Gloria Christiansen HCG April 30 2009

Saturday morning, I went to front porch with my second cup of coffee …it was a spectacular morning, the sun was still low in the sky, it was not even bright enough yet to cast shadows. (I get up very early) The air was sweet with the honeysuckle, right now the woods are full of it. Above and beyond , and mixed with the honeysuckle there was another pleasing scent, it was a familiar, but I could not for the life of me figure out from where that wonderful smell was coming. I had nothing in my yard blooming except roses and it was not a rose scent….and it was strong.

Way on after while, it came to me what it was that was perfuming the air…. I fuss, fume and fret about it …I chop, pull and spray it….You all, its the privet hedge that also grows in the woods at the edge of my lawn! It is in full flower right now… And I knew it had a magnificent scent in the spring….but in the summertime I get so mad at it, I forget how lovely it is in the early spring.\

I went to contemplating, “Is there a life lesson to be learned from privet hedge?” “Is God trying to tell me something?” “Could it be, even the most obnoxious (folks, plants, animals, insects) may have sweet qualities, we might would notice,….. if we did not get and stay so angry, that we repeatedly over look the good?” I now have something to ponder over this week…while I do dishes, mow etc.

Later in the morning, I drove the five miles down old 80, out to the Shadows, the home of Peggy McKey, to attend a bridal shower for Marianna Harpole. Along side the road the purple fetch was blooming, the queen’s lace and the clover….. perfection!

The lane going in to Peggy’s is flanked by live oaks, for a moment you are in a tunnel of green…perfection! Then you are in front of the beautiful home, brick with white column that rise to support a second floor porch Lovely! A story book setting.….

At the front door was Marianna, she was just lovely, she was wearing a spectacular sundress, all white and she was wearing high heeled shoes, the color of ripe persimmons….Perfection!!!!.

Ordinarily Marianna is extraordinary shy and very quiet, but for this occasion she was able to overcome her shyness, and was at the door smiling and greeting the arriving guests….Marianna is a honey…she is beautiful ….She is appreciative, she is respectful , and she is gracious… the mark of a carefully raised young lady born to the South.

Love to all, call if you need me

Gloria Christiansen,Hinds county Gazette April 23 2009

Rip Noble, preaching at the special services
held at the Edwards Presbyterian church recently.


I didn't even ask her name.

I am writing this early Sunday morning…Because of the very busy week ahead… Rip Noble is preaching for special services at the Presbyterian church today, tonight, Monday and Tuesday evenings, the Edwards Fellowship Club is coming here for dessert Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday I am going to Raymond to get Susan to cut my dog Charlie’s hair, and Annie to polish my toes nails. Then Saturday there is a wedding shower for Marianna Harpole out at Peggy Ann‘s. And in the middle of all these goings-on ….….The L C has Yankees coming ….to visit…He is delighted. They are coming from Pennsylvania…they were part of his church family up there.

So, any spare time, I have this week, will be devoted to practicing my best southern manners and of course working on my southern accent, because Yankee love the way we talk down here in the deep south. If I do say so myself, I have perfected my accent to a level high enough that I can fool most Yankees…..but not to the degree I can deceive you all.

In my efforts readying this house for Tuesday, I cleaned off my desk and under a pile of papers, I found the journal from my recent buss ride. March must be the time for the traveling carnivals to crank back up…one lady was traveling from Indiana to Port Arthur Texas, to join back up with the carnival she has worked for seven years. Coming out of Florida there was a carnival worker, young lady, who was on her way to Tupelo Mississippi, to visit her family.

I am thinking, that buss travelers quite possibly have more tattoos and body piercing then the average person traveling by most any other means. My favorite was a woman, she was densely tattooed on all parts of her body that were visible, she was small built and very thin, in fact she was scrawny, she had several teeth missing. I am guessing she was my age,…..There was something about her that draw me, maybe it was her smile…..it was sincere and genuine. She was a chain smoker so when she got off the buss she went with the smokers, a younger crowd, I watched as she interacted with them…..she was motherly toward them….she seemed have a honest affection for them and them for her.

It was in Tallahassee, outside the terminal where the smokers had been banished to….That I got up the nerve to chat with her a bit…found out she was going to FT. Myers too…it was her birthday she was going home to see her family, her mother and aunt would be meeting her at the station…I asked permission to take her picture…I did not take many picture of the people traveling on the buss….It was not my world, it was theirs.

I took her picture, they called our buss…as we were walking back across the terminal together, she saw a young man standing near a bank of pay phones…she excused herself, “I have got to go check on my buddy.” She explained, that Tallahassee was his destination…and he could not find anybody to come pick him up. She was worried about him, I went on by myself and took my seat.

