Penny Sanford Designs

Home from Super Day Trip!

Saturday was a wonderful day! Gordon and I zipped over to Tuscaloosa, AL, to give a program on Historic Quilts to the West Alabama Quilters Guild!

We met some truly marvelous people who also happen to be quilters. Beautiful quilt pictures to share with you. 

We took pictures along the trip home. That was a treat, even if Gordon did drive around Tuscaloosa like he was in Bad Boys II with me hanging out the passenger window trying to snag some shots with the camera (not gun)! Oodles of pictures to share with you.

Program notes, links and bibliography will be posted ASAP here on the blog.

It was exciting to see how many of the quilters are already on Facebook. Friend me on facebook here.

I finished sewing on the final quilt sleeve on the trip to Tuscaloosa, and I appliqued on the way home. My definition of utopia.

The welcome home from the fur children was a miracle balm to two tired travelers! Fur baby stories and pictures are also backlogged, waiting to be shared with you.

It was the first time we had been separated from our new fur child Jenny B...since we fetched her from Arkansas March 21, 2009. You try taking a picture of a whirling dervish! (That would be Jenny B!)

I did good to get the picture of Mackie singing ONLY because he sat for one nanosecond!

Has it already been 21 days? Jenny B settled into our pack that first day, so it seems like she has been with us forever!

Gordon and I have had very little sleep this past week. Only two hours max the last two nights. Many small deadlines this week.

After some more sleep, (I crashed when we got home), I'll start sharing photos and some fascinating quilt stories with you!

Thank you, West Alabama Quilters Guild, for giving us a fabulous day out!

Whimsical Metal Christmas Decorations

We picked up our standing order of Mississippi State University Cheese last Thursday, and I snapped some pictures of the fun decorations in the cheese store to share with you.

These creative metal sculptures caught my fancy. The young lady at the check out counter knew nothing about them.

Are they something you can find anywhere in the country? Something made by students on campus? Or by a local artist?

I've been intrigued by whimsical metal art sculptures since spotting the fun pink flamingo in the Yard of the Month in Kosciusko, Mississippi.

Look at this Toy Soldier's face! How can one not fall in love with that!

If you see something in this genre of whimsical metal sculpture, please share a picture with me. I am captivated by this area of creativity.

Can you guess?

After having a refreshing, envigorating time visiting friends and giving a program to the Fort Rosalie Chapter of the Mississippi DAR Saturday morning at the Jackson Municipal Art Gallery, Gordon and I went out to share a private lunch!

Just the two of us! Alone!

Almost five years of marriage, and how long has it been since I wrote about us going to see the movie American Gangster together? We had wanted to go see Appaloosa Saturday afternoon, but we were both just too tired from the past few weeks.  We probably would have gone to sleep in the theater! HA!

I fell asleep one time, long time ago, during a performance at The Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, AL. The performance was splendid, as always, but I was so tired, and the theater was cold, and I just fell asleep on my date's shoulder. SO embarassing, but he was cool about it. (Now this is your opportunity to help me feel better by telling me your Falling Asleep in Public story!)

Any advice on somehow saving enough energy as 40-something's to enjoy our rare times alone?

For some silly fun, see if you can guess where we had a delicious, relaxing, lingering lunch?

This restaurant is in the Jackson area. The outside of the restaurant may not be like the version you have in your area because this particular town makes all of the commercial businesses jazz up their external architecture to fit the overall profile of the rapidly growing bedroom community near Jackson.

I betcha you have eaten at this brand name restaurant somewhere else in the country before. Surely these restaurants can be found outside the South and Southwest!

Some special folks had given us some gift cards to this and/or three other restaurants in the same parent company. That generous gift was TWO years ago! The closest restaurant on those gift cards is in the Jackson, MS, area.

In the past, either we have not had the gift cards with us when we have gone to Jackson, or we have had the cards with us but have not had time to enjoy a real sit-down meal.

I will be writing those friends again to let them know how perfectly timed their lovely gift has been. We really needed a little time alone to just relax.

Are these just regular chili peppers in the third picture, or are these those Poinsettia Peppers that turn red around Christmas and look like poinsettias (from a distance)?  Every year, I think about planting some, but I just never have time to follow through. One day....

I sat where I could see the sun illuminate Gordon's stunning blue eyes. That embarases him when I tell him how much I enjoy just looking at the many shades of blue in his eyes.

