Belles of the South discussion

This thread is where we can all get together and talk about anything and everything that is going on in our lives and just general conversation.
Please share with everyone what you're doing today and how life is treating you.

Hello everyone! How's everyone doing? Hope you're having a great Monday.

HA Marita, I can never keep it straight what your time is there. A walk on the beach sounds absolutely lovely and downright healthy too. Have you had your morning cup of coffee yet? Since it's Monday here I think I might need a second cup soon, it's already afternoon and I can't seem to get going. It's blazing hot outside and I think I'll stay inside till this evening.

Thanks Marita, Enjoy your day!

Has anyone seen the commercials for Breyer's latest product Gelato ice cream? Well I couldn't wait to try it out and bought the triple chocolate gelato to see what it was like. It seems to be a lot thicker and creamier than ice cream, more of a custard texture. Now that I've checked it out I think I prefer regular ice cream though.

ive tried gelatinous at Whole Foods store and at one other gelato shop and I'm not super crazy about it. But I do love a REAL icecream like Ben & Jerry's :)
I spent the day yesterday putting up bookshelves in our bedroom. Six 54" shelves running from the chimney to the wall. our ceilings are 10 feet tall so it was a challenge doing the higher shelves but probably the trickiest thing for me was using my husbands drill which must weigh about 10 pounds!

gelato not gelatinous. Sheesh!

Hello Dorcas! You must live in one of those beautiful older homes or Victorian style houses to have such tall ceilings. Back before air-conditioning they helped keep the rooms cooler.

Those new book shelves you're adding sound gorgeous. I hope you aren't running out of room for all your books like I am :). I hope it wasn't too difficult for you but they should look lovely when you're finished.

Is anyone watching the new mini-series "Outlander" based on the books by Diane Gabaldon? It's on the Starz movie channel every Saturday with frequent reruns in case you missed it.

I haven't read the books yet but I would love to hear from anyone who has.

Dorcas wrote: "gelato not gelatinous. Sheesh!"

The gelato reminded me of Pudding Pops frozen pudding that was popular in the 80's. They were low calorie and I loved them but they didn't go over very well and weren't around for very long.

Our house is small (1200 sq. feet) but was built in 1912 so it has tall ceilings with fans throughout and a big porch. Typical southern home. We were fortunate to find it.

I used to LOVE pudding pops! The chocolate ones. I still picture the TV commercial with Bill Cosby:)

Well, I THOUGHT Id have plenty of room with my hew shelves but ive already filled them :/ So I might need to build some more....what does it tell you about a person who doesn't even own a bureau but fills a wall floor to ceiling with bookshelves?

Dorcas wrote: "Our house is small (1200 sq. feet) but was built in 1912 so it has tall ceilings with fans throughout and a big porch. Typical southern home. We were fortunate to find it.

I used to LOVE pudding p..."


I would love to live in an older southern home. Did you have to do a lot of repairs on yours before you moved it?
After I graduated from nursing school I worked in a small town and rented an apt in a partitioned older Victorian home. I loved the high ceilings and fireplace mantles. I sometimes felt it was haunted but that's another story!

Marita wrote: "Dorcas wrote: "Our house is small (1200 sq. feet) but was built in 1912 so it has tall ceilings with fans throughout and a big porch. Typical southern home. We were fortunate to find it.

I used to..."

It's kind of embarrassing sometimes Marita but now I'm considering adding shelves to the bedroom wall as a last resort. I've really got to get busy reading these books.

There are books in every room in my house, too! I now have books stacked on top of books in my bedroom. It's shameful, I know... I'll get to them sometime!

Actually we didn't have much to do to the house when we bought it 12 years ago. The house had been moved to its present location in the 1970s and had been "improved " (I.e, one porch closed in to make a laundry room and orange Formica counters put in the kitchen lol) and the previous owners were quite houseproud so they kept up with things. it was mostly just decorating we've done.
Yes its funny about the book hoarding. Visitors comment on the loaded bookshelves but they have NO IDEA what lurks under the bed..and in the closets..and in boxes...my building shelves in the bedroom, to some extent, was to keep the madness contained to only the family's knowledge :)

I have been slowly going through all of my stored boxes of books in order to give them a rating here. It's a lot of fun and hopefully I can soon get things a little more organized and a little less cluttered. I have books that I have no idea where they are in case I want to reread them.

I recently got a new bookshelf, but it's full already, and now I am having trouble trying to fit new books in it! :P I will have to find a solution before I start cluttering my floor again.

