Belle Mont: A Plantation Christmas

This season I went to visit a little known architectural treasure of Alabama, Belle Mont. Yearly they celebrate with a "Plantation Christmas" by decking the halls with period greenery and costumed music and dancing.

Belle Mont is an underfunded and under-appreciated mansion. The house and grounds were deeded to the state back in the 1980's, yet restoration progress is slow. 

Tucked away in the Shoals, it's not far off the main road, yet surrounded by wilderness. Docents informed me that the land that went along with the mansion was 30 acres, mostly unused. I immediately wanted to plant it with a formal gardens...

Little is known about the history of the house itself. The unknown architects who built the Palladian-style mansion may have been connected with the building of the many buildings guided by Thomas Jefferson. Speculations and comparisons can be made, but no definitive information has been discovered. 

I fell in love with the wallpaper in the foyer. Peeling and damaged beyond repair, it still manages to be a beautiful remnant of the Victorian era.

 The second story balcony was accessible and was terrifying. Yet, it commanded a wide view with the exaggerated height of the stories. 

It overlooked an empty field in the front and I found myself dreaming of the formal gardens again...

Despite having had a family living in it all the way until modern day, the only plumbing is in an out-building, which holds the bathrooms. The photo to the right is looking back towards the house from them. A broken cistern is just the right.





 


Great care was taken that the decorations were authentic to a 1800s Christmas. Greenery was woven into garlands going around the balconies and the staircase, while an occasional orange and pomegranate among the leaves on the tables added color. These were period delicacies often eaten during Christmases past. Here and there a cotton pod reminded us that we were in the South.

According to the docents, the marble in the fireplaces has been replaced, using the old ruins as a guide to the pattern. The monies from A Plantation Christmas will be going towards the cost of those.



The rooms were lit mostly with natural light from the windows, giving an authentic feel, but an artistic hurdled for me -- I hate to shoot with a flash.

Musicians and dancers performed the entire day, while visitors crammed into the rooms. So many people that day! I hope they raised lots of funds.



At one point carolers took to the stairs and sang to the crowd below.

The drawing room became a ballroom with dancers performing a miniature version of the movements they'd learned from performing in The Nutcracker.

 

It may sound like a strange choice, but the choreography from the ballet date back to when Belle Mont was new. 

The ladies and gentlemen of the ballroom, along with the docents were dressed in their holiday finest.

This is one of the bedrooms, restored with period color paint. Chartreuse was a very popular color back then.

Paint was ordered from England in those days. That, combined with the many closets in the house, was a flaunting of the family's wealth.

(If you're wondering why closets are only for the wealthy, remember closets were taxed as a room back then.)

I learned something new there! This type of bed is called a rolling pin bed, because of the piece on the back that is used to literally roll the bed like a cookie. This straightens up feather beds and would be done by the servants every morning as part of making the bed.

Several antique quilts are on display. When they say 'don't touch' you should probably listen. They are hand-dyed with arsenic.

The house has a wonderful atmosphere - even stuffed with people - and I encourage you to take a tour. Be sure to visit for next year's Plantation Christmas, the first Sunday in December.

 Thanks for joining me on my photo tour of Belle Mont for A Plantation Christmas! 

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Walking The Galaxy of Lights

Unless you've been hiding under a rock, if you live in Huntsville you know that the Botanical Gardens holds the Galaxy of Lights every Christmas season. At night the gardens are turned in a Christmas wonderland of light displays. 

I have driven the Galaxy of Lights and thought it was alright, but in the past few years they've offered a walking version as well. I thought I would enjoy that much more and I did. For the first time, I'm thinking of going back again this year.

While walking I could enjoy the light displays at my own pace, without worrying that I was going too slow for the people behind me. Eliminated, also, were the huge lines - waiting in the car for 30 minutes before you get close enough to see anything.

Of course all the photographers were out in force for the opportunity to set up shots with a tripod.

The romance of a walk through the night amongst the lights, makes it a great date night in my book.

Taking advantage of the walking crowd, a snow machine brought some more delight to the arbor of lights.

As Southerners, this is truly a magical moment that visiting Yankees might not appreciate, but I sure did.

A few stops along the way offer warm drinks and a place to warm your hands. It was 30 degrees when I went, with a bitter wind, and the warming area halfway through was much welcomed, for my hands were quite freezing from taking pictures despite the gloves.

 
From fairytale characters, to the North Pole, to dinosaurs, the Galaxy offers quite a range of displays. 

 

 

 The only thing I would wish for on the walking tour is more music. One light display sponsored by the power company featured a light show synchronized to music that was definitely a highlight for my family. 

 Other than that, most areas were a little too silent. While you may not want Christmas music blaring at you the entire walk, a walking tour gives the opportunity to theme different areas with matching music in a way not possible when your audience is in a car with the windows up. I'm hoping to hear more soundtrack next year.
 

 

 So if you live in the Huntsville area, or close enough to make a day trip, be sure to check out the botanical garden's Galaxy of Lights. Clementine's at the Garden will be open on walking nights with a few treats.

 

Walking Nights continue November 21-25, 5:30-7:30 p.m. with the 24th being a dog walking night. Admission is $6.00 (Children $3.00) with discounts for members - I got in for $5 - and $1 a dog on dog walking nights.

