No’Ala Shoals, September/October 2015

DESIGNING HISTORY | EDUCATIONAL OUTDOORS | TEST OF ENDURANCE | BIKE CULTURE

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What’s really going on in your neighbor’s backyard?

A No’Ala investigation

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119 North Court St Downtown florence (256) 764-1809  | noalastudios.com | september/october 

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• • • PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCALLY OWNED INDEPENDENT RETAILERS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, AND NONPROFITS! • • •

DO YOU SUFFER FROM: • Shortness of breath • Numbness • Chest pain or tightness • Burning or tingling in your legs • Weakness or coldness in your legs or arms • Pain in the neck • Headaches • Heart burn, indigestion, or burping If so, these could be signs of cardiovascular disease. If you are suffering from any of these symptoms, Dr. Ajit Naidu and Dr. Brian Cole, Board Certified Cardiologists at the Cardiovascular Institute of the Shoals can help determine if these are serious.

We give second opinions, too!

Please call 256-766-2310 for an appointment.

2415 Helton Drive, Suite A, Florence , AL 35630 • Phone 256-766-2310 september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

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September/October

features

20 Lights, Action, Renovate!

Two interior designers, the project of a lifetime, and the TV show that captured it all.

Chicken Confidential No’Ala investigates a huge chicken conspiracy that might just be taking place in your neighborhood.

by roy hall with lu ellen redding photos by bruce nelson and patrick hood

by allen tomlinson photos by abraham rowe and patrick hood

84 The Educational Outdoors UNA gives students and faculty a way to de-stress. by allen tomlinson photos by patrick hood and michael redding

54 Bike Life Bicycles are not just for children— they’re for life! by allen tomlinson photos by danny mitchell

30

ON THE COVER: Sarah Gillis pumps a little iron with some very special “weights”—her son Lyle (left) and niece Kylia. Photo by Patrick Hood

108 Making Training Personal Sarah Gillis’s commitment to her clients’ physical and emotional wellbeing puts the “personal” in personal trainer. by roy hall photos by patrick hood, abraham rowe, and susan rowe

Photo by Abraham Rowe

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editor’s letter « Allen Tomlinson

CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? no’ala advisory board Jeremy Britten Anne Bernauer Vicki Goldston Leslie Keys Tera Wages

In this issue, we take a stab at investigative journalism and explore the seedy underworld of chickens living inside the city limits. These seemingly innocent birds are quietly roosting in your neighbor’s backyards, laying their delicious eggs, ridding their yards of pesky mosquitoes and houseflies, and generally just looking adorable. But it’s illegal—harboring chickens inside the city limits is not allowed, although, to our city’s credit, it’s not high on the Crimestoppers list. We took our lives into our own hands and visited several families who just might have a few hens in the yard and who just might bribe the neighbors with eggs to help keep their secrets. We learned a lot about the ins and outs of chicken coopery, and hope our elected officials will take another look at whether this activity should be decriminalized. It was fun; we hope you enjoy it, too.

Ashley Winkle

It’s fall, and that means it’s harvest time. For that reason, much of this issue is devoted to food and exercise. Bike culture is gaining a foothold in our area, and UNA has developed a program that helps students and faculty de-stress by lending them outdoor gear. The Renaissance Man Triathlon was a huge success again this year, and is becoming a tourist event by attracting people to our area from all over the region. And Pillar and Peacock, a design firm based here and in Virginia, has just finished a project that’s being featured on DIY television—we’ll give you photos and details of that project in this issue as well.

Please remember that it’s time to nominate people in the area who are quietly working behind the scenes to make this a great place to live. Our bi-annual Renaissance Awards are coming up in early 2016, and we need those names by December 1. Do you have someone you’d like to honor or remember because of their work in this area? Send me an email at allen@noalastudios.com. It doesn’t have to be long and it doesn’t have to be fancy—just tell me about the people you want to honor and let us consider them.

Football, beautiful weather, and the smell of good cooking are all in the air. Before you run off to the Big Game, make sure you stop by a local retailer to get everything you need. After all, if we support our local retailers, we’ll continue to have a wonderful selection of great things here in the Shoals. That’s a secret we don’t need to keep!

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contents

108

Conquering Life in the Shoals

© Patrick Hood

everything else 12 14

Calendar Selected Events for September/October 2015

No’Ala is published six times annually by No’Ala Studios PO Box 2530, Florence, AL 35630 Phone: (256) 766-4222 | Fax: (256) 766-4106 Toll-free: (800) 779-4222 Web: noalastudios.com

Cryin’ Out Loud “Sense Memory” by sara wright covington

46

Standard postage paid at Florence, AL. A one-year subscription is $19.95 for delivery in the United States.

Signed articles reflect only the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors.

Advertisers are solely responsible for the content of their advertisements.

Bless Their Hearts “Sail On” by guy mcclure, jr.

76

A Favor for Eleanor Chapter Two: Lily Herbert michelle rupe eubanks

94

Food for Thought “Soul Food” by sarah gaede

100

Market by tara bullington photos by danny mitchell

114

Kudos by roy hall

116

The Vine “Oyster Wines” by amy c. collins

118

Parting Shot by cliff billingsley

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 Volume 8: Issue 5 ••• Editor-in-Chief C. Allen Tomlinson Chief Operating Officer Matthew Liles Creative Director David Sims Advertising Director Heidi King Features Manager Roy Hall Graphic Designer Rowan Finnegan Web Designer Justin Hall Editorial Assistant Tara Bullington Videographer Justin Argo Proofreader Carole Maynard ••• Contributing Writers Amy C. Collins, Sara Wright Covington, Michelle Rupe Eubanks, Sarah Gaede, Roy Hall, Guy McClure, Jr., LuEllen Redding, Allen Tomlinson ••• Contributing Photographers Bruce Nelson Photography, Cliff Billingsley, Patrick Hood, Danny Mitchell, Michael Redding, Abraham Rowe, Susan Rowe ••• Contributing Illustrators Rowan Finnegan •••

2015 Renaissance Man champion, Chris Borden

© 2008-2015 No’Ala Studios, All rights reserved. © Danny Mitchell

64 Endurance Test A grueling test of endurance requires participants to demand more of themselves, on and off the course.

Send all correspondence to Allen Tomlinson, Editor, at the postal address above, or by e-mail to allen@noalastudios.com.

Letters may be edited for space and style.

To advertise, contact us at (256) 766-4222 or sales@noalastudios.com.

The editor will provide writer’s guidelines upon request.

Prospective authors should not submit unsolicited manuscripts; please query the editor first.

No’Ala is printed with vegetable-based inks.

Please recycle.

by roy hall photos by danny mitchell Connect with us on Facebook: No’Ala Mag Twitter: @NoAla_Magazine and Pinterest: NoAlaStudios

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calendar

Friday, September 4 and Friday, October 2 Florence First Fridays The exciting monthly event gathers artists of all kinds–musicians, painters, sculptors, photographers, hand-crafted jewelry creators, and more–for a community-wide celebration. 5:00pm-8:00pm; Free; Downtown Florence; firstfridaysflorence.org Saturday, September 12 1st Annual Downtown Bacon Crawl Florence Main Street presents the First Annual Bacon Crawl! Participating merchants will offer all types of bacon for ticket holders to enjoy while they visit downtown businesses. 10:00am-7:00pm; Admission charged; (256) 760-9648; florencemainstreet.org.

Friday, September 11 – Saturday, September 12 Oka Kapassa Native American Festival The Oka Kapassa Festival celebrates the culture and traditions of American Indians, who once thrived in North Alabama.

Events include hoop dancing, storytelling, drum, stone carving, flute making, flint knapping, basket making, pottery, a concert, and authentic Native American food. Fri 8:00am-2:30pm and Sat 8:00am-6:00pm; Free; Spring Park, Tuscumbia; okakapassa.org Friday, September 18 Lions Under the Lights Dinner with Celebrity Chef Jack White The University of North Alabama Alumni Association hosts a farm-to-table dinner featuring celebrity chef and UNA alum Jack White. The event is a fundraiser for the “Lions Den” area of the newly constructed Science and Technology Building.

6:00pm; $100; (256) 765-4201; alumni.una.edu/lights Saturday, September 19 – Sunday, September 20 The Geek Gathering Celebrating all things comic, fantasy, horror, sci-fi, anime, and pop culture. Proceeds from various portions of the event donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters. Sat 10:00am-5:00pm and Sun 12:00pm-5:00pm; Admission charged; Sheffield Rec. Center, 2901 E 19th Ave; thegeekgathering.net Thursday, October 1 Shoals Symphony at UNA: Tales from Vienna The Shoals Symphony at UNA, under the direction of Dr. Daniel Stevens, will present a concert featuring musical works of Strauss and von Suppe’. 7:30 pm; Admission charged; Guillot University Center Ballroom, UNA; una.edu/shoals-symphony Thursday, October 22 – Sunday, October 25 The Gingerbread Players present Monster in the Closet Emily is a young girl with a very big problem: she has a timid, video game-playing monster living in her closet! Showtimes TBA; Admission charged; 123 N Seminary St; (256) 764-1700; shoalstheatre.org Saturday, October 24 – Sunday, October 25 The 29th Annual Alabama Renaissance Faire Named one of the top 20 events in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourist Society, the Alabama Renaissance Faire features musical programs, public lectures, dramatic performances, art exhibits, and dance programs. Sat 10:00am-6:00pm and Sunday Noon-6:00pm; Free; Wilson Park; alarenfaire.org

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cryin’ out loud » Sara Wright Covington Eventually my sense of smell returned. It was gradually at first, and so slight that I often wondered if the faint aromas I began to notice were real or just manifestations of my imagination.

SENSE MEMORY When I was three, my doting, stay-at-home mother attempted to socialize me by enrolling me in a one morning a week mother’s morning out program at Calvary Baptist Church in Tuscumbia.

Aside from the stories I’ve been told over the years of the traumatization—it was traumatic for my mother, not me—I can’t say I remember much about it. I was the typical introverted child—hyper aware of any change in my environment, hysterical at the thought of being thrust into situations where I might be forced to interact with people I didn’t know, and super clingy to my parents. And all except for the later (I eventually willingly moved out of my parents’ house) I can’t really say that I’ve changed all that much since then. Many years after my first classroom experience, I went back to that same church to pick up my nephew who was enrolled in the exact same daycare program. As soon as I walked through the glass doors of the building and that warm rush of daycare-air engulfed my lungs, it all came flooding back to me: the peach cobbler and paste, the soggy toast squares and juice, and the chilly stale air wafting in from a giant, dark room filled with cots for napping. All at once, I remembered what it was to be three years old again, sitting in the director’s office while she called my mother to remind her she had forgotten my swimsuit for the wading pool on that particularly hot summer day. Instead of a suit, I made do with some spare shorts and a T-shirt they scrounged up for me and I waded happily into the pool, splashing until my fingers and toes were prune-ish and my cheeks were stinging from the sun—I’m pretty sure sunscreen had not become all the rage yet in 1983. I remembered the details of it all so vividly, although I had not thought back on that day since then—nor was I even consciously aware it had ever happened—before the smell of it rushed back into my lungs again many, many years later. I remembered that it was a good day, and I called my mother immediately to tell her that she needn’t have worried about me.

If you’ve read this column for any length of time, you have likely caught on that my family creeps in pretty much every time, and I’ve been known to whine about things I don’t appreciate until they are gone. This one is no different, as I am recalling my temporary loss of smell last summer when I had surgery to correct a deviated septum. The loss of the sense of smell post nasal surgery is common and usually temporary, but during those two months of this surgery side effect, I can’t tell you how many times I inhaled deeply to no avail, causing me panic when I realized what I was missing. I stood outside in my yard in inches of freshly fallen snow in February and vainly attempted to fully experience the cold. I sniffed my sweet newborn’s little head for hints of that sweet, fleeting new human smell and came up with nothing, immediately questioning the bargain I had made in exchange for a future free of chronic sinus infections.

The human brain is truly a majestic bit of machinery, and my predominantly creative, right-brained personality doesn’t typically dwell on the specifics of the mind’s intricate mechanics, as my eyes tend to glaze over at the mere mention of science. But even I found it interesting that according to scientists, our sense of smell is most powerfully linked to our memories. Incoming smells are processed by the olfactory bulb that connects to the brain’s limbic system, which is directly responsible for our emotions. The first time we smell something, our brain links it with the physical details of the time and place. When we smell that thing again, the link is already there, thus conjuring the past memory. So the smell of a place or thing can evoke memories that would have been otherwise buried beneath layers of time and space.

In my post-surgery panic, I grasped for these smell memories. And as much as this completely made sense to me, when I started trying to actually recall what other scents have evoked long-lost memories for me, it was difficult for me to do. According to my research, this is likely because smells connect with the emotional part of our brain, unlike the memories of sight, touch, or sound which are more cognitive memories.

I asked a few people to tell me what scents they linked with what memories throughout their lives, and I got everything from “summer tomatoes remind me of my neighbor’s garden,” to “salt water taff y reminds me of a trip to the Smokies when I was little.” My husband remembers the muddy smell of the river and summers spent at Joe Wheeler. And a dear friend of mine associates the sweet, grapey smell of a particular children’s boutique to a newborn gown she bought for her daughter.

If you ask my mother what smells bring back memories for her, she will tell you without hesitation, “Geraniums. I’ve spent my whole life trying to grow them because they remind me of sleeping outside on my grandmother’s screened in porch in the summers I spent with her in Missouri as a little girl. I was so happy there, and I always just grieved when I had to leave her. The geraniums make me remember her.”

dette LIKE OUR BUNS? check out our tailgating & catering menus at www.odettealabama.com/ catering

Eventually my sense of smell returned. It was gradually at first, and so slight that I often wondered if the faint aromas I began to notice were real or just manifestations of my imagination. But to my relief, I began noticing the scents around me again more and more, once again unconsciously preserving little slivers of time I wouldn’t realize were significant till likely many years later, which is usually how the best stuff is.

120 north court street • downtown florence september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

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scene

Aiesha McBurrows and Donnie Fritts Jean Batson, Sara and Bobby Irons, and Adin Batson

Jean Gay and David Mussleman Liz and Gene Autry

Brian and Amy Montgomery, and Susan and Don Maxwell

Brett Mitchell and Billy Ray Roberson

Midge Akers and Mary Lynn Jackson

Above: Edsel Holden presents “My Shining Hour” june ,  · shoals theatre, florence

Mickey Haddock and Deborah Paseur © Photos courtesy of Edsel Holden

Below: Safeplace’s 6th Annual Liberty Luncheon june ,  · marriott shoals conference center, florence

Dorothy King and Felice Green

Megan Glasgow, Debra Glasgow, John Conn, and Anita Whitaker Dale Alexander, Kim Lolley, Angela Pennington, and Kier Vickery Taneshia Hannon Gwen Patrick, Rose Broadfoot, Teresa Harrison, and Crystal Ingle

Nancy Woodruff and Sandra Ells

* Names for photos are provided by the organization or business featured.

Lauren and Samuel Bentley

Kimberly Mann, Kristin Husaivy, and Ginger Willingham © Photos by Melissa Chaney

THE

FORTY-NINTH

TENNESSEE

VALLEY

ANNUAL OLD

TIME

FIDDLERS CONVENTION OCTOBER 2 AND 3, 2015

AT H E N S, A L A B A M A

WWW.ATHENS.EDU/FIDDLERS O N

T H E

C A M P U S

O F

H I S T O R I C

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text by roy hall with lu ellen redding photos by bruce nelson photography portrait by patrick hood

I

nterior designers Adrianne Bugg and Brandeis Short are no strangers to stepping nimbly around the obstacles in their paths. In the four years since joining forces as the design firm Pillar & Peacock, the duo has guided homeowners from Alabama to Virginia along the thorny trail of budgets, installations, contractors, building codes, and all the other snares that mar the way to a beautiful home.

It’s a handy trait to have, agility; never more so than when measuring the dimensions of an 18th Century floor, while ankles deep in plaster dust, and surrounded by television cameras.

