Sharman Burson Ramsey's Blog, page 5
June 14, 2022
Essay on America Today by an Anonymous writer
A sad but realistic commentary on what is happening to our country.
The following is an essay written by an unknown author. It is an overview of the state of our current politics, and world governments.
Men, like nations, think they're eternal. What man in his 20s or 30s doesn't believe, at least subconsciously, that he'll live forever? In the springtime of youth, an endless summer beckons. As you pass 70, it's harder to hide from reality. Nations also have seasons: Imagine a Roman of the 2nd century contemplating an empire that stretched from Britain to the Near East, thinking: This will endure forever. Forever was about 500 years, give or take. France was pivotal in the 17th and 18th centuries; now the land of Charles Martel is on its way to becoming part of the Muslim Ummah. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the sun never set on the British empire; now Albion exists in a perpetual twilight. Its 95-year-old sovereign is a fitting symbol for a nation in terminal decline. In the 1980s, Japan seemed poised to buy the world. Business schools taught Japanese management techniques. Today, its birth rate is so low and its population aging so rapidly that an industry has sprung up to remove the remains of elderly Japanese who die alone. I was born in 1949, almost at the midpoint of the 20th century, the American century. America's prestige and influence were never greater. Thanks to the Greatest Generation, we won a World War fought throughout most of Europe, Asia and the Pacific. We reduced Germany to rubble and put the rising sun to bed. It set the stage for almost half a century of unprecedented prosperity. We stopped the spread of communism in Europe and Asia, and fought international terrorism. We rebuilt our enemies and lavished foreign aid on much of the world. We built skyscrapers and rockets to the moon. We conquered Polio and now COVID. We explored the mysteries of the Universe and the wonders of DNA, the blueprint of life. But where is the glory that once was Rome? America has moved from a relatively free economy to socialism, which has worked so well NOWHERE in the world. We've gone from a republican government guided by a constitution to a regime of revolving elites. We have less freedom with each passing year. Like a signpost to the coming reign of terror, the cancel culture is everywhere. We've traded the American Revolution for the Cultural Revolution. The pathetic creature in the White House is an empty vessel filled by his handlers. At the G-7 Summit, "Dr. Jill" had to lead him like a child. In 1961, when we were young and vigorous, our leader was too. Now a feeble nation is technically led by the oldest man to ever serve in the presidency. We don't defend our borders, our history (including monuments to past greatness) or our streets. Our cities have become anarchist playgrounds. We are a nation of dependents, mendicants, and misplaced charity. Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels. The president of the United States can't even quote the beginning of the Declaration of Independence ("You know, The Thing") correctly. Ivy League graduates routinely fail history tests that 5th graders could pass a generation ago. Crime rates soar and we blame the 2nd Amendment and slash police budgets. Our culture is certifiably insane. Men who think they're women. People who fight racism by seeking to convince members of one race that they're inherently evil, and others that they are perpetual victims. A psychiatrist lecturing at Yale said she fantasizes about "unloading a revolver into the head of any white person". We slaughter the unborn in the name of freedom, while our birth rate dips lower year by year. Our national debt is so high that we can no longer even pretend that we will repay it one day. It's a $30-trillion monument to our improvidence and refusal to confront reality. Our "entertainment" is sadistic, nihilistic and as enduring as a candy bar wrapper thrown in the trash. Our music is noise that spans the spectrum from annoying to repulsive. Patriotism is called insurrection, treason celebrated, and perversion sanctified. A man in a blue uniform gets less respect than a man in a dress. We're asking soldiers to fight for a nation our leaders no longer believe in. How meekly most of us submitted to Fauci-ism (the regime of face masks, lock-downs and hand sanitizers) shows the impending death of the American spirit. How do nations slip from greatness to obscurity? Fighting endless wars they can't or won't win. Massive debt far beyond their ability to repay. Refusing to guard their borders, allowing the nation to be inundated by an alien horde. Surrendering control of their cities to mob rule. Allowing indoctrination of the young. Moving from a republican form of government to an oligarchy. Losing national identity. Indulging indolence. Abandoning faith and family, the bulwarks of social order. In America, every one of these symptoms is pronounced, indicating an advanced stage of the disease. Even if the cause seems hopeless, do we not have an obligation to those who sacrificed so much to give us what we had? I'm surrounded by ghosts urging me on: the Union soldiers who held Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, the battered bastards of Bastogne, those who served in the cold hell of Korea, the guys who went to the jungles of Southeast Asia and came home to be reviled or neglected. This is the nation that took in my immigrant grandparents, whose uniform my father and most of my uncles wore in the Second World War. I don't want to imagine a world without America, even though it becomes increasingly likely. During Britain's darkest hour, when its professional army was trapped at Dunkirk and a German invasion seemed imminent, Churchill reminded his countrymen, "Nations that go down fighting rise again, and those that surrender tamely are finished." The same might be said of causes. If we let America slip through our fingers, if we lose without a fight, what will posterity say of us? While the prognosis is far from good, only God knows if America's day in the sun is over!
