Welcome and Unwelcome Guests

Oh jOy!  

 A SnOw dAy!

QB woke me up early on Friday morning, smiling and said, "Look outside."  I opened my bleary eyes and saw the most beautiful sight!  Yay!  Snow! 

 (that was my POV from under the covers)

We were off from work anyway because our plan was to leave for Arkansas that morning.  In the end, we decided it was too risky to travel, especially because the winter storm was covering every inch of our route.

So, we laid there for a while watching the snow accumulate.

Then it was time to bundle up and go for a walk in the snow!  

There was also a dual mission:  breakfast!  

(QB took the one above)

a view of our front yard from inside, above; and from the outside, below.

a view of our street:

As we made our way to the front yard, a little girl came up to QB and said, "Happy Snow Day!!"  She was looking for her dog, who as soon as he heard her voice, came bounding out of the snowy bushes.  She wished us another Happy Snow Day and ran back down the street. 

Snow is a very big damn deal in the South, dammit!

Wow! It was so pretty.

I haven't ever seen it snow like this in a long time and QB says the last time it snowed like this in Jackson was about 1997. I was delighted because usually it doesn't last long and it kept going to beat the band.

We made our way to the corner and down the street.

It was fun to see kids outside laughing and playing, making their snowmen, throwing a few snowballs and parents taking pictures.

 We stopped by Eudora Welty's house just for fun.

 

 

We were halfway to the grocery store when my phone rang and our friend and neighbor Katie asked if we wanted to go on a walk in the snow.  It was such a great idea and I felt bad we hadn't called her, so I let her know we were already out but please come and won't you have breakfast with us, too?  We walked back a little ways to catch up with her and headed on to the grocery store.


We got our provisions and were on our way back when we stopped and talked to a neighbor.  Low and behold, our friend, gorjus was out walking around, too.  He was heading to the grocery store for the very same reason we were, so he got an invite to join us for the snow day breakfast.  We got back to the house and began to get things moving.


gorjus decided to run home quickly and get his yellow stone ground grits - and I made a special request for him and QB to snatch up our friend and g's downstairs neighbor, Andi!   


It was funny to me how we amassed quite a group in a short amount of time.  I imagine if we'd taken another lap through the neighborhood, we would have collected more friends to add to the breakfast table.  I love having impromptu gatherings and what better way to spend a snow day with good friends.  It's so much fun when friends stop by out of the blue to visit - it's a fun surprise!

So, we went to town on breakfast.  Sweet potato pancakes with Delta Cane syrup (of course), Country Pleasin'  Cajun Andouille sausage, sauteed red and orange peppers, garlic cheese grits and sliced strawberries and bananas.  Yum, yum.

(Have to get a gratuitous cheese shot)

We also had coffee and Katie whipped some heavy cream and added some orange liqueur to it.  That was so good!!  Hot Apple cider with whiskey was another tasty beverage option.

Look at our feast!  We had a great time and ate ourselves into a stupor.  

The good, sleepy kind.

 (thank you, gorjus, for the cheese grits demonstration)

It doesn't get any better than that!

Oh!  I almost forgot to mention the UN-welcome guests that have shown up at our house this weekend, too!

For the past couple of weeks, there is a black and white stray cat that has been sitting on the fence outside our bedroom window.  It's safe to say he's a tomcat with all the yodeling and crooning he does.  Lately, there's been another kitty coming around, too, and they've become quite intimate apparently.

There's a hole that they have climbed into at the back of our house

and have proceeded to get quite cozy underneath our floors - holy cow, what a swan song!!  They are so damn loud.  The last thing we want to be is a kit-kat knock-em-up halfway house.  Feral felines!    

Someone stopped us on our snow day walk and asked if we'd seen a black and white neighborhood cat.  Yes, we've, uh, seen him quite frequently in our yard.  She wanted to make sure he was alright in this weather.  Hmmph!  I secretly thought to myself a few hundred evil things I'd like to do to him, what with the Vegas act he's been staging under our house lately!!  

