Santas take over neighbouthood

It must be near Christmas because houses and lawns all over our neighbourhood have sprouted fairy lights, illuminated deer (in profusion) and other sundry Christmas icons, such as that well know Christmas character, Poo Bear (see left). Houses and bushes are groaning under the weight of fairy lights.

Some people only decorate their shrubs, others only their house eves. Some tend towards the tableau with deer and/or polar bear and/or Santa (with or without his sleigh). Folk with a more refined taste simply pick out a curving path in coloured lights. Others push the boat out and do the lot... its like Franklin Road on acid.

The best one is over the road from us. It is a large inflatable chimney with a Santa who rises periodically from the centre to wave, then disappears down the chimney again.... My photo isn't very good but you get the general idea.

Boris is really wanting us to have some sort of decoration, just to show that we 'believe' in Christmas. I'll have to look out the Christmas decoration box although I greatly fear it is destined to be a very poor showing next to the enthusiastic displays of our neighbours.

Yesterday I was invited on a tour of houses which had been decorated for Christmas - the "Lakeview Ladies Christmas Fellowship of Homes" to be exact. There were three groups of 25 ladies (75 of us in all), and we visited three homes (in rotation), all of them rather grand affairs. There was 'entertainment' at each - carols, a Christmas reading and a luncheon. Each 'homemaker' had gone to enormous trouble to decorate their home for Christmas, very tasteful... not a scrap of tinsel in sight! It was all gilt pine cones, pointsettiers, gold ribbon, candles and sprays of imitation pine. I was feeling quite a failure as a housewife until I overheard some of the ladies commenting they their own homes were far from being as immaculate or as well decorated. Well, that's a relief!

Love Jacqueline

Savannah & Charleston

While everyone else was eating turkey and doing the big family reunion thing we decided to hit the road and go to Savannah (as you do). It's about 5.5hrs drive from Auburn, mostly through woodlands. This is a typical shot of the road.

Savannah is in Georgia, the state to the right of Alabama, and is built on the Savannah River estuary. While the Biblo people inhabited the area as far back as 3500 BC, when the Europeans arrived it was settled by the Yamacraws who lived on the high cliffs overlooking the river plain.

This is a view (not usually seen in the brochures) of the fancy new suspension bridge (Talmadge Memorial Bridge) over the Savannah river. One side is in Georgia, the other in South Carolina.



Savannah is famous for its layout. The town plan was laid out by James Oglethorp in 1733, to a design he had devised before he left England (it reminds one of those cooking shows where they pull a pie out of the oven saying "and here is one I prepared earlier"). Lucky Savannah was flat and could accommodate his plan without the need for modification.

The plan became famous and made Savannah famous. It is based on a grid regularly interspersed with squares, planted with Live Oak (a tree which is now the State tree of Georgia) and festooned with Spanish Moss (which you will know, of course, as Tillandsia, an epiphitic bromeliad). These squares are now mature and exceedingly beautiful.

The architecture is a treat. Before the civil war the town was swimming in money, mostly the riches garnered from cotton plantations and slave labour. Rich and prosperous, antebellum Savannah was quite something. It managed to survive the war due to the fact that Colonel Olmstead surrendered the town when he saw the modern rifled cannons used by the Yankees. He declared "I yield my sword, but I trust I have not disgraced it." Later on General Sherman offered Savannah to President Lincoln as a Christmas present.
The surrounding district still has a number of surviving antebellum mansions - this is one on the way between Savannah and Charleston. Note all the Spanish moss.
Note the palms - there were lots all over the city, even though it is further North than Auburn, the coastal location means it doesn't get the frosts so palms do well.

From Savannah we decided to drive up the coast to Charleston, about 100 miles north, as the two cities are always linked - both are surviving examples of the antebellum South.

It was a lovely drive to Charleston through the productive landscapes of Georgia and South Carolina. We passed cotton fields, pecan groves and peach orchards. This is a cotton field.

