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Happy Trails |
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The Audobon Pilgrimage |
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Not the kind of pilgrimage I'd imagined. No big felt hats, no shiny buckled shoes. It's just as well though as the temperature reached 86 degrees in the afternoon. You'll have to excuse the brightness on some of the pictures. It was just so bloomin' sunny!! |
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These pictures were taken at Afton Villa Gardens. Afton Villa Plantation in it's beautiful surroundings avoided attack from Northern troops during the Civil War because they believed it was a cemetary. Sadly the plantation succumbed to a fire in the 1960's and wasn't rebuilt, but the gardens remain. |
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Rosedown House and Gardens |
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You can't drive for 10 minutes in Louisiana without tripping over a Plantation House but the novelty never wears off. (Well, not for me anyway) These homes have such a fantastically rich history that the imagination runs riot. |
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In it's day when cotton production was at it's peak, upwards of 450 slaves worked at Rosedown. After the Civil War when slave labour could no longer be relied on, the Turnbull family who had owned the property since 1836, farmed the land themselves before opening the house to the public in an attempt to save it.
In recent years the house had been neglected and the last owner sold off much of the land, desecrated the graveyard and sold many of the house's valuables to........ the neighbouring Texans!!! (That's tantermount to treason!!) The house is now under the care of the Office of State Parks and is well on the way to being restored to it's former glory.
I got a bit arty with my new camera, taking pictures of berries in the garden. It won't happen again.
Did I mention it was 86 degrees?! |
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These pictures were taken at Oakley which was my favourite part of the day. Everyone was so friendly and we got homemade soap and honey and sampled soda bread and sweet potatoes made in the original stone ovens.
We had a very insightful chat with a nice gent at the slave cabins who wore traditional costume and looked for all the world like he'd been transported back to the 19th century except he was drinking a can of coke. I didn't get to take a picture of him because quite frankly he didn't shut up long enough for me to ask if it was ok. He was very nice though. |
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Anything you could possibly need to know about the history of the house can be found at the Oakley website.
Additional information at the Audobon Pilgrimage site.... (This site is currently down but it may be just preparing for next year's festivities.)
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