We had to stop ourselves from talking "shop"...what we needed to get at Walmart, which medicines Mama and Unc would need by the end of the week, etc. 

We really do need to start having a Date Night every month or every week!!! That lunch for just the two of us was so refreshing!

The table made me think of quilting! I am really missing my quilting! Maybe soon I can pick it back up!

So have you figured out the name of the chain restaurant where we had lunch?

While I take my third nap of the afternoon...after I finish this post, I'll  think of some prize to give the first person to post in their comment the name of the restaurant and the town in which it is located...and maybe what I had for lunch.

The pictures give some pretty strong hints.

By the way, the talking heads on TV have suggested that we all use any gift cards we have been given because if some of these parent companies go under from the recent financial unrest, those gift cards will probably not be honored.

Empathy is a Beast

It seems like we have lived a whole month of life in the last, what, five days? No, six days since I last posted! I have written so much to you in my mind, but I've not have the energy or time to type it up to share with you.

We gave a program to the Starkville-based Golden Triangle Quilt Guild Meeting Thursday night, and I have lots of beautiful Show and Tell quilts and works-in-progress (WIP's)to share with you!

Being off of the farm with my husband after dark for the first time in...I don't know how many weeks...felt like a real date Thursday night. My need for color was fed by seeing the neon and advertising signs and night lights of Starkville and the little towns we drove through on the way home. I had used up the camera card at the Guild meeting, so I could not snap any of the quaint ways the merchants have used neon to add charm to historic downtown Starkville. *Mental note to be prepared to take night pictures in Starkville after the next Guild meeting.*

Gordon and I were a bit overwhelmed by the amazing nourishment of spirit in being greeted with such exuberant love by the fur babies when we returned home after just 4 or 5 hours away. How do people live without loving pets?

More Good Stuff from the past six days: The smell of fresh cut grass as Gordon and Unc prepared for yet more rain from Hurricane Ike. Mackie and Lillibeth rooting through the furrows of fresh cut grass like little pigs and emerging with green faces.

The smell of green at night, the country night sound of crickets and whip-o-wills, and gentle comfortable breezes at night.

Gordon changing sheets, WANTING to change sheets before I ever mentioned it!!! He was so cute. I came down to the studio, and he was in the process of changing sheets, and he had a chair pulled out to block my path to the bed, his silent loving message for me to sit and let him do the work. MAJOR love brownie points!

I have lots of good stuff intermixed with pictures of quilts and other things to share with you.

The arrival of Ike was met here on the farm with an increasing level of empathy, anxiety, prayer, memories.  No surprise, I cried off and on Thursday and Friday as I empathized with those in Ike's path.

One of my God-given Gifts of the Spirit is the Gift of Mercy which is chock full of empathy. Empathy is emotionally a beast of a roller coaster ride! Poor Gordon, he'd leave to go mow, and I'd be all smiles and encouragement. He'd come back in for a drink of caffeine-free peach tea, and I'd be in tears...and this was NOT PMS or age-related hormones! It was the Empathy Beast!

There was also a terrible work site accident just a few miles from the farm that I will share with you later, and we were all in shock and emotional about the horror of the accident this week. I'll have to share that with you later because I don't want to open that little box of Empathy again today.

So today, Gordon let me sleep very late while he washed dishes and clothes. We watched news of Hurricane Ike until about 5 a.m. this morning, so we are both rather wiped out emotionally and physically. The storm is now passing over Gordon's home, family and friends in East Texas, so he has been on the phone a good bit with them this morning.

For the rest of the day, we will be watching the television relentlessly for news from the aftermath of the storm, and I will be empathizing with those storm victims, remembering the similar stories from friends who rode through Katrina just a few years ago, some losing spouses or parents to the storm or aftermath, many having nothing but a slab to call home, some with harrowing stories of hacking through the roof to escape their attic and avoid drowning or clinging to a giant live oak tree as the storm surge tried to suck them out to a terrifying death in an angry,churning sea.

In the Gulf of Mexico, the body of water is really called The Sound. When you get out of the Gulf of Mexico, the body of water is called the Atlantic Ocean or the sea.  A friend on the Mississippi Gulf Coast gently taught me that years ago when I made a typical landlubber mistake of calling the water between the coast and the barrier islands, "ocean".

These Katrina survivors are people I know and care about. There is no way for me to watch Hurricane Ike and its aftermath and not cry for those people I don't know who are now facing the worst tragedy or challenge of their lives. 