That unlikely environment is where the Shoals and Irvington, Virginia-based design team found themselves last June, as they began work on their most ambitious project to date: the renovation of Warsaw, Virginia’s 18th Century Mount Airy estate, for the DIY network series American Rehab: Virginia.

Mount Airy’s bright, cheerful second kitchen is home base for event prep.

Opposite: Adrianne Bugg (left) and Brandeis Short of Pillar & Peacock.

On a recent afternoon, Florence-based Short and Bugg, in town from Virginia, took a moment out of their hectic schedules to lead us a on a slightly less fraught trip down memory lane, recounting what brought them to Mount Airy, and the adventure of a lifetime.

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A balanced budget: Pillar & Peacock stretched the tight kitchen budget by refurbishing an antique fridge and painting the existing cabinets and wood floors, freeing up dollars for high-end lighting, luxe hardware, and custom cabinetry.

N

othing about the clear sky or the hint of warmth in the air suggested anything other than an ordinary spring day, last June, when a friend phoned Bugg with news that would alter the course of her and Short’s life for the next year. According to Bugg’s in-the-know friend, a TV producer was in Irvington on the lookout for local designers interested in interviewing for “some kind of renovation show.” Bugg suspected, and correctly, that for an out-oftown producer, “local” would mean every interior designer from Richmond, Virginia, to Washington, D.C. Bugg disagreed, insisting to the producers, whom she wasted no time contacting, that local meant Irvington, and Irvington meant Pillar & Peacock. On the strength of their impressive portfolio, the producers agreed, and Short and Bugg were one of a select group of eight firms invited to interview for the position of designer for a still-unnamed design show documenting the refurbishment of the Mount Airy estate.

Meanwhile, back in Florence, Short dropped everything and jumped on the next plane out of Huntsville to join her partner in Virginia to prepare for the interview. The team approached the project aggressively, providing producers with an exhaustive checklist detailing just how they felt the

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project—which can only be described as massive—should be tackled. Within a day, they had the job.

A tumultuous, ultimately triumphant 10 months followed, as Bugg and Short balanced the demands of a production company’s budget with the needs of Mount Airy’s homeowners, the Tayloe family, all the while remaining faithful stewards of one of America’s most historically significant homes.

And all of that the result of an unexpected phone call from a friend—quite the unlikely detour for Bugg and Short. Unlikely, but not altogether unfamiliar: a friend’s unexpected phone call is exactly how Pillar & Peacock itself came into being.

A

drianne Bugg didn’t set out to be an interior designer. The Virginia native studied finance at New Orleans’ Tulane University, working as a financial analyst after college. Deep down, though, she harbored a secret ambition. “My first love was fashion, then architecture.

I had sketchbooks for days,” Bugg says of her favorite childhood past time.

Like her partner, Short has always had an affinity for beautiful things, “a kind of knack for art and design.” The Jacksonville,

This page: Antiques and upholstered pieces, grounded by the luxurious and television-friendly color scheme, give the master bedroom a sense of restful elegance.

Florida, native graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with an interior design degree. Post-graduation, she and husband Shawn remained in nearby Irvington, where Shawn worked as a financial planner alongside Bugg.

Confident Bugg and his wife would get along famously, Shawn insisted they meet; a phone call later, they were fast friends. A year or so later, and with the encouragement of her new best friend, Bugg left her career in finance to pursue her lifelong love of design. The two joined forces as Pillar & Peacock a short time later.

Short and Bugg established their firm in Irvington, where Pillar & Peacock’s original office remains, along with Bugg, her husband Tripp, and their two children. Meanwhile, Short, her husband, and their two children have moved several times in the intervening years, settling in Florence, where Short maintains the firm’s second office. The miracle of modern technology and a slew of frequent flyer miles allow the team to work together, apart, on projects from Mount Airy to the Alabama coast and many points in between.

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The family room, with its soothing palette and inviting furnishings, respects the homes stature without sacrificing comfort.

“We have a weekly call,” Bugg says of the long-distance arrangement that keeps their business and friendship thriving.

“We dedicate the first 15 minutes to personal stuff ; then we talk about business.” And every three months, minimum, the duo Schumacher wallpaper, custom-made get together. They wainscoting, and a walk-in closet alternate between turned the existing master bath into a retreat.

Virginia—where Pillar & Peacock was named Virginia Living magazine’s 2015 “Best Interior Design Firm”—and the Shoals, where the team have found early success with residential and commercial projects.

It’s Pillar & Peacock’s slightly unorthodox, utterly modern method to the madness of design that served them well

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when they set their sights on television production, a whirlwind schedule, and the modernization of a 200-plus-yearold estate.

F

rom its majestic perch on the banks of the Rappahannock River in Virginia’s Northern Neck region, Mount Airy is every bit as imposing as its formidable exterior implies. Built in 1764 by Colonel John Tayloe, II, the home has an illustrious history, playing host to Revolutionary period personages, and serving as the final resting place of Francis Lightfoot Lee, Col. Tayloe’s son-in-law, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

In 2010, Tayloe and Catherine Emery and their two sons became the 10th generation of Emerys to occupy Mount Airy. The family brought with them all the expectations of a 21st century family: a modern kitchen, dependable plumbing, safe wiring, up-to-date facilities, functional closets. In a word, livability. It’s a list familiar to anyone who’s ever fallen in love with an older home’s character, but been less smitten with its limitations. To help them in this gargantuan task, the Emerys reached out to the DIY network, whose renovationbased series, American Rehab: Virginia, provided the perfect

The smokehouse-turned-lounge offers Mount Airy hunters a relaxed place to begin and end their day.

A simple mantle stays true to the room’s rustic simplicity.

fit. In turn, DIY sought the services of Pillar & Peacock, who renovated a total of 13 primarily residential spaces: four in Mount Airy’s main house (master bedroom, master bath, family room, and main house kitchen), and nine personaland business-use spaces in Mount Airy’s west wing.

Bugg and Short’s previous experience renovating historical residences provided a road map, but nothing could have prepared them for the demands of a 10-month construction and TV production schedule, an arduous task made possible by, in Short’s words, “Homeowners we’ve come to love as fam-

Historic photo of Mount Airy, Warsaw, Virginia

ily, an amazing production team, and a construction crew capable of miracles.”

While the spectacular results may not have been supernatural, there were more than a few prayers said along the way.

“The time line and the budget were constant challenges, from day one,” Short says. A challenge, but also an opportunity, according to Bugg: “Overcoming those challenges, with amazing results, was what made the job so rewarding for us.” A less exacting commitment to the historical integrity of Mount Airy would have made for a simpler—and cheaper—

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The hexagonal pergola’s fire pit, dining table, and conversation area provide the perfect spot for al fresco entertaining.

process. But Bugg and Short take great pride in what they call “being true to the house.” In the case of an 18th century estate, “being true” is an expensive proposition.

“The budget was very tight,” Short says, “which is fine. We’re accustomed to working within budget parameters.” But some of the numbers were a bit unrealistic. “In some cases,” according to Short, “the total budget for a room would usually cover just the contractor’s fees.”

Complicating matters further, what makes for good television—camera-friendly color palettes and drama-filled, last minute installations—is not always in the best interests of the home, or the homeowners. Short cites the first instance in what became a neverending tug-of-war between the art of interior design and the commerce of television production.

Pillar & Peacock chose a simple, spare, historically-appropriate fireplace mantle for the lounge. The producers countered that the mantle wasn’t quite “enough” for the camera, preferring a larger, more ornate version. The designers held their ground; the mantle they recommended was installed.

Color choices weren’t safe from the demands of television, either. Initially, Bugg and Short recommended painting the master bedroom a deep rich purple. Producers intervened,

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explaining that the dark, saturated hue would “play” as black on camera, necessitating a compromise with the homeowners. Fortunately, the Emerys were ever-willing clients, and the TV-friendly palette Bugg and Short recommended manages to make a statement on camera, without sacrificing refinement.

“The cameras go away, but the Emerys live there,” Short says, summarizing their top priority. “So we wanted them to be happy.”

While the demands of a television camera are thankfully not a factor in most design jobs, the primary hurdle Bugg and Short encountered over and over again during their Mount Airy adventure is common to every project: the budget.

Like most home renovations, one of Mount Airy’s most expensive rooms was its kitchen. And not just any kitchen, a curved kitchen. According to Short, custom curved cabinetry alone could have easily consumed the full budget. “So we decided to add a few custom cabinets for function, but keep the lower cabinets.” The salvaged cabinets were painted and Anthropoligie hardware added to freshen their look.

A repurposed vintage fridge found in the storage room got a fresh paint job, along with the floors. “The floor gave us

Brick pavers, a dropped ceiling to accommodate plumbing, lantern fixtures, and cabinets-turned-dog beds converted an old storage space into a warm, workable mud room.

an opportunity to incorporate pattern into the room, and helped us save more money on refinishing.” The savings were spent, at Pillar & Peacock’s suggestion, on high-end light fixtures. “Lighting is so important,” Short explains. “When you walk into a space with beautiful lighting, it’s a game-changer.”

Sort of like having your work featured on a national television show. “Being a part of a TV project was great,” Short says, summarizing their experience, “but our top priority as designers is to always be true to the client and house.

We were fortunate to have the support of the homeowners throughout.”

A collaborative relationship built on trust and communication between homeowner and designer is critical for any successful design project, regardless of the scope. As for their own likes and dislikes, Bugg and Short have their fair share, but the designers’ individual styles don’t impact the choices they make for their clients. “Pillar & Peacock is not in the business of creating a signature look,” Short says. Instead, their goal is to create beautiful, functional spaces that reflect the lives of their clients, not to impose their own aesthetic.

“A finished space should be beautiful, well-appointed, and

ultimately reflect the family that lives in the space, not us,” according to Short.

Spaces that embody the ideals of structure and beauty. Like, say, a pillar and a peacock. “A pillar is an architectural element, and a peacock exudes beauty,” Bugg says, explaining their choice of names. “Besides,” Bugg admits with a laugh, “we knew ‘Bugg+Short’ would never work.” Still, the provocative name does prompt the occasional question: “Who is the pillar, and who is the peacock?” Bugg and Short laugh: “It just depends on the day!”

Pillar & Peacock’s Mount Airy adventure premiered on DIY Network’s American Rehab: Virginia in July and is available through Amazon’s streaming service. Expanded versions of AR:V are planned for a future run on DIY’s sister network, HGTV. For behind-the-scenes anecdotes and before-and-after pictures of the Mount Airy project, visit pillarandpeacock.com.

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

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• • • PLEASE SUPPORT YOUR LOCALLY OWNED INDEPENDENT RETAILERS, SERVICE PROVIDERS, AND NONPROFITS! • • •

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september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

text by allen tomlinson » photos by abraham rowe and patrick hood

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©Abraham Rowe

september/october sep sse ept ep tem te eem mb ber er r/o /octo /oc tob tob ber   | no  n noala noalastudios.com oala allastu al s udio os.c s.com om o m |  

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

IT’S A SUNNY DAY IN RIVER CITY.

Too sunny. It’s not the temperature I mind; my borrowed car is air conditioned, and the windows are sealed tight. No, it’s the heat I can’t take. This particular errand calls for shadows— just enough light to get you there, but plenty of shade to cover your tracks.

I adjust my sunglasses on the bridge of my nose and pull the ball cap a little lower on my head. I disappear as far into my Corinthian leather seat as it will allow. The voice on my phone tells me to bear left, and I do what I’m told. Squinting behind the sunglasses that protect my identity as well as my retinas, my sedan slinks on to a tree-lined street. My heart is racing; my palms are sweating. I tell myself a little white lie: “It’s going to be OK,” I whisper to myself. “These people don’t want trouble, and neither do I. Just get the facts—and get out.”

The houses on this street are large, brick, and mostly two stories. The lawns are manicured, and probably not by the people who live here. Seems an unlikely spot for such clandestine operations, but at this point, nothing will surprise me. I want to get to know these lawbreakers and find out what motivates them, what led them down the (very nicely paved) road to the dark side. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? I have a feeling I’m ‘bout to.

“You have arrived at your destination,” says my phone, and I stop the car and peer at the house in front of me. It’s relatively new, with a wide front porch and rocking chairs; the flowers in the beds are pretty spectacular, and the grass is perfectly manicured. I note that there is a tall wooden fence at the back, probably built specially to hide all of the illegal activity that takes place back there. Hardly what I would expect, but maybe that’s the point? Make it look like a perfectly ordinary home in the middle of suburbia, and throw the officials off your tracks.

I take a deep breath, turn off the engine, and open my door. I’ve hardly stepped outside the car when I hear a man say, “Welcome! Any trouble finding us?” It’s the homeowner, whom we will call “John” (all of the names in this story have been changed, to protect the lawbreakers and their neighbors). He’s surprisingly young, nicely dressed, and not shady looking at all. He walks toward me, hand extended; we shake hands.

©Abraham Rowe

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

“Of course, I do it for the eggs, but it’s more than that. These chickens are beautiful—they are like works of art, and I add them to my garden the way I’d add flowers.” —“Brent”

©Abraham Rowe

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

CHICKEN [CONFIDENTIAL]

©Abraham Rowe

Behind him, in the doorway, is his wife, whom we will call “Mary.” She’s beautiful, nicely dressed, with a broad smile.

The children are at the community swimming pool for a couple of hours, so we have plenty of time to talk, she explains. Then, they welcome me in. I take a deep breath and step inside.

Once the door has firmly shut behind me, I get right to business. “Ok, folks, I have to know. Where do you keep—” my voice drops to a whisper. “—the chickens?”

“The what?” says John. For a moment I panic, thinking I have come to the wrong house. Will they think I am crazy? Will they get mad if they think I am accusing them of harboring illegal fowl? If I am at the wrong house, will I give away the real John and Mary’s secret and expose them to the entire neighborhood? Barely five minutes into my assignment, and I may have messed everything up. I feel familiar red heat creeping up my neck, a sign that I am in trouble. We’re walking toward the back of the house, to the kitchen, where Mary pulls out a chair and offers me a seat.

“Ummm…the chickens?” I squawk. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I see what I have come to see. Through the kitchen window, I catch a glimpse of a dark grey bird with a top knot and beautiful golden flecks of color in her feathers. It’s the magnificent Merc, a Golden Lace Wyandotte breed, and she’s beautiful. I can’t help but stare. It’s a flood of relief, seeing this small clucking animal; I have found what I was looking for.

I turn back to John and Mary. “Why do you do this?” I ask.

“What made you decide to break the law and harbor chickens inside the city limits?”

The couple smiles at each other and then at me. I get the feeling they have been asked this question before. Mary speaks first. “We do it for the eggs,” she says. “Store bought eggs have no taste, and the yolks we get from our chickens are deep orange and beautiful. We do it for the eggs.”

And then, it’s as if the floodgates have opened. John and Mary pour out their hearts to me.

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

IT STARTED OUT

innocently enough. “We had a friend who raised chicks,” says John, “and I have always loved eggs. Our friend hatched some chicks, so he gave me a couple and I brought them home.”

“The children loved them, but we weren’t certain we were going to keep them. Our son was supposed to be studying for a science test the next day, and we got the definite feeling that he hadn’t prepared, so, in a classic parenting fail move, we offered a bribe. Make a hundred on your science test, and we can keep the chickens. If you don’t, they go back.”

“He made a hundred and ten,” says Mary, “and we had ourselves some chickens.”

The family read and researched online and learned all they could learn about raising chickens. And it was interesting, the things they learned. Chickens eat bugs and worms, among other things, and help keep them under control; hens don’t make a lot of noise, unlike roosters, who are very difficult to keep in the city; if properly cared for, chicken coops don’t smell, and the poop makes amazing fertilizer. (That might explain the abundance of profusely blooming flowers in containers and flower beds all around this home; this family doesn’t just get eggs, they get fertilizer, too.)

For the family, it was more than just raising chickens; it was about considering where their food comes from in general.

The process of having chickens has made them much more conscious of what they eat, and they look for natural and unprocessed foods in general, preferring the farmer’s market to the nearby mega-store for food. They learned that eggs, when they are freshly laid, are covered in something called “bloom,” which preserves the egg and makes it last for weeks and even months. They even planned a recent family vacation as “chicken tourists,” visiting farms that raise hens on a much larger scale. The more they learned, the more they loved the idea of having hens, even though they were plagued with the guilt of knowing that it was illegal inside the city.