June 12, 2022
DEMOCRATS LOVE Katie Britt
Alabama's Liz Cheney?
DEMOCRATS LOVE KATIE BRITT
– 'Pretty awesome,' 'super helpful' to Doug Jones. Outgoing Alabama Democratic Party executive director Wade Perry touts Katie Britt, 1819 News, Jeff Poor, 06.04.22
---Perry partially credited Britt for Jones' 2017 victory in response to a Twitter post from State Rep. Allen Farley (R-McCalla). In addition to calling her "pretty awesome" and "super helpful" to Jones' cause, he also credited her for supporting the fuel tax increase component of the 2019 Rebuild Alabama Act.
---Perry is not the only prominent Alabama Democrat to pledge his support for Britt. Late last year, former Democrat U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith also voiced his support for the Britt effort.
-- May 2021, when the news broke that Katie was about to enter the Senate race, Donald Trump Jr. called Katie Britt “the Alabama Liz Cheney” Just doing what you gotta do to win Trump’s endorsement. BY MOLLY OLMSTED,, SLATE, APRIL 18, 2022
DEEP STATE REPUBLICANS FUND HER CAMPAIGN
1.
Senator Mitch McConnell
---A super PAC aligned with Senator Mitch McConnell has funneled $2 million to a group attacking Mr. Brooks in television ads. That means McConnell supports Britt. Why?
Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife, quits her position as Secretary of Transportation shortly after Jan. 6. McConnell begins passing the word that Trump should be impeached. But hold on. In December 2020 the House Oversight Committee began an investigation into the closely held Foremost Group and whether Elaine Chao acted improperly to benefit herself or her family’s shipping company. BTW, can you guess where Foremost Group shipped most of their cargo to and from? “The New York Times and Politico) have reported that Chao may have used her Cabinet position to benefit the company and increase its influence…”
When you see and hear all the hype about Mitch, his agreement with convicting Trump in a Senate trial, and now rumors of his encouragement for more senators to fall in line with him, you at least know the reason Follow the money. Jim DeJarnett, letter to the Editor, The Landmark, Platte County, Missouri Newspaper
2. Senator Richard Shelby
Sen. Richard Shelby to spend $5 million to boost former aide ...
https://www.washingtonpost.com › politics › 2021/11/11
Nov 11, 2021 — Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 19. ... Moore lost that election to Democrat Doug Jones.
KATIE BRITT IS FORMER CEO AND PRESIDENT OF THE BUSINESS COUNCIL OF ALABAMA --- THAT PROMOTED COMMON CORE!
Katie Britt is former CEO and President of the Business Council of Alabama that supported COMMON CORE and brought Alabama to 52nd in the nation behind Washington DC and Puerto Rico.
1. Alabama Republican Party incorporates repeal of Common ...2. https://www.alreporter.com › 2018/08/31 › alabama-re...
Aug 31, 2018 — ... that favor Common Core. The most powerful special interest opposing repeal legislation has been the Business Council of Alabama.
Is Katie Britt equipped as former CEO of the Business Council of Alabama to debate these issues? Did her brief stint as Shelby’s Chief of Staff give her enough experience to stand against the Deep State and support Conservative values of Alabamans? If Shelby was part of the Deep State, if McConnell is part of the Deep State, will Katie Britt have the courage to resist succumbing to their influence?
“Don’t listen to a person’s words, look to their actions,” Ted Cruz says. “And when it comes to who’s going to stand up to secure the border, or who’s going to stand up for the Second Amendment, who’s going to stand up for the constitutional rights of the people of Alabama, I don’t have to guess with Mo Brooks.”
3.
May 26, 2022
Representative Paul Lee Blames Alabama's 52nd position in Education on the Fact that Good Students Now Attend Private Schools
Representative Paul Lee. Senator Donnie Chesteen. 
Representative Jeff Sorrells
The Houston County Republican Women hosted a panel of legislators, Senator Donnie Chesteen, Rep Paul Lee, and Rep Jeff Sorrells. After the panel regaled the assembly with accomplishments all tied to money they have brought home to our area, including a new UAB associated dental school to be located in Dothan, questions came from the assembled.
Concerned about the recent passage of the Numeracy Act, I asked why legislators pay attention to A+ and dismiss the efforts of the Eagle Forum. I pointed out to the legislators that the organization known as A+ showed up in the early 1990s promoting Goals 2000 (also known as Outcomes Based Education). Organizations like Eagle Forum fought Outcomes Based Education understanding its longterm goals.
One of the legislators informed me that there was an Alabama School Board that determined education. Yet, it was the legislature passed Alabama's version of Goals 2000 promoted by A+. The law came into the Alabama Department of Education over the fax machine with David Hornbeck collating this document that was very similar to the Kentucky Education Reform Plan. Hornbeck and Hillary Clinton sat together on the board for the National Center on Education and the Economy.
