It's Snowing!!!

I would take a photo, but it's cold out there!


- Posted from my iPhone with BlogPress

Chance of Snow

Snowy Skies. It is a cold, wintery day here in Central Mississippi. It is only 43F out there now, and the weather forecast says we could get snow showers this afternoon and evening. The cold weather seems to have come upon us all at once. I still have blooming shrubs and perennials all over the garden.

The leaf situation in the back yard is getting serious. Something needs to be done about this, but I don't know what because I am meeting Leah in the Delta tomorrow morning to go Christmas shopping at McCartys Pottery in Merigold, Mississippi.

We plan to go to Peter's Pottery, too, which is just down the road in Mound Bayou. After all of these fun outings, we will have dinner at Madidi in Clarksdale, some drinks at Ground Zero Blues Club, and will shack up for the night at the Shack Up Inn.

Madidi and Ground Zero are both Morgan Freeman's. Who knows if he'll be there, but if he is, I plan on getting my photo taken with him. As for the Shack Up Inn, I am a bit nervous about staying in a shack when it is supposed to be around 28F. I am bringing flannel pajamas and my 20F sleeping bag. And plenty of hot chocolate and Malibu coconut rum, too! A friend turned my on to that concoction on a camping trip in the Smokies. You really must try it!

Have a great weekend, everyone! Let the holiday shopping begin!

Pyramid Trellis

My grandfather is a very skilled carpenter. He makes chairs, benches, and porch swings. On my front porch, I have two adirondack chairs that he made. On the back porch, I hung the pretty white swing that he made for me. I love my handmade furniture.

A while back, I was looking at Birds and Blooms magazine, and I saw instructions for a pyramid trellis. I really needed a focal point for the middle of my perennial bed, so I went to the website, printed out the instructions, and took them to my grandpa. He called me a few days later and told me it was ready. He and my brother loaded it into the truck and helped me position it in the perennial bed.


The trellis is perfect for this spot. Tall, but not too tall. It fits right in with my tall knockout roses, lantana, irises, and shasta daisy. The Birds and Blooms version was topped with a round finial. My grandpa topped mine with a wooden cross. You can find the plans here.

I have a vigirous Carolina Jessamine growing on it, and I am sure that it will take right off next spring. These photos are from August, when I'd just installed it in the flower bed. The jessamine is a fast growing vine. I think I will cover this trellis entirely in two seasons.

It dipped below freezing for the first time last night. November 26th is late for a first frost. My knockout roses are still blooming like crazy in the unseasonable warm temperatures.

Tonight I am headed to my grandparents house in Sallis, Mississippi. My aunts, uncles, cousins, and my brother are all there now. The men and boys will all come in from hunting. They'll eat squirrel, corn, and potato stew. Sometimes I eat it, too, but I am generally more partial to my grandma's chicken and cornbread dressing. After dinner we'll play dominoes, or we'll have a bonfire... And that's Thanksgiving at grandma's house.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

An Update

There was a lot of hoopla over nothing for the Ole Miss game on Saturday. Kinda like the entire football season this year...

Anyway. The band did play "Dixie" and they did play "I Saw the Light", they just didn't play them in the "From Dixie with Love" arrangement where one song flows into the other. Big whoop!?

And the game was awesome! The team played lights out. Dexter McCluster set team rushing and all-purpose yards records. I am really looking forward to the LSU match-up on Saturday!

Then on Sunday, I have a family Thanksgiving meal. I have no idea about what I am going to cook. In the Grove this weekend, I had a cheesecake topped with pumpkin pie topped with pecan pie. It was divine. I wonder if I could pull it off?

Mid-Week Mish-mash

To begin, I'd like to say, "Congratulations!" to Susan and Daniel. Susan gave birth to a healthy baby boy early Sunday morning. I can't wait to see their sweet thing in person!

I am heading to Oxford tomorrow morning and will be there for a while. I'm sure I'll need to mow the yard, and I have perennials to divide. Fun stuff. I have to work before the 11:00 AM kickoff of the Tennessee game this weekend. I'll probably miss the pre-game and the kickoff, and I'm not thrilled about it. If you haven't heard, just yesterday, the new Chancellor, Dan Jones, asked the Ole Miss band to stop playing the school's unofficial fight song "From Dixie with Love" because there are folks who chant "the South will rise again" at one point duing that song. I have been going to Ole Miss games for twelve years, and I had no idea until last year that people chant that crap. Some are defending the phrase, saying that it no longer has racist, segregationist undertones; that is it just of a way to express pride and love for our region. I’m not convinced. Couldn't we find another phrase to express those feelings instead of reviving an old Civil War chant? For me, I say good riddance. Maybe my alma mater can finally move on from all of these offensive Old South relics and can learn to be proud of more than our flawed past. How about building our academic future?

Moving on!

Tonight, we are hosting Chip's parents for dinner. I am making Ina's Chicken Stew with Biscuits. It looks delicious. Last night I roasted and diced the chicken and chopped the veggies so that I can throw everything together after work today. I also baked an Almond-Crusted Pound Cake. It is Chip's mom's birthday, and she adores almond desserts. I am a little worried about the cake because it seems dry and crumbly instead of moist and delicious. There are two things I could have done wrong. 1) I didn't sift the cake flour before I measured, so it is possible that I just added too much flour. 2) I overbaked it. The middle wasn't done after 1 hour of baking, so I turned down the oven to 325F and baked for another 10 minutes. Maybe too long? I guess I'll find out tonight. I hope I am nervous over nothing and the cake turns out to be delicious.

Fall Flowers

We've been blessed with beautiful weather this week. Sunny, cloudless skies and highs in the lower 70s. Unfortunately, I've been so busy at work that I haven't had a chance to get out and enjoy it. Today I hope things slow down enough so I can take a lunch break and maybe take a stroll around the neighborhood.

I love having more sunlight in the morning lately. This morning I went outside and snapped some photos of some of my favorite fall blooms: my pink hydrangea and my "all-purple" Mexican bush sage.

And, I got a good photo of the neighbor's cat. We call him Meowmers. He's gorgeous, and he loves stalking the birds and butterflies that frequent my front porch.

We have a black tom cat that visits the porch, too, and we've named him Franklin. There are two more tom cats that visit sometimes, but we haven't named them. We keep Walle inside; he doesn't "cat around" with the neighborhood kitties. Walle gets excited when I open the windows so that he gets to experience the front porch, too.

The leaves are falling, and I have my work cut out for me this weekend, raking and chopping leaves for my compost. The weather is still supposed to be gorgeous, so I don't really mind the chores. I am actually looking forward to it!