Empathy. I can't turn it off, so I cry and pray and pour my love into the Westies and touch Gordon as often as I can, even if it is only hooking a finger around his belt loop.

So, I am sharing some more pictures Gordon and I have taken along the Mississippi Gulf Coast...pictures of resilience...pictures of survival and determination to rebuild...pictures of turning loss into art and beauty.

Please let me hear how you have been this week!

The Catchy Catfish of Belzoni, Mississippi

Since I could not do anything online the last couple of days while Gustov hovered over Mississippi and Louisiana, I browsed through some photos Gordon and I have taken in the last almost five years while traveling to make speeches across Mississippi.

There are many of these Catfish statues in Belzoni, Mississippi. More than 30, I think. Do you know?

Each trip Gordon and I make to that Catfish Capitol of the Mississippi Delta, I grab some more shots of this public art.

Gordon can often get in one of his VRoom-VRoom moods after a speech, so sometimes we don't get to spend much time riding around making pictures. I'm still working on him!

I'll be sharing the Bears of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, and the Carousel Horses of Meridian, Mississippi and other public art that we have photographed in our almost five years of marriage.

Our photos are divided into computer folders by month on an external hard drive, so I just have to make a little time to browse through those many folders. I have been surprised how saving the digital photos we take each month in a folder named for that month/year has been a wonderful way to chronicle our marriage.

It is a vast improvement over boxes of slides and snapshots, most of which are not identified nor dated. Still, Gordon scans on, and we make steady, if small, progress in the pile of family photos for each of us.

Folks who lose their family photos to fire, flood, tornado, hurricane, etc., say the photos are what they miss the most in the years after they have rebuilt their lives. We'll be doing some redundant back up to multiple external hard drives...maybe put one in a lock box.

If you have done something interesting or innovative in preserving and digitizing your old family photos, slides, and video, please share your ideas.

(If you know the name of the artist of the last catfish pictured, please let me know. I wanted to stop for a close-up shot, but VROOM-VROOM was in a hurry. I tried to zoom in on the picture to read the identification plate, but my photoshop skills are not advanced enough.)

I'm pretty sure I have photographed more Belzoni Catfish in subsequent visits. I'll find them as I have time and will share them with you here in the future!

Can the Famed Mississippi Friendship Oak Survive Again?

The tears have started. They flow. They stop. They sneak out one at a time, or they flood out in a wave of pain. If you have read much of my blog, you know how much I love my native state of  Mississippi.

There is so much about her history and her present that is noble and honorable and worthy of pride. A significant number of our people are far-sighted and self-sufficient and have enough self pride to dig in and work hard, hard, hard to come through disasters and problems.

Waiting for Hurricane Gustav to come ashore and rip through so many lives and families is a journey down an emotional road I have not wanted to travel for at least three years.

Gordon and I have at least one friend who died faster than her cancer should have eaten away her life, probably because of the stress of losing everything to Hurricane Katrina. I can't bear to count up all the friends who lost husbands or wives or fathers or mothers or brothers or sisters DURING the storm.

Many more died from complications after Katrina chomped her way through my state. I don't think any of my acquaintances or friends lost children to Katrina.

Thankfully, most of the people we call friends shared from what they had left, shared from what was not hurt by the hurricane, gave their time and talent, gave out of faith that God would provide and protect and would restore more than they shared.

A few people we know were seduced by greed and changed into people Gordon and I are not comfortable being around for any length of time. I am very proud that this was a very short list of people.

The majority of what you saw on television immediately following Katrina and in the subsequent months does NOT represent the hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding, backbone of this state.

So, while we wait today and during the night for Hurricane Gustov to hit land, glued to the Weather Channel and Fox News, I am editing some photos from our last visit to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, July of 2007, almost two years after the historic storm.

In these photos, I hope you see optimism and steadfast determination in my fellow Mississippians. I hope you see some humor that could not be silenced. I hope you see beauty re-emerging.

I hope you see our respect for our historic buildings. Please see it as a respect for the difficulty of the journey of our fore-fathers and fore-mothers.

My love of our past here in Mississippi is not a blanket endorsement of every moment of political history since Mississippi became a state in 1817.

If you asked for opinions right now on some controversial subject in this country...just pick a subject...you would get as many opinions as people whom you asked. Why then, do historians lump all of us Southerners together in the same bubbling cauldron of civilian unrest that preceded the War Between the States and dotted the decades after the War?