“Did you ever check with the city to see if it would be OK?” I ask. The answer is “no”—neither John nor Mary wanted a record of their having asked, in case the dreaded day came when they were forced to disband the flock. They operate strictly on the “better to ask forgiveness than ask permission” theory, and as far as they are concerned, they have never officially been told that this is wrong. Officially. They have some

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

CHICKEN [CONFIDENTIAL]

©Abraham Rowe

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

CHICKEN [CONFIDENTIAL]

nagging suspicions, but they also have these wonderful eggs, and that eases the pain.

What about the neighbors? Surely they know what’s going on. Don’t they tell? The short answer is “no,” again. The five hens are prolific enough to provide for the family and have eggs to spare, and the family is both generous and smart.

I don’t want to call it bribery, this method for keeping the neighbors happy with their regular supply of fresh eggs, but it certainly keeps them quiet—and happy. Co-conspirators, as it were.

John and Mary are so nice and so enthusiastic about this illegal activity of theirs, I begin to relax. So, I think at one point, this is how it happens; you are an upright citizen, and pretty soon you’re lured into this dark underworld and you become a part of it. Only in this case, the underworld isn’t really that dark; it’s more like just shady, since the backyard has so many trees, and it’s not really an underworld but more like an upscale neighborhood…but whatever. It’s still illegal.

“So, these hens must be pretty good fried up,” I say, half joking, but I am stopped dead in my tracks by a horrified look from Mary.

John rushes in to fill the uncomfortable silence. “These are more than just hens in the backyard,” he says. “These are pets. Two of the five are going through ‘henopause,’ because they have gotten old, so their egg production has significantly slowed. But we couldn’t think of getting rid of them, or even ‘frying them up,’ as you say. We love them.”

“And now,” he says, standing up, “it’s time for you to meet them.”

The moment of truth. I follow John and Mary to the back door, and out onto the deck. Merc, the Golden Laced Wyandotte, comes rushing forward to greet us, and the other four are hanging back, watching, gauging whether or not I am going to be friendly.

They have Marley, a Dominique; Rosabelle; Pez; and Roosevelt. As we amble through the back yard, moving slowly toward the chicken house, Mary tells me about Rizzo, a very social hen who had apparently wandered off with a fox or a raccoon and met an untimely end. “That’s one of the most interesting things about these animals,” she says; “They are not stupid. They’re really very smart, and extremely social.

©Abraham Rowe

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

CHICKEN [CONFIDENTIAL]

©Patrick Hood

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

“One of the reasons we want chickens, aside from the eggs, is that we want our daughter to grow up around animals. She’s too young for a cat or a dog, but she loves to watch the chickens, and we want her to love animals the way we do.” —“Sue”

When Rizzo disappeared, Pez went into a depression. That’s how we ended up with the other four; we brought them into the fold to help cheer Pez up. She was missing her friend.”

busy street. Once again, I’m struck by the fact that they do not seem guilty or ashamed about their illegal fowl, and really get into having chickens in their backyard.

The chickens are moving in to study me, and I am a little nervous, but Mary reassures me that they won’t hurt me.

She takes some feed and lets them eat it out of her hands; they cluck softly and move about the yard, although Marley is eyeing me a little suspiciously. John and Mary steer me to the corner of the yard where the henhouse is located.

“I grew up on a farm and we raised chickens,” says the women we’ll call “Sue.” “When we got married and got a house of our own, I didn’t think it was a big deal at all to have them here. We really didn’t know it wasn’t allowed, but we didn’t ask, and so far no one has complained.” Her husband, whom we will call “Jim,” nods in agreement. Once again, better to ask forgiveness than permission.

The henhouse is actually quite nice. It’s a small wooden structure in the corner, by the fence, under a shade tree. A small part of the yard has been enclosed with a wire fence, mostly to protect the hens from predators and not so much to keep them from escaping. Part of the henhouse is the laying area, and John opens the trapdoor to show me the nest. There’s a golf ball in the nest—an incentive, I think, or a marker to let the hens know where to lay. John tells me some people use plastic Easter eggs, but it’s just to make the hens comfortable.

There’s absolutely no smell, and the hens are clucking so softly I’m sure the neighbors can’t hear them. It all seems so innocent; I wonder why in the world the city doesn’t want this inside their limits?

I ask them why they think it’s against the law to have chickens in the city limits. “I’m not sure,” says Jim, “but it probably has something to do with livestock in general. People in nice neighborhoods don’t want to live next to smelly farms, but raising chickens isn’t like that at all. In fact, we’ve seen dogs in backyards who smell worse and make more noise than chickens, and dogs are legal.”

We move to the backyard to see their flock, three chickens who are relatively young and haven’t really started laying yet.

Jim has constructed an ingenious henhouse out of an old wooden chest of drawers, on its back; the hens have a ramp to walk up and into the house, just like the old-time cartoons I grew up watching where hens go to work every day on an egg-laying production line.

THE NEXT DAY, I’m in another neighborhood on the other side of town. I’m not quite as nervous this time, since I wasn’t attacked by killer chickens, arrested by city officials, or even bothered by suspicious neighbors during my last visit. The chickens at John and Mary’s house were so, well, cute—and the eggs were beautiful, a nice, rich, light brown color. Harmless, actually, I think, and then quickly reminded myself that this is illegal activity.

Today, I’m visiting with a much younger couple, fairly recently married with a young baby. Their house is also in a nice neighborhood, and their backyard sits beside a fairly

“One of the reasons we want chickens, aside from the eggs, is that we want our daughter to grow up around animals,” says Sue. “She’s too young for a cat or a dog, but she loves to watch the chickens, and we want her to love animals the way we do.” As if on cue, one of their hens moves closer to me to inspect me; I’m not as nervous around her as I was before, and let her scope me out. I must pass, because she goes back to hunting for bugs; I breathe a little sigh of relief and move on to my next family.

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

AN ARTIST FRIEND OF OURS

has been raising chickens in the city for more than 20 years, and I talk to him about it.

“Of course, I do it for the eggs,” says my friend, whom we will call “Brent.” “But it’s more than that. These chickens are beautiful—they are like works of art, and I add them to my garden the way I’d add flowers.”

I have never thought of chickens in this way, but it is true.

The subtle colors and patterns of some of the chickens I have seen were stunningly beautiful, and when the sunlight catches the feathers, some of them almost glow. The idea of these beautiful and colorful animals amongst the flowers in the backyard gives a whole new perspective to having them, and it is especially appropriate for this artist friend to point that out. This isn’t a farming project: this is an art project.

Brent also points out that dogs could be smellier and noisier than his chickens, and the city’s only restriction on dogs is about the number you are allowed to have. Why couldn’t the same be true of chickens? Keep roosters out of the equation—that introduces an entirely different noise level to raising fowl, and when you have roosters, you get fertilized eggs, which leads to more chickens. That could be a recipe for trouble; if the objection to chickens within the city limits is to prevent corporate farming in nice neighborhoods, maybe an acceptable compromise is to limit the number and prohibit the roosters.

A

,

NOTHER ARTIST FRIEND an animal lover from way back, goes the extra mile to make her hens comfortable. In fact, her layers, who are an exotic variety of chicken that appears more furry than feathery, live in a chicken house decorated with art. Each hen has a portrait of herself on the walls of the coop, so she can contemplate the meaning of life while she goes about the business of egg production—or, perhaps, the art is inspiration for the hen to produce more eggs, in hopes that the she can show the family portraits to her offspring and teach them about their proud heritage.

One striking similarity in all of these stories is how unashamed the owners are—and how accepting the neighbors have become. With the exception of one story of a renegade chicken gone wild, who flew over a fence and ate all of the

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

neighbor’s flowers, there really haven’t been any problems.

(The offending chicken got her wings clipped and hasn’t escaped since, and the neighbors cheerfully accept the egg offerings and inquire about the chickens, so peace has been restored.)

My last visit is with a young couple who have raised chickens for about three years. Last week, they had four hens—Hazel, Etta, Rosie, and Lena—but one was carried away by a hawk, so they are down to three. We stand in the backyard and talk about the ins and outs of clandestine chicken raising, and as we talk the most aggressive chicken comes up to check me out. I can’t remember the chicken’s original name, but a neighbor nicknamed her “Blondie” because of her white tail, and her owners, whom we will call “Anna” and “Justin,” laugh about how personable she is. “She’ll even sit in my lap when I’m having my morning coffee on the deck,” says Anna.

But that’s not all—she also loves being inside the house. Not that she’s allowed in there, but Blondie is a little sneaky and finds her way in there anyway. “It’s common to walk into the kitchen and see Blondie and our cat both eating food out of the cat dish,” says Justin. “She’d live inside with us, if we’d let her.”

All three chickens are beautiful, and I can’t help but notice what great bone structure and what good muscular development they have. I tentatively broach the subject again— would you ever consider eating these chickens?

The couple laughs. “We have this discussion all the time,” says Anna. “Justin says he could eat them, but I could not. If I hadn’t gotten to know them, maybe we could—we’re certainly not opposed to eating chicken! Even though consuming chickens is part of the natural order of things, these are our pets.”

Justin reluctantly agrees. “Someday we hope to move to the country where we can have a little more space,” he says. “Our dream would be to have more chickens—chickens we have to lay eggs, and chickens we have to eat. We probably won’t get to know the chickens we eat, the way we know our layers.”

All of this talk about eating chicken must have angered Blondie, because all of a sudden she walks right up to me and pecks at my leg. I jump, mostly because it surprised me; I am pretty sure she couldn’t really hurt me, but I did sort of move a little to put some space between us.

CHICKEN [CONFIDENTIAL]

©Abraham Rowe

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

CHICKEN [CONFIDENTIAL]

©Patrick Hood

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

“It’s common to walk into the kitchen and see Blondie and our cat both eating food out of the cat dish. She’d live inside with us, if we’d let her.” —“Anna”

The chicken house in this couple’s backyard is beautiful, made by Justin from leftover wood he had when he built the deck on the back of the house. There’s the ramp up to the laying area, and the chicken wire to protect them from night predators. Other than hawks, this family hasn’t had much trouble from visiting raccoons or possums, and they let their chickens roam the yard during the day. (They put themselves to bed in the coop at night.)

Ashley laughs when she tells me about what happened when they first got their brood. “Our backyard is fenced, and we thought that was enough,” she says. “But we found out later that when we would leave the house to go to work in the mornings, our chickens would go visit the neighbors. All of the neighbors. We found out one time when we came home early and couldn’t find them—they were next door, visiting.

Thankfully, none of the neighbors minded; in fact, they really enjoyed it, except for the flower-eating incident. We clipped their wings, eventually, to keep them in our yard, but the neighbors still hang over the fence and talk to them or check on them.”

Some chicken owners keep their chickens cooped up all day long, but that’s not the healthiest thing for the chicken, and it affects the egg. “Cooped-up chickens produce eggs like you’d find at the grocery store, and our eggs have a richer taste; our chickens lay eggs that are bold, with thicker shells, and more integrity in the white.”

AFTER VISITING THE LAST FAMILY who harbors chickens, I realize I can’t really think of them as criminals any more. In fact, I wonder if we might convince our cities to rethink their policy against having hens on private property within the city limits. I can understand limiting the number, and making sure roosters aren’t in the mix, but the chickens I saw—all with names, all beautiful works of art, all productive egg-producing citizens—seem to be peaceful, happy, and loaded with personality. As more than one chicken owner pointed out, dogs can be a bigger nuisance if they aren’t cared for properly.

But until that day comes, these chicken owners will continue to quietly let their chickens roam in the confines of their backyards. They’ll continue the cycle of bribing the neighbors with gifts of fresh eggs, and they will get a little nervous when a city vehicle turns down their street.

And you might not ever know that there are chickens in your neighborhood, unless there are tell-tale signs. Are the neighbors’ flower beds prolific because, perhaps, they are being fertilized with chicken poop? Have you ever awakened and walked outside only to find a basket of bribery eggs on your stoop? Who knows if that cute couple next door is secretly harboring illegal hens within the fenced-in backyard of their neat-as-a-pin home? Don’t ask too many questions. Just enjoy the eggs.

What was the biggest surprise, once they became chicken ranchers? The pecking order, says Anna. “There’s really something to it,” she says. “Blondie is very much in charge of this brood. She even eats first, and then lets the others know when it’s OK for them to come eat. She’s the undisputed boss, and you’d better not forget it!”

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

46 »

bless their hearts » Guy McClure, Jr. I couldn’t go back and I didn’t want to go forward. What I wanted was to go away; I wanted to go north or south instead of east or west and become lost in the world.

SAIL ON I started s college too young. Because of a September birthday, I was only 17 when I left my tiny homebe town of Athens in a fully packed MG and drove to to Florence to start my freshman year at the University F o North Alabama. I was brutally shy and immature, of but I knew I had to leave the proverbial nest. Petrib fied, I drove west on Highway 72 and crossed the Elk River Bridge. I became determined to make the best of things in the manner of Candide, which thankfully had been required reading just a few months before.

Athens h had not really been that kind to me growing up, but it was m home base, a place to answer when I would get the inall I knew. It did serve as my evitable “Where are you ffrom?” it bl question, ti “Wh ?” It was nice enough, I guess, but it wasn’t a good fit. Our family had moved there from Huntsville when I was six and we never felt as if it was home, or at least I didn’t.

I was lucky enough to have experienced a somewhat well-traveled life to that point, but it was always traveling with a crowd, and this journey was solo. I had purposely chosen UNA because none of the friends in my class were going there. I liked the thought of a fresh start, and unbeknownst to me, I would have these solo journeys into new towns six more times in my life—so far.

I crossed the Shoals Creek Bridge white knuckled. Back then it was a skinny, two lane passage and the traffic had already picked up. Things were starting to move faster. I didn’t know if I was ready for that.

As I entered Florence I tuned the radio to WQLT, the local top 40 station. This was 1979 at the end of the disco era, so it was a time of ballads. Good, heartfelt ones that seemed to tell stories of new starts, metamorphoses, and finding oneself. I had listened to this Florence station at night in Athens. The signal grew stronger as night when other AM stations left the air at dusk.

I liked listening to what was happening 45 miles to the west. It was foreign and exotic to me.

The airwaves at 107.3 on the dial were filled with jingles from places I didn’t know and a replay show of 50s music on Saturday night. It also included commentaries by local evangelists Haskell Sparks and David Sain. This always puzzled me as they seemed to always follow Donna Summer in their rotation, strategically placed, I’m thinking, to counteract her lusty lyrics.

Traveling further west on Florence Boulevard, “Sail On” by the Commodores came on the radio as I pulled into the Krystal parking lot. The song was about leaving one life and starting a new one. It was actually about Lionel Ritchie leaving a relationship, but I let the ballad play to fit my needs. As I sat in that overloaded sports car and listened to that amazing song, I started to cry. I didn’t know why, but what I did know was that I couldn’t go back and I didn’t want to go forward. What I wanted was to go away; I wanted to go north or south instead of east or west and become lost in the world.

Three tiny hamburgers later, I composed myself, took a deep breath, and continued the few miles towards the college. I can still remember the feeling of pulling into the Rivers Hall loading zone and seeing others, just like me, who were arriving at a new place for the first time.

After checking in on the ground floor, I traveled to the seventh floor to find my dorm room. I unloaded the car, and started the normal process of settling in, which was completely abnormal for me. I guess that meant I was a college student from that moment on, and it really didn’t take long until everything fell into place.

About an hour in to the unpacking process, a crackly voice came out of an up-until-then-unnoticed speaker in the wall of my dorm room. “You have a call on phone three.” I tried to answer the phantom voice back with “What’s a phone three?” but to no avail. I walked into the hall and noticed a bank of dial-less phones near the elevator. I picked up the third one and heard my mother’s voice, checking to make sure I had made it and that I had everything I needed. Yep, now I was a college student.

