" Fall Passes Away"

Hubby and I went to visit my friend Pat yesterday and came home with a new addition! Meet Miss Kitty! The mother cat and one of her two kittens disappeared when the kittens were two weeks old. Pat bottle fed this one till it could eat on its own. She is a Calico Manx. She has NO tail ! She is 8 weeks old.The dogs were all excited to see her but she DID NOT take to them !!
She was ready to take them all on!!



So for now she stays in "my porch " room..................

Yesterday we had a dusting of Snow! Not the 1-2 inches predicted but enough to excite my southern heart............

Put me in a real Christmas mood..........

I know you Northerners laugh at us Southerners for getting so excited over Snow.........

We'll laugh at you around late March when we plant our garden and you are still shoveling the white stuff.......... :)

I always think of Ballerinas when I see the branches bending gracefully under the weight of snow

I spent the day decorating for Christmas.........

Digging through box after box of decorations..........

Then of course we watched the football game between Alabama & Florida! Congrats to Alabama on an awesome win!

Today I will decorate some more and of course watch my TITANS try to give the COLTS their

first loss of the season!! This morning we had 26 degrees and heavy frost so I'd say Fall has passed away in South Mississippi.................

We did have some beautiful colors in November. I was so busy I didn't get around to posting the pics! So browse through them and I see you at the end...........

HAVE A GREAT SUNDAY EVERYONE !! GO TITANS !!!!!!!

NOVEMBER 2009

November........I love November, it has me thinking about Thanksgiving Dinner with family, Pumpkin Pie, Jack Daniels Sweet Potatoes, homemade Cranberry Sauce! UMMMMM !




Frosty Mornings on the farm. We had our first frost this morning!

Cable Knit socks..........

Christmas Trees all a glow............

Look at these darling ornaments! You Artist need to do these as gifts!

Look at this! I'd LOVE to have A Titans and A Saints for my tree...........The one shown is a USM Golden Eagles.

I had a dream come true on Friday when I got my set of GWTW Plates!

We got them put up on Saturday morning...........

I'm waiting on a pair of Peacock bookends to go where the angel is to hold my copies of GWTW,

Scarlet and the movie...........

The plates are fine china and came in their original boxes with certificates and pamphlets! I waited 20 years to own this set! :)

My sister, bIL and 3 nieces came down from Memphis this weekend to visit. Daddy and Jeanette joined us for dinner. I made a huge pot of Cajun Seafood Gumbo that was awesome!

And a Blackberry Cobbler with some of the BB's we put in the freezer.............

What a delightful time we had! (this isn't mine,I forgot to get a pic)

And......to start the month off right, Vince Young started as the QB for the Titans!!

Between Vince and the awesome running back Chris Johnson, the Titans WON their 1st game this year!

Spanked the Jaguars 30 -13 ! Now yesterday they LOOKED like MY TITANS !!! :)

The day ended with a beautiful Hunter's Moon coming up over the pond...........

Which later lit up the pond so beautifully...............

HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE !!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Interview

http://www.hyggedigter.blogspot.com/

My friend Kat at Poetikat's Invisible Keepsakes was recently
interviewed by Willow of Willow Manor and we learned some interesting things about her.
Kat in turn expressed a desire to interview me..I accepted! She sent me these questions and
after careful thought...here are my answers. If you in turn would like to be interviewed by me,
please leave a comment at the end and I will send you 5 questions of my choosing.

1. Kat.........You have indicated a real affinity for the South and Southern Authors. How has this affected your own wonderful writing?

Carol.........I am truly partial to both the South and Southern Authors. Mississippi alone has produced some truly awesome Authors. William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Shelby Foote, Larry Brown, Carolyn Haines, Melinda Haynes, Patrick Smith,Willie Morris and let's not forget John Grisham and my very favorite, Greg Iles. The South with it's laid back lifestyle, traditions that are both wonderful and in some cases atrocious and it's hard fought ability to let go and move forward provide a wealth of material for it's present day writers. My writing is greatly affected by having grown up in a time and place that was a hotbed of the Civil Rights Movement, a place whose identity was destroyed by losing the Civil War, which in my opinion only furthered the racism.I think sometimes that I and other southern writers feel the need to "right the wrongs" and it shows up in our writing. I always been told that to be a successful writer, you MUST write what you know.........I know the South.

2. Kat..........If you could invite anyone to dinner( alive or dead) who would it be and why?

Carol.........It would be Jesus without a doubt! Why? I would like nothing better than to get his opinion on several matters of interest to me? An interview of Jesus would be awesome! I'd ask questions such as; How do you think your message of love, forgiveness and compassion got so messed up by organized religion? Why is it so hard for humans to look past a persons skin color and see the person? What really does happen when our body dies...is our spirit really gone or are we still around our loved ones in a "ghost"form? If I could have a dinner party? My guest list would include along with Jesus, Mother Theresa, Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, Abe Lincoln, Dolly Parton, Oprah, Maya Angelou, Steve McNair( Former Titans QB) and all my blogger friends. Wouldn't we have a good time?