Why, six generations after my great-great-great grandfather brought his four mother-less sons to Mississippi to carve a farm out of the wilderness in 1837, am I pre-judged and attributed with opinions or social perspectives based on what has been written in textbooks and history books by non Southerners or non-Mississippians?

Most of those books do not represent my hard-working farm based family nor the families who moved from the Carolinas at the same time and settled in the same area of Mississippi as my family, becoming multi-generational family friends.

Who was it who first said those words that have proven true throughout all of recorded history, "the victor writes the history"?

What I am sharing with you here is from the most private, the most intimate and sensitive part of my heart. This is from the part of my heart that guards my belief in and experiences with God and holds tight my growing love and trust in my husband. My love and responsibility to my family is guarded in this same part of my heart.

Please see these picture s in the positive, "making good come from bad", perspective in which I share them. I want so badly for you to see why I love my state so much.

The Friendship Live Oak tree on the Gulf Coast Campus of the University of Southern Mississippi in Long Beach, Mississippi, is a visual representation of what Mississippi is to me. She has provided acorns to start thousands, even millions of live oak trees all over the world. Her branches (family foundations and character) have provided shelter for millions who have come and stayed or who have come through this state on their way West.

Mississippi's generosity in charitable donations is documented at the top, per capita, in the nation for the last dozen or more years...just as the arms of this giant Historic Friendship Oak generously spread shade and shelter to countless visitors.

On this July, 2007, fast trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to give a speech, we had so little time to take pictures, so the yellow house pictures and dolphin topiary pics were shot through the windshield.

I was struck by how many restored or rebuilt house were painted a happy, hopeful yellow. I deeply understand that color choice.

Gordon and I have more photos to share with you from this trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I'll probably be editing them tonight while I cannot sleep.

May God protect life and health of those in the path of Hurricane Gustov tonight and tomorrow. The material possessions are just "stuff" that can be replaced.

From the Fourth

 We had to run some errands and stock up on supplies yesterday, the eve of the Fourth of July. I took along the camera to share some Slice-of-Life pictures with you from Winona, Mississippi and Grenada, Mississippi.

Please keep in mind that all of these pictures were taken through the windshield of the van. More of my Drive-by Shooting Collection.

The first picture is what we see every time we go through the drive through window at our bank in Winona, MS, the county seat of Montgomery County.

I don't know who owns the lot on which this garage or tool shed proudly displays this "Buy American" sign. It is a perfect place for this important reminder when people are either depositing or withdrawing money.

The giant Grocery Store Man has stood guard outside of Super Value grocery store in Winona, MS,  for as long as I can remember. I think he was there before Super Value was even there. Do you know?

I've still not gotten the picture of him that I envision getting. He is surprisingly difficult to photograph creatively.

In time...I'll get the perfect picture! The journey of photography is the intoxicating part, is it not?

UPDATE: Hearing from folks who live in or used to live in WInona, the Grocery Man has been there at least 32 years, even when the grocery store was called Big Star and Market Basket. I'll update as I learn more. That sign must have been made VERY well to have not needed repainting all this time. I wonder who made it.

The highway department was mowing along Interstate 55. I love to see they let the wildflowers go to seed before they mow.

The freshly mowed grass smelled so green and calming as the van's air conditioner sucked in fresh air before chilling it.

We are in the middle of a dry spell in our part of the state. Some might even call it a drought. Our sweet corn on the farm is not filling out because of the lack of rain.

But look at the Interstate 55 between Winona and Grenada. Look at that lush green growth.

We Mississippians tend to take our lush vegetation and bounty of water for granted because we see such beauty all the time.

We passed this delicious load of lumber during the drive. Out of my mouth popped, "I wish we had that load of lumber on the farm and he (the driver) had an even better and larger load of lumber."

Until Gordon got accustomed to such statements, I had to explain that Daddy had used this method to teach me the principle of not coveting what belonged to somewhere else.

I can hear Daddy's voice now, "I wish I had that beautiful boat, and that man had an even bigger and better boat."

Even a 45 year old woman has to consistently practice the discipline of not coveting what others have...not being jealous of others.

First stop was the Day Old Bread Store. We stock up at the first of the month and freeze the bread. For 20 loaves of different bread and a ten other items, we only spent $35. What is a loaf of bread at full retail now, over $2 per loaf?

Do you buy and freeze bread? Do you have bread outlet stores like this in your area?