Hornbeck edited a book entitled Human Capital and America's Future. Just so you understand, the Human Capital referred to here is our children.
"Court orders can be exceptionally good vehicles for creating a sufficient sense of crisis and an imperative to act so that supporting legislation can be enacted. It is difficult to overstate the importance of such a vehicle..."
A+ facilitated creating that sense of crisis. Courts were quite effective in transforming education, though not for the better.
Attorney Phyllis Schlafly, founder of Eagle Forum, saw through their efforts to cradle to grave control of society.
"Nothing in these comprehensive plans has anything to do with teaching schoolchildren how to read. Although most Americans think that is the number-one task of schools, and it is obvious that the schools' failure to do this is our biggest education problem, teaching children how to read is not on the radar screen of these plans and is not even one of the eight national education goals in Goals 2000," she wrote.
https://eagleforum.org/column/1997/feb97/97-02-19.html
The shift in education then was substantial. This legislation required a rewriting of the Bylaws of the Dothan City School Board. Those early Bylaws required sequential learning which means traditional skill upon skill education. Sequential learning was replaced with thematic education which means breaking the whole into the parts. Thirty years later we reap the whirlwind produced by that revolution in education throughout society.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1622&context=mjlr
Drill and Repetition was banned. Phonics education was thrown out the doors of public schools. Whole Language replaced traditional education.
The relevant sections of the statute (Goals 2000) read as follows:
Student achievement and citizenship.
(A) By the year 2000, all students will leave grades 4, 8, and 12 having demonstrated competency over challenging subject matter including English, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography, and every school in America will ensure that all students learn to use their minds well, so they may be prepared for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment in our Nation's modern economy....
Mathematics and science
(A) By the year 2000, United States students will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1622&context=mjlr
None of that was achieved.
Since then we have had several more "reform" efforts to improve our schools. Each requiring MORE MONEY to teach teachers how to better implement the "reforms" in Goals 2000. Common Core was the most recent and most radical. It remains though renamed.
Most recently A+ pushed the Numeracy Act passed by the Alabama legislature.
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FORMER STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER BETTY PETERS WRITES OF THE MOST RECENT LEGISLATIVE FOOLISHNESS FOR OUR SCHOOLS.
Alabama Senate Bill 171, around fifty pages of gobbledy-gook entitled “The Alabama Numeracy Act,” passed overwhelmingly in the Senate; and a substitute bill is scheduled to be voted on today in the House. State Sen. Arthur Orr of Decatur was the sponsor of SB 171, and he and other bill supporters state the bill will not allow AL public schools to use curriculum standards known as “Common Core.” The big question for me and practically everyone I know is whether this bill is really just a very expensive and convoluted scheme to develop a new version of “Common Core” which we all know was later renamed “AL College & Career Readiness Standards.” State Rep. Terri Collins, also of Decatur, denied on a recent Capitol Journal program on AL Public TV that Alabama uses Common Core math.
On the other hand, except for Gov. Kay Ivey, all the Republican candidates for governor are on record opposing this bill. A recent article by Brandon Moseley of 1819 News reported that Tim James called for members of the AL legislature to vote against the AL Numeracy Act and that the legislation does not remove Common Core math from Alabama schools. Mr. Moseley talked with the other three candidates opposing the Governor--Lindy Blanchard, Dean Odle and Lew Burdette-- about the “controversial math education plan” and they all agreed with James. I was very favorably impressed with the comments of all four of them.
I know many people have wondered who wrote the bill for Sen. Orr. After serving on the state school board for 16 years, I had a hunch the author was someone with the A Plus Foundation, which I had observed for years had been a strong advocate for the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The recent 1819 News article about the Numeracy Act said, “The corporate backed A+ Education Partnership has been lobbying legislators to vote in favor of SB 171.” Mark Dixon, one of the members of Gov. Bob Riley’s administration, now heads A+. At Gov. Riley’s last state school board meeting (Nov. 2010) the Common Core State Standards Initiative was adopted, with only two negative votes by Stephanie Bell and myself. I think it’s likely that Mr. Dixon either wrote the bill or had someone else at A+ do so. After all, they have consistently fought for Common Core and other experimental math programs. And I’d be willing to bet that if this bill passes the house and is signed by the governor, we’ll continue to have non-traditional math taught in AL public schools and our students will continue to be at the bottom of the rankings. And that’s especially sad since neither the children nor their parents are at fault. It’s what and how they are taught that is the problem.
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Don't tell us the legislature doesn't get involved in education.
Representative Jeff Sorrells informed the group that he did NOT VOTE FOR THE NUMERACY ACT. BUT Paul Lee and Donnie Chastain did. So now those gentlemen are on record for enabling a continuation of what has failed our children, for producing those children who have made Alabama 52nd in education, behind Washington DC and Puerto Rico.
I asked why we cannot go back before we were lured down the garden path by organizations like A+ that still promotes poor education.
I remind them that what has been legislated in can be legislated out. The burden is on the shoulders of our elected officials.