I only talked to the tattooed lady that one time…we did however exchange smiles each time the bus stopped. I have thought about her a lot, and wondered about me…questioned if I had met her in my world, would I have given her a second thought? Would I have judged her based solely on her appearance? And missed her sweet compassionate heart? Her caring nature?
I have come to believe, If I had not met the lady with the many tattoos, even though the encounter was a brief one…it would have been my great loss…..

I better get going…I think Dave Harpole is singing Beulah Land at the special services this morning…I don’t want to miss that!

Love to all , call if you need me.
This is the web page for the church Rip Noble is pastoring You've Found Hope!

GloriaChristiansen@gmail.com

Gloria Christiansen Edwards Mississippi

Here in mid Mississippi we enjoyed beautiful Easter Sunday …the temperatures were just right, warm in the sun and cool in the shade. The grass is so appealing right now so a fresh, lush green….perfect for hiding eggs and perhaps grazing goats.

The community Easter service was held at the Methodist church this year. Dean Rydbeck, the pastor at the Edwards Presbyterian Church brought the message, it was an encouraging service. We were treated to special music by Marilyn Bland, she sang “We you there” , it brought goose bumps to my arms.

After the service, the Methodist ladies served the most delicious brunch in the Family Center….I so enjoy our community services….it is a wonderful time of fellowship, being together with our friends and neighbors…most occasions when we are together, as a community, it is for a funeral.
By the way the Presbyterians are having special spring services, beginning next Sunday morning and evening, and there will be evening services Monday and Tuesday too. Rip Noble will be the speaker….Many of you will remember Rip, he grew up in Edwards, much of the time at his grandpa’s Hardware Store on Main Street…Of course, most of you know who his parents are…. Lindsay and Blue Noble. Rip is preaching in east Tennessee now. I am not sure of the times for the services…but there is a sign on the corner, right there at the big E D W A R D S in the bank…that has more details. And you can call me, I have a flyer, but it is in the truck…but I will go get it..…If you need me to.

I have cut down my variegated privet hedge, I had here on the west side of the house…..I don’t know why I planted them in the first place. The white flies love them! Any way I have been hard at work on that bed…It is looking so nice…I laid down pine straw, potted up some Double Knock out roses, places the pots on the straw, then rolled the crepe myrtles I have in pots over and placed them on the straw…I have nothing in the ground …its all in pots. My feed dolly has come in handy….moving the big pots here, yonder and there!!!

Well I have got to go…work on that bed some more….I want it to look nice for next Tuesday when Dave Montgomery and I show our art for The Edwards fellowship club. My art is not fabulous, but I am working at my yard…. hoping it will be.

And I want to make some more leaves this morning, Bob Kemp has some big collard leaves…soon as it get warm they will be gone…they have already gone to bolting and have the prettiest yellow flowers.
Love

Life in the small town of Edwards Mississippi and the First Saturday Market in Terry Mississippi

Good morning….In spite of all the evidence, out my window, that spring has arrived …roses blooming , poison ivy turning green and twining up the side of my back porch, even the pecan trees are leafing … Spring apparently has not yet arrive here in Mid Mississippi…There is talk of frost this week. Now that is according to the weather folks….Who, of course they have been wrong before…Just last week they had folks in such a state of panic they were canceling events left and right…. because of the threat of Heavy rain, high winds, and hail. Not little hail, “Golf ball or larger” sized hail.

None of that materialized around here….of course, I want the weather people to give us a heads up, when they feel there is a dangerous event approaching…and they should error on the side of caution. How ever they seemed of have gotten into a pattern of , how shall I put it, overstating the facts, with alarm and conviction in their voices. They even have gone to telling us the specific time to expect the disastrous event. Like they are reporting on an invasion from hostile aliens Perhaps to add drama? So as not to be out done by the talk shows that specialize in sensational subjects that’s it only purpose is to in alarm their viewers?

Could it be one of these days, we will no longer take heed of their warnings.? I just wish they would state the facts about the on coming weather …..more like the old TV news reporter Edward R Murrow, he broad cast from London during WWII as bombs were being dropped, …not in a hysterical panic ….his voice was steady, low and calm. I would like the weather folks to report more like Edward R Murrow, and less like Jerry Springer and that crowd.

Speaking of weather, wasn’t it lovely this past Saturday, The L.C. and I went back to The Terry for the First Saturday Flea Market to sell my cement leaves. I bought more wonderful stuff ….My very favorite purchase was an old time feed dolly, like they use at the Gaddis McLaurin hardware store to haul the cat and dog food to the my truck. But I believe…Gaddis McLairin’s and my feed dolly was in use years before they ever thought about bagging cat and dog food.

