THE BOTTLEWORKS

Met a friend for lunch this past week at the Bottleworks, a mixed use community of several buildings in Athens. Here's a map:

Dating from about 1900, the site once included a bakery and livery stable. In 1928, the Athens Coca Cola Bottling Company was built. That was sold in 1985 and the buildings were abandoned. Rehabilitation began and sputtered in 2008 when the economy collapsed, but in 2012 the project was sold and brought back to life Now the compound includes condos, offices, shops, and restaurants.

We ate in one featuring Argentine food:

I meant to take a picture of my spinach and mushroom empanada but when it came, I, unfortunately, out of habit, began to eat. So you'll have to take my word that it looked good. And tasted better!

We ate inside because it was hot and the pollen has been bothering my head, but diners outside didn't seem to mind:

Can't wait to go back!

TWO OF COLUMBUS' SHIPS

This weekend, replicas of the Nina and Pinta visited Brunswick. We rode over to view them and found it worth the ride and the cost of admission. The ships are manned (and womanned!) by volunteers. They spend eleven months a year traveling from port to port, educating students and others interested in history.

Both ships are black because in their day, ships were made waterproof by coating them with pine tar. And both are terribly small for traveling over the ocean! It was hard to believe twenty-four men traveled on the Pinta and twenty men on the Nina. It was hard to believe Christopher Columbus had the gumption to set sail in them, even if the Santa Maria was larger! (They don't have a replica of the original flagship. Reasons given were that its hull would be too deep to get into ports they travel to and also it was lost before Columbus got back to Europe.)

Here's a picture of the Pinta from the side:

And here she is from the back (looking at her from the Nina):

And moored right behind her was the smaller Nina. This is a front view:

Here's a photo of her front lines:

And here are a couple of her crew members:

If you get a chance to see them, you should go!

NAN D ARNOLD

My crit partner and regular commenter here just signed a contract with MuseItUp Publishing! Not sure when the ebook will be out, but it's a historical/romantic/paranormal called GARNET GALE GETS HER MAN. The ghost in it makes me laugh.

Nan can think of awesome titles. Her romantic mystery ebook, PESTO PACKING MAMA, was a bestseller for Champagne Books while her current release from Whimsical, MERRY ACRES WIDOWS WALTZ is a darker mystery.

Yay, Nan!

THE HANGMAN'S DAUGHTER

A few days ago I finished this book by Oliver Potzsch. It's not a quick read, not a pageturner like some. But it was interesting.

It's about a medieval executioner who is thoughtful, learned, and kind. When several village children are murdered, the midwife who tended his wife in childbirth is accused of witchcraft. The executioner's job is to torture her to get her to confess.

But he and the village doctor's son (who loves the hangman's daughter and who's a better doctor than his father) are convinced the midwife is innocent.

Executioner families intermarried back then because no one wanted anything to do with them. They were always a reminder that death lay waiting. So the hangman is not pleased with his daughter's suitor but works with the doctor's son anyway to find the real murderer.

The description of the German village and its politics is engrossing. What I found more interesting is that, while this is a novel, the author is a descendent of the main character who actually existed.

Good read.