May 11, 2022
CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN MATH BOOKS? YOUR SOCIAL CREDIT SCORE? DATA COLLECTION ON OUR CHILDREN FOR SOCIAL EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR? MOVE BIG BROTHER?
And yet they will claim there is no CRT....(Critical Race Theory)
Try their MATH BOOKS!
REMEMBER GOVERNOR IVEY SITS ON THE ALABAMA SCHOOL BOARD. SHE APPROVED THIS.
The Governor and the Legislature seem enamored with A+. They began their influence in the early 90s with Goals 2000. Look where we are now...52nd behind Washington DC and Puerto Rico. Would you let a doctor who continued to kill the students participate in education? Why does A+ receive a warm welcome when they come to call on a legislature, but the Eagle Forum that continues to promote a return to education that got the US to the Moon can hardly get a meeting?
Can you believe this? That is what A+ sells, but it is not what our students get!
This is how CRT gets into our classrooms. Somebody with lots of money and something to sell convinces our politicians that this will lead to "math achievement".
What is it we are really paying for? Mental health screenings and checks and interventions through the MTSS (Multi-tiered System of Support) that will be overseen by its maker NASP (National Association of School Psychologists).
And what is their goal?
A+ HAS LED ALABAMA DOWN THE GARDEN PATH TO 52nd IN THE NATION SINCE THE EARLY 1990s
Orlando, Florida-- The Florida Department of Education released examples of Math problems found in 54 books the state has rejected for use in classrooms after officials said the publishers were attempting to indoctrinate students.
Some of the examples provided by the department on Thursday show bar graphs that labeled conservatives as showing more racial prejudice than liberals. Another example provided by the FDOE is a word problem that begins with, "What?Me?Racist? and asks the student to calculate a level of racial prejudice.
Now, just who/what is the MTSS that we should trust to do screenings, checks and interventions on our children? A multi-tiered system of support or MTSS is a framework with a tiered infrastructure that uses data to help match academic and SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL BEHAVIOR assessment and instructional resources to each and every student’s needs. This multi-tiered system of support is guided by the National Association of School Psychologists. And this is their guidance. (Illuminate Education)
Do you really want them collecting "data" on your child? Asking intrusive personal questions about the child and his family? (Harkens one back to Brave New World and Big Brother watching). Whatever happened to reading writing and arithmetic? We surely are not doing that very effectively.
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Alabama has the first LGBTQ-affirming charter school, the Magic City Acceptance Academy, in Birmingham.
Gubernatorial candidate, Tim James says, “We find it unconscionable to use the concept of protecting kids as an opportunity to expose them to drag queen shows and normalize perversion,” the James campaign said in an email to AL.com on Tuesday. “For a public school like Magic City Acceptance Academy to use $2 million of our state tax dollars to host drag queen shows for kids should anger every parent, grandparent and taxpayer in Alabama.
This is an example of what the current WOKE crowd call Equity. As they gather "data" on your child, how do you think they will use it? Will your Christian faith make your child one that needs rehabilitation?
I will be voting for Tim James for Governor and Mo Brooke for Senate, Steve Marshall for Attorney General, Jeff Sorrells for State Representative, Jim Zeigler for Secretary of State, Alex Balcum for State Board of Education.
These positions are critical to our future. They have a choice as to whether to invest public money in Environmental, Social, and Governance investments with some aligning investments with the ideology of climate agitators. Business will be given a social credit score on how well they tow the social justice agenda.
SOCIAL CREDIT SCORE
It will then come down to us. Refuse to wear a mask? Violate lockdown orders? Break the government-imposed curfew? Opt-out of a vaccine? Your social credit score will take a massive hit and your ability to live as a citizen with full benefits will be restricted.
May 3, 2022
FASCINATING FAMILY FACTSFascinating Family Facts include...
FASCINATING FAMILY FACTS
Fascinating Family Facts include History and Genealogy of Dr. Elkanah George BURSON of Wilcox county, Alabama, and Jean BRONSON GILLIS Burson of Escambia County, Alabama. These include POWHATAN, WEROWOCOMOCO, OPECHANCANOUGH, POCAHONTAS, RACHEL MATACHANNU POWHATAN, COCKACOESKE "QUEEN ANN" POWHATAN WEST, DABNEY, SUSANNAH DABNEY, , SQUIRREL KING OF THE CHICKASAW, HAWKINS, CHARLEMAGNE, PALMER, MARTIN PALMER, CHILIAN PALMER, COLONEL JOHN TALIAFERRO, MAYFLOWER CONNECTION TILLEY AND HOWLAND, HAWES, JERNIGAN, COTTON, BACON'S REBELLION, QUAKERS, BURSON, KNIGHT, EPPES, JORDAN, MAGNA CHARTA, SCOTTISH, ROBERT THE BRUCE, GILLIS, WARDLAW. ALSO INCLUDED: SOUTHERN MANNERS AND ETIQUETTE.