3. Kat............Your profile says your an NFL Fan. Have you ever been to a game? What in your opinion is the best game you've ever seen? (live or on TV)

Carol...............When the Houston Oilers became the Tennessee Titans in 1998 and moved to Nashville, I attended the first game in the new stadium. It was a pre -season game against the Atlanta Falcons. Tennessee won the game. I had never experienced such an electric atmosphere, I was hooked! I thought watching #9 Steve "AIR" McNair play the QB position was the greatest thing since indoor plumbing! A football freak was born! I lived and breathed Titans football! Now that has to be my best live game! I have been many times since but that was the best! On TV......it has to be SuperBowl 2000 when Tennessee came from behind to lose it by " 1" yard !! ONE stinking yard! I had to go to bed afterward !! However all was forgiven in September when I received a signed official Titans football for my birthday from my man, Steve McNair. I also attended his MVP party in Nashville along with Brett Favre and Allen Jackson! Be still my heart!

4. Kat.................... What is your favorite all-time film and why?"

Carol...............Gone With The Wind". Because I am Margaret Mitchell reincarnated? I wish! I really don't know why. It just makes me wish I had lived in that era and been a real Southern Belle! I loved Melanie Wilkes so much I named my only daughter that in hopes she would be just like her. She is defiantly Scarlett but my heart anyway!

5. Kat.................What is your fondest memory of your Mother?

Carol......After we moved to Nashville we returned to Mississippi every Christmas. Either my mother or my Mother-in-law would go home with us for a couple of weeks. One year my Mother went. It snowed about seven inches. Mom and my two sons Todd and Marty(7 and 3 at the time) went outside for a snowball fight. My Mom made a huge snowball and hurled it at Todd, striking his chest, knocking him down! He jumped up and said; Dang Grammaw.....I didn't know you played baseball!

And so.................the interview ends. Thank you Kat for this opportunity, I enjoyed it !

If you would like for me to interview you, leave a comment and I'll fire you off some questions!

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee

I started this blog in December just about the time things got crazy around here.

I have gotten several e-mails asking if I planned to blog again? I answered yes,
when things go back to normal.We had a wonderful Holiday Season, lots of parties, food and visits with friends then went to Tennessee to celebrate with the children and grandchildren! Came back and the NFL Playoffs began! This year my Tennessee Titans have the best record in the NFL and hopefully will make it tthe SuperBowl!

Reading...........my favorite thing in the world! I have managed to read two books in the past seven days.

The first was.........' My Old True Love' by Sheila Kay Adams.(Hardcover 289 p)
Shiela is a North Carolina writer. As you know, I am very parcial to NC writers or I should say Appalachian writers in general. I LOVED THIS BOOK !
What a wonderful storyteller Sheila is. She takes you back in time through the gentle voice of Arty Norton. Arty is a mountain woman born in a era and place
where heartbreak and joy change places as fast as people in an old fashioned cake walk.
If you love an Appalachian setting, down to earth mountain people, the Civil War and a good love story told by a master storyteller...........this is the read for you!

Second.........Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee (Hardcover 285 pages)
By Charles J. Sheilds.

Nelle Harper Lee the Author of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', is perhaps one of the most fascinating people of the 20th century. Why? Because after writing her Pulitzer Prize winning debut novel she practically disappeared from the scene. Most people think she died years ago when in fact she is still alive and well in Monroeville,Alabama.She was born April 28, 1926, making her 82 at present.
She lives a quiet,reclusive life and refuses to discuss anything to do with the "book" or writing.

I have always been fascinated by both Harper Lee and Margaret Mitchell because these two women wrote what is considered to be the greatest novels
of the20th century and never wrote another published book.Years ago I read
'Tara Road' the biography of Margaret Mitchell and learned that she had expressed often that she wished she had never let 'Gone With The Wind' be
be published, 'It ruined my life' she said.

After reading 'Mockingbird', I learned that though she never expressed the same exact sentiment, Harper Lee may have felt the same about her book. When questioned as to 'Why' she never wrote another book,she would say;
"I said what I had to say in the first one".She also expressed to a close friend,
"when you start at the top,there is nowhere to go". Since this applies to both of these women's first and only books, I believe it answers the question of 'Why' in both cases.

"Mockingbird" is a well written and wonderful glance into the world of Harper Lee. Charles Shields has done an excellent job considering that his research
was hindered greatly by those close to Miss Lee in an attempt to keep her private life just that!