Festival of Trees

I got a nice email from Leah at the Junior League of Jacksonville letting me know about their Annual Festival of Trees which is going on in downtown Jacksonville right now and continues through January 4th. Here's how she described it to me:

The Festival of Trees is an opportunity for local businesses to invest in the Jacksonville community and showcase their business by sponsoring or decorating a Christmas tree to be displayed at the library the length of the event. Each tree, inspired by a beloved book, is spectacularly decorated.

This is a great way to get into the spirit of the holiday season and to spend some quality time with friends and family. How about taking it all in at the upcoming ArtWalk on Wednesday December 5th? Or you can attend the Night of Lights Party on December 7th. This fundraiser will feature music from the Paxson School for Advanced Studies Music Ensemble, a live and silent auction, and food from some of Jacksonville's finest restaurants. Tickets are required for the party, but all other events are open to the public and completely free.

The Junior League has lined up several other events including Children's Story Time and Craft Hours, book readings by local authors and other notables, and a holiday lecture series to round it all out. It sounds like they've put a lot of work into planning this and I hope you make a point to enjoy the festival in one form or another.

The Junior League of Jacksonville has all the dates, times, and other details on their site. If you're interested in attending the Night of Lights Party, you can order your tickets here.

Go. Be merry. 'Tis the season after all!

Book Review - Historic Photos of Jacksonville

Recently, I got my hands on a copy of a book titled "Historic Photos of Jacksonville" by Carolyn Williams. If I were to judge a book only by it's cover, I would note that the 10 x 10 hard cover, the sewn binding, the appealing dust jacket, and the quality paper and printing all make for an attractive book, worthy of my coffee table or book case. But as we all know, it's the content that really matters. So without delay, I dove right in to find out what was hiding behind the cover.


What I found were photographs, culled from the archives, and lots of them. They are the heart of this book, and they took me back in time when Jacksonville was but a frontier town, and the world was a different place. They bear witness to the cycle of progress, destruction, and rebirth of a city that even today continues to evolve. I found myself rediscovering Jacksonville through the photographers lens; it's citizens, structures, and ideas.

The book is divided into four sections, each of which focuses on different historic periods. The sections are preceded by a short narrative that describes the time period in which the photographs were taken, and each photograph has a short caption describing the location or setting. This collection begins with the Civil War era, and continues up through the Sixties. Events like the Great Fire of 1901 and the rebuilding of Jacksonville that followed, the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression, World War II and the Military significance of Jacksonville are all offered in a perspective that only photographs can bring.

After reading through the book, I found that I had a new appreciation for the city I call home. A better understanding of what Jacksonville was in the past and how it progressed to what it is today. I lent the book to a few of my friends who also enjoyed it as much as I did. If you are or ever have been a citizen of this fine city, or you simply enjoy historic photographs, "Historic Photos of Jacksonville" would make an excellent addition to your collection. You can pick up a copy at your local book seller, or from online retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or directly from the publisher. You won't be disappointed.