college church :: oxford, ms

Since it's wholly new to me, I'm trying to see as much of the surrounding northern Mississippi area as my schedule allows. So just for grins, this morning I got in my car and drove the opposite way I normally drive on the street at the end of my block (pretty daring, huh?).

Lo and behold, this little guy--College Church--is located down the road, less than one mile from my house. I don't have the words to describe how much I love old churches and graveyards (did you know that graveyards are adjacent to churches, while cemeteries are plots of land where the deceased are buried?). 

"Events of interest include the encampment of these ground by Union troops of General Grant and General Sherman, and the marriage of author William Faulkner. The church is thought to be the model for some settings in Faulkner's novels. The church cemetery contains a number of unmarked Union soldiers' burial sites. The Session's original minutes, dating back to the 1835 organizations meeting, are safeguarded in a local bank."

mississippi yard bling

I've just relocated from one college town to another; so I'm very used to maroon adornments and paraphernalia that represent my beloved Texas Aggies.

My new zip code, however, offers a certain je ne sais quoithat is difficult to describe. Much different than the "less is more" approach to which I've grown accustomed, people in Oxford take a "let's make the front of our house look like a birthday package" approach to curb appeal.

(something tells me any self-respecting(?) guys who live in these houses don't have much say with regard to outdoor decor)

Here are some pictures I shot--literally, in about a 3 min time span--on two different streets in my neighborhood.

My little house--bare of curls, Qs, zigs, and zags--sticks out like a sore thumb.

fall decor: the takeover

This is why I can't have anything nice.

I pull out something that's been packed away for a year, and ... Bang! Pow!

Total and complete feline takeover.
It's like she's thinking, "Yeah, this will work. Now go make me a sammich."

critters. i haz em.

So the move to Mississippi has been interesting. Something very "new" every day. Can't remember if I've said it here before, but it's insanely nuts how different two states that are so geographically close (e.g., Texas and Mississippi) can be.

Take, for instance, critters.

In College Station, TX, I had snakes, rabbits, butterflies, deer, armadillos, and wasps. That's pretty much it. Mississippi, however, has already shown me chickens with rats in their mouths, fireflies (LOVE these cuties), snakes (different than my TX snakes), more roaches than any human should ever have to observe, birds I haven't yet ID'd, a very random & ugly lizard, and ... Phil.

Phil is a groundhog.

He lives in my backyard. And he's cray. I love him. He doesn't love me.

Edited: OH MY GOODNESS. I just realized these two photos don't look like the same creature. I think I have two Phils.