Pecan trees surrounding a cotton field (the cotton plants have been harvested and the stalks are showing brown)

Charleston wasn't laid out on a grid but is well endowed with charm (exceedingly quaint in fact). It too is located on a river flood plain, and is close to the sea. It was established in 1670, so it is older than Savannah. Like Savannah it is an important port.



A lane in Charleston.
On the waterfront is a large park and promenade. The pineapple fountain shown here is on the water front. You can see the river estuary in the background.





More cotton fields!

Back in Savannah.

Savannah. Live Oak draped with Spanish Moss.

We booked our Thanksgiving dinner in Savannah in advance of our going as there were very few places open for dinner that night. We chose an historic house called the Pirate's House - a restaurant (originally an inn) which dates from 1753. It sounded good on the web, but, in fact, was an extremely busy 'family restaurant' - there were hundreds of people and even though we'd booked we still had to wait for a table for over an hour (think Valentines with a Johnny Depp impersonator dressed as Keith Richard dressed as Jack Sparrow....). Oh well, the buffet was OK and we got to eat some turkey along with everyone else so you can't say we didn't have a proper Thanksgiving! Love Jacqueline

Pumkins and candy

The Auburn business association puts on a Trick and Treat each year for kids. Hundreds turn out for free lollies and the chance to check out eveyone elses costumes. Dressing up is BIG! I attach some samples. Boris did really well - in the end he was a cross between Jason (from the horror movie 'Halloween') and a vampire. He had a super large knife which had blood in it (it sort of swishes around inside a plastic covering - very effective).

I quite likes the concept of a black Batman - he and 'The Joker' were very popular photo-wise. I can't tell you how many tonnes of lollies were given out that night but I can see now how they can sell $2 billion worth of candy at halloween

Everyone got right into the sprit of the thing - there were bands and dancing and one shop had converted itself into a haunted house complete with students dressed up, clanking chains, jumping out at kids, and generally being goulish.

The next night was the pumpkin carve. It is a tradition of the architecture school to run a pumpkin carving competition, and it is a fantastic exercise. They carve all afternoon then once it gets dark they put small tea lights inside them and hang them all around the architecture building courtyard (the same building where Rod works). It is very hard to take photos, but here are some - the carving was very clever and I can see that most students have years of practice behind them.

Over 2000 people come to look at the pumpkins over the period of the evening and there are prizes for the best carve (there are different categories) I can't show you the winning ones as the batteries on the camera gave up before Rod got round to photographing them, but hopefully these photos give you a taste.

Love Jacqueline

Cooking

I note from the comments that there is a general interest in knowing more about cooking and food. Having a passing interest in the subject myself, I though I'd share a few tid-bits with you.

The first thing you have to understand about Southern cooking is that it is almost impossible to find a recipe that is strictly vegetarian (or one that doesn't have some sort of propritory product, impossible to obtain in NZ). Rod and I scoured our Southern cook books in an attempt to put together a Southern menu that would be suitable for Cassandra, and basically drew a blank (I will keep working on it). Bacon and/or bacon fat seem to be a requisite component of many dishes, including the vegetable ones - one could obviously leave it out but it is the main source of flavouring. Here is an example:

Country Cabbage

3 slices of bacon

3/4 medium head cabbage (approx 2 lbs) cored and cut into chunks the size of golf balls

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper/2 Tbls butter (or more)

In a large heavy-bottom pan with lid, fry bacon until it is crisp. Remove to paper towel, crumble, set aside.

Add 1 cup water to bacon fat. Add cabbage. Bring to boil & add salt & pepper. Place lid on pot and reduce heat to medium. Allow cabbage to cook for 10-15 mins (In the South they like it tender, not crunchy)

Remove pot from heat. Add butter & stir till melted. Stir in crumbled bacon.

And another:

Corn Bread Muffins

2 cups plain yellow cornmeal

1 Tbls sugar

1 Tbls BP

1 tsp salt

1 egg, beaten

1 1/4 cups whole milk

3 Tbls bacon fat*, warm until liquefied

Butter at room temp for serving

Preheat oven to 475F (245C). Grease 12 muffin pan cups.

