The Kudzu Files

Among other things I’ve had going on, learning to drive a tractor has taken its place. The extent of my tractor driving is, so far, using it to mow the area around a cabin and pond on property my wife’s family owns about 40 miles from home. I’ve learned a few things: [...]

When I was a kid in the early 1960s, one of my favorite buildings was the Naval Reserve Center across the street from the State Fairgrounds. At that time, it was a busy place, with reservists there seemingly all the time.

It’s been an unusual winter in central Mississippi, because for the first time in what seems like years, we’ve had winter. Some recent winters have seen only a few nights where temperatures got below freezing - which makes for a bumper crop of bugs the next spring. But we saw snow - very [...]

The Mississippi legislature this week passed a bill that makes pseudoephedrine available only by prescription. Unless some miraculous event causes him to rethink his position, Governor Barbour will sign the bill, and many will consider this a major step towards defeating the meth labs. I’m not one of them. Pseudoephedrine already was [...]

A typical January day in central Mississippi would have a high temperature somewhere around 55F. The low would be 38F or so. It might be sunny, in which case it would be pleasant, and we might even wear short sleeves. I would work in the garden, maybe. If it were cloudy [...]

I would find whoever decided to prune the camellias behind the Governor’s Mansion and stop them. At some point in the past, someone planted a row of camellias behind the Mississippi Governor’s Mansion. Japonicas, sasanquas, red, pink, white - there was a really nice variety of camellias, and since they were different types, [...]

I went to a different stretch of beach late this afternoon, an area where I’ve been seeing lots of birds. On and around the remains of a couple of piers ruined by Katrina, I found a large group of pelicans, seagulls, sandpipers. Pelicans, it would seem, are as serene as gulls are raucous. [...]

I’ve been on the Mississippi coast last week and again this week for training.  This evening as the sun was setting I decided to walk along the beach, taking my camera along.  This was my first shot:
(Click on the pictures to see the original size)

Then I noticed a lone pelican skimming the water. I [...]

My mother’s quilt group had their annual show this weekend, here’s some pictures I took.
This is my mother’s second-place winner in the hand-quilted category!

Here’s some other quilts:

This next one was made by an 8-year old girl (with some help putting it all together).

I stopped today at a cypress swamp along the Natchez Trace, about 30 miles from Jackson. It’s a place I’ve driven by many, many times, but since I had plenty of time I decided to talk a walk around the trail this time. Cypress trees are pretty amazing - we always think of [...]