Progress

Looks for all the world like a the beginning of
a Quonset Hut. There are lots of the in the midwest.

see a quonset hut at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/quonset_hut

Serving on the front lines......making a difference

A Hall in The Vicksburg High School in Vicksburg.

My Friend Betsy Selby...."Teacher of the Year"
Betsy teaches high school English at Vicksburg High.

Betsy and her fellow teacher Suzanne Harpole, in Betsy's class room.

I must confess these pictures have been in my camera a long time....I am home today cleaning house.

Dinner on the grounds at Bethesda

Bethesda Presbyterian Church is just a few miles south of Edwards, it was founded 1828.


Delivering the message this morning was James Hakim.


Dinner on the Grounds is a Grand Tradition of long standing here in the South.


And a dinner on the grounds always includes fried chicken..........


And deviled eggs.

To learn more about The Bethesda Church go to
http://bethesdapca.org/

***********************************************************



My Mother passed away September 20.....I have been somewhat discombobulated ....I miss her very much.

Busy Sunday Afternoon in Raymond

First is was Open house at the DeLaughter's newly refurbished

home "Hiawatha". The 1845 home was moved from

just outside of Edwards to Raymond.


The beautiful center hall....


Guests taking it all in.


Then it was off to the auction...this is a new concern

in Raymond, they are located in the old hardware store.

An Edwards Icon has passed.

Ornary Kirkland died Tuesday September, 11 at the age of 88.



Ms. Ornary was ornery and feisty, she did not discriminate ether, she did not care if you were young or old... black or white if she had something to say... she said it....



Ornary, is an unusual name even for the south, she told me she was named after a street in New Orleans.

Ms Ornary was buried Saturday.

Column Hinds county Gazette

John died January 18 this year....

August 30 2007 HCG
John died so suddenly, in the beginning mourning was complicated. Because I felt abandoned…Selfishly I panicked, who is going to take care of me now. Do I have money to live on? Do I have health insurance? My daddy took care of me…then John took care of me and I knew at the end of my life, I had a home in heaven with Jesus….But When John passed, I was 62, statistically and genetically I had many years between John and Jesus….Were they going to be the hard years?
All of that has been sorted out now, and I am fine….I do not know how mourning is suppose go…I thought it would be traumatic, full of dark days …But how it is working for me is, a memory will be triggered and I will be very sad and I will cry, other times a memory will bring on great bouts of laughter….thankfully my mourning has had more laughter then tears….Maybe because there are no regrets…No sorry left unsaid… What with John’s time in the military, we learned to leave nothing unsaid…Bad or good.
My mother lives with me, she has been with me since 1998, when she broke her hip and I brought her here from Nebraska. Mother is 92 she is fading; not so long ago, she lived for car rides, afternoons on the front porch, watching Oprah and the evening news….none of that interests her any more. Oh, once in a while there is a spark….A few weeks ago, the morning of the primary election, she told me she did not think she would try to vote… “Because I have not been keeping up” I had to chuckle… mother has not voted in years. The feelings I have, watching mother pass, are not unlike the mourning of John…I laugh and I cry
Mother’s decline began when John died. She has become quite frail; she still walks, but is unsteady. It is a struggle to get her to eat…she no longer gets hungry…. no one enjoyed food more then mother…but her food cravings are gone….the last thing she enjoyed eating was a plate full of sliced tomatoes, back in late June, when they were first beginning to get ripe…she was devouring them with great enthusiasm, when she asked, “Are these Bob Kemp’s Tomatoes?” I told her they were. She said, “I knew it”
Mother talks very little now. But not long ago she said to me, “You know Gloria there is nothing wrong with me except I am old.” Mother has no pain, I am so thankful. She seems to be dieing in slow motion. Several times over the past months, I have thought mother would not live through the night….Just the other night , When I tucked her in to bed, she took my hand squeezed it tightly and thanked me for taking care of her….I was sure she was telling me goodbye.
Mother is not afraid of death; she wants to go live with Jesus… Watching mother as she waits patiently for Jesus to come and take her away, I am reminded of an occasion many years ago. Way back to daughter Angela’s first day of kindergarten. Angela wanted to go to school so bad….For years, Angela had stood on the front steps and cried, as she watched her older brother walk off to school. So when Angela’s first day of school finally came…I was happy for her.
Love to all

Column from 08/23/ Hinds County Gazette..