Combine cornmeal, sugar, BP & salt. Stir well. Add egg, milk & bacon fat. Stir well.

Pour batter into prepared muffin tin, filling about 1/2 full. Bake 18 mins, until the corn muffins are puffed and browned. Serve with soft butter.

These are traditionally used to mop up gravy (they are big gravy eaters) I guess they go with any roast dish which has gravy as well as stews etc. They are very (very) nice.

* note about bacon - bacon here is very fatty - more than 60% fat I'd say. They usually fry it till crispy than 'crumble' it over and into things for extra flavour. Of course, when you fry it lots of the fat comes out - it is this fat that you collect to use in other dishes.

Early on Boris made a very astute observation - looking at all the advertising signs for fast food he said that everything seemed to have bacon and/or cheese in it - he is dead right.

Here is one last recipe - it appears in every book on Southern cooking. It calls for pecans (they are very abundant here), but I guess you could substitute walnuts. This is a good cake for a morning tea party... (it is devoid of both cheese and bacon, but then again, it is a cake!)

Hummingbird Cake

Cake

3 cups Self-rising flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

2 very ripe large bananas, mashed

8oz can crushed pineapple, with juice

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp cinnamon

1 large eggs, beaten

Icing

1lb icing sugar

8oz cream cheese (room temp)

3/4 stick (185g) butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 Tbls milk (or more if needed)

1/2 finely chopped pecans

Cake - Preheat oven to 325F (160C)

Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake tins.

In large bowl combine all cake ingredients. Stir well until smooth.

Divide batter between the three tins. Bake 26-28 mins, until the top spring back. Cool in pans for 10 mins then invert onto wire racks to cool completely.

Icing - Mix all ingredients except pecans with an electric mixer until smooth. If needed add more milk, 1 tsp at a time to achieve proper spreading consistency.

Ice between the cake layers and on the top and sides. Sprinkle top with pecans. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Love from Jacqueline

Went to the Syrup Sop Fair at Loachapoka today, about 15 minutes out of Auburn, a small town with a railway line through it. Popluation 175, it gets 20,000 visitors each year on Syrup Sop day when everyone comes from far and wide to buy this year's batch of sugar cane syrup. The cane is pushed into a mill that is turned by a mule, to press the syrup out of it. Then it is heated in vats and bottled hot ready to buy. Mmmmmm.

You can also get cowboy hats and holsters, knives of all descriptions, and southern belle T-shirts - see photos. If only the belles lived up the promise of the shirts !

Graveyard shift

Interesting facts from the Auburn Parks and Recreation newsletter: Halloween is the second most commercially successful holiday in the US (Christmas is first). People spend over $2.5 billion during Halloween on candies, costumes, decorations and parties. Candy sales account for $2 billion of that figure.

Pumpkins and various other paraphernalia are starting to appear in force on people's front porches and lawns all over Auburn. The great pumpkin carve at the University attracts over 3 thousand people each year, so we thought we'd better go... I'll take the camera, it should be quite something. Boris is wondering what to wear for trick and treating - Rod and I are trying to persuade him to be a zombie (easy to assemble the costume given our current resources) but he has much more elaborate ideas, of course.

Our apartment is situated in front of the historic graveyard near the centre of town. It is 6 acres and pretty crammed with graves. Each year they have a night tour of the graveyard near Halloween - the Pine Hill Lantern Tour - so we thought we'd better go although we had no idea what it might entail (I was prepared for quite a 'dry' event.) We arrived and were greeted by the Tallasee String Band and a group of people dressed in period clothes. All the paths of the graveyard were lit with tea lights in paper bags and small groups of visitors were led into the darkness as they arrived.

Our group set out with three young women as our guides, each holding an oil lamp. We plunged into the darkness. Not far along the path, a figure emerged from the gloom - it was the first of some 16

occupants of the graveyard that we met on the tour. Each person took on the character of a person of note buried in the graveyard - a light was placed on their grave and the person then recounted their history and anecdotes from their life.