Those cats have got to G-O.

Our First Snow

QB and I had been inside playing Parcheesi when I wondered about the weather. After pulling back the curtains, I saw snow on the ground and he opened the door to discover it was really coming down.

Here was the view from our porch:

So, we bundled up and took a late-night walk around the neighborhood, hand in hand, under the heavily falling snow - a near miracle in these parts (not the hand holding, the snow)!

A view of our house from the street.

We walked past Miss Eudora's house on Pinehurst. I tried to take a picture of her house, but it was dark and my camera didn't cooperate. Maybe she just wanted to be left alone! So, here's a picture of the street sign.

We had our own small-scale snowball tussle, took some photos and enjoyed the moment. Below, a house on Poplar with their Christmas lights aglow.

We heard the Belhaven college students thoroughly enjoying themselves - yelling and laughing. We walked across the campus to find them sledding down the hills into the soccer bowl and having snowball fights. Photos of the campus:

QB wrote "I love U" in the snow.

We made our way here and there in the neighborhood, passing a house on Linden where several people were out on their porch, each wrapped in a blanket, talking and watching the snow. What a special and fun way to ring in our 1 week wedding anniversary!

Happy Birthday, Miss Eudora!

April 13 was Eudora Welty's 100th birthday.
(She passed away in 2001 at the age of 92.)

The birthday party was at her home on Pinehurst Street in Belhaven.

Camera crews, reporters and others were there

to help celebrate and commemorate the occasion.

(Welty's Niece, Mary Alice White being interviewed)

It was a beautiful day that had been threatened with rain,
but the sun shone brightly all day long.

(The bottom fell out of the sky that very night.

QB & I got caught out in it during our walk around the neighborhood.

Were properly soaked.)

They served guests cake and lemonade.

There was even a speech by the Guv'nuh.

Two pretty little girls in matching pink dresses
were floating around the yard.

Bright pink and white striped camillia bushes on the side of her house.

Tours of her home and the gardens were given on the half hour.

A documentary film can be seen in the house
next door (which is also a part of the museum),
which I highly recommend.
I wasn't able to see all of it.
The tour of the house started at 1:30 p.m.
It was hard to pull myself away!

She donated her home
to the Mississippi Department of Archives
in 1985-6.
After her death they took pictures of everything
just as she had left it.
After the renovations
everything was lovingly restored
to its proper place.

Central heat and air was installed in the house.
Miss Welty abhorred air conditioning
and never used it.

I, personally, praise the name
of whoever invented CH/A.

Only a handful of objects are reproductions.
Everything else is original.
Books are stacked everywhere
just like she had it
and copies of manuscripts pages
that sat on the dining room table
for us to look at and touch.

I made a mental note of the P.G. Wodehouse book in her den.
The World of Jeeves.

Memorable quotes as we made our way through the house:

"I've only seen three books I've actually read!"
"Are you the last two [in the group]? The caboose?"

We saw the set of Charles Dickens books upstairs
that her mother
famously saved
during an apartment fire.

The bathroom at the top of the stairs was where she developed her photographs.

Copies of her first edition books
she gave to her mother
were kept in a secretary in the den.

Fans would knock on her door
to ask for autographs
which she gladly gave.

One fan went so far as
to send money
and asked if she would please
buy her books,
autograph them
and "Send them back to me."
And she did.

All of the prizes she won,
including her Pulitzer,
were found after her death
in the living room closet.
The one prize she did display
was a porcelain Raven statue
she received in 1995
for being the top Mystery book reader of the year.

When we were being shown through the house,
a lady named Eddie Polk spoke up.
She worked for the Weltys for 36 years.
Eddie came every morning to cook
Miss Eudora and her Mama breakfast.
Sometimes she would drive Eudora to the bank.
Other days Eudora would say,
"Eddie, let's not do anything today. It's just too hot."

It doesn't get better than that.