The round shrub at the bottom of the hill

is the contorted mulberry mentioned.


New leaves on the mulberry stick..it Must be

growing roots.


A leaf cutting... it too is getting it's roots.


I think this is rooting from a hydrangea..But

it could be a mulberry too..they are similar

in appearance.



August 23 2007 HCG

Again, this morning, I do not know why I sat down here because; I have nothing to write about. I am not doing anything and what’s more I do not know anybody who is doing anything…or wants to do anything. It is so hot….
Oh!!! Oh!! Oh!! Something exciting has happen!!! ….I have a contorted mulberry at the bottom of the hill…it has been there 15 years or more, beautiful healthy tree, he is at least 12 foot tall and as wide… Everybody who sees it wants one. So Over the years, every now again I would attempt to root it… I have had no luck….I tried every method…the brick technique…. like you do azaleas….the branch covered with a plastic bag, full of damp moss… I even tried plain water in a fruit jar.
Several years back, I called in to one of the radio shows, about gardening, for guidance …The host said he had never been able to get a contorted mulberry to root…..That was a bit discouraging, But I did not give up.
And this year my perseverance has finally paid off….I have two cuttings that have taken root…. a leaf cutting has rooted; it was one of about ten.
But this is the fun one….This spring I cut branches from the contorted mulberry to use as stakes….I thought the twisted branches would be more attractive in the pots with the tomatoes then wire cages. The zinnias too had a more pleasing appearance being propped up with the contorted branches of the mulberry, then would have with rebar and kite string. You all, one of mulberry branches I used to prop up the purple zinnias has rooted!!!!
What about these fleas? Do hot temperatures and drought equal fleas? I have been battling fleas since early spring…and I am not gaining on them. Oh, I can get rid of them for a time with the expensive flea potions, but they come back….
I am fixing to go out and make a few cement leaves before it gets to hot.
Call if you need me

My Cat Scout and the Flamingo....

"Scout and the flamingo plant"

It is much cooler this afternoon....the temperature according to the thermometer here at 201 is 84....all of the animals at this house are more cheerful for sure.

I got out early, before the heat and took a few pictures...

This is my chives in bloom...They always bloom in August...I do not use many chives in the kitchen....I grow then mostly for the flowers and to tie up my "Green Beans Sandwiches"


Progress at the bridge...a few pilings have went in.
I needed a gift... so it was off to "The Hardware" store in Bolton. Joyce even gift wrapped it for me.

I am attempting to Narrowing the driveway...I have added several feet to my west side yard...Much of that behind the bench and trees in pots was gravel...John parked his car in the space...I am hoping to have grass completely covering this part of the driveway...so when I look out my kitchen window, I will see grass instead of gravel ...we will see.

The heat is suppose to let up some next week....we may do better when temps get out of 100s and back to the 90s.

The Corn harvest is going along nicely.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rosemary Chicken and Potatoes

Before roasting



After Roasting at 500 degrees for one hour.





I do not know how the chickens tasted...My Friend Emily and I went and visited the recently hospitalized folks around town....Roma, Peggy and Danny. Emily took her pasta salad that she is so famous for, I wish I had taken a picture of it....I took this roasted chicken which actually is an adaption of one of her recipes...when she makes it it is fabulous ...I hope mine is half as good.



The heat is still on here in central Mississippi....and no rain or sign of rain.

An Old Column

I did not write a column last week, so here is an old one...one that I received many comments on....


Gazette 12/09/04
I have been getting calls and notes from folks out there in the land of Gazette, asking if I was okay, said they had been missing me. I feel so blessed to have folks concerned about me. Thank you, thank you, and thank you.
I would like to have said, “I am Busy” and I might have told some of you that…If I did, I lied. Well maybe, I wasn’t lying at the time I said it, it could have been before my “Big Think” about “Busy”.
You all, here is just a few of the conclusions I have come to, after giving “Busy” a think.


1. “Busy” I have come to believe is a modern fad, for lack of a better term. It has become fashionable, to be “Busy”. We have come to equate “Busy” with important. We all want to be important, so those of us who were not important became “Busy”. Remember that old time phrase “Busy body” ? It was used to describe someone who had their nose in everything, busy was not a term of endearment.




2. Declaring we are just too, “Busy” is often easier then saying “No”.


3. When we call our selves “Busy” usually, we are trying make others believe we accomplishing something. However we are generally quite vague about what that something might be.