The characters ranged from the important (eg Rev. W. L. Lloyd, founder of Auburn to an eccentric school teacher - Millie Hollifield Jones, noted for making numerous citizens arrests, usually for minor parking offences - unnamed Confederate Soldiers, and black slaves who made good) It was great fun and highly entertaining (and educational) - some of the actors really went to town and put on very spirited (pardon the pun) performances, getting right into character. I tried to take some photos but it was pretty hard as it was so dark (I chopped off the top of the General James Henry Lane's head as you can see - but it gives you some idea).

This is Virginia Howe - married at 13, dead at 15 and then her husband married her sister, much to her disgust. She was great playing the wronged woman...

girls

lamb

LPs

yes, vogels

bad taste joke

art

triumph

watties baked beans & sausages

kia ora

irony

salt water

bullshit

cheddar (the big KayGee)

cool

movies you want to see

tui song

fashion

southern cross

dinner party

news

gidday

minimalism

flat white

heresy

bush

gratuity is included in total

rain - real rain

knowing wink

rugby

wind

We get invited to church quite a lot, but no one talks about politics, tho' someone at work today said they thought GW Bush was a strong leader because he didn't care what others thought, he just got on with his program for the country. I said that could be the sign of a weak leader. End of conversation.
I think I must simply look like a liberal. Local lingo for devil. Its not exactly that people fall quiet when I walk in, more that certain conversations just don't get had. That's OK with me, as I don't really know what's going on in the world anyway. We haven't had television since we got here, but are relying on internet and local newspapers which is fine except I don't get round to those much. I spend such a large part of the day in front of computers at work that spending half the evening looking at a screen is not terribly appealing. The newspapers are pretty parochial, tho we get the NY Times now and then. Not being plugged into the world is more interesting than I thought it would be!

The images are from the last Game Day here at the campus. The football stadium is in the middle of the campus, and 2 days before a game people from far and wide start gathering. They mark out their territories right throughout the campus and put up their tents, unload the BBQs and grillers. They also unload satellite dishes and wide screen TVs. From friday morning these 'Tiger Fans' begin to watch all the college football games that are being played around the country, right through to saturday at 6pm when the file into the stadium (87,000 of them) to watch the Auburn Tigers play Ole Miss, or Louisiana Tech, or Mississippi State. 'Our' team is on a roll, having won every game so far this season, tho these have all been at home. Now they face hostile home crowds elsewhere (for the next 2 games) and the atmosphere is tense.

Its a lot of fun. As you can see from the photos the Auburn colors (note spelling) are orange and blue. I will probably succumb and get the obligatory orange T shirt. Will stop at that, however. Many of the local dowagers wear very expensive designer blouses with Auburn colors and insignia. Tucked-in waists, shoulder pads, silk and satin. $400 dollar Auburn supporter string back shoes.

The close up shot of blue and white players is of Boris' team (he's in there somewhere). They go hard out, and there are always tears.

One of our team's mum said " I'm gwanna get my boyah out theyer, he too small to play in this shit!" Her Dad said "He gotta toughen up Keesha, you keep 'im in the team or ayelse!"

Birmingham

Hi Jacqueline here again,

Last weekend we visited Birmingham, capital of AL. (Later edit - NOT the capital, but the biggest city, actually I just discovered that Montgomery is actually the capital - not that you could tell, it feels like a small sleepy town). One of the various things we did was to visit the botanical gardens and the zoo. Here is a picture of Boris with his new friend. This particular bird took a real fancy to Boris and licked his face and nibbled on his ear - Boris was delighted..

This is Boris and I hunting for scuppernong berries to eat at the botanic garden. They are like a big grape with a very tough skin. On the way home I found a place that sold them and got a small bucket to make jam. It's great jam, nice and tart, but it doesn't look that good - a sort of dull green colour but it doesn't seem to make much difference to the rate it is disappearing (especially nice on buttered toast).