 

Thanks for joining me on my wanderings through Huntsville Botanical Garden's Galaxy of Lights. Maybe I'll see you there!

Shiloh: Battles, Indians, and Monuments to Death

 

On Fame's eternal camping ground

Their silent tents are spread

And Glory guards with solemn round

The bivouac of the dead

Took a field trip to the Shiloh Battlefield in Tennessee last month. In many cultures, the border between October and November is a time to remember the dead, making when I went a very interesting time to visit for me. The day coincidentally coincided with my departed grandmother's birthday. 

Shiloh is most remembered as the site of the battle that decided the fate of the Civil War and saw over 20,000 dead. However, it is also home to a National Cemetery and is the site of several Indian Mounds built by a lost American Indian culture. They disappeared for unknown reasons before the white settlers came.

The area around Shiloh is nothing if not a monument to lost causes and death.


 

The Visitor's Center houses a small indoor museum where they show a very well made movie about the battle of Shiloh. However, the real field trip begins when you step outdoors and follow the trail.

Driving from stop to stop, I was first impressed with the statues and monuments. There are so many, all of very good quality, and many impressive just in sheer size. 

 The first monument to the honored dead of Shiloh was built in 1917, fully funded by independent groups of Southerners, especially by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 

There are a lot of details to be observed in the Confederate Monument. You can read more here. Or even better, you can read the detailed plaque near the statue at Shiloh.

 





On the left stands the defeated South, while on the right a defiant Southern holds the flag. 


In the middle stands a lady of the South, flanked by Death and Night. She silently hands the laural of victory to Death.

 

Shiloh is named after the Shiloh Meeting House, a log church in the middle of the fighting. It stood and watched the Confederates overtake the Union, and then the Union retake the area, while soldiers on both sides fell. The church still stands.

I came here many years ago as a small child. I have few memories; one of them is of Bloody Pond. If I were to make a soundtrack of the place, it would be Cocorosie's "Gallows" on repeat. The place remains creepy to me even as an adult.

Many soliders bled and drank here. I remember when I was small my mother telling me when you bled to death, you get thirsty. Men crawled here to drink, bloodying the waters. 

 














A young American writer, Ambrose Bierce, was witness here during the battle:

Knapsacks, canteens, haversacks distended with soaken and swollen biscuits, gaping to disgorge, blankets beaten into the soil by the rain, rifles with bent barrels or splintered stocks, waist-belts, hats and the omnipresent sardine-box--all the wretched debris of the battle still littered the spongy earth as far as one could see, in every direction. Dead horses were everywhere; a few disabled caissons, or limbers, reclining on one elbow, as it were; ammunition wagons standing disconsolate behind four or six sprawling mules. Men? There were men enough; all dead... 

A plaque nearby records this recollection of his. Considering Bierce is famous for short stories such as "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge", I don't think the pond ever left him.

 

Despite the horrors this place has witnessed, there are also some surprisingly pretty places, such as Water Oaks Pond. Sunshiny and green, the place was very scenic and will be absolutely gorgeous when the water lilies bloom. 


I saw some dragonflies creating life in the decaying stems of the water lilies.

Life from death symbols can be found in the land, all over Shiloh. Along the trail, there are many mass graves where the Union soldiers buried the Confederates in heaps. The location of a few have been discovered and marked, like the one pictured. The ground is mossy, full of mushrooms, and smells of growth and decay. The blood enriches the earth here.

While I would not fancy being left to die far from my home, I do envy the way they were buried.
 
These soldiers were not embalmed, not encased in metal, but allowed to crumble into the earth. As I gaze at this fertile ground, I am reminded that this rarely happens anymore as our soils become more and more depleted, in part because of the nutrients locked in our corpses and not allowed to rejoin the cycle. 

When I die I want my body to rot. 

Bordering the main battlefield, overlooking the Tennessee River are several Indian mounds. These have largely been neglected until recently and so very little is known about the people who built them.

Where did these people go and why? Another civilization of American Indians had moved into the area by the time white settlers came, and when questioned they, too, were clueless as to the disappearance of the people that had built the mounds. 

A few artifacts have been found, but none seem to have remained on site. 

The main mound (the "Chief's Mound") has a stunning view of the Tennessee River. The area mostly remains woods and wilderness, except for a few farms, making it easy to remain under the spell of the place. 


Repairs have began on the mounds, as the large one is starting to crumble from people climbing it, and hopefully reconstruction will continue.


Some nice walking trails through the woods and mound area have been put in place. A nice little hike in the woods!
 

 

 
At the end of the driving tour, back at the Visitor's Center, is the Shiloh National Cemetery. Rows and rows of men are buried here, many unknown, as war usually has it.

A small grass snake crossed my path in the cemetery. A beautiful jewel that eyed me on the cobblestones before preceding on his way. 

Rest on embalmed and sainted dead

Dear as the blood ye gave

No impious footsteps here shall tread

The herbage of your grave

One of the monuments is inscribed praising the men who died here "for the honor and glory of the United States". Honor and glory?

 

Thanks for joining me on my journey through Shiloh. As always, click any photo to see it larger.

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