Here's a great looking pepper. (It's not in our plot, but we can still admire it can't we?)

Yesterday I was taking a drive around our neighborhood and was reminded of some of the really cool things in Uptown. I love how our neighborhood has a mixture of new homes, old homes, and newly restored old homes. (I got several of these photos from the Uptown Swings website.) I've also added a list of links on the right side of my blog if you're interested in reading/learning more about Uptown.

Here is a really cool old house that was restored:

This was an old fire station - now it's a house:

These are some apartments that were redone:

As I drove around, I couldn't help but think how much potential there is for the area as I headed north on 2nd Street. There is some really beautiful, hilly terrain (unusual for Memphis) and some incredible old buildings. Unfortunately, the area has been largely abandoned. The huge old train dock on 2nd just sits there lonely on a hill, waiting for the trains to return...maybe someday.

I'm also curious about the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum - this place is also on 2nd St., and really close to our house. We need to stop in sometime soon, when it's open. Anyone been there?

Our cars were broken into for the first time since living in Uptown a few weeks ago. Since we don't keep anything in our cars (I don't even have a CD player), I'm sure it was a pretty disapointing experience for this individual. Experiencing a break-in is never fun, but we did get to support a great local business as a result - Jack Morris Auto Glass - we highly recommend them.

My overacheiving wife has been hard at work building a flower bed in our back yard. Take a peek:

We're still waiting for some important developments to take place in the neighborhood. The biggest development we are waiting for is a grocery store, but I'm guessing that it's going to take a while now with the current landscape of the economy.

I'm also curious about the status of the Greenlaw Community across from our house. Supposedly bids were put out from the city to outsource the management of several community centers by local organizations, but I still haven't heard if anyone has signed on for our community center. Anyone know anything?