Well I was able to unpack all my stored boxes when I built my shelves, thankfully! (it was getting crowded under the bed) so they're all off the floor, I just don't have any spare space on the shelves for cutey nicknacks. (or many more books unless I start piling on top which I hate doing) . But its all good. If someone locked me in the house I wouldn't even know it for about three years. lol

Laurie wrote: "Dorcas wrote: "Our house is small (1200 sq. feet) but was built in 1912 so it has tall ceilings with fans throughout and a big porch. Typical southern home. We were fortunate to find it.

I used to..."

I believe in the paranormal it fits right in with "Historical Fiction and the South" I once belonged to a paranormal investigation team. Would love to hear your story sometime.

Sandy wrote: "Laurie wrote: "Dorcas wrote: "Our house is small (1200 sq. feet) but was built in 1912 so it has tall ceilings with fans throughout and a big porch. Typical southern home. We were fortunate to find..."

Sandy, I sent you a PM telling you all about my little ghost story. Would love to hear more about your experience on a paranormal investigation team.

I really enjoyed talking with everyone today and hope to see you here again tomorrow.

Hope you all have a pleasant evening! Good night.

So excited about the books chosen for the group read this autumn and I hope a lot of you will be able to join us in reading one or both of the selections.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

@Laurie - just curious, do we have a date for the start of The Kitchen House? Sorry if I missed any posts about starting time.

I'm curious about start dates too. I want to fit them both in. :)

I'm so sorry about the confusion. I thought everyone had been sent a personal email giving out this info.

You can start reading anytime now since the poll was over yesterday and have until the end of November to finish. That should be plenty of time to read both books if you wish to do so.

I've already started reading Maria and hope a few of you are able to join me! I realize it may take a little time to obtain a copy of either book though. So whenever you want to start reading please let us know at the new thread that has already been started for each book.

Please let me know if there are any more questions or suggestions. Thanks so much.

Great! Thanks for the info.

I hope all of you are having a relaxing weekend and finding plenty of reading time.

Beautiful weather here, just a little bit nippy outside and I was even able to turn off the a/c and open the windows.

Anyone going to be watching Outlander tonight?

Also a new series starts tonight on the Lifetime channel "Deliverance Creek". Tonight's premier will be a 2 hour movie.
The series will be set in the south during the Civil War and tell of the trials and tribulations of a widowed southern woman with children trying to survive the war.
I hope everyone will get a chance to check it out as it does seem to be a good one, might even learn a little history along the way. Enjoy!

Laurie wrote: "I hope all of you are having a relaxing weekend and finding plenty of reading time.

Beautiful weather here, just a little bit nippy outside and I was even able to turn off the a/c and open the win..."

Deliverance Creek was good. Thanks for suggesting it.

I'm glad you enjoyed D.C. Sandy. I got a little squeamish at the beginning with the ear thing and couldn't continue watching. Can you tell me about what happened and what it was about? I might give it a 2nd chance.

Yes I had to close my eyes on the ear thing but the leader did stop him, well he actually shot the soldier dead before the other fellow could put his knife into action. The widow has to take in the rowdy raiders because the leader is her brother and another was her childhood sweetheart. The uppity neighbor and his "banker" wife are set on taking her farm. They tell the union troops she is harboring and her young son is accidently shot dead by the union. She then decides to help her brother steal the union payroll right out of the bank vault as revenge to the banker and her solid bank reputation. The widows sister is a school teacher helping with the underground railroad and one slave has decided to help with the "revenge" with payment to help her get to Canada. The episode stopped short though as last scene is the widow's love interest is a deputy who has found her necklace at the scene of bank break in and is riding out to meet her in the fields... needs a part two for sure... I'm not sure if the pilot was picked up for a series.

Good morning, Belles! Anyone lucky enough to experience a touch of fall in the air yet? Unfortunately, we are still stiflingly warm and humid. I went to the plant nursery and bought pretty pots of autumn colored mums for my patio to try to encourage Mother Nature to bring on cooler temps.

We had quite the torrential downpour last night. I went out on the back porch and it was like standing under a waterfall and getting misted while the water comes down in sheets around you. The lightning was incredible, too. We thought it would really cool things down but it was still 65 degrees first thing this morning. Still, overall its been a pretty cool September.

Ooooooh, 65! I'd take it! Mid 80's this morning....ugh.