This is a compilation of some of the more interesting details in our genealogy that I stumbled upon. Do not take this as original research and scholarship. My husband, an attorney, had to travel around the South taking depositions or trying cases. Wherever he went, I went to the local library and went first to the indexes of their books and if I stumbled upon one of our family names, I went immediately to the copy machine. Later I started a website to share what I found. Since I did not myself go into the bowels of the courthouse to pull original documents, I do not assert that all if accurate. Use it as a marker to help direct your own research. I have files and files of notes and records and many online genealogy friends. This has been a labor of love dedicated to my mother who challenged me to use the degrees she paid for in a direction she wanted me to go.
This book will be available on Amazon for $3.
Sharman Ramsey
Dothan, Alabama
May 3, 2022
April 29, 2022
END OF APRIL COLORPippa's Song ...
END OF APRIL COLOR
Pippa's Song Robert Browning THE year 's at the spring, And day 's at the morn; Morning 's at seven; The hill-side 's dew-pearl'd; The lark 's on the wing;The snail 's on the thorn; God 's in His heaven— All 's right with the world!
The poppies and Larkspur bring beautiful color to the garden. I love planting seeds and watching them grow. The anticipation builds as the green begins to burst forth from the earth.
The David Austin Roses have begun to color my world. Coming from the arbor with chicken wire to help the Generous Gardener grow up over the arbor to join the Confederate Jasmine growing from the other side. Starting with the Generous Gardener growing up the arbor and going left you see Thomas a Becket, Gabriel Oak, Benjamin Britten, Raould Dahl, Jude the Obscure, Winchester Cathedral, Lady of Shallot, Olivia Rose Austin, Queen of Sweden and Ancient Mariner.
As soon as they arrived Molly and I removed them from the box and placed the roots in water. I organized the double seater baby buggy that I use to help me organize things I will need in the yard with chicken manure in one seat and biotone in another. Each hole got water, manure and biotone. Most recently I fertilized with rose tone around the drip line of each rose, spread chicken manure over the fertilizer, and then with the pitchfork, a tool I had never had any use for before, I worked it all together. Severe arthritis has one finding lots of ways to do things differently.
I planted this area of seeds from a Burpee packet of perennial seeds plus some Shasta Daisy seeds and Coneflower seeds. They are in front of the poppies and Larkspur. I can identify some Yarrow there, but what else pops up will be a surprise. I must admit that I am not really sure what is now or will be coming up. Also in that bed are a peach tree, two satsuma trees, two blueberry bushes, and a fig tree. A lemon tree is in front of the pergola along with the mini garden and an olive tree grows next to the patio.
My statues and fountain came from Arts Concrete Yard Ornaments 25 Nathan Rd, Daleville, AL 36322.
Where's Lola?
The Butterfly Garden now has a butterfly beach made with sand and cow mature. The strawberry jar has a cherry tomato planted in it as well. Yarrow prospers there as well as coneflower, Mexican petunias and lantana. The cobalt blue strawberry jar has mint planted in it because mint is hard to control.
This was once the playhouse. I had Tex Rankin and his son add the French doors and Pergola. Notice that the steps are shallow and wide. I have VERY bad knees and serious arthritis so this helps immensely.
Meet Claudine. She spoke to me at Home Goods one day and so I brought her home. Molly and I planted snap peas and lettuce in this little garden. We also planted hollyhocks, spinach and green beans on the other side of those cobblestones.
Lavender grows on one side of the David Austin rose garden. I planted Yarrow and sage on the other side, but I only see yarrow growing. The sage must be harder to germinate.
Notice the arbor over the lady at the well statue. New Dawn rose and Confederate Jasmine are blooming well together. Lilies of various kinds meander around to the gravel path. Some of those lilies are daylilies that came from In the Neighborhood Daylilies in Ozark, others are beautiful pink lilies that were given to me by sweet Mary Kirkland who took care of our family for many years.
Meet Gigi.
I find pittosporum a necessary element of flower arranging. Looks like the Boston ivy likes the basket.
Meet the Professor sitting on the bench with a cup of coffee. These are limelight hydrangeas. I planted Formosa Azaleas under/between the ligustrum that show up beautifully when they bloom.
April 9, 2022
Gardening Southern-style: Philosophy of a Garden
Today in watching Great British Garden Revival: Series 2, with James Wong (Wong appears near the middle of the video), I heard a term new to me and, of course, looked it up. The term he used was referring to the rebirth of a rhododendron garden at Harwood House outside of Leeds, England. He used the term a "Barbara Cartland" garden. Since I found no exact definition of what they mean, I will interpret the meaning to be "romantic" (Cartland wrote and sold millions of romances), perhaps "blousy" (meaning untrimmed, maybe what might be considered overgrown), and when the blooms are in season the term might mean "billowing". Cartland's heroines would go to the garden to ponder things--mostly love and men. As an author who writes what I would call romantic historical fiction this concept of a garden appeals to me.
Cartland's son, Ian Hamilton McCorquodale
Glen McCorquodale, writes:
My mother, Barbara Cartland, loved the grace and beauty of all flowers whether they were pink or not.
