Hinds County Gazette May 16 2013

There is so much going on in May, we can not possibly get to everything we should.  But Thursday evening, I did get to the Southern Cultural Heritage Center in Vicksburg to take Nancy Mitchell’s art class. Nancy led us through painting, Vincent Van Gogh’s famous Sunflowers.

Gordon Cotton

Another friend Jim Biedenbach
Photo Nancy Mitchell

 My friend Gordon Cotton had taken the course a couple of months ago... Gordon is enormously creative for sure…but I must admit I was flabbergasted; he actually turned out a quite respectable interpretation of the painting.  Not wanting to be bested by Gordon I signed up for Nancy’s May class.  I am afraid Gordon bested me. But it was great fun! Next time Nancy will have us painting sailboats… hope I do well. Adam and his family have taken up sailing, I can take my painting of sailboats to them for a happy, when I go visit later this summer.

Grand daughter Julia
Photo MK Christiansen

Son Adam
Photo MK Christiansen

 And I did attend Commemoration of the 150^th Anniversary of the Battle of Raymond Saturday.  The day’s events began in Raymond at St. Marks Episcopal Church.  The guest speaker was Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice William L. Waller Jr.  Judge Waller spoke to an attentive, over flowing crowd. 

St. Marks Episcopal Church Raymond Mississippi

 Judge William L.Waller Jr.

                                                                Photo Mary Adams Kuhn

The program was followed by the Boys Scouts burning American flags on the lawn at St, Marks….I had forgotten there was a formal procedure to retire of wore and tattered flags, in a respectful, dignified and honorable manner. The ceremony was impressive, and heart warming.

Boy Scouts
Photo Friends of Raymond

After the flag ceremony, the attending crowd was treated to lunch in the garden of St. Mark’s….The food was scrumptious and beautifully presented. Of course that is the Southern way.

The group then moved to the Raymond Military Park for the cannon dedication, and to recognize cannon sponsors.   The Cannons on the Battlefield were sponsored by individuals, and organizations from Mississippi, and all over these United States of America.  Many sponsors traveled to Raymond just to attend Saturday’s events.

After the Historical Marker Dedication at Dillon’s Stand on Old Port Gibson Road, Brenda and Charles Davis treated the out of town guests to an afternoon of rest and relaxation at their home, The Dupree House.  The guests enjoyed a tour of the house, and an afternoon of visiting on the porches of the Davis home. What a fitting way to end a day, of course it is the southern way. I was thrilled to be included!

Call if you need me

As I am writing this Monday, May 13, 2013…I have a fire going! It is in the 40s!! This is not the weather we are familiar with for May. We here in Mississippi by mid May ordinarily have begun to whine about the escalating heat and humidity.

Christiansen's Comments for Hinds county Gazette 09/30/2010

Good Morning! Good Morning!

 I will not be keeping you long today for sure, my kitchen is tore up!…I do not know what is the matter with me, I am calling myself cleaning, but I have made biggest mess out there.

I have visitors coming mid October, my only living aunt, daddy’s baby sister, and a cousin are coming from Colorado for a few days. My Auntie, , is the only somebody I would go to this much trouble for. Her generation’s standard for a clean house is much higher then mine are today. There was a time I kept a much cleaner house then I do now….Waxed floors on my hands and knees, washed windows at least once a week….Oh! and my oven I was especially proud of it, it was soooooooooo clean, it sparkled…the trick to a sparkling oven is after it is cleaned with the oven cleaner…you mix vinegar in water , dip a clean rag in the vinegar water…wring it out, and wipe out the entire oven….it sparkles!



My oven on this stove has never been cleaned….when something spills in the oven I pour salt on it to keep it from smoking and move on. When the oven cools down, I do sweep the salt out. I am in the process of cleaning the cupboards now….then I am going to clean the stove and oven. My cupboards have not been cleaned in years…and I am not trying to get them super clean….just hoping to get the grime back to 2008 levels. The stove, I am going to take a crack at “sparkle”…but will settle for a look that says, “This stove is just about to need a good cleaning.”



This Friday, October 1 , is the start of Raymond’s fall pilgrimage, it begins with a stroll through the historic Raymond Cemetery at 6:30. Actors, local citizens, play parts of people who are buried there. This is a engaging and informative event. But let me say this…I know there are some of you folks, who are not history enthusiasts….but you do not have to be a history scholar to enjoy the stroll. It is like a very entertaining play, but when an act comes to a close…. a curtain does not come down….. the audience moves….Great fun!!!!



Go a bit early and look around the Raymond Military Park….just off of highway 18... loads of fun for kids there are cannons and a scenic walking trail….

You all, Come on out to rural Hinds county…Not only do we have the Military Park…over here near Edwards, off of Highway 467, the old Coker House, it served as a hospital during the Civil war., has been restored ….it shares an entrance with Cal-Maine. We have places to eat in all our little communities…..

                                                           Coker house before Restoration


Need more info about the pilgrimage and it‘s many events…some events are free and some do have a fee…go to http://www.friendsofraymond.org/

Love to all

call if you need me

"Christiansen Comments" Hinds County Gazette Augst 26 2010

Bugs in the bed, Raymond Pilgrimage, And Methodist Rummage....

