture, they had something called a "Dessert Sampler".  People were lined up, out the door, waiting to get some of these old-fashioned confections. There is so much going on and so much history to cover, these few paragraphs is only a thimble full of what could amount to a pond of information. To preserve this and bring the kids here to see, hear, smell and touch some of yesterday, helps those who come, experience that yesterday was very different than today. Here is a link to the Agrirama web site.  A day of pictures at the Agrirama, takes you to my photo album. 

A Thomasville residential community has been nominated for the National Arbor Day Award in 2008.  The proud nominee is, Summer Glen Homeowners Association.

I visited with some of the association members this past Saturday.  The visit took place at the community entrance where Dr. Haretos (President of the association) and Mr. Roger Jones (Chairman of Projects) were placing the letters, ever so precisely onto the brick and stone entrance marquee. The association seems to be well organized with projects and plans for  future development in the Summer Glen community. Some of the key points that the association has as their focus, is keeping as much green space as possible and preservation of natural spaces. Listening to the plans for a commonly owned green area sounded very nice, i.e., a community park area, and the building of a pier onto the small lake. As I drove through the community, I saw the usual site of homeowners doing their yard maintenance and putting up decorations for Christmas. This is just another example of how much pride local residents take in their yards.  It really seems to be an unspoken expected thing, that if you are a homeowner, you will keep your lawn mowed and picked up.  Others make their yard into a small piece of paradise lost. Of course, both in the city and county, there are ordinances on junk cars and nuisance ordinances. But for the most part, the pride of curb appeal just seems to be a part of what makes Thomasville a “Place Apart”.  Arbor Day Foundation information link.  More pictures of Summer Glen can be seen at my photo album link.

Saturday was absolutely a gorgeous day, the temperature was hovering around 69, sunny and none of the sticky summer heat to be found.  I took the camera and headed out to several places around the area and one of my stops was Downtown Main Street to see some of the new shops.  As I was strolling up and down these two blocks of  Broad Street, I was thinking "this sure beats a mall".  Up and down the main area are neat and unique shops that are filled with one-of-a-kind items.  Interspersed, are quaint places to eat.  As always our famous "Pool Room" hot-dogs has it’s devotes. To accommodate your tired feet, there are very nice benches all along the sidewalk and planted shade trees. But along with the pleasant shops, is the feeling of a much slower, more pleasant laid-back atmosphere. You don’t feel like you are being carried along by a herd of shoppers.  Just meandering from one pleasant shop to another, to examine displays of wears, that seem to be done by someone who has a degree in artful display. Several times I made the comment that this sure beat the mall and it was met with agreement, especially the men.  One guy said,  "if you have to go shopping, I would rather do it like this than be dragged through a mall." I would actually see people engaged in conversations… "imagine, taking the time to actually converse on some subject, while shopping or having lunch." –Personally, I like it and make this kind of life a choice.  This is far better than being caught up in a shopping experience that leaves me more irritated than enjoyable.  so, give downtown Thomasville a try, if you like the less stress way to shop…your husband may even go with you and enjoy it :>) Pictures at my Webshots of my stroll down main street Glimpse of Main Street

Just part of living here is going to the coast on a regular basis.  We took this little outing around the first week in November.  My husband has a 91 Corvette convertible , so we put the top down and took the slow scenic route down to St. George Island.  I love going down through Monticello, Florida, then cut off onto county roads.  It was a gorgeous fall day and this route is so peaceful.  As they say, "It is not the destination so much as the journey".  The picture insert is of a sunset I caught just at the right moment out over the water.   I was practicing with the camera and took a ton of beach pictures.  The beach was rather quiet for a Saturday, just the way I enjoy it.  I am not a crowd person, for me, pleasant, is low noise and activity areas.  This particular Saturday was a week after the St. Marks invitation to view the Monarch butterfly annual migration to Mexico.  They blanket the area about this time every year as they make their journey south.  St. Marks seems to be in the path of those that travel south and then westward, via the coastal area into Mexico. Link to more information on the Monarch migration Monarch Migration information. We would see a few of those that were among the last to leave the area.  Maybe they were enjoying the local hospitality :>)

After sundown, we went on into Apalachicola to eat some seafood… of course.  We were told by some locals about a place called Papa Joe’s .  We just had to have some oysters.  This is a real treat for us anymore, as both of us are very reluctant to eat oysters unless it is in their season and cold enough.  But this has been a tradition in my family for years. We only want the local oysters, or at least, Gulf Coast oysters.   Then we had light-batter fried seafood … it was very good!  I can remember every Christmas was a gathering of the cousins, aunts and uncles at my grandparents’ with a bushel croaker sack of oysters to be shucked and eaten, with soda crackers, hot sauce and maybe a little horseradish.

So we then headed back to Thomasville, with full tummies and fond memories of another wonderful day spent in a wonderful place to be.  Link to my Webshots more of my photos of the day trip.

I thought I would introduce you to our Farmers’ Market. 

As a matter of information, there are fifteen (15) state administered Farmers’ Markets in the State of Georgia; only six (6) of these are year round open air markets.  Thomasville’s is the second largest south of Atlanta.  Here you can find produce brought to the market year round by local farmers and produce that comes from all around the South East.  Also, along with the produce, is local jams, jelly, syrups, honey, relishes of all sorts.  You can have your peas shelled for you if you want to buy a hamper and freeze them. If you happen to have some pecan trees you may want them cracked for you here at the market. This is a family-run operation with at least two generations on site daily working and running the business.  Whatever the item you may want advice on, say the best watermelon or the best sweet potato, just ask Tony (the owner), he will be glad to find the best for you.  He knows his produce!!!

This is a regular routine for us, because my husband does not think he has had a proper meal without a tomato sliced and some Vidalia onion.  He always asks Tony to point him toward the best tomatoes.  My husband is picky about his tomatoes, they must have a good acid taste for them to be his kind of tomato.  So check in the photo gallery and take a look at the photos I have of our trip to the Farmers’ Market.  This was one of their slow days, as usually there are so many people at the market you can’t stir um with a stick.  Here is a link for you that has a list of attractions and events provided, included is the Farmers’ Market http://my.georgia.org/net/org/info.aspx?s=20018.0.26.3011