Dorcas, I think we must have had the torrential rain just after you. The mid 60's felt good this morning. We have had so much rain this summer that everything is still green, usually things are dried out by now. I haven't had to water much at all. :)

I know it! We have about a dozen rain barrels because you know what NC is like, we have such hot dry summers but this year we've hardly touched them. Hundreds of gallons of water just sitting there... but that's ok, its a nice problem to have!

Joanne wrote: "Good morning, Belles! Anyone lucky enough to experience a touch of fall in the air yet? Unfortunately, we are still stiflingly warm and humid. I went to the plant nursery and bought pretty pots of..."

Joanne, the weather can't decide what it wants to do here either. We had one morning with a little nip in it but then back to hot and humid. I've heard another hard winter is predicted for the south, has anyone else heard this? Well fall is certainly taking it's time getting here.

We've had a wetter than normal summer here too. It never seems to fail that the front arrives here about 6 or 7:00 p.m. and the rainstorm knocks out our satellite TV. So irksome at times.

Sandy wrote: "Yes I had to close my eyes on the ear thing but the leader did stop him, well he actually shot the soldier dead before the other fellow could put his knife into action. The widow has to take in the..."

Thanks Sandy for filling me in on Deliverance Creek.
I'm pretty sure it will be on every Saturday and will be a regular series. Goodness, the soldiers killed the widow's son? I don't know, I think this might be too much to watch, might give me nightmares. I'll have to think about this one.

I heard the same thing, Laurie (about the hard winter) . Last winter was harder than most, too. I know we used our fireplace quite a bit.

I didn't mind the hard winter one bit either. The first one in about 20 years. It was well needed to kill of the abundance of pests (fleas, ticks) that had a population explosion due to the lack of winter freezes. Still a bunch of them around though so a 2nd hard winter will be a blessing.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. Any SEC college football fans out there?

I have to admit I haven't been following it as closely since Eli Manning graduated from Ole Miss but he sure was exciting to watch while he was there. So proud of his 2 super bowl wins against Tom Terrific (sorry Dorcas :D)

I have to admit Tim Tebow was absolutely mind boggling to watch during his one season at Denver too. But I can see why they went with Peyton Manning over him. Still hoping Tebow might decide to return to professional football in some capacity though, even if not as QB.

Since I live next door to Alabama I am rooting for them this year. Any Alabama fans here?

I would love to hear suggestions from any of our members who would like to add threads here. Would love to hear feedback on how we can improve our group and make it better. Thanks, I would really appreciate your help!

Oh you cant offend me sportswise. I know absolutely nothing about them I couldn't even tell you if Duke and The Tarheels are basketball (probably) or something else. :) And Tom Terrific...no idea! Unless you'd talking about my Dad. His name is Tom ;)

I was just teasing you Docas - Tom Terrific is Tom Brady of the New England Patriots pro football team.
I do love to watch Duke and N.C. Tarheels play basketball though. You don't know what you're missing!

I know you were :) Yeah, I'm not too sporty. I do like a bit of soccer/football around world cup time, that's about it.

We do say 'Roll Tide' in our house, Laurie! And I do think the SEC is the best conference as far as football goes, despite who won the National Championship last year. :D

However, we are Yellow Jacket and Navy fans since that's where the 2 sons went. DH and I went to Syracuse but we only watch them for basketball and lacrosse.

We did ok yesterday, Alabama and Georgia Tech won. Navy, well there's always next week for the Midshipmen. :)

Laurie wrote: "I would love to hear suggestions from any of our members who would like to add threads here. Would love to hear feedback on how we can improve our group and make it better. Thanks, I would really..."

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head is non-fiction books. I know we have the Civil War thread for NF but I was thinking of other books like, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, which I want to read and I see you have already read. I must look for NF about the Natchez Trace.

Hello, belles! As for my house, it's "geaux Tigers!" My husband played football for LSU in college, and he still loves it. If there is a home game in Baton Rouge, we are there. Last night was a disappointing loss to Miss. State. And of course on Sundays it is all about the Saints. ***sigh*** I like football, but not as much as my husband. But here's the trade-off: he gets to go to as many football games as he wants, and I get to buy as many books as I want. I think it's a good deal, don't you? ;)

That's a great deal, Joanne!

My husband's old boss went to LSU and would fly to their games whenever he had the time. He's about 45. Maybe he watched your husband play.

@Diane Lynn -- my husband played from '78 - 81, so your husband's boss is younger than we are. I didn't know my husband in college, and I often wonder if when I was watching an LSU game back then if I was actually watching my future husband make a tackle!