Both Florence and UNA have given me many happy memories and good friends. After returning to Athens after years of wanderlust, I enjoy taking that same path and crossing over the Elk River and Shoals Creek bridges whenever I can. Each time, as I come into Florence and pass that familiar spot on the Boulevard, I remember that August day 36 years ago, and I especially remember that song—that wonderful, slow, pullat-your-hearstrings song by the Commodores about new beginnings that petrified and excited me at the same time.

On a recent trip I pulled into that familiar Krystal parking lot. The building had not changed; it had not been remodeled as usually happens to these type of places. My memory was so vivid that I actually remembered where I had parked that day and pulled into the same spot. I reached for my phone and searched iTunes and found it—“Sail On” by the Commodores for 99 cents. After a quick download it started to play those familiar opening staccato notes and then Lionel’s voice took me back to an uncertain time.

It was as if I was sitting in that little green car—that little green ship that I sailed from one point of my life to another.

After a few minutes of deep thought, I started to cry. I thought about each time I had set sail on those types of journeys and what the outcomes had been. Then I composed myself, ordered three tiny hamburgers, and drove west.

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

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The Idea Audition is a joint venture of the Shoals Chamber of Commerce and the University of North Alabama. Even if you don’t win, you’ll be presenting to a group of business mentors and supporters who might be able to help you get your business started. You have nothing to lose — and you could win: FIRST PLACE: $5,000 SECOND PLACE: $2,500 THIRD PLACE: $1,000 Want more information? Contact Mary Marshall VanSant at mmvansant@una.edu. Rules and schedule can also be found at shoalsideaaudition.com. Reserve your spot today!

SPONSORS: PLATINUM: Bank Independent, University of North Alabama, Shoals Chamber of Commerce GOLD: Party Pros USA, Lyons HR SILVER: FreightCar America, Armosa Studios, City of Florence, NO’ALA Magazine, TVA BRONZE: CB&S Bank, nSide Inc., PartCycle, Progress Bank, Singing River Dentistry, Yates & Spry Law Firm, Alabama Technology Network, Shoals Entrepreneurial Center

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50 »

scene

Lynn and Greg Sharp Nadine, Leroy, and Billy Darby

Jim and Michelle Sibley John and Susan Thornton

John and Wanda Nesmith Jenny, McKenzie, and Wiley Mitchell

Di Tyree, Harriett Edwards, and Joyce Hallmark

Henri Hill and Liza Beadle © Photos by Isaac Ray and Heidi King

Above: First Southern Bank presents “Friday Night Live”

Below: Lyons HR Corporate Headquarters Ribbon Cutting and Open House

july ,  · the mane room, florence

may ,  · florence

Kim Preece, Jan Coffman, Mike Roby

Karen Ligon, Brad Buttermore, Bill Lyons, Amber Lyons, Jeanny Williams, Brenda McCreary, Don Irwin, Brittany Fannin, Tonja Keith, and Alan Ridgeway

Bill and Amber Lyons, Bill Lyons, Sr., Tillie Lyons, Connor Lyons, Donna Lyons Tomaszewski

Mitch Hamm and Gov. Bob Riley Alan Ridgeway, Bill Lyons, and Bruce Cornutt

Gov. Bob Riley, Bill and Connor Lyons

* Names for photos are provided by the organization or business featured.

Former Gov. Bob Riley and Marty Abroms

Joan Barnes, Danny Warren, Jeanny Williams, Alan Ridgeway, Bill Lyons, Juanita Williams, Bruce Cornutt, Paula Watkins, Scott McAlister, and Ginger Bateman © Photos by Danny Mitchell

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Healthy Chocolate

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I want to be your doctor for life.

I’m Dr. Ty Ashley, and family is very important to me. So is caring for my patients, whether they are infants, older people, or anyone in between. My approach is to treat each patient as a whole person, paying attention to all of the factors that go in to your good health.

I recently joined Family Practice Associates in Florence. If you’re looking for a family doctor for the whole family, with an approach that manages the whole person, please give me a call.

I’d like to be your doctor . . . for life.

Ty Ashley, MD Family Practice Associates 727 Cox Creek Parkway Florence, AL 35630 For more information or to make an appointment, please call (256) 764-9613

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text by allen tomlinson » photos by danny mitchell

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

FORGET WHA AT YOU THINK YOU KNOW ABOU UT BICYCLES. THEY ARE NOT JUST FOR CHILDREN—AND THEY ARE NOT JUST FOR ATHLETES. In fact, according to bike enthusiast Timothy Wakefi field ld, the ent ntir tir iree Sh Shoa oals oa ls are reaa is becoming more bike friendly. Bike racks have been purchased for downtown Florence and are soon to be installed; when Wood Avenue gets its long-awaited resurfacing, there will be bike lanes included. More and more people are using their bicycles to travel to work, instead of getting out the car; more and more people of ever ev eryy ag er age are rediscovering the great exercise that biking provides, at just about every sttagge of lif ifee.

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

“My biggest surprise about the people who purchase bicycles is that so many of them are buying bikes for their entire families,” Wakefield said. His business, The Spinning Spoke, is located in downtown Florence and has a variety of bicycles for every interest. “We have parents who are buying bikes for their children and then buying for themselves, and the whole family bikes together for great family time,” he said.

“When we opened, we assumed our target demographic would be the 20to 30-year-olds, but we sell more to a 50- to 60-year-old Baby Boomer who wants to start riding again.”

Above: A biker at Wildwood Park; Facing page: Bikes come in all shapes and sizes.

Biking is much different from running, as an exercise. “There are a handful of people in town who are serious bikers, in that they are training for triathlons and riding in races. To do that, you have to ride many, many miles a week,” Wakefield said. “Instead, regular people are remembering what fun they had on a bike when they were young, and they are going back to it as a good form of exercise.”

The rediscovery of the bicycle is not just a Shoals-area trend; it’s nationwide. Huffington Post even has a Bike Culture blog, with articles about the most bikeable cities of 2015 (spoiler alert: Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon, lead the pack, and the Shoals does not yet make this list); essays from people who really love their bikes and their biking style of life; and even an article titled “How to

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Ride a Bike in a Dress Without Flashing Your Underwear.” It’s obvious that the hipster generation has re-adopted the bicycle in a large way, but in the Shoals you are as likely to see someone with grey hair on a bike as you are to see someone with a man bun and a beard.

“We are very fortunate in the Shoals because our streets are so wide,” said Wakefield. “That makes riding easier, and gives plenty of room for a bike and a car to co-exist.” A biker’s biggest concern is a distracted driver, and although it is the biker’s responsibility to obey the rules of the road, it’s also the automobile driver’s responsibility to put down the phone and be aware of the two wheelers moving alongside.

Above: A bike event during this year’s Helen Keller Festival.

According to Florence City Councilman Dick Jordan, the city has purchased eleven bike racks and will begin installing them up and down Court Street soon. Each bike rack is designed to hold two bicycles, and will be placed on sidewalks outside the flow of pedestrian traffic but near the shops and restaurants that bring bicyclers downtown. If bicycling continues to be a growing trend, there are plans to purchase more racks in the future.

The City of Sheffield has been bike friendly for a number of years, according to Mayor Ian Sanford, and its wide streets make it a very bike-friendly town. The best known biking trail, though, is on the TVA Reservation, where the walking and

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

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biking trail wanders along the river and includes a jag onto the Old Railroad Bridge. The continued development of the River Heritage trail along the riverbanks give bicyclists even more opportunities to ride.

“For a more serious biker, the mountain trails at Wildwood Park are excellent,” said Timothy Wakefield, “and they are almost entirely maintained by area bike clubs.” During Daylight Savings Time months, every Thursday finds trail riders at Wildwood for lengthy and challenging rides. There are also Saturday morning road rides in the country, covering a lot of mileage, but always with a new area to explore. “That’s the fun of a bike,” said Wakefield. “It’s great exercise, it’s an outdoor activity, and bikers are a welcoming group.”

Above: Riders pose for selfies before the family bike ride held during the Helen Keller Festival.

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So, when is the last time you climbed on a bicycle and took it for a spin? “The cool thing is that biking is for pretty much everyone, even though the bike you ride might be different for everyone,” said Wakefield. “But it’s not something you grow out of. Bikes are not just for kids—it’s a lifetime sport.”

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Plotting a course toward achievement, right through the heart of the Shoals. by roy hall » photos by danny mitchell

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” according to an ancient Chinese proverb. The considerably shorter, though still grueling, Renaissance Man Triathlon began with a single step, too, on a city street in Huntsville, in the summer of 2007. That’s the year Bradley Dean, founder of what would become the Renaissance Man Triathlon, participated in his very first triathlon—a hobby that turned into a habit, that led to a calling, for the thenFlorence resident.

“I’d go to other cities—Chattanooga, Nashville, Guntersville—for their triathlons and feel frustrated that the Shoals didn’t have one, too.” To Dean’s mind, the Shoals offered the ideal setting for a land and water endurance test: a picturesque downtown leading to winding, hilly country roads provide the perfect route for runners and bicyclists. And, as luck would have it, a river runs through it.

Dean shared his vision for a Shoals triathlon with his wife, Jordyn. Together, they resolved to make it a reality. “Jordyn is an organized, detail-oriented person. The Yin to my Yang. I could never have put it together without her help,” Dean says about his wife’s contributions to a project with a scope every bit as demanding as the race it aimed to create.

That was all back in 2011. Three years of brainstorming, route planning, research, and meetings with various municipal authorities followed; closing a city center and a working river is no small task. “We had to work with the Coast Guard and the marine police, because it has to be written into law to close the river for swimmers.” Organizers also met with the mayor, city police, the fire chief, and the ambulance service. “Everybody was pretty open to it from the beginning,“ Dean says. “It was just a matter of educating everyone about the requirements and necessities.”

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ENDURANCE TEST

New Orleans’ David Baker makes his final turn of the cycling portion of the race.

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The good news for race organizers, as well as city and emergency services, is that once the route is established, that work is done, and the course stays the same, year in and year out. The remainder of the work—coordinating, directing, herding, and hydrating hundreds of race participants—falls to a team of 50-100 volunteers, a mammoth task in and of itself. Dean uses virtual technology to direct his legions of helpers to their assigned spots. “Our volunteers sign up at volunteerspot.com, where they select the different areas they want to work in.” Volunteer jobs include the Course Marshals who point participants in the right direction, water station attendants, and the folks in charge of labeling every participant with body marking, identifying age and number.

The race itself consists of three legs: a 1.5k (.09 mile) swim, a 40km (25 miles) bike ride, and a 10km (6.2 miles) run, each leg of which is precisely the same distance as their Olympic counterparts. To ensure adequately warm water temperatures, triathlon season is summer, and yes, Dean acknowledges, it is “painfully hot.” But the race isn’t intended to be easy. “It’s a test of the will,” Dean says.

And a stringent test at that. To endure the demands of the race, Dean recommends, at minimum, the “basic ability to run a 10k strongly, and a training period of at least four months to be able to do it safely.”

Sanctioned by triathlon’s official governing body, the USA Triathlon, Renaissance Man is officiated locally by a USAT referee sent to the Shoals by the national governing body. The officiant certifies race results, and the top 33 percent of competitors advance to the

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

ENDURANCE TEST

Athletes gather for the start of the race.

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Scott Foland of Franklin, Tennessee, makes the transition between the swim and the cycling portions of the race.  | noalastudios.com | september/october 

ENDURANCE TEST

national championships, held this year in Milwaukee, in August.

This year’s triathlon showcased the Shoals to participants from throughout the Southeast—from Georgia to Louisiana to Kentucky, and beyond—nearly 230 total, up significantly from 2014’s inaugural event. In a two-for-two sweep, Haleyville dentist Christopher Borden finished overall first again this year, and Birmingham’s Lori Williamson finished first among women.

On the subject of women racers, organizer Dean is quick to point out that the word “Man” in Renaissance Man should be understood to refer to mankind, and not be misinterpreted as diminishing the contribution of female participants. “Some awesome women participate in Renaissance Man every year,” Dean says, “and many of the women do as well or better than many of the men.” Regardless of their gender, Renaissance Man tests the mettle of all its participants in some pretty profound ways.

Ultimately, though, Renaissance Man aims to test more than just athletic prowess. The benefits of such a dogged training regimen and the persistence necessary to compete under such difficult conditions pay dividends off the race course, as well. Benefits Dean articulates in Renaissance Man’s slogan, and its mission: “Give. Do. Be more.”

Renaissance Man Triathlon gives back to the Shoals, by highlighting the natural beauty of our unique corner of the world. It gives back to its participants, too, by encouraging them to demand more from themselves—to do and to be more—every day of the year.

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

THE RENAISSANCE MAN TRIATHLON IN PHOTOS

This page, clockwise from left: Michael Probst of Montgomery finishing, Ken Brown of Alpharetta, GA, Robert Rausch of Tuscumbia, and Tina Eakin of Huntsville.

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ENDURANCE TEST

This page, clockwise from left: Lori Williamson of Birmingham (first female finisher and fourth overall), Glen Rudolph of Muscle Shoals, Chris Borden of Haleyville (overall winner), Renaissance Man founder Bradley Dean.

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In our last issue, No’Ala began a serial story with an introduction to Eleanor, the mild-mannered murderess who invited her hairdresser and his partner over for dinner to help her bury her fifth husband’s body in the backyard. Through the words of 12 different Shoals-area writers, our intent is to tell this story completely, one chapter per magazine. If you missed the first chapter, it can be found online at www.noalastudios.com; take a look at the July/August issue, beginning on page 64.

Not only did Randy and Tommy not help Eleanor with her burial plans, they snitched on her, notifying the authorities about her dirty deed. Realizing what they had done, Eleanor shot herself in the stomach, but managed to miss all of her vital organs and her bones; when the authorities arrived, she was sitting in her bed, remote control in her hand, watching “Wheel of Fortune” and waiting to die. Instead, she was taken away to serve some serious time.

In this chapter, writer Michelle Eubanks gives us a deeper look into these Southern characters as a dear neighbor is called to Eleanor’s trial, to testify about her character and state of mind. Please remember that this is a work of fiction and does not represent actual people living or dead (although truth can be stranger than fiction). But enough introduction: go ahead and dig in, before we say too much….

a Favor for Eleanor Chapter Two: Lily Herbert by michelle rupe eubanks » illustrations by rowan finnegan

Lily Herbert Peach was sitting in the courtroom, listening to the attorneys drone on and on about this right and that law. It was enough to make her crave the one cigarette a day she allowed herself.

Smoking was one of the few luxuries in which she indulged, and she relished the time, late in the day, in the hour or so after watching her television crime dramas and before retiring for the night, when she’d step out onto the side porch, light the end of her Virginia Slims with Warren’s engraved silver lighter, and inhale her first lungful of tobacco.

Now, it was as though that cigarette was mocking her from the silver case in which it was tucked inside her vintage Chanel clutch. Choosing just the right pantsuit for a day spent in the courtroom had posed more of a challenge than Lily Herbert had expected, but she was a Peach, after all, and appearances had to be kept up, no matter the circumstance.

With age, she’d lost interest in bridge and lunch at the club with friends. She devoted her time to her garden, her snowball bushes and knock-out roses, and on a warm sunny day, it was where she preferred to be.

Instead, here she sat, waiting her turn in the trial of the State of Alabama v. Eleanor Harrison, her neighbor and reluctant friend. Eleanor was on trial for capital murder, among other things, in a small town in north Alabama. It was a crime that

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

A Favor for Eleanor Chapter Two: Lily Herbert

“The state calls Lily Herbert Peach to the witness stand,” said the court clerk.

Lily Herbert knew this man, a Wayne Frasier.

“Upstart,” she said under her breath. He was such a climber, the worst kind, Lily Herbert thought, someone who would sell his own mother down the river if it benefitted him.

“What was that, Mizz Peach?” Wayne asked.

“Nothing at all, Mr. Frasier,” she said with a wave of her hand.

“Lovely to see you, but so sad under these circumstances.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, motioning her into the witness box. “If you’ll please place your right hand on the Bible, we can get this part done and get you on your way.”

“Of course,” she said.