Next to the bread store in Grenada is the Dodge dealership. Gordon and I drove through the parking lot to look at the trucks.

We want to buy a truck with enough power to pull a fifth wheel (RV). We're not ready to buy the RV yet, but getting the truck is the next step.

We need a good truck on the farm as demonstrated when the old 1994 green van had a warning light come on, preventing Gordon from taking the kiln to the repair shop on Tuesday.

We'll talk vehicles another time because I would like the benefit of your experience. We want to buy a program truck, preferably from 2007 or 2008. All the dealership had was 2006 or 2007.

We want a dual cab. You will notice in the picture of the red trucks that I noted one was a double cab PLUS some extra space. Have you had experience with that? Advice?

I want a tan or champaign color like our just-paid-for van. We will be keeping her for a good many more years. 250,000 miles is our goal for any vehicle we buy.

More fun and silly "slice of life" stuff to share with you later today, the Fourth of July.

For now, some sleep.

I want to be Weezer!

My Hero. Weezer from Steele Magnolias! One of my favorite movies is playing this afternoon.

I think I am turning into Weezer, day by day, month by month, year by year...with no curse words...well, except maybe in private if I am really, really, really mad.....usually at something a man has done. True confession. Blush.

Granted, the models of strong Southern women whom I admire have used more subtle interrogation techniques, but get them riled up, and they make Weezer look like an amateur! I adore the ART of Southerness!

This movie is along the line of what I envision if I ever write a screen play about taking care of two eighty-something Southern eccentrics on a farm in Mississippi!

Eyesight:  Dr. Braswell's office moved mountains to get my new glasses ready by Friday (yesterday). They are the best glasses I've ever worn! I did not realize glasses could be customized so intricately. Like custom shoes or an expensive tailored suit. Key word here: expensive.

Appointment Monday with a Glaucoma specialist. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your recommendations and many words of encouragement. You have bolstered both Gordon and me far, far more than I could ever put into words.

Truthfully, I've been on a wheel of emotions. Just twirl the wheel...I've been terrified, or strong and confident, or scared stiff, or depressed, or excited about what God must be doing, or hiding from reality by sleeping, or wishing Gordon understood how a woman needs to be comforted and feel protected at times, or analyzing my choices of the past, wondering what might have been different ...if only.

Lots and lots and lots of dog and cat love. They seem to sense something is very wrong. They have been absorbing angst with every touch or snuggle.

The only thing I know to do, besides pray, is to focus in the moment.  Focus on accomplishing one tiny task. One tiny accomplishment, followed by another, followed by another.

And pray. Lots of prayer. My eyesight belongs to God. Any talent I have, He has given me. He is in complete control, and I have the security of knowing that God will take care of us. Just because Gordon and I can't see how glaucoma fits into a life of creating art...God has it all worked out. He may be trying to send us in a completely different direction.

This afternoon, I must write a description for something for Gordon. Then finish some porcelain pieces today. Deadlines are too large and looming to be able to handle them emotionally. Just have to take them one piece at a time.

Pretty houses in Winona, Montgomery County, Mississippi. I'll try to post the original home owner/builder and date of construction as I find that information.

Photo 1: The Boone family lives in this house now. I've always loved this house.

Photo 2: The Stidham's live in this house now. I believe they told me one time that this was the oldest house in Winona. I'll try to find out more info.

Photo 3: The Stidham's have added on a good bit to the house, but they did not disturb the original house.

Photo 4: So many of you loved this fabulous Victorian in Winona that I included a side shot that I took. Details to come.

Photo 5: A repeat of the front of this beautiful house. The Liston family owned it for many years and did a great deal of restoration on this beauty. Someone else owns and lives in the house now.

 

High Tech Saturday Now vs. Then

Have you seen the "Top Ten list of Reasons Men Prefer Guns to Women" that has been making the email rounds?  At least we've received that email several times this week via email. 

According to the list, the Number One reason men prefer guns to women is that they can buy a silencer for a gun.

Yeah, R-E-A-L funny!

I think the roles are reversed in our marriage! 

Living in the Information Age, married to a devoted Geek, Gordon is at this moment listening to some live streaming web geek show at the same time he is watching NASA's latest on the Phoenix Mars Lander...anything he can get on his digital toys. Then he is reading the headlines...often reading them out loud to me.