4. “Busy” and productive are not necessarily the same thing. Ripping up and down the roads does not “Busy” make, that is just busy.


5. “Busy” may be more of a time manage thing. Say, I have spent the afternoon watching the dogs dig for moles in the back yard, instead of fixing supper, suddenly its 5 o’clock and nothing’s cooking and I have to go scurrying to get supper on the table. That is not “Busy”.
“Busy” is the word we use to justify procrastination. It sounds better to say, “Oh, I am just too “Busy”. Then “sorry I can’t, I have been procrastinating all week”




6.Or a mater of scheduling, if there are two events at the same time, the same day…and we are invited to both, that don’t make us “Busy”. But, when we try to get to both and slide in huffing and puffing, trying to catch our breath, so we can give a detailed explanation to the gathering, just how really “Busy” we are. That’s just being busy.


Besides, when did we Americans come to believe we are entitled to great patches of free time? If we are doing anything at all we call ourselves “Busy”.




I don’t remember mother ever saying, “I am Busy”. Even though she cooked, she cleaned, she sewed, she gardened, she taught Sunday school and bible school, she was a den mother to a pack of scouts, she visited the shut-ins, and sat with the dying. …I could go on and on. Mother and the other women of her era got up in the morning, did what they could do until the sun went down….then did it all again the next day.


I am not sure young women today, even considering they are working outside the home, are any busier then my mother was, they have so many conveniences that mother’s generation did not have. Often, when mother served fried chicken for supper, she began by killing the chicken, then plunging it into a big vat of boiling water, plucking the feathers and butchering the bird. Young homemakers today often pick up already cooked chicken on the way home….it may equal out.


All things considered, my generation has had it pretty darned easy, we have had the conveniences of this modern world and many of us, by choice, got to stay at home, change diapers, wax our floors and clean our ovens.


I gotta go, I am very Busummmmm Ahhhhh…well lets just say I am otherwise occupied the rest of the day. I am fixing to get started on my holiday baking.
Call if you need me.
Love to all Gloria

It's for the Birds......

Turner Birdhouses....The Turners, Doug and Kay, make a different house every year at Christmas to sell..they have many fans.


The darling children in the picture on the top shelf are my two oldest grandsons....they are 17 and 16 now and 6 foot tall.


Another Turner House


Yet another...I have many...


This is a better picture of Charles Rather and his tractor...I don't know how I missed it yesterday.


Back to the birds...



The latest Tuner House....The Mississippi Governors Mansion.....This birdhouse was commissioned by a Madison County civic organization, as a gift for our governor, Haley Barbour.


This is Doug, he is the designer and builder, his wife Kay does the painting. Kay and Doug work out of their woodworking shop, behind their home on Highway 467.

Thanks for coming, Please come again.

Some of the goings on in Edwards before 8 O'clock this morning

Yard Of the Month!!!!
Congradulations to Jo Gayle Reeves!

The heat seems to have little effect on Jo Gayle's yard...We had a record high for this date.... it was 106 degrees.

Edwards new skyline since the bridge building began.

Charles Rather was busy leveling some washed out places at the Baptist Church....His tractor was born in 1968. Charles must be fully recovered it was not long ago he had a hip replaced...

The progress at the bridge.....

Thanks for stopping by...

I am sooooooo Hot.........

The temperatures have been 100 degrees or over for the last few days.

I have many plants and trees outside that are incarcerated in tubs and pots, so during this current heat wave I have been watering them three times a day.

What has the picture of the glass door knob have to do with the weather?

Well, it fell off of the door, leading into the dinning room, from the hall, last week...Very easy to fix...but I only think about it when I come inside from the heat...and that door knob... it looks like a tractor tire...Maybe tomorrow....

I am going out to feed the cats....

Christiansen's Comments Hinds County Gazette

It is all over...except for taking down the signs.....