I do not watch or read much news, I find it entirely too demoralizing, so what little news I get, I get while waiting for the weatherman/woman/person, to come on, stand in front of the latest and greatest high tech, energetically animated maps and radars, to give us their best guess… as to what the day might bring, weather wise. I wonder….Are the weather folks anymore accurate then they were…. say 40 years ago?




All of that, is not what I started out to say….As you probably know, bedbugs have been in the news of late, seems after years of containment, they have re-emerged once again…in some quite posh places. This, is what I heard, while waiting for a forecast, last week…. and found most note worthy and enormously reassuring. Bedbugs can not survive temperatures past 110 degrees…considering our recent heat indexes… surely we do not have anything to fret about here in Mid Mississippi…….while it is true, we here in the South have been burdened with fire ants and they are, of course, a most unpleasant nuisance. Still and all, I do declare, I much prefer having fire ants in my grass…then bugs in my bed.

*******

Well, as usual our Fall calendars are filling up fast….Last week I mentioned the Fall Pilgrimage in Raymond, October 1 through 16. Edwards semi annual Cemetery day is October 16. And the Methodists are having a rummage sale that week end too

www.friendsofraymond.org


The Methodists are rising money in order to tackle some maintenance issues that have cropped up….The Edwards Fellowship club meets in the Methodist family center, therefore some of club members will be adding items to the sale also. So, it should prove to be a magnificent buying opportunity.

The Methodist rummage sale will be part of an annual Highway 80 yard sale….I guess it goes from coast to coast…I had not heard of it. Anyway, I may set up a stand in front of the concrete “Edwards” sign there in the curve …to see can I sell a few of my cement leaves….I haven’t got many leaves left…and it’s been so hot… I have not been motivated to make many so far this summer. But I want to be where the action is for sure…so I will sell leaves ‘til noon…. zip out to the cemetery for dinner on the grounds…scamper back to town, spend the afternoon selling leaves…then dash to Raymond to be part of the Pilgrimage festivities over there.

Fall is fun!!!! Call if you need me!

"Christiansen's comment's" Hinds County Gazette

When I opened the Gazette last Thursday, I was mortified and embarrassed. I must apologize again, for that long rambling column last week…I didn’t even know it had gotten that long. It is this weather!…the clouds, the drizzled, the torrential rains, for what seems like weeks, with only the occasional, short lived, rays from the sun….I will soon be mad!. Mad! Mad! Do you hear me MAD!

Saturday morning I stood in my shop door… looking out at the drizzle, thinking, “I can not stand much more of this“… looked up and ask God ,”Do you see this grass? Can’t you see it needs mowing? God I need to put another coat of paint on the back door…. God there are crops in the field that need to come out” That banter with God ended with…me remembering, there is nothing like the weather to keep us reminded that God is in charge of this world. So locked the shop, went in, took a bath and headed to Raymond.

The friends of Raymond was supposed to have wrapped up their pilgrimage, Saturday afternoon with a ribbon cutting at the site of the newly acquired, 66 acres of battlefield and addition to the 66 acres, Gaddis Farms gave them an easement of more acreage, Artillery Ridge, where cannons will be placed in the spot they were during the battle of Raymond. Gaddis Farms, the Artillery Ridge addition, also allows an extension to the walking trail. The friends of Raymond are very proud of the newly obtained lands.

Because of the weather they moved the dedication to Saint Marks church….I am glad they did….because instead of ribbon cutting, Parker Hills, a retired Brigadier General, a friend of Raymond, maybe the most passionate and animated friend of Raymond, gave a power point slide show about the various battles that took place between Vicksburg and Jackson, in May of 1863? Have already forgotten the year?

I have respect for history, but not much of a student of the campaigns, battles, strategy, or tactics. I have always thoroughly enjoyed reading Gordon Cotton, telling us how individual life’s were affected and were lived during the war… the day to day life.

Back to the General’s talk I had heard of all of the battles, Raymond, Champion Hill etc. and had read about most of them…but the dots were not connected for me until I saw it on that screen with maps. The time frame, distances and chronological order are much clearer now.

The Friends of Raymond is an active, productive organization…their meeting do not seem to be the kind, that only thing that is decided at the meeting….is when the next meeting will be…

I joined Friends of Raymond Saturday, after all Raymond is the county seat, and I feel as a resident of Hinds County, I have a stake in what happens over there…

And maybe not most important reason to join, but still pretty high on the list… all the meeting I have attended, ended with a party…wine, nibbles and good conversation…..

The dedication ceremony was no exception…it ended with a reception at the home of Bob and Jeannie Chunn, the historic Porter House…It was a lovely party, the Porter House is a charmer, a neat garden in the back, several enchanting porches…Bob and Jeannie are charmers too, I enjoyed visiting with them…they brighten up a dreary Saturday afternoon for many people..

And besides all of that….I want to paint a cannon…. Come to think of it, that membership card I filled out, didn’t ask for my phone number…I wonder, How are they going to let me know when it’s time to paint? My number is 601 852 9998! You all, better call me!!!!

Love to all


Click here: Official Site: Friends of Raymond