Thanks to the crime dramas she watched, she knew all too well the next part, and with some amount of ceremony, she swore her oath to tell the truth, and nothing but, in the courtroom today. had the town abuzz with gossip, and it was the first time Lily Herbert could remember anything of note happening on the sleepy street she’d called home since she and Warren moved in as newlyweds more than 50 years ago.

Sitting still for so long and breathing the stale air of the room made her drowsy, and she closed her eyes and dreamed of her cigarette and contemplated her dead husband.

Warren Peach had been the town pediatrician—the only one for a time—delivering the small crop of babies born each year at the hospital that was just down the street and on the corner. If time and appointments allowed, he’d walk home for lunch and one of Lily Herbert’s fine pimento cheese sandwiches.

I should make some of that and take it over to Eleanor, she thought, until she was pulled back into the moment and the realization that Eleanor had absolutely no use for pimento cheese, fine or otherwise.

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“Now, Miss Lily, can you please recount for us the events of that evening last May that took place near your home on Walnut Street.”

This was Joe Don Merritt, the defense attorney. Lily Herbert knew him well, having watched him grow up just one block over. Now, as he hitched his pants up over his gut and adjusted his necktie, she thought it nothing short of a miracle that he finished law school. What she wouldn’t give to see his transcript. She’d bet that his grades were abysmal.

Lily Herbert Peach considered him and his question. Yes. She could tell him about that night and more, much more, but for what? To send a crazy old lady to jail for the rest of her life? She decided right then that her testimony would be the truth, with a twist, as Warren used to say. No real harm, after all.

“Well, Joe Don, I mean Mr. Merritt, that was an eventful night, as you can imagine,” she said. “I heard the commotion long before I ever saw it. I had to come around the corner of my porch, and, when I did, well, it was worth it. One man

was running down the street, screaming about a dead body, while another was fending a gun-wielding Eleanor off, physically man-handling her, as it were.”

Lily Herbert conveniently omitted the part about almost dropping her cigarette, as the lit end would have surely scorched the front porch that she’d just had painted—light blue for the ceiling and bright white for the floor, columns and walls—for summer. She allowed a moment to reflect on Warren’s insistence on the color choice.

“The light blue will keep the bugs away, Lily Herbert,” he would tell her as he rolled the paint on in long stripes. “Don’t forget that.”

And she never had. The paint chip stayed with her always, but even the painter, who’d been on the job for several years now, knew the exact shade—Benjamin Moore frosty blue— by memory.

She gave up a silent bit of thanks that the company hadn’t discontinued the color. With the way young people these days were painting their houses, she never could tell. Trends mattered so little at her age. To her way of thinking, it was just one more thing to worry about.

“Mrs. Peach? Can you elaborate any further?” Joe Don asked, interrupting her thoughts and brining her back, once again, to the present and the wood-paneled courtroom.

“Of course. Yes,” she said. “I just lost my thought for a moment. I suppose, thinking back, that what drew me to the front was the sound of screaming. I’d assumed it was a woman, but, as I came to see, it was a man, the one named Randy, whom I recognized as an infrequent visitor to the Harrison home. I believe he would drop in every now and again to do Eleanor’s hair.”

“Had you noticed anything unusual about that night?” asked Joe Don. “Not one thing in particular, no, but things had gotten unusual long before then,” Lily Herbert offered. “But, perhaps, I’ve said too much.”

Eleanor’s behavior, although never what one might consider normal, had certainly taken a turn of late, and no one on the

block had seen her husband, Jimmy, in several weeks. No one had made much of a fuss looking for him; Jimmy was Eleanor’s fifth husband, so it was generally assumed she’d just sent him packing as she had with those that came before.

“No, no, Mrs. Peach,” Joe Don said. “Please. Continue.”

“I wouldn’t want to speak out of turn, but Jimmy was, how would you say, different from Eleanor’s other four husbands, younger and from, well, a different class of people, you know.

He just never fit in with us in the neighborhood, so we kind of forgot about him,” Lily Herbert reported. “I guess we should feel something—guilt or remorse—since he was laying there festering in the back bedroom all that time, but we just never gave it a second thought.”

“Objection,” shouted the prosecutor. “Speculation!”

“See, and there I go,” Lily Herbert said. “I’ve said too much.”

She noted as well that this prosecutor was an out-of-towner, probably from the big city—Birmingham or Montgomery, even. There was no way he called little River City home, what with his shiny suit and stiff hair. Lily Herbert had never purchased, much less used, hair gel, but she figured that is what it did to hair, ruined it.

“Not at all, Mrs. Peach,” said Judge Arthur Randall. “You go right ahead. And, you. You’re overruled.”

“As I was saying, I’d noticed Eleanor venturing out into the neighborhood more than in recent years, more than I’d seen her since Warren passed,” Lily Herbert said. “She’d often find her way to my yard, and we’d get to talking about roses and the other flowers growing in my beds. She’d tell me things, about her other husbands and about Jimmy, things he did that made her think he might not have been such a good choice in a husband after all. And that’s so sad. She deserved a little happiness, don’t you think?”

Out of the corner of her eye, she could just make out some members of the jury nodding to her words. No one disputed that Eleanor Harrison was tetched in the head, as it were, but no one wanted to see her rot away in jail for a character like Jimmy. Letting him fester in the bed was probably as good a way to go as he should get, Lily Herbert thought.

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

A Favor for Eleanor Chapter Two: Lily Herbert

She also knew all about having a little happiness in life. Being married to the local pediatrician, everyone thought they’d have a houseful of children. And, for a time, it was one of her great sorrows—that no tiny child feet would run up and down the hallway, that no teenaged girl would sweep down the stairs in her gown, ready for the debutante ball.

It just wasn’t meant to be for the Peaches, so Lily Herbert came to accept it. Warren, though, was less than agreeable.

He’d broach the topic of adoption now and again, but nothing ever came of it, so the couple remained childless, and, with them the Peach name would come to its end.

“Mrs. Peach, is there anything else you can tell us about your relationship with Mrs. Harrison?” Joe Don asked.

“Anything she might have shared about why Jimmy wasn’t a good husband?”

“Only that he’d go out at night and come home half drunk from wherever it was that he’d been,” Lily Herbert said. “That he’d yell at her and raise his hand as if to hit her when she’d confront him. Is that any way to treat a wife? But, there, I’ve done it again. I’ve said too much.”

“Are you sure about this, Mrs. Peach? There are no police records to indicate any violence toward Mrs. Harrison,” Joe Don said.

“Oh, quite. Yes,” Lily Herbert replied. “She would never have called the police and filed any kind of report. That would have been rather unlike Eleanor.”

“Your Honor, I have to object,” said the prosecutor whose name Lily Herbert had decided not to learn. “We don’t know any of this to be true. We can’t take this woman’s word for it.

We’re going to need time to look into this and see if there’s even a nugget of truth here.”

No mind, Lily Herbert thought. The deed had been done.

Those jurors, many of whom her dear Warren had brought into this world, would remember her words. The idea of an abusive husband, especially one who was younger, stronger, and as shiftless and no count as Jimmy Harrison would linger for them, soaking in with each subsequent witness. Eleanor was the real victim here; they’d see that.

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“I apologize, Judge Randall,” she said. “I know. I’ve said too much. It is a fault of mine. But I would like to add one more thing, please.”

“Yes. Go on,” he allowed.

“Well, while we might not have missed Jimmy, I did, in fact miss my roses,” Lily Herbert said. “There were a few mornings I’d notice entire bushes had been picked clean of open buds.

There the day before and gone the next. I knew Eleanor had taken a shine to them, so I asked one day if she needed them.

I was happy to give her any she wanted, I might have even planted some in her yard, if she’d asked, but I was just curious if she was the one coming over in the night to get them.”

Lily Herbert remembered the conversation vividly. Eleanor couldn’t hide the lie; her face told the tale. She’d, indeed, been the one snatching up bunches of roses at night, shuffling them home, and draping them over Jimmy’s ever-swelling corpse.

And, just like that, she confessed everything.

“Oh, Lily Herbert, I should have told you, I know, but I couldn’t. I didn’t want to burden you with this horrible news,” Eleanor choked out in a gush of tears. “I’ve been hold-

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A Favor for Eleanor Chapter Two: Lily Herbert

Out of the corner of her eye, she could just make out some members of the jury nodding to her words.

No one disputed that Eleanor Harrison was tetched in the head, as it were, but no one wanted to see her rot away in jail for a character like Jimmy. Letting him fester in the bed was probably as good a way to go as he should get, Lily Herbert thought.

ing on to it, hoping that it would get better, but the smell, my God, it just gets worse, and his body just keeps swelling. I have to think that’s all the alcohol he drank and his meanness just gushing out of him in fits and bursts. It is horrible, and your roses, your dear, beautiful, wonderful roses are the only things that would even begin to touch the smell and make it go away so I could go back to my insignificant life of peace and quiet.”

Lily Herbert offered tissues and whispers of comfort. She was certain that no one could know about this horrible secret, if Eleanor could stay strong enough to hold it close. But, of course, that wouldn’t be the case. The fateful night that had brought them all to the courtroom was just days away at the time of the impromptu confession, and the secret would be exposed.

Some weeks later, just as the heat of a southern summer was digging in, Joe Don stopped by Lily Herbert’s house with an update on the trial and the sentencing.

“I thought you should know, Mrs. Peach, that Mrs. Harrison was remanded to a state-run mental institution,” he reported. “Maybe she should have gone to prison for what she did, but, as her attorney, I can tell you that what you said probably helped keep her from that.”

Lily Herbert noted with some satisfaction that Joe Don might have shed a few pounds in the time since she’d last seen him, and, while the stress of the trial might have been bad for his blood pressure, it was certainly good for his waistline.

“Well, that is good news, Joe Don, but you didn’t have to stop by,” Lily Herbert said. “I could have read it in the papers.”

“And was she taking the roses, Mrs. Peach?” asked Joe Don. “Well, of course not, Mr. Merritt,” Lily Herbert said. “Of course not. Eleanor was far too gone to have the presence of mind to come out of her home in the middle of the night and cut roses. It was silly of me to think she was. I have to believe it some other neighbor, looking for a lovely way to decorate a table or to remember a friend.”

“Well, all right, then, Mrs. Peach,” Joe Don said. “I do thank you for your testimony.”

The shiny-suited big-city lawyer had nothing to ask of Lily Herbert and, with a wave, she was excused from the stand and her time in the spotlight of a very public trial was at an end.

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“That’s true, that’s true, but I thought you might find it interesting that, when Jimmy Harrison’s body was recovered, there were hundreds of rose petals on it and in the bedroom. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“Not at all,” she said. “Now, could I invite you in for some of my fine pimento cheese? You know it was Warren’s favorite.”

Coming in November: writer David Sims introduces us to young Douglas. He’s large, but he’s not in charge; he also has a special hiding place where sometimes he’s able to hear what goes on in a neighbor’s house.

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text by allen tomlinson » photos by patrick hood additional photos by michael redding/timesdaily

To say that education has changed in the past 30 years is an understatement. But at the University of North Alabama, one change, recently implemented, addresses student retention in a unique and challenging way.

It makes financial sense. If you can keep the students you have, from the day they step foot on the campus until the day they graduate, you have a stronger university. You have happier students, your institution is financially stronger, and you don’t have to scramble to replace those who drop by the wayside.

“That was the idea behind the UNA Outdoor Adventure Center,” said its director, Patrick Shremshock. “We wanted to provide assistance as a student made the transition from high school to college, and give an outlet for stress relief, as well as the ability to meet new friends. We also wanted to give opportunities to connect to the community at large.”

The underlying assumption was simple. Students who come to UNA for the first time often don’t know anyone here, and the stress of learning how to study, as

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THE EDUCATIONAL OUTDOORS

The opportunity for faculty and staff to interact outside the classroom is just one benefit of UNA’s Outdoor Adventure Center. Here (and facing page), a group takes an obstacle course challenge.

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well as the stress of learning to live on your own, can sometimes be overwhelming. To help combat that stress, the university decided to offer physical activities, such as canoeing, disc golf, camping, kayaking, bicycling, caving, and more, and provide equipment for many of those activities for lending, at no charge. It’s an opportunity for students, UNA faculty, and UNA staff to escape the stresses of academia and spend some time away from it, meeting new people and learning new skills.

The program began small, but grew quickly. “Students pay an activity fee each semester, and those are the funds used to develop this program,” said Patrick. Those funds have enabled the Center to purchase equipment that is then lent to students with a Mane card, at no charge. “Kayaks are very popular,” he said, “and we lend those one per person per day. Bicycles can be checked out for four days at a time.

But the equipment we have is varied; we have tents, backpacks, life jackets, camping gear, coolers, fishing poles, hammocks, and lots more.”

Physical activity provides stress relief, and many participants come to the Outdoor Adventure Center looking for a few hours away from the books, enjoying the outdoors. But many come to meet new people, and the OAC organizes a variety of fun activities that teach new skills and provide the chance to make new friends.

“We have a huge presence at the SOAR programs,” said Patrick. (SOAR is a program for incoming students to introduce them to UNA, usually held in the summer before fall semester begins.) “We also use social media and the campus newspaper to spread the word about our activities. One fun

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THE EDUCATIONAL OUTDOORS

Some of the OAC’s activities involve skills such as rock climbing, and others teach teamwork; ropes courses require trust and confidence in the other members of the team.

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project is called ‘Camping on Campus,’ where we have 20 to 30 people camping out at the amphitheater, in the middle of campus. We partner with Alabama Outdoor, Eagles Nest Outfitters, and Rivertown Coffee for this event, and it’s a great icebreaker and fun for everyone who participates. It gives a little taste of some of the activities to come.”

Those activities could be everything from kayaking Cypress Creek to caving trips, from disc golf teams to St. Patrick bicycle rides.

“Much of this has a community aspect,” said Patrick. “We want to foster a sense of stewardship for the environment and for the community, and our programs allow participants to get to know this place. Along with safety, which is a primary concern, we teach recycling, rain barrel water collection, and even community gardening in our backyard.”

The Center, which is located in an older house on Irvine Street, just a block from Norton Auditorium, serves as a recycling collection point. It’s also a great gathering place, with room in the backyard for grilling and hanging out with like-minded friends. From time to time, Patrick will hang a sheet on the side of the house and show movies, to insure that the OAC continues to be a preferred hangout place.

One of the benefits of the OAC is the opportunity for students and faculty to interact with each other outside the classroom. Many faculty and staff members take advantage of the organized activities through the OAC, and “seeing a professor in a kayak is totally different from seeing him at a podium,” said Patrick.

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THE EDUCATIONAL OUTDOORS

Patrick’s life has always revolved around the outdoors, and the OAC is a natural place for him to be. After earning an undergraduate degree at Ohio State University, a love of amateur ornithology—the study of birds—led him to a career in Natural Resources at the Bear Creek Lakes Learning and Education Center. Funding cuts eventually claimed that job, so he returned to school, finishing a master’s degree in kinesiology at UNA. At the OAC, he is assisted by student workers, including Sarah Beth Simpson (who loves Kayak Polo and slacklining, horseback riding and “anything intense—get it? ‘In Tents’”); Christian Walker (who loves slacklining, outdoor rock climbing, and mountain bike riding); and David Atkins, a Boy Scout Troop Leader (and Eagle Scout himself who loves climbing, caving, and hammocking).

The OAC organizes activities for children as well, such as this day on the water to teach kayaking skills.

The OAC’s future is bright. “Last year, we had almost 700 students, faculty, and staff participate in our programs,” said Patrick, “and that’s about ten percent of the © Michael Redding/TimesDaily

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© Michael Redding/TimesDaily

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THE EDUCATIONAL OUTDOORS

If it happens outdoors, the OAC can help organize it; here, students get practice at a shooting range.

student body. We’re here for everyone; we’re free; and we don’t expect you to come here already an expert in whatever activity we are promoting. Just come with an open mind, ready to learn the safety and social aspects of the activity, and then relax and have fun. It’s a great way to relieve stress, meet people, and learn new skills.” That’s probably the best part of the entire program: it puts “Adventure” into the university experience.

