Music Musings: "along the rutted road"

"Music is playing inside my head/Over and over and again/My friend, there's no end/To the music"

Today is Carole King's birthday. She is 68. For more years than I can recall, her music played inside my head. Childhood was the transistor radio dangling from my bicycle handlebars broadcasting shiny pop music from the Brill building to the brick ranchers of my neighborhood. Certainly never knowing Carole's contribution to Little Eva, the Crystals, Bobby Vee and Neil Sedaka- the soundtrack of my life. "Oh, Carole"- you were always there! In February, 1971, the monumental Tapestry was released. I was a senior in high school and I played that LP on the stereo every single day much to my parents' dismay. Tapestry remained on the Billboard charts for six years-a record broken by Michael Jackson. It swept the Grammy Awards winning in every nominated category winning world wide acclaim. Carole King declined attending the Grammy ceremony opting instead to stay home with her children. According to Sheila Weller in her book GIRLS LIKE US, Carol Klein changed her name to Carole King, romanticizing fame at age 14, then ran from fame most of her life. She saw herself as a wife and mother first; just like the work a day songwriting in the Brill Building. However, composing her own music & lyrics, performing them with honest emotion made Carole King the Earth Mother to a generation of women. "Oh, Carole"! Happy Birthday!

Nothing spins like a Deere!

This is the hardest working fella in the country. From his perch atop northern knoll, he keeps a watch on the winter wind speed and direction. Hold on to your hats.

Spring is just around the corner

Lots to do and a short time to get there. There's a garden to plan, plow, and plant. There's a fence to build to create a boundary. There's a pond to push up. The road is about all washed away from the monsoon season we call winter in Alabama. So there's gravel to buy and spread. The lawn tractor needs its winter maintenance. More brush to haul and burn. A boat to pull out of the marsh. Don't know where it came from but it's there. Beverly and I discovered the county dump on one of our recent reconnaissance outings. So now we can haul the leftover trash from the previous owner to a legal destination. The daffodil bulbs we planted back in the fall are missing in action .. probably dug up by the passing family of deer. The blackberry bushes we bush hogged back in the fall are lying in wait for warmer weather .. herbicides. Good time to plant some tree seedlings for some future shade. More to come.

It's a start

It's been almost a year since we bought 20 acres of land in rural Coosa County, AL. Such an unpredictable turn of events certainly provoked no small amount of wondering among the friends and neighbors. What were they thinking? Ed and Beverly are North Alabamians! Why, they've lived in the same town almost thirty years! In the same house for 25 years! Didn't they just remodel that house? Is Ed retiring? They're living in both places? A doublewide?!?!?!?! Oh, yes...a doublewide! We are off on the adventure we've planned since we were newlyweds - never dreaming the blogosphere would be part of it. Here's hoping you enjoy the country as much as we do. Y'all come on and follow. We're glad to have you - provided you don't get all snooty about the doublewide.