He is giving me loud reports in a steady stream, jumping from topic to topic.  Loud because the iPod ear buds are in his ears and he does not realize how loud he is talking.

If I had not taken the television hostage, practically sitting on the remote this afternoon, he would be clicking between the sports channels and the Weather channel.

I had to pull rank on him at some point.

His basketball game starts at 7:30 pm. He will get the television at that time and not before.

My knees are telling me that rain is headed our way. That is all I want to know about the weather at the moment. He can catch up with weather during the commercials after 7:30 p.m

There is a Law and Order Marathon going on the television at the moment. So far, I have not seen about 50 percent of the shows, so I am not interested in any interruptions!
 
I'm doing porcelain, solving TV crime, folding clothes, snuggling and petting Westies. and I am even blogging a little! 

I do NOT want to hear loud news reports about events that have not happened yet.

"Here's an astounding stat. Phoenix is getting good fuel economy, about two million miles per gallon," Gordon just said.

There may be a day, many years from now, when he is not around to give me these little news headlines. I'll cherish his ever-curious mind now while I can.

(I wonder if there is a non-lethal silencer on the market, specifically for husbands. Food?)

A multi-tasker's paradise. Murder to Mars back to the interrogation room and a ferocious craving for chocolate. A Reece's Peanut Butter Cup Commercial just pushed one of my buttons. HA!

The pictures have nothing to do with this prattle. I've just been saving them, all edited, in my To Blog folder on the computer. I don't think the train car is being used at present. At least someone has preserved it!

These photos were taken in Madison, Madison County, Mississippi, in January. The Strawberry Cafe had some good lunch food.

There was a time when taking a trip on this train was considered as cutting edge as the mental traveling Gordon and I are doing this afternoon.

In another 50 years, I wonder what a couple similar to us will be doing on a drizzly Saturday afternoon.

Ladies Who Lunch in Hats

Addison De Witt: "From the smartness of your dress, I assume you are meeting a woman (for lunch)."

At least that is the best I can remember Addison to Karen at the Twenty One Restaurant the day after Eve debuted as Margo Channing's understudy after Karen ill-advisedly arranged for Margo to miss a performance.

I adore, adore, adore that movie, All About Eve with Betty Davis.  Looking up that line about Ladies Who Lunch, I ran across this site with a good bit of the dialog.  I've seen the movie so many times that I can "hear" every inflection of every voice as I read.

Gordon thinks it is very strange that I love a movie that is one long series of back-stabbing cat fights, and in real life, I RUN from fussy, unhappy women.
 
Oh well, in Newton, May 3rd, there was not an unhappy woman to be found when the Newton Arts Council members gathered for lunch, complete with hats.  The hats were so much fun! 

There is an Alabama hat designer that I still need to track down to share with you.  She made three hats for this lady's daughter's bridal luncheon. There was a red hat at the Newton Arts Council luncheon that day made by the same Alabama artist, but I missed seeing it and photographing it.

This fun lady ran back home to get a price tag to put on her hat from a dress she had bought after someone mentioned Minnie Pearl to her!  She was fun and playful about the Minnie Pearl homage, even when I saw her, mid program and mid sentence, and exclaimed, "Minnie Pearl"! 

If you don't know Minnie Pearl, you missed a fun, wholesome comedian!

The Newton Arts Council met in the preserved historic Newton Depot. This building was built in 1905 and is the home of the Newton Chamber of Commerce.

The beautifully preserved depot is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Registered Mississippi Landmark.

The first Newton Station Depot came with the railroad in 1860, and Newton became a major Confederate medical hub for Mississippi. Union General Benjamin Grierson burned the depot and much of the town on April 24, 1863.

I love how the old depot was preserved with a restrained hand. For the luncheon, the wide cargo doors were opened, and the most heavenly spring breeze cooled the large meeting room.

Railroad buffs will know exactly what this scale thing is called. I'd also like to know more about this little cart used to carry baggage from station to train.

I have been told this particular design, the way the front wheels can turn independently of the rear wheels, is a patented design by a Mississippi man. If you have information in this line of research, please let me know.

There is much more to share about Newton, and Gordon and I did not have nearly enough time to drive around and photograph the beautiful town.

There were some beautiful flowers from local yards, too many bouquets to photograph, but here are a few.

To the ladies of the Newton Arts Council, thank you for a very lovely and memorable day!  Gordon and I thoroughly enjoyed sharing our program on the History of Porcelain and the History of Penny Sanford Porcelains.