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94 »

food for thought » Sarah Gaede »

Photos by Patrick Hood and Danny Mitchell

SOUL FOOD John Cartwright Kierkegaard observed that life is lived forward but understood backwards, or words to that effect. The divine intelligence, serendipity, karma, whatever you call it, often has a vision for us that we only fully understand when we look back over the seemingly random events of our lives and recognize how they brought us to where we are now. Conversations I had recently with two citizens of the Shoals bear witness to this truth.

John Cartwright, the proprietor of Rivertown Coffee in downtown Florence, has always loved coffee shop culture, but more as a diversion than a career path. While majoring in Christian Studies and Philosophy at Mississippi College in Jackson, with the goal of doing mission work in Uganda after graduation, John was unwittingly preparing for his future. He worked at a drive-through coffee shop.

He also worked a stint as a busboy at Julep, a southern-chic restaurant in Jackson, which he took on just to have some experience of the food business, about which he knew nothing.

Upon graduation, the acquisition of a serious girlfriend made a move to Uganda less appealing, so John headed home to Corinth, where he worked at KC’s Espresso. It wasn’t what he envisioned as the ideal coffee shop, but it was good experience. If nothing else, it taught him what he would do differently should he ever open his own place.

In time, John started looking around for a small college town with little competition for the coffee shop of his dreams. His friends directed him to Florence. On his first visit here, he found a recently closed place on Seminary Street that was perfect—or at least good enough. Much to his banker father’s horror, John embarked on his business venture with no clear plan. Although John is well aware that today’s model for success calls for a clear-cut business plan, a strictly defined market, and strict adherence to the plan, he was inspired by a vision—a coffee shop for everybody.

John considers himself lucky that he knew nothing about building a business. His approach allows him to reinvent constantly, looking for his own twist on things, always being authentic to his vision. He knows there are people with more coffee and food experience, and better technique than he has. He has given himself permission to move from defensiveness to curiosity; to acknowledge that he doesn’t know everything, to be open to learning from others, and to hire people more talented than he is.

Rivertown has become much bigger than John’s original dream, but he still remains committed to his goal of a coffee shop for everyone. Everyone includes Larry, a Florence fixture. Not only is Larry welcome to make Rivertown the place to park his backpack, he helps John by taking out the trash, dusting, and running errands for pocket money to fuel his Diet Coke habit. Larry returns John’s trust and kindness,

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John has given himself permission to move from defensiveness to curiosity; to acknowledge that he doesn’t know everything, to be open to learning from others, and to hire people more talented than he is.

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©Patrick Hood

The innovations of Fresh Café are expanding beyond the SJS lunchroom. Alan made mayonnaise from scratch in science class to demonstrate colloidal suspension. The fifth graders baked three kinds of cookies for the residents of Mitchell-Hollingsworth.

The dream at SJS is to have a parish/school garden to grow produce for the Fresh Café, with extra to share with those in need.

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

©Danny Mitchell

including camping out in front of the shop overnight when someone forgot to lock the door.

John is involved with Room at the Inn, the cold-weather night shelter for the homeless based at First Presbyterian, right across the street from Rivertown. Many of their clients are frequent visitors, and are always welcome. As it turns out, John has been able to reach and interact with many more people than he could have in the mission field, while still following his core value of inclusion for everyone. All you have to do is hang out at Rivertown for ten minutes, and you will see John’s vision in action, as people from every walk of life enter and are welcomed.

John Cartwright’s Alabama Caviar for Shindig • 1 pound fresh purple hull peas, cooked until tender in salted water and drained well • 1/2 cup chopped pickled red onions (see below) • 1/2 cup chopped roasted red peppers—jarred is fine • 2 cups heirloom cherry tomatoes, sliced in half • Salt and pepper • 1/2 cup chopped cilantro for garnish, optional Mix everything together and chill several hours before serving.

John Cartwright’s Quick Pickled Red Onions • • • • •

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar 1 cup warm water 1 tablespoon sugar 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 medium red onion, sliced thin

Combine vinegar, water, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk together until sugar and salt are fully dissolved. Place onion in a non-reactive container with a lid; pour vinegar mixture over onions, cover, and place in refrigerator for at least one day. Will last several weeks stored in the refrigerator.

Alan Phillips Chef Alan Phillips did not wake up one day and decide he was going to be the fresh food apostle to the kids at St. Joseph Regional Catholic School in Florence. A Shoals native, he had been cooking for years in Los Angeles when he decided to come back home in 2012.

At the time, St. Joseph was having problems with their school lunch program; the revenues were declining because of low participation by the students. The PTO knew they could take the easy way out and feed the kids chicken fingers and fries or pizza every day to get the numbers back up. But they wanted more than that. They wanted to educate the entire child, and part of that education is teaching children to eat and enjoy healthy food. It was the right thing to do, but they needed help to do it.

Although Alan had never worked with kids before—in fact, he says they weren’t even on his radar—he was recruited in the fall of 2013 by some SJS parents who knew him from Jacko-Lantern Farms to help prepare the school Thanksgiving dinner. He and hordes of parents, grandparents and children turned out a meal for 300 people, including 175 students, from fresh local ingredients. The meal was such a success that the school decided to start offering one of Alan’s meals twice a week. Before his involvement, student participation in the lunch program ranged from 30-40 per day. The days he cooked lunch, it soared to the 130-140 range. The test run was in December, and in January of 2014 it expanded to three days a week. The response was so positive that in February of 2014, Alan’s lunch program, now renamed Fresh Café, became a full-time operation.

The school decided to take a risk and to opt out of the Child Nutrition Program, which mandates the use of certain processed foods. The increase in students eating lunch at school has helped make up for the lack of government subsidies. The PTO also sponsors fund-raisers to supplement the food budget.

Drawing on the skills learned from his years in the food mecca of Los Angeles, Alan uses only the freshest, finest, least processed ingredients possible. Because he is a snoutto-tail sort of cook, he has very little food waste. The day I dined at St. Joseph, the menu was quesadillas with chicken, queso fresco, white cheddar, and mozzarella, served on

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whole-wheat tortillas. (I passed on the tomatillo-cilantro sauce, since I regard cilantro as Satan’s herb.) The stock from the free-range chickens was used to cook the rice. Dried pinto beans (about the cheapest source of protein around) were cooked with lemon zest and garlic. A sautéed veggie mix of red and green bell peppers, red onions, zucchini and yellow squash rounded out the meal. Dessert was fresh pineapple. I gobbled it up, and would gladly have eaten more.

For a minimal fee, Alan plans the menus, coordinates the purchasing, using as many local sources as possible, and works with the cooks, who are thrilled to be preparing such creative and tasty food. As the process has been refined over the past year, Alan has become more skilled at finding sources and ordering in advance—as in buying half a cow at a time. He also has a better understanding of the kids’ likes and dislikes. After a year of being introduced to unfamiliar but tasty foods, the kids trust Chef Alan not to steer them wrong.

I talked with the mother of an SJS graduate who, inspired by Alan, has signed up for intro to culinary arts at the Florence Freshman Center. A mother of a five-year-old says her son, who was a picky eater, now loves lasagna, salad, and Greek Green Beans, which she has to prepare for him every night.

Other student favorites are mushroom ragu on polenta, and curried cauliflower soup. The one drawback, if you could call it that, to the Fresh Café is that kids are becoming food snobs, and are forcing their parents to change their own eating habits.

The innovations of Fresh Café are expanding beyond the SJS lunchroom. Alan made mayonnaise from scratch in science class to demonstrate colloidal suspension. The fifth graders baked three kinds of cookies for the residents of MitchellHollingsworth. The dream at SJS, which is on its way to reality, is to have a multi-generational parish/school garden to grow produce for the Fresh Café, with extra to share with those in need.

If you would like to experience Fresh Café for yourself, just show up at the SJS office at lunchtime to get a pass (call ahead first). Lunch for adults is $6.00. It’s the best lunch deal in town.

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Alan Phillips’ Greek Green Beans • • • • • • • • •

1 pound thin green beans, tipped and tailed 1 cup plain whole milk Greek yogurt (Publix) 2 shallots, finely chopped 1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon sugar or honey Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil Salt and pepper to taste

Blanch the green beans in boiling salted water for 3-5 minutes, until bright green and just tender. Place in a bowl of ice water to cool. This can be done a day ahead—wrap in a clean dish towel and refrigerate.

Combine the remaining ingredients, season to taste, and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to serve, heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté green beans until hot. Turn heat to low, add yogurt mixture, and toss gently to coat. Do not allow to boil, as it might curdle. Or toss beans with yogurt mixture, transfer to an ovenproof dish, and heat at 300 degrees until hot.

Alan Phillips’ Roasted Cauliflower Soup • 2 pounds (1 head) cauliflower, broken into small pieces • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided • 2 teaspoons curry powder • 1 large or 2 small Vidalia or other sweet onions, chopped • 2 cloves garlic, minced • 8 cups (2 quarts) chicken or vegetable stock • 2 teaspoons ground coriander • 1 cup heavy cream • Salt and pepper to taste • Cilantro for garnish (optional) Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss cauliflower in 2 tablespoons olive oil, curry powder, and salt and pepper to taste. Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tips start to brown.

In a large pot, sauté the onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil until soft and translucent, then add garlic and cook 2 more minutes. Add stock, bring to a boil, and simmer for 10 minutes. Add roasted cauliflower, return to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for 30-45 minutes, until cauliflower is very soft. Add coriander and simmer for 5 more minutes. Remove from heat and cool for a few minutes. Using an immersion blender, purée until smooth. You can also use a regular blender or a food processor, but be careful with the hot liquid. Add cream, combine thoroughly, and heat through. Taste for seasonings before serving. Garnish with cilantro if desired.

A JURIED FINE ART FESTIVAL IN HISTORIC DOWNTOWN DECATUR

S E P T E M BE R

26-27 Call For Entries

Preview party & event details at

RIVERCLAY

No’Ala Renaissance Awards Who Inspires You? Now accepting nominations for Shoals area individuals who have made remarkable contributions in the following areas: Arts & Culture Business & Leadership Education Service & Spirituality Science & Medicine Submit your detailed nomination via email by December 1, 2015 to: allen@noalastudios.com Award winners will be featured in the March/April, 2016, issue of No’Ala. The Renaissance Award was created by No’Ala Studios and is presented to five Shoals area individuals, couples, or groups every two years.

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100 »

market » By Tara Bullington »

Photos by Danny Mitchell

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BY HEATH CERAMICS ($325) ALABAMA CHANIN (256) 760-1090 [C] HORN AND STERLING 5” BOWL ($22.00) [D] HORN 8” BOWL ($36.00) FIRENZE GIFTS & INTERIORS (256) 760-1963

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MAKING TRAINING PERSONAL by roy hall » photos by patrick hood, abraham rowe, and susan rowe

©Patrick Hood

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

IN

the space of a few generations, women’s roles in society have expanded to include every field and endeavor once denied them. Borders that rigidly defined our grandmothers’—even our mothers’—“places” have shifted, blurred, or been erased altogether. With so much positive change, and the altered expectations that accompany them, is it any wonder the answer to the question What do I want? is sometimes more obscure today than ever?

From her earliest memories, personal trainer and life coach Sarah Gillis took note of those shifting changes and expectations, and how they sometimes confounded the women closest to her. “My mom was my muse,” Gillis says of the source of her inspiration, the woman who helped Gillis define what it means to be a woman.

“She was a strong, powerful person.” But one who, like so many women of her generation, was discouraged from exploring the fullness of her personal power.

“Still, what she managed to overcome in her lifetime is extraordinary,” Gillis says of a woman whose mettle was tested throughout young Sarah’s life.

As the oldest child, with an assertive personality by nature, it often fell to young Sarah to take emotional responsibility for others in her family during those challenging times. It was a role Gillis gravitated toward naturally, even when performing that role entailed a bit of a role reversal, as she occasionally nurtured her mother. “My mother was the quintessential Southern woman,” Gillis says. A nurturer, giving, loving; but, like many women, particularly of her generation, sometimes shy about asserting herself.

Gillis and her mom share many traits, but the occasional lack of assertiveness is not one of them. That apple fell far from the tree, rolled down a hill, and kept on rolling, all the way to Florence, Alabama, where Gillis found the orchard in which she would bloom, in a way she never could have predicted.

Facing page: Sarah Gillis (center, in purple) is surrounded by some of her friends and clients.

From left: Brandeis Short, Rachel Bolton, Melissa Daniel, Katie Clement, Tracy Burdine, and LeAnne Roach.

Sarah Gillis’s post-childhood biography continues typically enough. She went to college and studied fitness management. She fell in love and got married. She became a mother to two sons, whom she loves with an exuberance that outshines the considerable wattage she casts on everything she holds dear. Gillis is a diligent, thoughtful mother, and one of the lessons she imparts to her children, as well as her clients and herself, is that the best way to take care of other people is to be sure you’re taking care of yourself.

With young ones at home and feeling a bit antsy for professional challenge, Gillis transformed her home’s mother-in-law’s suite into a gym, putting her fitness management education to work as a Certified Personal Trainer. Within six months,

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and with only word-of-mouth as advertisement, Gillis had 20 regular clients in her burgeoning home gym.

And then a funny thing happened on the way to the treadmill: Gillis’s clients started to talk about more than just carbs and crunches.

“I ask a lot of questions,” Gillis says about her process as a trainer. It’s a standard list you’d expect from a personal trainer: What does the client hope to accomplish in terms of fitness goals, weight loss, and nutrition? But something about the experience of exercising—maybe it’s the distraction of keeping up with the moving belt beneath their feet; maybe it’s the endorphins—motivated Gillis’s clients to open up.

“Women would come to exercise, and that would turn into a conversation,” Gillis says. “We’d start off talking about health and diet, but move into more personal areas.” The phenomenon reminded Gillis of something she’d come across while researching parenting techniques. “Talk to your kids about deep things while you’re playing with them,” Gillis read. “The distraction helps them open up.” The distraction of playtime

puts a child’s conscious mind on hold, allowing room to express what they’re really feeling. “While I’m helping my sons build a sand castle on the beach, I’ll ask them, ‘What do you like about our family?’” And out comes pouring the truth.

What’s true for children at play apparently also holds true for exercising adults. “By the second, 20-minute workout, there would be more conversation, a slow build.” Throughout which, Gillis began to realize that fitness and nutrition concerns were merely starting points for the changes many of her clients wanted to effect in their lives. As a result, Gillis quickly saw her role as personal trainer transform into something much more broad and holistic than just weight loss or healthy eating. “I listen, and I affirm,” Gillis says. “Clients opened up about their insecurities, fear, guilt.” In return, Gillis provided what she refers to as a “space with no judgment.”

The programs that resulted evolved intuitively, as Gillis’s role broadened from personal trainer to life coach, with Gillis offering her clients more than just her knowledge of the body and how it functions, but also the personal gifts of affirmation and the fortitude she’d developed from childhood on. “I

Sarah and her family—husband Brandon and sons Vann and Lyle.

©Abraham Rowe

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

Conquering Life co-founders Tera Wages, Bethany Green, Jessica Mangum, Gillis, and Ashley Anderson

“I’VE LEARNED TO SURROUND MYSELF WITH PEOPLE WHO SUPPORT ME AND UPLIFT MY TRUTH, AND I’VE LEARNED TO LET GO OF PEOPLE WHO DON’T.”

©Susan Rowe

SARAH GILLIS

don’t judge where people have been. I relate. Because what I’ve been through, I can always say, ‘Me too.’”

A common me too moment for many of Gillis’s clients is the sense of guilt over spending too much time in service to themselves, instead of others. “Women are nurturers by nature. We love it. But sometimes it’s tough to know what you want versus what you think you should want.”

Gillis’s clients wants ran the gamut. “I ask my clients, ‘If you could do anything, what would it be?’ Then, we adapt a plan that is realistic. If you want to be a business owner, start small. Make tea towels and put them on Etsy. Just put yourself out there. You may never be a billionaire, but you teach yourself the lesson that you’re capable of more than you thought you were.”

from helping them devise business plans to providing a temporary home to women in crisis. Regardless of the support the form takes, ultimately, what Gillis provides is a sense of belonging; a kindred spirit whose enthusiasm for her clients’ lives is as strong as her enthusiasm for her own.