Particularly daffodils, primroses and bougainvillea.
She enormously enjoyed her garden at Camfield Place and from her desk in the drawing room she could see a long swathe of the garden leading up to large clumps of rhododendrons, which in May would be a riot of colour fading away later to a peaceful light green.
I can never forget Barbara telling her friends “don’t send me flowers when I die, send them to me when I am alive so I can delight in them!”
The heroines in her wonderful romances love flowers too and they always go into the garden of the hero’s stately home to seek peace and tranquillity and to search their souls and, because the garden is so beautiful and fragrant, they suddenly realise that they are in love. And then we have to guess what happens at the end of the story!
And she fervently believed that flowers are an earthly symbol of true love. They look at you with love in their petals and smile because they know the real truth about love if only they could speak to us mortals. https://www.barbaracartland.com/news/barbara-cartlands-love-of-flowers
As a Southern gardener, I appreciate Cartland's affection for rhododendrons. They are relatives of azaleas that make such a show in Southern gardens--when we allow them to.
Azaleas vs Rhododendrons
All azaleas are Rhododendrons but not all Rhododendrons are azaleas.Most Azaleas are deciduous, but true Rhododendrons are usually evergreen.Azaleas have funnel shaped flowers. Rhodi flowers tend to be bell-shaped. https://plantaddicts.com/the-difference-between-azaleas-and-rhododendrons/For some reason, the large azaleas known as Formosa have lost favor for the Encore azalea that re-blooms throughout the season. As a result we have lost that "blousy", "billowing", "romantic azalea that brings tours through old neighborhoods to see in early spring near Easter (in Dothan, Alabama).
I suppose we might surmise that the individual gardener must decide her/his own philosophy of a garden. Blousy, billowing and romantic could very well fit me. I rail against the regimented conformity of too many neighborhood yards in our subdivisions. We Americans would do well to set forth on a Great American Garden Revival.
Monet, the famous Impressionist painter, planted his garden to use as subject for his paintings. When I ride through the old parts of my Southern hometown, I see how one yard fading into another with the colors of an impressionist painting. White dogwood bloom above the boisterous azaleas--not those tidy repressed azaleas known as Encore, but for one brief shining moment the true azaleas burst forth. My mother-in-law often said that was her version of heaven.
One of the early gardeners of my community was Mrs. Lamb (I knew her when I was a little girl and Southern children do not call their elders by their first name so she will remain Mrs. Lamb to me). She was a seamstress who lived in a beautiful two story home in our neighborhood. Her back yard was a garden with paths between the camellias, haughty aristocrats of Southern gardens, and those boisterous, attention seeking azaleas. She was a leader in the community on gardening topics.
My mother was a gardener (also a nurse at the Battle of the Bulge, a gifted seamstress, an active reader, and the best appreciator of a good joke in town). She started me gardening as a little girl in a piano crate painted with polka dots in a garden club for children called The Daffydillies. Ergo my continued fondness for daffodils. Daffodils and the Lucious smelling silver bells bulbs are the harbinger of spring. Excitement builds for the show of the Azaleas.
Southern gardening has been harnessed by lawn services and garden centers that convince their clients that planting something for two weeks of glorious beauty should take a back seat to something that might bloom unremarkably several times a year. Daylilies have suffered the same fate. Stella d'oro a minuscule yellow daylily is about the only daylily one can find at a nursery. One must search to find an independent grower to purchase the more unique and the antique daylilies. (I am looking for the old yellow/orange double petal daylily I remember from my childhood. Please contact me if you have one!) Fortunately Ozark has one of these mom and pop gardens called In the Neighborhood Daylilies. I did a video of my granddaughter's and my venture to the daylily garden and subsequent planting in our "garden." Daylilies are the country cousin to the regal camellia and blousy azalea acolyte in a Southern garden.
Mother was not much of a rose aficionado so I must branch out on my own with this addition to my budding garden. David Austin Roses are my rose of choice for the formal grouping in my back yard off the brick patio. As I walked in my old neighborhood in the Garden District where my husband and I grew up, I saw one perfect pink rose in several gardens. I longed to have one of my own and eventually mentioned it to my neighbor, the Camellia Queen of Dothan, Alabama, Marion Grant Hall, whose mother set her on her gardening path with the same yard. She rooted a shoot of her own Dr. Walter Van Fleet and gave it to me. It eventually took over the fence around our swimming pool. Unfortunately we sold that house when my husband retired and we moved to Panama City. He then had three brain surgeries and we returned to Dothan after Hurricane Michael to be close to Flowers Hospital, my sister and daughters. I had to start anew with my garden and missed my old friend, Dr. Van Fleet. I planted a New Dawn, one of his descendants, but that was just not the same. Fortunately, Petals from the Past came through for me and it is now planted on my front fence and the other I bought is in my sister's yard.