Then I bought two resin rabbits…they are so cute…I placed them on one of my flat concrete leaves and sat it on the kitchen table….then I bought an old time , metal, file holder shaped like a book….and a samsonnite train case, I already had one, it belonged to John’s grandmother’s…it lives in the front bedroom on one of the twin beds…now I have one for the other bed…can you believe my good fortune?

This time of year there is so much going on…The Friends of Raymond were having a battle feild clean up day Saturday too….and they were giving away History Channel T Shirts to those who showed up to work and they were having hot dogs for lunch! Doesn’t that sound like fun! Crazy isn‘t it….if someone tried to hire me to go paint cannons and weed eat…..I probably would not be interested….but promise me a T-Shirt and something to nibble and I will work all day.
I wanted to go paint a cannon…But The L.C. reminded me that we said we were going to Terry, therefore, we had to go to Terry…of course he was right…you must do, what you say you are going to do. And I am not sorry…I did find all of those wonderful treasures.

Love to all , call if you need me

Recently I have had requests for my green bean sandwich recipe…It actually began as “Three Bean sandwich” but as I told my friend Gordon Cotton, (he thought it was a recipe I had personally invented)…I had to confess…”No, I had to change the name, when I changed the recipe.”

The Edwards Green Bean Sandwiches
Marinate whole beans in Italian dressing or your own homemade vinegatette
(canned or fresh cooked to the crisp tender stage)
Mix together 2 parts Mayonnaise and one part yellow mustard
Flatten fresh sandwich bread with rolling pin, (I leave the crust on, but for a dainty party you might want to cut the crust off….I don‘t, but you might) spread with the mayo /mustard mixture and place beans on bread and roll….how many beans you put on the sandwich depends on the length of your beans and which way you roll, I roll mine corner to corner so it usually take 6 beans …3 at each end.
Before spreading the Mayo mustard mixture, I spread the bread quite thinly with butter, it is not necessary, but I like my culinary hero, Julia Child ,try not miss an opportunity to have a bit of butter in a recipe.

Hinds County Gazette: Christiansen Comments...Bus Trip

About my bus trip to Ft. Myers Florida…it was not the frightening experience that had been envisaged by some of my relatives, friends, acquaintances and total strangers. All things considered it was quite uneventful….but extremely interesting.

At only one place was there any security precautions taken at all…it was as we were boarding the bus to leave Baton Rouge, there a security officer passed over each of us with a handheld metal detector. The first to under go this high tech pat down was a young man, wearing snug jeans and a tee shirt, he stood legs apart, arms straight out from the shoulder, in his left he held a bulging, medium sized, well worn, camouflage duffle bag…well, the officer glided the detector over the young man’s body, front and back, but the duffle bag, which to me, appeared much more intriguing then the young man, the officer did not get the detector close to it. Let me hasten to say this; the young man nor the bag seemed particularly intimidating…I am just saying…well you know what I am saying…Why bother?

At one of our early stops, while in the terminal, waiting to get back on the bus, a young man stood up, raised his hands over his head and declared “I am the savior, I am here to save.” I was taught that we were always to try our best be prepared for Jesus’ return….“You don’t know when or where it will happen.” So Of course, I looked up, because, I do not consider it out side the whelm of possibility…his return could come at a Greyhound bus terminal….After all Jesus’ birth place was a stable…not the Hilton, surrounded by kings and queens.

At first glance I thought it was a college student trying to get a rise out of us. Most folks in the waiting area did not even seem to notice the outburst. He was on the bus for much of that leg of my journey, he never spoke another word… and as time passed, it be came obvious that the world had not been kind to this young man. You could tell by his eyes, they were empty, like his soul had gone missing.

Everybody on the bus seemed to have cell phones…I did not talk to a lot of people, but I could not help but over hear conversations taking place all around me. ….Some quite interesting, one lady, mid to late 40's was going to Sarasota for a court appearance, she was discussing what her legal strategy would be when she got in the courtroom. I do not know for sure what she was charged with, but there was some mention of a car that had been confiscated.

There we all kinds of people riding the buses…Russian tourists, a young lady from France, a good number of people were going relatively short distances…they were riding the bus because it was the easiest way to get from here to there.

Coming out of Florida the buses were full, in fact for a short distance three guys had to stand for about 30 minutes, one of the guys was just a teenager, he came on carrying a skate board and a Rubik’s cubehe took me back in time, to the 80‘s, when son Adam was a teenager….Adam often was toting a skate board and a Rubik’s cube.

Hey I gotta go…I will tell you more about the bus ride next week…..the sun is out and I need to get in my yard… the weather man says it is going to rain the rest of the week. Isn’t Spring wonderful!!!!
Love to all , call if you need me.