One of Gillis’s clients relates her experience, and the personal transformation that resulted from her work with Gillis: “I came to Sarah for training. I didn’t expect to find friendship and to be empowered,” says one of Gillis’s clients. “There has always been an element missing with my fitness goals and a sense of disappointment within myself if I didn’t measure up. I never realized what exactly it was until I had my first session with her. She has a passion inside her that just radiates. She is passionate for the well-being of her clients and wants us to be the best versions of ourselves.”

No goal is too modest, and no life-change too great for Gillis, whose contributions to her clients’ lives include everything

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

Gillis toasts attendees at the kick-off reception for Conquering Life and speaks during one of its breakout sessions (inset). ©Susan Rowe

Another relates her own extraordinary transformation: “Because of Sarah, I had the courage to leave an abusive relationship and without her I would have never known my self-worth. I was told I would never by anything and now I believe the world has endless possibilities. When my amazing son starts Riverhill this fall, I’m going back to college. Sarah is the most inspiring person I’ve ever had the pleasure of being around. I used to weigh 280 lbs, and I’m now down to 160. I love her more than words could ever explain.”

Gillis’s enthusiasm—which can include everything from high-fives to brutal honesty—continued to attract momentum as more and more of her clients rallied around each other for support and encouragement. Emboldened by the changes Gillis saw around her, she felt empowered to make

 | noalastudios.com | september/october 

one of her own lifelong dreams come true: a women’s conference.

Held in June of this year, Conquering Life Retreat brought together women from around the Shoals, for two information- and inspiration-filled days of speakers, workout sessions, prayerful contemplation, yoga, and sharing. A monumental undertaking, Conquering Life came together by utiliz©Susan Rowe ing the very principles it sought to encourage: individual women contributing their best efforts, with encouragement from their friends.

“Bethany Oliver [Green] impulsively said yes,” Gillis says, relating those first, heady moments as Conquering Life began to take shape. “Then Tera [Wages], Ashley [Anderson], and Jessica [Mangum] all followed enthusiastically.”

“All have wonderful, loving qualities,” Gillis says of her Conquering Life colleagues. “But they were all different, and so they could all take on different roles. Together, they fostered a sense of community, and a celebration of who they are, with no shame.”

The Conquering Life website defines its mission: “Women everywhere feel the weight of trying to keep up with pressures of modern life. We work incredibly hard to keep our lives in motion. We are often quick to sacrifice ourselves and place our identity into our roles as a mother, a wife, a daughter or a business woman. We have forgotten what defines us and who we are without the influence of those around us.”

The seminar was a huge success, attracting women of all age groups and demographics, backgrounds and religions, in an atmosphere of support and encouragement. Various speakers conveyed their own messages, but a common theme ran throughout: the reassurance that, despite constant claims to the contrary from the media and society, perfection is a myth. That’s one of the truths Sarah Gillis wants to help women believe, along with the simple acknowledgement that striving for perfection is an exhausting journey with no end. But there is a worthwhile adventure, and it’s entirely accomplishable: the steady, incremental pilgrimage toward your own truth.

What lessons has Sarah Gillis learned on her accidental journey from personal trainer to life coach? “I’ve learned to surround myself with people who support me and uplift my truth, and I’ve learned to let go of people who don’t.”

Gillis is fortunate to be surrounded by friends and clients who share her vision of empowering women with the confidence to be who they are, and the permission to make themselves a priority in their own lives. She’s doubly fortunate to be supported in her work by the three men she shares her life with—her husband and sons—who recognize, along with Sarah, the value of strong, powerful women, and the truth that the myth of perfection isn’t necessary for a happy, balanced life.

For more information about Sarah Gillis’s services, visit her website at GentleMovements.com.

To learn more about Conquering Life, look for it on Facebook at Conquering Life Retreat.

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

Worn Wear Wagon at Alabama Chanin Come visit the Worn Wear Wagon at Alabama Chanin for free repairs on your busted zippers, rips, tears, buttons, snaps and pulls. We’ll also be teaching you how to fix your gear and celebrating the stories we wear with local food, drink and music.

DATE/TIMES Saturday, September 19th 10:00AM - 4:00PM

LOCATION Alabama Chanin @ The Factory 462 Lane Drive Florence, AL 35630

#WORNWEAR Follow us at patagonia.com/wornwear

kudos

If you want to share some good news about a friend, neighbor, or colleague—or even toot your own horn—send your kudos to roy@noalastudios.com.

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by roy hall

Front Row: Bud Ward, Dr. Bob Bailey, Dr. Hemant Patel, Barry Morris, Russell Pigg; Back Row: Mayor Ian Sanford, Larry Bowser, Dr. Eric Kirkman, Dr. Anthony Kalliath, Bishop Alexander, Chris Burgreen, Mayor Mickey Haddock

Blast Off

© Jim Kendall

© AIA/Raytheon

Front row: Mark Keaton (coach), Chelsea Suddith, Katie Burns, Cady Studdard. Back row: Tracy Burns (mentor), Evan Swinney, Andrew Heath, Niles Butts, Cristian Ruiz, Joseph Cole (coach).

Real Men Wear Pink

A rocket, designed by a team of seven students from Russellville City Schools, flew higher, faster and returned to earth safer than every other rocket at the International Rocketry Challenge in Paris last month. Russellville’s elite team of student scientists participated in the annual competition alongside fellow student groups from France and the United Kingdom. The challenge: build a rocket capable of reaching 800 feet in 46-48 seconds, separating into at least two sections, with one section returning to earth intact.

The Russellville team’s rocket surpassed the altitude and velocity of its challengers, and returned its cargo—a single egg—unbroken.

Twelve Shoals-area residents have been chosen by The American Cancer Society Shoals Leadership Board to represent the Shoals in a state-wide fundraising campaign for the American Cancer Society’s fight against breast cancer.

If you’d like to donate to your favorite “Real Man,” visit the organization’s website at makingstrideswalk.org/realmentheshoalsal.

Curb Appeal Forty-three businesses were recognized with First Place certificates by the Florence Beautification Board during their annual awards banquet, held at Trinity Episcopal Church, on July 8. Two of the honorees—Bank Independent’s South Pine St location, and Residence Inn by Marriott—were further distinguished by receiving Honor Roll status, in recognition of five consecutive years of First Place honors.

© Melissa Bevis

Left top: Stephanie Springer (Bank Independent, South Pine St) with Mayor Mickey Haddock; Left, bottom: Kayla Ingham (Residence Inn) with Haddock

Hook, Line, and Sinker For the second year in a row, the University of North Alabama Bass Fishing team is Cabela’s School of the Year.

The title recognizes more than a single victory, requiring

leaderboard primacy throughout an entire year of tournaments. Cabela’s is the most prestigious in the world of collegiate fishing.

Team members include: Hunter Haney, Tom Catania, Nathan Martin, Kenny Elkins, Andrew Cannon, Austin Griggs, Evan Horne, Will Horton, Brett Webster, Reed Elkins, Michael Gullette, Ryan Cole, Andrew Tate, Clint Frederick, Colby Harville, Drew Herold, Ryan Darracott, Jake White, John Maner, Makenzie Henson, Brad Vice, Blake Burtram, Hunter Kelley, Zach Darracott, Ryan Thompson, Blake Thomas, Joe Nakai, Austin Mize, Daniel Leiner, Cody Harrison, Ryan Hayse, Austin Jones, Evan Bernas, Ryan Williams, Colt Kelso, Justin Lynch, Dawson Lenz, and Jimmy Swindle

© Jerry Foster

Score!

Florence High School’s broadcast and production team took top honors at the National Federation of High School Sports Networks conference in Atlanta on July 18. Headquartered in Florence Academy of Fine Arts state-of-the-art production center, the team produces content for both the school and community. Their current roster of streaming content includes FHS’s in-house news show, Falcon Five News, Jimmy Nutt’s Nutthouse Live, UNA’S Big Idea program UNA, and the SkillsUSA awards ceremony for the Alabama State Department.

Left to right: Brodrick Linder, Cody Lewis, Chase Holcombe, and Quinn Raymond; Students not pictured: Jackson Sneed, Brandon Rieff, Lucas Ragan, Tyler Pollard, Chance Snider, Mathew Shewell

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

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the vine » Amy C. Collins Though the old rule of oyster eating strictly in the months that end in R is archaic, this is the ideal season for dining al fresco; both our bodies and the wine glass can relax sweat-free.

OYSTER WINES My appreciation for the oyster reaches back to childhood, when my father would host family gatherings on our Florida patio. The sack of Apalachicola harvest seemed a tower of exotic creatures to me, and I remember watching him hold each bivalve in one rubber-gloved hand, while working the flat knife between the top and bottom shell with the other. But I wouldn’t eat them, the taste too pungent for my young palate. True desire came late. Through my 20s and early 30s, I coveted the elation my dining partners expressed when washing down the raw mollusks with a delicate Champagne or sea-hinted Muscadet, two wines I’d fallen for long before the sweet brine of the oyster. Then, finally, one day I tried again, and was hooked. For those of us who love them, we love them immensely, for the exquisite luxury as much for the cold beverage that follows.

Though the old rule of oyster eating strictly in the months that end in R is archaic, this is the ideal season for dining al fresco; both our bodies and the wine glass can relax sweat-free. We can take our time on each one without worry the ice bed will melt or the wine turn tepid. Hemingway captured the essence of such a moment in his Paris memoir, A Moveable Feast. “As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.”

Which brings us to the essential question, Which white wine should we plan to drink with oysters? As with all food and wine pairings, we’re looking for balance and compliments. Crisp light-bodied whites won’t compete with the meaty texture of the oyster, where, for example, a big buttery chardonnay will fight it. Wines with a little salinity, like Muscadet or Vinho Verde will echo the salty flavors and smooth out the metallic finish. Another steadfast trick to use is to look at the regions of the world that make white wine and harvest seafood. The Atlantic coast in northern France, Basque country in northern Spain, and just across the border, Portugal. Champagne and Chablis are further inland, but their vines grow on ancient bedrock of fossilized sea creatures, and their stainless steel production without malolactic fermentation make them perfect mates for the beloved mollusks.

Below are some of my current favorites. You can find them in North Alabama at your favorite retailer store (and if not these, certainly cousins from the same regions) and at go-to oyster joints, The Bottle

and Mezza Luna in Huntsville and, on Thursday nights, Odette in downtown Florence.

Muscadet is the area in France that sits just south of Nantes, at the mouth of the Loire river where the Atlantic Ocean influence dominates the weather. Muscadet is made from 100 percent melon de bourgogne, the native white wine grape there. Many of them are bottled with a little zip of carbon dioxide alongside a bright tang and sometimes slightly saline flavors. Drunk very cold, it is a star for oyster pairing.

Try producers Chateau Ragotiere and Chateau la Bourdiniere.

Chablis is another favorite for late afternoons and shellfish.

Made from 100 percent chardonnay (which many drinkers don’t realize) north of Burgundy in stainless steel, which allows the grape to reveal it s true, unadulterated self. What better match for the naked bivalve?

Try producers Simmonet-Febvre, everything from the smaller appellation Petit-Chablis to their lovely Grand Crus, and Domaine du Chantemerle Boudin.

Back to the Loire Valley, Cheverny is a small appellation just outside of Touraine proper, where they grow primarily sauvignon blanc, and offer great values compared to Sancerre further east. Chardonnay and chenin blanc are also grown to some extent for the white wines.

Try Domaine du Salvard Cheverny.

If Europe isn’t your bag or you’re looking for more aromatic fruit and less saline-mineral notes, look to New Zealand for super crisp sauvignon blancs that offer passionfruit and ripe grapefruit aromas that finish dry. They love shellfish.

Try Dog Point in Marlborough and Mt. Beautiful sauvignon blanc in North Canterbury.

Follow Amy at pigandvine.com for more stories and wine suggestions.

september/october  | noalastudios.com | 

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parting shot » Cliff Billingsley

HIGH OVER HANDY

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Money for a Home.

MEMBER FDIC

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Milner-Rushing has a complete line of pharmaceutical-grade wellness products that will help you look better, feel better . . . and live better! Allergy relief, help with sleep or aching joints, RX Skin Therapy, and so much more — all from the people you know and trust. Familiar Faces, Expert Care — from Milner-Rushing!

THREE CONVENIENT LOCATIONS: 869 Florence Blvd. , Florence: (256) 764-4700 202 West Avalon Ave., Muscle Shoals: (256) 386-5220 2602 Hough Road , Florence: (256) 740-5515 www.mrdrugs.com

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How to Eat for Life

Recipes and Tips for Feeling Better

by Eating Better!

berries, peaches, watermelon, cantaloupe, and more!), and organically fed livestock. We have a variety of farmers’ markets and produce stands that sell healthy foods, and our restaurants are headed by chefs who are very aware of the link between good food and good health. Add to that the fact that our four distinct seasons allow plenty of opportunity to get outside and get active, and we have no excuse in the world to not be healthy, extend our lives, and feel better for every living moment.

Want to feel better?

Start with the way you eat.

Sorry, Mom…

In reality, many times we cook the way our mothers cooked for us. That makes it frustrating when it’s obviously time to make changes, because we People in the Shoals—and people all across Amer- have no idea what to do! ica—battle their weight, complain of a lack of For this reason, Shoals Happy Heart is collaboratenergy, and suffer from chronic illnesses that can ing with the Culinary Arts and Nutrition faculty actually be traced to the way we eat. Fast food, of the University of North Alabama, Department processed groceries, and an increasingly sedenof Human Environmental Sciences, to present a tary lifestyle mean we get larger, feel worse, and don’t understand why. In fact, the Florence metro series of cooking classes this fall, to teach you how area was recently cited as being one of the fattest to make a few changes to what you’re already cities in Alabama—and Alabama is one of the fat- doing…and change your life. Through six weekly classes, you will learn how to read labels, what to test states in the country. look for and what to stay away from, which aisles to avoid at the grocery store, and how to cook That’s why, earlier this year, a group of nutritionsome delicious, basic meals. ists, medical personnel, educators, and No’Ala came together to create Shoals Happy Heart.

This non-profit group uses a Facebook page and social media to give readers tips for how to make small changes to their eating habits that will eventually lead to huge changes in their lives.

Local restaurants have agreed to help, designating items on their menus that are the healthiest as “Shoals Happy Heart” items. Shoals Happy Heart social media posts include healthy tips about food, but also exercise ideas that will help with health, as well as helping improve a general feeling of well-being. If we are what we eat, as the saying goes, maybe we need to eat just a little bit better!

How lucky that we live in this corner of Alabama!

You don’t have to look far to find farm-raised vegetables, fresh fruits (like blueberries, straw-

The classes are open to the public and cost $15 per class. (If you pay for all six classes in advance, there is a $10 discount.) But if you are really battling weight or health issues that are diet related, if your doctor writes a prescription for you to attend the classes, there is absolutely no charge. It’s much more important to us that you come to each class, pay attention to the tips and advice that will help you change your life, and make a commitment to good health.

Sounds too good to be true? There’s only one catch. If your doctor writes a prescription for this series of classes, we expect to see you at each and every one of them. We promise it will be fun, you’ll begin to look at food and nutrition in a different way, and you’ll feel better. Come join us!

Two class times offered: 2:00-3:00 p.m. or 5:30-6:30 p.m.

Class Schedule and Details Here is some information about the classes coming up this fall, to teach you how to eat better and feel better.

The classes will be taught at the UNA East Campus, at the Culinary Center. Class size is limited to 40 students. Preference is given to those who attend with a doctor’s prescription; other community members who want to pay to attend will be allowed on a first-come, first-served basis, as space allows.

If your doctor writes a prescription for you to attend the classes, there is absolutely no charge. If you do not have a doctor’s prescription, the cost is $15 per class, or $90 for the series. If you pay in advance, there is a $10 discount and your total charge will be $80.

The classes will focus on ways to change your eating habits to lose weight and feel better. You’ll learn how to read labels and which aisles to avoid at the grocery store, and you’ll watch cooking demonstrations designed to teach you to prepare easy and healthy meals.