Though I mentioned the Camellia as the Queen of the Garden, I did not elaborate. The Camellia has several divisions. The Sasanqua blooms earlier than the Japonica that blossoms at different times during the winter months. The Sasanqua has been miniaturized to fit contemporary ideas of foundation planting. The Camellia Japonica, however, rules regally throughout those winter months in older neighborhoods, yet apparently forgotten by garden designers in new neighborhoods. As president of the local Camellia Society, I have tried to remedy that in my own yard. I purchased eight camellias reminiscent of those in Mother's garden and planted them in November. At the Camellia Show held at the Dothan Area Botanical Garden (a must place to visit in Dothan) I purchased three more from Mark Crawford from Loch Laurel Nursery in Valdosta, GA. I have been making a few YouTube videos to remind myself how things progress in my yard. As I write this, I realize how things have grown in the meantime!
I think my philosophy for my garden will be for it to be "romantic", perhaps "blousy" (meaning untrimmed, maybe what might be considered overgrown), and when the blooms are in season the term might mean "billowing."
Happy Gardening!
February 22, 2022
Why Do You Think Alabama Ranks Last in Reading and Math?
Why Do You Think Alabama Ranks Last in Reading and Math
Alabama students lost ground in math against the rest of the country according to the latest results on the nation’s report card. Those scores, released this morning, dropped Alabama to dead last, 52nd in the nation, behind school systems run by 49 other states, Washington DC and the Department of Defense.
That’s down from 2017, when Alabama’s fourth-grade scores ranked 47th and eighth-graders ranked 50th. This year Alabama students in both grades finished last in math. (Al.com Nov. 02, 2019, 10:55 a.m. | Published: Nov. 01, 2019, 7:00 a.m.)
So what about 2021?
Alabama’s math scores are the lowest in the country, and state Sen. Arthur Orr is working on proposed math legislation to raise the scores.
“When you’re 52nd in the country, you’ve got to make radical changes,” said Orr. “And some people say, ‘Well, there are only 50 states,’ but we were behind the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense schools. So you can’t get much lower than we are today.” https://www.wsfa.com/.../math-counterpart-alabama.../
And who will they listen to on how to fix this debacle? I am a graduate of the University of Alabama (BSE) and Troy University Dothan (MSE). I will never donate to the College of Education of either university. Though I actually blame the Department of Education as the source of our decline, our Colleges of Education are its carriers. And the more we buy the argument that curriculum should be the same nationwide, we will continue to destroy effective school systems with a killer curriculum. (Remember national uniformity was the goal of Common Core --creating an Education Pandemic). Do not believe anyone that its deadly tentacles have been uprooted from the books and internet courses, or the minds of those teachers infected (by the Colleges of Education).
Dothan paid its former Superintendent of Schools big bucks to kill alumni support for Dothan's high school alma maters. I was a DHS cheerleader 1966 -68 and it breaks my heart to see what has happened. Who actually bought the claim that once again rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic (Dothan City Schools) by having one new Dothan High School and making the old DHS a "Preparatory" Academy. (Anyone ever hear of lipstick on a pig? Not the children but the curriculum and using that fancy word to make it appear advanced.) Those 8th graders afflicted now with the consequences of the failing reading and math (52nd in the nation) find their curriculum substituted by Social and Emotional Learning, blaming the child for the failure of the schools.
When I graduated from Dothan High School in 1968, our schools were highly regarded. You may say, if you are so critical of our schools, why don't you try to do something about it? I did run for the Dothan School Board. Twice. I was defeated once by an obstetrician "with a heart for education." His campaign was run out of the central office. Another candidate posted a letter to the editor accusing me of being a member of the Klan. (Incredible since our Black children suffer most from the Whole Language reading method I fought so hard (according to the billion dollar Project Follow Through conducted by the Department of Education and the research of Dr. Jeanne Chall of Harvard). Someone else called me a Flat Earther because I proposed going back to the curricula that actually enabled those wonderful Black female Mathematicians to help us get our astronauts to the moon.
I attended a meeting of the Alabama Senate at that time considering Goals 2000, the first step toward Common Core. That was where I heard the Director of Instruction for the State of Alabama boast of having written her dissertation on Whole Language. Needless to say, my heart clenched because that "expert with a clean shirt and a briefcase" was now carrying that failed method system to system.
Now you ask, what would you have done? I would have put SIDE phonics (Systematic, Intensive, Direct and Early Phonics) in the classrooms to teach our children to read. Instead she promoted the newest version of the failed Look/Say, Whole Word guessing. If you see this in your child's classroom run.
1. Look at the picture.
2. Say the beginning sound.
3. Think of a word that begins with the same letter.
4. Does it make sense? Try both vowel sounds.
5. Skip over the word and go on.
6. Go back to the beginning.
7. Ask for help.
What I saw when I taught 8th grade history and English was too many children who could not tell you the meaning of a sentence by the time they got to the end of it because they guessed wrong on too many words and could not get meaning from the sentence.
