statues of the confederacy

Pretty much every town around here has multiple monuments and statues memorializing Confederate soldiers. These are from Columbus.

 

our visitor #2

This one will be a more permanent visitor than the first, we hope. We found her a couple nights ago in Columbus, and have named her Kipper.

mississippi pecan festival this weekend

Please direct your attention to item 4 on the list of festival activities.

I was really excited to go to this before realizing it was 3 hours away. Then again...  the roosters.

hail state

Friends of ours had extra tickets to the game last night, so we went. It was a madhouse. People set up tailgate tents around the stadium the night before (starting at 5pm, when a bell is rung and everyone races to their spots), and brought in HD televisions, generators, grills, and everything else you could imagine. Women were decked all out in dresses, heels, and lots of lipstick. Kids wore MSU stickers, hair bows, t-shirts, and hats. And everyone carried a cowbell. We put in earplugs halfway through the game.

 

 

 

starkville and columbus

Last night I did some wandering around downtown Starkville, in part as a participant in the city's biannual Ladies' Night Out wine event. Then today I woke up early to get to Columbus' farmers market before all the good stuff disappeared: mizuna, arugula, lots of squash, eggplant, and more persimmons!

 

 

our visitor

update: multiple people have agreed that it's a 'chicken snake' -- totally harmless and good to have around to manage any other unwanted friends. still, we got the hole in our door sealed today.

We found this in our laundry room the other day, right next to our dryer. We have not gone back in there since. It's hard to tell from the photo how big our friend was, but he/she seems to be at least 3-4 feet long.

weekend loot

More goodies picked up at estate sales and antique stores this past week: a set of 6 black lacquered Italian bentwood chairs, which I'll use around the dining room table, 2 Thonet bentwood chairs (I've been looking for these forever), a wool army blanket from 1935, a Jules Verne book (love the cover), a currier & ives print with a pretty carved wood frame (under the blanket), a framed watercolor painting, and lots of vintage linens, including a cross-stitched panel of different shell types.

At the farmers market in Meridian and the general store in Philadelphia, I picked up a bunch of fuyu persimmons (the farmer told me they grow very easily here), green peanuts, and a bag of locally-produced grits, ground on a watermill.

trip to Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Mississippi, that is. 

I stopped here on my way home from Meridian. On the way into town, one passes the historic marker commemorating the murder site of three civil rights workers in 1964.

The Williams Brothers general store has been in operation since 1907, and still sells everything from bridles, saddles, boots, butter, meat, and veggies. It was packed when I went in today, which was great to see. What a cool place.

From Burnside County Park, on the way out of town. No gators spotted this time.

trip to Meridian

I woke up at 6 am today to go estate sailing in Meridian. I came home with lots of goodies (more on that later), but the most fun was seeing all of the gorgeous art deco buildings in the downtown area.

The Temple Theater was built in 1927 by the Hamasa Shriners, and had one of the largest stages in the US at the time. It's still in operation.

Details from the post office (1933). I love the corncob design.

The Threefoot Building, now abandoned, was built in 1929. It is now on the list of America's Most Endangered Places. According to an unnamed source which may or may not be wikipedia, the building "is named after the Threefoot family, Jewish-German immigrants who changed their name from Dreyfuss ('three foot' in German) to better reflect their new American home."

Some other shots from around town:

scarecrow man(nequin)

this young man was watching over a small veggie patch at a produce stand just outside of town. i love his serious expression.