Christiansen’s comments
Hinds County Gazette August 09 2007

I don’t know why I sat down here this morning, because I have absolutely nothing to say. Except is hot and humid? That is not news; it is, after all, August.
And why in the world, the folks who are in charge of such things, want to have an election in August, in Mississippi, is more then I know. Here we are, fixing to make some very significant decisions concerning the destiny of our state and counties and we the citizens are hot, cranky, and ill tempered…. just looking for a fight. It is unreasonable for them, to make us think, this hard, what with all of this unforgiving heat and humidity.
I must tell you, when I have been outside in the soaring temperatures… working and then come inside to have a quick cold drink of water, before going back out…. And the phone rings, it is someone asking me to consider voting for their candidate…. it takes a good bit of effort on my part to be civil, to the caller, let alone appear interested…I try hard not to be impolite to real people.
Of course 90% of the campaign calls are computer generated, I did not think I would ever come to this way of thinking, but, I have come to appreciate those calls, because I can slam the phone down…helps me let off some steam…And the computers does not know I have been discourteous.
Those poor politicians, they can’t be in any better humor then we are…The high temperatures and soaking humidity is having an effect on them too…..It is evident some are getting a bit testy.
The TV news people don’t have it much better…They look hot to me in their coats and ties and designer dresses…And Bless their Hearts, they can’t help but be aware that we are less interested in what they or the candidate being interviewed has to say… then what the weatherman might tell us.
And those weather people, they are not unlike some politicians, they too will look you in the eye and say things that are not true…
It is quite obvious weather forecasting is mostly guess work… I am coming to except that. Why can’t they? They could forecast the weather, with a little less certainty, so as not to get our hopes up.
A while back when we were in that dry spell…one morning the weather man was so sure we were to get rain in the late afternoon, he told us to get our umbrellas and warned the commuters to be prepared for rain slick roads, on their drive home that afternoon,
Well, he had me convinced, enough, that I invited a couple of friends, to come that afternoon for a glass of wine on the porch, “We will watch it rain!”. …The rain never came….we were very disappointed.
Oh well, it will be over soon….the election, not the heat and humidity, we have many more days of that to suffer through.
Some dilemmas I have no solutions to offer, but this election quandary, I have the answer! Yes I do! We should schedule all elections in the early spring; the first Tuesday after the first daffodil blooms…Everybody is cheerful in the spring.
Love to all
Call if you need me…

This is Raymond.....

Raymond is down Highway 467 a few miles, it is the county seat....Well, we have two the other is in Jackson.



Merchants and Planters Bank


Our beautiful old Courthouse. Notice the new link I added today. ...Mississippi Court houses..

Raymond is a very active town, they have many civc organzations that keep the little village interesting and jumping. They would welcome a visit if you are ever down this way.

I needed Dog Food ..So I drove over to Bolton to the Hardware Store...

The Hardware Store.....Gaddis And McLaurin...

The Hardware Store Cat....Looking for a mouse?


Paint and Plumbing...

Joyce and the kitty....

He wasn't looking for a mouse, he was looking for an open drawer, so he could take his morning nap.....

It wanted to crash....

Hinds County Gazette

August 01 2007

Christiansen's Comment's
You all, I am exhausted….I spent the entire weekend trying to keep my computer from crashing… It is very difficult for my weak brain to rise to such high levels of thinking. …especially when lights are flashing and stuff is popping up on the monitor’s screen, but not staying long enough for me to read.
It took all of the nerve I could muster but, I journeyed deep in to this machine… and I am here to report, it is not pretty in there… I hope not to have to go back.
What makes the computer tricky, unlike other machines I have dealt with, have a language all their own, and if you do not understand it….you do not know what further harm you might be bring about by clicking and deleting.
But, after I down loaded all of the files, I wanted to keep, from the computer to my external hard drive…I got aggressive, I took the attitude I had nothing to lose….and many hours later the computer began to calm down . I believe, for now, I have conquered the computer demons. So this morning I can return to my regular thinking…
Last week, I had a think this about good people and naughty people and right down bad people..
I do not know what is the matter with us….why are we so interested in the folks who are doing bad things? Why are we giving them so much attention?
The young women celebrities, driving drunk, violating probation, are showered with press attention, main stream press, the nightly news for heaven sake…most of it so frivolous. When that Paris Hilton girl was released from jail, they reported on her outfit, what she ate when she got home and who her first visitors were. This week another young celebrity, I do not remember her name, was caught doing something she should not have been doing Again, she too was showered with great gobs of attention….I believe she went Back to a rehab center frequented by the habitual badly behaved celebrity crowd.
Good people have to super duper good to get much acknowledgment, say on the level with Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, or Gandhi.
So there we are…what does our obsession with celebrities say about us?…I am still thinking.
Call if you need me

The Hands of Time.....

Too Hot to Anything.....

So I went to Raymond




and got my toes painted





Finished leaf.

I'm beat...
I'll see you tomorrow