Fundraising organizations (called Foundations) arose to raise money--because money was the answer to the problem. And then they demanded more money. To support more foolish ideas. And Dothan City Schools sank lower and lower in its rankings. Amazingly grades (GPA) got higher. (But, perhaps that is why those with the lowest SATs enter Education and graduate with the highest GPAs).
Senator Arthur Orr will no doubt listen to the "experts" on how to fix the condition of our schools (and I am speaking specifically of what is going in our children's minds, not whether they are in modular buildings). I have no doubt that the liberation pedagogy of Harvard hero and defrocked Jesuit priest, Paolo Freire, will dominate the conversation. Read what Wikipedia has to say about his now approved form of mathematics. (Wikipedia: Critical mathematics pedagogy is an approach to mathematics education that includes a practical and philosophical commitment to liberation.)
So why do you think Alabama ranks last?
September 27, 2021
Gardening Southern-Style 5: Planting the Daylillies
As you can see the back of the Odyssey is full of gardening stuff I picked up at Rural King the Day before. This beautiful pink and yellow ruffled daylily captured Molly's interest.
Saturday was a glorious day. Molly spent Friday night with me and Saturday we got up eager for our visit to the Daylily Farm in Ozark (http://www.intheneighborhooddaylilies...) to pick up the daylillies I had ordered online. Betty Peters went with us. She is starting a new garden and wanted to add some fragrant daylillies.
In order to explain hybridization to Molly, Sharon Pilcher (owner) took the only daylily still blooming to show her how it works. It just so happens that daylily was Molly's favorite colors pink and yellow with a ruffled edge. It also just so happens that this third grader is studying hybridization and flowers at Providence this year. Molly is my garden buddy.
We got back home and I realized Sharon had given us the direction to plant those daylilies immediately! I was not quite prepared for that. They need 6 to 8 hours of sun and good drainage. Daylilies do not like wet feet. It just so happens the best place for daylilies in my yard is right where the new pergola and deck in front of the She Shack happens to be. Molly and I decided to plan a daylily bed in front of the steps through the daylily garden. Now, planting 17 daylilies is a daunting task even for a young gardener but for one with bad knees and severe arthritis it can be even more daunting. But my daylilies needed proper care.
My bed had not been prepared, so I had to be creative. Guilty! So, I used a posthole digger and dug the hole, mounded dirt in the middle, planted the daylily with roots surrounding the mound, Molly added a bit Organic Biotone and we covered the roots. If it had not been for Molly preparing our refreshments for our rest and rehabilitation time, I do not think I could have made it. Ice water and a banana are quite rejunetive. We gathered straw from behind the She Shack and covered our daylilies.
Gigi took refuge from the sun in the She Shack.
Lola finds shade beneath the twin baby buggy I use to tote heavy things and supplies around.
After a day of recuperation, I could not sleep last night thinking of the admonition in one of my gardening books about covering the daylillies too close making mildew kill the daylily. So, first thing I came out and pulled pine straw away that was directly touching my precious daylillies.
Before we knew it three hours had passed. We set up the iron arbor trellis (now held together with wire after going from my yard at 800 North Cherokee to our guest house in Panama City) to plant the anticipated Constant Gardener David Austen roses when they arrive in January and sat back to enjoy our efforts. I have ordered 13 David Austen Roses, but those beds should be prepared by then.
Being old and not so agile any more, everything takes more time. I have bought a tractor scooter that makes it easier to get closer to what I need to do closer to the ground. And I bought a special tool to move big heavy pots around.
You may wonder, why do you do this? It keeps me active and interested. Dreaming and planning my garden activates those little cells as Hercule Poirot calls them. Just as my new little ShiPoo does. Home is a wonderful refuge where I can alter the environment to help my handicaps. Going up and down stairs is a challenge just as getting up from a chair does. I want to hold off more surgery as long as I can.
Photographs and Videography by Molly
August 23, 2021
Gardening Southern-Style with Sharman 4
Christmas Came Early!
The lighter box contained 2 tub trugs as they are called, 25 standard garden markers, Garden clogs, rose gloves, a dirty little digger, one of my favorite hand tools, and a bag of Bio-tone Starter Plus Plant Food, something they use all the time on the You Tube Garden shows I have been watching.
The Tractor Scooter came in pieces. I did try to put it together on my own, but fortunately my son-in-law, Mike Evans, with experience on bolts and nuts and washers as Service Manager for Hyundai who has now taken his talents to Techway Automotive across from Kentucky Fried Chicken on the Ross Clark Circle, saved me. He managed to get everything tightened up so that the thing will not fall apart first time I sit upon it.
And when I went out and got the mail I received the seeds from Eden Brothers: Zinnias, Nasturtium seeds, Red Corn Poppies, Sweet Peas, Larkspur and Daisy seeds. Inspired I went out and cut the Echinacea seed pods to collect the seeds. So now I have a lot to plant once PC comes to prepare my beds. JoAnne McFarland taught me the first time I planted a monet garden. I hope I remember!
This is my dream addition.