CLASS ONE: Tuesday, October 6 GETTING STARTED • Journaling into awareness—understanding the importance and benefits of keeping a lifestyle journal • Healthy diet guidelines • Portion sizes • Committing to health CLASS TWO: Tuesday, October 13 WHERE’S THE FAT? • Learn to recognize which foods are considered fat • Identify healthy fats • Cooking with healthier fats CLASS THREE: Tuesday, October 20 COOL CARBS • How carbohydrates lead to weight gain and clogged pipes (a.k.a. arteries) • Which carbohydrates are your friend (limiting simple carbohydrates and focusing on complex carbohydrates) • Incorporating whole grains and vegetables into your meal plans CLASS FOUR: Tuesday, October 27 SALT: TO SHAKE OR NOT TO SHAKE? • Where’s the salt?

• Flavorful ways to cook without the salt shaker CLASS FIVE: Tuesday, November 3 A GROCERY STORE ADVENTURE • Reading the food treasure map (a.k.a. food label) • Grocery shopping made easy CLASS SIX: Tuesday, November 10 DINING OUT MADE FUN • Interpreting the menu description • Planning before you go • Asking for what you want

The Doctor says to change the way you eat.

Uh-oh.

Now what?

skim milk can lower the fat content of the recipe by 8 grams of fat per cup of milk.

Time to face facts: you don’t always eat in a way that’s best for you. You may eat the way your mother cooked for you, or you fell into bad habits years ago and don’t know how to change. In most cases, people know they need to change their eating habits, but they just don’t know how.

Cut back the amount of cheese in a recipe by half.

Here are some tips and tricks to make your favorite recipes just a little bit healthier.

Tips and Tricks to Making Recipes Healthier Jill Goode Englett MS, RDN, RN University of North Alabama Do most of you have recipes that you have enjoyed for years and are family staples? Today the doctor told you that you have to make changes like reducing the salt, sugar, and/or fat intake in your diet. Panic sets in: What will you cook? How will you feed your family? How will they accept the new foods? You think you have to give up all the old recipes. Not true. With a few tweaks you can continue to use those recipes you and your family have enjoyed for years.

Lower the fat in recipes and when cooking: Substitute whole fat dairy products with low fat or fat free versions.

Example: Substituting reduced fat (2%) milk for whole milk will lower the fat content of the recipe by 3 grams of fat per cup of milk, while substituting

Cut the fat in half when baking and use unsweetened applesauce, mashed bananas, or pureed prunes for the other half.

Example: The Cinnamon Raisin Muffin recipe calls for 1/2 cup of butter: substitute 1/4 cup of butter and 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce, reducing the fat content of the recipe from 92 grams to 46 grams. Of course, there are 12 servings in that recipe, so you lower the grams of fat per muffin from 8 grams to 4 grams.

Use nonstick cooking spray when sautéing and greasing baking pans.

Use one to two tablespoons of broth or water to sauté instead of oils.

Lower the salt in recipes and when cooking: Cut salt in half in most recipes without affecting the overall recipe.

Reduce salt in half in baked non-yeast leavened baked goods.

Example: The Cinnamon Raisin Muffin recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of salt. In this recipe decrease the salt to 1/4 teaspoon. The Dietary Guideline for Americans recommends 1500 mg of sodium per day for those with chronic health conditions. Half a teaspoon of salt contains about 1000 mg of sodium.

By lowering to 1/4 teaspoon, the sodium content per

muffin is lowered from 83 grams per muffin to 42 grams.

Substitute fresh or frozen vegetables for canned vegetables or dried beans for canned beans.

This may take a little extra preparation and add to the cooking time; however, the savings in sodium is huge.

Example: Half a cup of canned green beans has 420 mg of sodium (remember The Dietary Guideline for Americans recommends 1500 mg of sodium per day for those with chronic health conditions) while fresh or frozen green beans have 0 mg of sodium.

Use lower sodium versions of soups and broths in recipes.

Experiment by substituting herbs, spices, citrus juices, and flavored vinegars for salt in recipes.

Lower the sugar in recipes and when cooking: Decrease the sugar in a recipe by 1/3 to 1/2 and

add other ingredients to enhance the sweet flavor such as cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, vanilla extract, or almond extract.

Increase the fiber in recipes and when cooking: Substitute enriched bread with whole-grain pasta.

Example: One cup of cooked enriched spaghetti has 3 grams of fiber, while a cup of cooked whole-wheat spaghetti has 6 grams of fiber.

Substitute half of the white flour with whole-grain flour.

When experimenting with recipes, only make one change at a time. That way you will figure out what works for you and your family and what doesn’t. For example, use low sodium soup in that casserole recipe instead of regular soup first, and if that works well, next time use the low sodium soup and use frozen vegetables. Note that you may need to steam the vegetables first or extend the cook time slightly.

References: Nutrition Center: American Heart Association website http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/Nutrition-Center_UCM_001188_SubHomePage.jsp Nutrition and healthy eating: Mayo Clinic website http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/basics/nutrition-basics/hlv-20049477 Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion: health.gov website http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015.asp#resources

Let’s start cooking!

We know the idea of changing your diet can be intimidating. That’s why we asked some knowledgeable friends to put together some healthy recipes that you can use to get started on a healthy diet.

These are simple and easy to follow—and you’re going to love them!

Unless otherwise noted, these recipes come to us from Chef Johnson Ogun, Chef Prema Montiero, and Chef Lewis Yuille, Culinary Arts, University of North Alabama, Department of Human Environmental Science. So assemble your ingredients and let’s get started. It’s time to eat!

Roasted Tomatoes and Fresh Mozzarella Cheese Canapés

Brown Rice Pilaf

Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 1 oz

Ingredients:

Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 4 oz

• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved and seeded • 1 tsp olive oil • 1/4 lb fresh mozzarella cheese cut into 1/2 inch strips • 12 each fresh basil leaves • A dash of salt to taste • A dash of pepper to taste

• 2 cups low sodium or sodium free chicken broth • 1 onion, diced • 4 carrots, peeled and diced • 1/2 red bell pepper, diced • 1 cup long grain brown rice • 1½ tbsp. olive oil • 1 tsp thyme • 1 tsp ginger • 1 tsp nutmeg

Directions:

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 250° F. • Halve and seed the tomatoes then wash and pat dry.

• Gently coat the tomatoes with oil in a bowl.

• Place tomatoes on a baking sheet and roast for 5 minutes; remove and set aside to cool.

• Season with salt and pepper to taste.

• On individual basil leaves, arrange cheese and roasted tomato in layers.

• Serve.

• • • • • •

Ingredients:

Place the chicken stock in a medium pot.

Add rice and simmer.

Sweat the onion, carrots, and bell pepper.

Add to cooked rice.

Add spice blend.

Cover tightly and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

• Fluff the rice with a fork and serve.

Spicy Apricot Chicken Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 6 oz Ingredients: • • • • • • • •

1 tsp fresh thyme 1 tsp minced garlic 1 tsp minced ginger 4 (6 oz) chicken breasts 1 tsp sriracha sauce 4 tbsp apple cider vinegar 1/2 cup apricot jam/jelly Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: • Combine thyme, garlic, and ginger.

• Wash and pat dry chicken breast and rub with spice blend.

• In a blender combine sriracha sauce, apple cider, and apricot.

• Grill chicken halfway then baste with spicy mixture and finish in oven.

• Baste again before serving.

Tilapia Esco Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 6 oz Ingredients: • 4 (6 oz) Tilapia fillets • 1/2 cup flour seasoned with a dash of black pepper and cayenne pepper to taste • 2 tbsp olive oil, divided • 1 tbsp minced garlic • 1 tbsp minced ginger • 1 onion cut into strips • 1/3 red bell pepper cut into strips • 1/3 yellow bell pepper cut into strips • 1/3 green bell pepper cut into strips • 2 carrots cut into small strips • 1 sprig thyme • 1/2 cup sherry cooking wine Directions: • Lightly bread tilapia in seasoned flour, and arrange on a sheet pan.

• In a skillet heat 1 tbsp oil to smoking point and sauté tilapia to golden brown • In another skillet, add 1 tbsp oil and sauté garlic and ginger to translucent.

• Add bell pepper, carrot, and onion, and cook for 2 minutes.

• Add sherry cooking wine.

• Top each tilapia with mixture and finish cooking in the oven for 10 minutes • Serve hot.

Spicy Remoulade Dip with Vegetable Sticks Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 1 oz Ingredients: • • • • • • •

1/2 cup lite mayo 1/2 tbsp stone ground mustard 1/2 tsp sriracha sauce Salt to taste Pepper to taste 3 carrots (18 sticks) 3 celery ribs (18 sticks)

Directions: • Combine the first five ingredients in a bowl.

• Mix well and adjust to preferred taste (add more sriracha, salt or pepper to taste as needed).

• Put in a small serving bowl and chill.

• Wash and pat dry carrots and celery.

• Cut carrots and celery into sticks • On a serving platter, place dip in the center and arrange vegetable around it.

• Serve cold.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 4 oz Ingredients: • 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into strips • 1 tbsp olive oil • 1 egg beaten • 1/2 cup panko or bread crumbs • 1 tbsp sugar • 1 tsp cinnamon • 1/2 tsp garlic powder • 1/8 tsp salt • 1/4 tsp pepper Directions: • Preheat oven to 400° F and spray baking sheet and set aside.

• Cut the potatoes into fry shapes (thick or thin) then soak them in water for around 15 minutes. This is the important step to make them crispy!

• Drain and pat dry.

• Mix the other ingredients except oil, sugar, and cinnamon in a separate bowl and mix well.

• Drop the potato sticks in beaten egg and toss to fully coat the potatoes • Shake excess liquid off the potatoes and drop them into panko mixture • Remove potatoes and toss in the bowl with the oil.

• Spread the fries evenly on a baking sheet.

• Bake 25-30 minutes, turning halfway through.

• For even crispier fries, feel free to leave them in longer or broil for the last 1-2 minutes.

Skirt Steak with Soy Ginger Sauce Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 6 oz Ingredients:

Mashed Potatoes

• • • • • • • • • • •

3 oz pineapple juice 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce 1 tsp sherry wine 1 tsp olive oil 4 (6oz) skirt steak 1 tbsp minced ginger 1 garlic clove, minced 1 tsp olive oil for sautéing 1 tsp red cooking wine 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tsp chili powder

Directions: Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 1/2 cup Ingredients: • 1 lb potatoes (red or russet), peeled and quartered • 1 cup low sodium or sodium free chicken broth • 2 cups skim milk • 4 tbsp light sour cream • 1 tbsp butter Directions: • Put potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with chicken broth.

• Bring to a boil over high heat. Lower heat to maintain a simmer, and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.

• Drain 1/2 of liquid in potatoes; return to saucepan.

• Mash potatoes with electric mixer on low speed or use potato masher.

• Add sour cream, milk and butter.

• Beat until light and fluffy.

• In a large bowl, combine the first four ingredients.

• Add steak and marinate for 2 hours.

• In the broiler (oven) broil steak to medium rare (pink) or desired doneness, set aside to rest.

• In a sauce pan sauté ginger and garlic in oil.

• Combine the rest of the ingredients.

• Bring to simmer over a medium heat.

• Ladle sauce over steak and serve.

Spinach Pinwheel Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 2 oz Ingredients: • • • • • • • •

1 oz cream cheese, softened Salt & pepper to taste 2 spinach flour tortillas 1/4 red pepper diced 1/4 yellow pepper diced 1/4 green pepper diced 2 tsp olive oil 12 baby spinach leaves, washed and pat dry • 2 oz feta cheese (crumbled) • 2 oz craisins, soaked in water for 2 hours, drain, and pat dry • 2 oz walnuts, chopped

Directions: • Season cream cheese with salt and pepper and spread on flour tortillas.

• Sauté diced peppers in olive oil for 1 minute.

• Layer 1/3 surface of tortillas with baby spinach, sautéed peppers, feta cheese, craisins, and walnuts • Roll tortillas tight into a wheel.

• Slice one inch thick.

• Arrange on a serving tray.

• Serve cold.

Haricots Verts Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 4 oz Ingredients: • 1 lb haricots verts (fresh green beans) • 1 cup low sodium or sodium free chicken stock • 1 tsp olive oil • 1/2 onion, cut into strips • 1 cup yellow bell pepper cut into strips • 1 cup red bell pepper cut into strips • 2 cloves fresh garlic • 1 tsp thyme • 1 tsp ginger • 1 tsp nutmeg • Salt and pepper to taste

Glazed Carrots Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 4 oz

Directions:

Ingredients:

• Blanch the haricots verts in simmering stock until tender.

• Drain the beans, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

• Heat the oil in a small sauté pan over medium heat.

• Add onion, peppers, and garlic.

• Sauté until translucent.

• Combine the haricot verts with sautéed products.

• Toss to coat, add spices, and serve.

• • • • • • • • •

1 lb carrots, oblique-cut 1 oz honey 2 tbsp yellow onion, minced and sautéed 6 tbsp green onion, chopped and sautéed 3 oz. pecans, toasted and chopped 1 tsp thyme 1 tsp ginger 1 tsp nutmeg Salt and pepper to taste

Directions: • Cook the carrots in simmering water until just tender. Drain the carrots (save 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid) and place in bowl.

• Combine the carrots with the honey, sautéed green and yellow onions, pecans, and spice blend in large pan over mediumhigh heat.

• Add enough of the cooking liquid to make a smooth light glaze.

• Toss carrots and coat evenly.

Tropical Fruit Salad with Berries Vinaigrette Recipe Yield: 4 servings Portion Size: 1 cup Ingredients: • 1/2 cantaloupe, peeled and cut into large cubes • 1/2 papaya, peeled and cut into large cubes • 1 mango or peach, peeled and cut into large cubes • 1/4 pineapple, peeled and cut into large cubes • 2 kiwi or 2 cups watermelon, peeled and cubed • 1 tbsp olive oil • 1/4 cup apple cider or balsamic vinegar • 1 garlic clove, minced • 1/4 cup honey • 1/2 cup strawberries and raspberries • 1 tbsp shredded sweetened coconut Directions: • Cut and combine first five ingredients in a large bowl.

• In a blender, combine the next five ingredients.

• Blend until very smooth.

• Drizzle vinaigrette over fruits.

• Sprinkle with coconut.

• Serve cold.

This spring, Shoals Happy Heart issued a challenge to its online readers. Send us your best recipes, we said, and we’ll send the winner on a seven-day Caribbean cruise. David Auston Johnson, a well-known cook who has contributed to No’Ala in the past, sent this favorite of his. It’s low in fat, contains no sugar, and is easy to prepare. We hope he enjoys the food on his cruise this winter—and that you enjoy this delicious entree tonight!

Lemony-Basil Grilled Chicken David Auston Johnson Ingredients: Serves 4-6 Prep time: 10 minutes Inactive: 1 hour Cook time: 30 minutes

• • • • • • • • • • • •

1/4 cup reduced fat mayo 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard Juice of 1 large lemon 5 fresh basil leaves, chopped 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped 1/2 onion powder 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 4-6 boneless skinless chicken breasts Olive oil for grill

Directions: In a large bowl combine mayo, Dijon, lemon juice, herbs, and seasoning. Mix well until fully incorporated. Place chicken breasts between two sheets of wax or parchment paper and pound with a meat mallet until breasts are at equal thickness (1/2–1 inch). Transfer chicken breasts to bowl and coat well with mixture, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour (overnight is better).

Preheat charcoal or gas grill.

Remove chicken and mixture from the refrigerator. Brush grill surface with olive oil to prevent sticking. Place breasts on the hottest part of your grill. Cook 2-4 minutes, then turn the chicken 45 degrees. This step will give impressive grill marks! Cook 2-4 more minutes, then flip chicken and repeat the steps. When you have completed the last 2-4 minutes, check chicken with an instant read thermometer. (165 degrees is the safe and ideal temperature.) Transfer chicken breasts to a platter and cover tightly with aluminum foil and allow to rest about 10 minutes. This resting period allows the chicken to reabsorb their natural juices!

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