Birmingham is trying to revive its historic heart - there are lots of great buildings in the old centre but is pretty dead after hours - everyone has migrated to the suburbs and hang out in the malls. B'ham is lucky that the building have survived as it has a real chance to revitilize itself. This was going well until the recent recession hit, but I think there is enough momentum to continue - it is full of character and interest (unlike the suburbs).

One thing that really struck me one the drive (about 2.5 hrs) was the landscape - it is completly wooded the whole way, forest as far as the eye could see in all directions. Some is planted pine forest and other is natural woodlands. It seems strange to me coming from such a pastoral landscape - there are no fields anywhere.

Boris at the Ecological park with skulls of bobcat and a deer (we think). The bobcat is the one with the fangs...

This weekend was football weekend, which was a bit of an eye opener - Rod has some pictures on his iphone so we'll load those up soon and tell you about it. We spent Saturday walking around somewhat gobsmacked at the tailgating, but Sunday we went to the ecological park (a couple of miles out of town) and then on to our own lake down the road. We always enjoy going as it is so peaceful. Boris loves it too, of course, and had some luck with his fishing stick (stick with nylon and a hook). Can't say they were whoppers, but he was proud (and yes, he threw them back).

Boris with his fish (that small blob on the end of the line, in case you were wondering) and Rod with his iphone application which identifies birds and gives their call (lots of fun that)

This last picture is of Lake Chewacla - about 8 minutes drive, door to door, from our place. It looks murky but it is good for swimming - getting a bit cold for me now but Boris is hardy and still goes in. It is in a State Park and is very beautiful (and well used).

Football start...

Hi everyone, Jacqueline here

I thought you might like to see this photo of Boris but you are not to snigger. All that gear cost a small fortune, but Boris is happy. I take him to his practice sessions and so I'm starting to get a bit of a feel for the game (although still only very sketchy in my understanding.)

Since the B Boy hadn't even seen a game of football, last week one of his coaches (there are 4 for his little team of 11 boys - we are talking serious stuff here) offered to take us all to the first game of the season for Auburn High School, and very interesting it was too. The crowd was enormous (there is no way a first 15 match would attract a small stadium full of avid supporters in NZ), but even more surprising was the size of each team - over 100 on each!! When they ran on to the field to fanfare they just kept coming - I don't know how they all fitted in the changing room, I think perhaps it has a tardis-like quality. Although there are over 100 in each team only 11 play at any one time. The game consists of furious action for about 5 seconds then they all stop, (most of the players seem to stomp off the field at this point to be replaced by a fresh lot), then they get ready again and there is another 5 second dash. It is impossible to figure out where the ball is because there is so much action all over the field during the microsecond they are actually playing that there is no way of knowing what happened till it is all over (and someone explains it to you).

I've figured out why the sport is so popular though from a spectator point of view - it is one big social occasion. Everyone mills around visiting friends on the stands, chatting and eating strangely yellow pizza. I don't think anyone actually watches the whole game - it stops so often that once you realise it has started again it has stopped -you blinked and missed it.

The one thing I do realise is that it is no sissy game. They need that protective gear. The idea seems to be to run headlong into the opposition with all the force they can muster, and some of those high school kids are enormous - well over 6 foot and built like tanks. Someone broke his leg in the game we watched and it barely rated a mention. The only thing we can hope is that Boris survives without serious injury.

I bought a scooter - I'll post a pic once I get round to taking one. Not as good as my vespa, but pretty good anyway (Korean make SYM - never heard of it right?)

There is a local fruit here called a scuppernong which is related to the muscadine grape - I found some on our way back from visiting Birmingham (Capital of AL) on the weekend, so I made them into jam. Good eh?

Sylvia, Imogen, I have no problem filling my days - I never seem to have enough time, and I haven't even got a house yet (or garden) or my cooking things... I don't know how I ever found the time to go to work.

Lots of love to you all

Jacqueline