Swamp Gravy Reservations

Before we know it, the winds of March will be blowing and Swamp Gravy will be showing its new production The Big Picture. Get your credit card in your hand, go to http://www.swampgravy.com/ and reserve your seats today! These tickets would be a great holiday gift for anyone on your Christmas list.

a little jazzy black dress

Do you have tickets for CMAC's JAZZY CHRISTMAS PARTY AT LAPD? DEC. 3RD AT 7 O 'CLOCK. ABAC'S JAZZ BAND (42 MEMBERS) WILL BE TREATING EVERYONE TO MUSIC OF THE 40'S AND 50'S. THERE WILL BE LOADS OF FUN,FELLOWSHIP AND FOOD PLUS A SILENT AUCTION. E-MAIL ME AT DWAINRIGHT@GMAIL.COM OR CALL 229-758-5450 AND GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY. SPACE IS LIMITED.

A Jazzy Christmas Party

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just a few days away! Seems like yesterday was Easter. And, of course, Christmas very quickly follows Thanksgiving, nothing new, right, it always happens this way. BUT, there is something new this year , CMAC HAS A GIFT FOR YOU (CMAC is short for Colquitt/ Miller Arts Council). On Friday, Dec. 3rd at LAPD on 91 south,at 7 0'clock we are bringing for your very special pleasure, THE ABAC JAZZ BAND (42 MEMBERS),THE EVENT WILL FEATURE DINNER, DANCING AND JUST LISTENING TO THE WONDERFUL MUSIC OF THE 40'S AND 50'S PLUS A SILENT AUCTION tICKETS ARE $50.00 PER PERSON. SPACE IS LIMITED AND TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE TICKETS JUST SEND ME AN E-MAIL WITH YOUR PHONE # AND i WILL HAVE SOMEONE CALL YOU.

Breakfast weather

Breakfast is always tempting,but there is something special that happens when the weather starts to cool down and the wind is blowing and leaves are falling. The aroma of the coffee perking smells so irresistably wonderful and the smell of golden flakey biscuits almost ready to come out of the oven just overtakes you and you reach for the butter and that beautiful jar of ruby red Mayhaw jelly. What a great way to start the morning! In the past, you could only have Mayhaw jelly if you were fortunate to live where they grew,but that is no longer true. We can ship you the jelly and the biscuit mix and your family can enjoy this delicious southern treat! Write to me at dwainright@gmail.com. For information on pricing and shipping. We handle orders large and small.

Swamp Gravy and Mayhaws

Isn't it interesting how we brand ourselves.! Some places are known for their beautiful mountains or beaches,or for their historic sites,here in Colquitt, Georgia we are known for our Swamp Gravy and Mayhaws. We are also known as a community that cares,we care about each other,we care about our town and we care about the future.



Each one of have also created our own brand,it could be friendly,nice,cool,smart,hard working or something else. Have you ever thought about the brand that you are creating for yourself? It certainly makes me stop and think sometimes. Do unto others as you would have thenm do unto you is the perfect rule!

Full Moons and Cotton Fields in South Georgia

Each day now as the farmers are defoliating their cotton, the fields grow more beautiful. God has given us so much beauty . I woke this morning about 3 am nd saw the most beautiful moon out of my window, I am not sure that it was a full moon, but it is getting there, I thought about how beautiful it must be looking out over my neighbor's cotton field. I think nature's beauty starts with the seasons, each one brings something special. The beauty of ice and snow in winter and leaves and flowers in Spring and Summer, the changing leaves and air in the fall and so much more. How special all of these are, how good God is. Have you ever driven by a peanut field when the peanuts have just been dug? there is a mixed smell of earth and peanuts, so wonderful! We live in a very special place on this earth and I am glad that it is my home.

Fall in Colquitt, Georgia

I really don't know anyone who doesn't say that Fall is their favorite season, there is just something about it, the air is different, the trees take on a different color, School starts. Everyone is establishing a routine after a lazy sort of summer, In Colquitt it also means that Swamp Gravy is gearing up and getting ready to open for the Fall season. I can't remember when there has been more excitement at Cotten Hall, there are so many interesting costumes and everyone is hard at work, learning their lines, Opening Night will soon be here and it promises to be a great one! If you havn't gotten tickets yet, please call the Arts Council at 229-758-5647 and reserve today. You will be so glad that you did

Change that you can believe in

Change that you can believe in, the changing of the seasons and it is about to be my favorite season of the year. You can already feel it a little bit,a subtle change in color of tree leaves and grasses, a little, just a dab, cooler in the early morning.Everything speeds up when school starts, summer is over and its time to get down to business again. Every day is a blessing!
I am waiting on cotton now to really get down to work on my angel kits, it will be ready most any day now. I have started packing the kits and getting them ready for sale. I like doing business!

Angels Everywhere

I am surrounded by little angel parts, bolls of cotton, little heads with red singing mouths, feathers, bows, wings, acorn caps. This stuff is everywhere and I get excited! I think that the new kit is going to be a hit. It has a completed angel and all of the parts necessary to make 5 more. You don't have to go to the cotton field, or buy a spool of ribbon, or a package of feathers and all of the other stuff, it is all here in this little acryllic box. I think that it is so neat and will be a hit. Market on The Square will have them, and also Cotton Hall Gift Shop.

Movies in the Middle of the Night

My body has two switches, off and on , I have never had a switch for in-between.
I am on go all day and then earlier than most folks, I am on off! Trouble is, that I go to sleep early but just when a lot of people that I know are just going to sleep, I have had it! I turn on the light and pick up my kindle and read awhile or go downstairs and find something to nibble on and turn on the TV. Once last week at 2 0'clock in the morning I turned on the tv and a movie called 3000 Miles to Graceland was just coming on, Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, Courtney Cox and other good actors were in it, I enjoyed that movie so much!. But sorry to say, I havn't found another as good since then.
Another night I went into the Factory and worked on my new Angel Kit, think that I will post a picture today.

Lost and Found

I lost my internet connection last week due to weather and I have been lost ever since. Maybe I will find myself again now that I am once again connected! I have worked in the factory a good bit putting together a new kit. Also spent time last week working a day at the Agape Shop and with some committees of the Arts Council. We have such a wealth of talent in our community, it is amazing what goes on. The new Swamp Gravy play for October is " The Big Picture", I believe that it is going to be one of our best. On another note, I am posting a different pressed flower picture this week in a rustic frame made for me by Rodney Bryan. I love the flowers in it.

The Factory is Open!

The Angel factory opened a few days ago and is about to get into full swing! I have a new product that I am excited about offering for sale this year. I have just placed an order for supplies. Seeing the cotton fields in full bloom let me know that I had better get moving!
Picking cotton for about 30 minutes at a time isn't too bad, thats just about the time it takes for the back pain to set in. Did any of you ever pick cotton?

Koneko

Koneko is my cat. I am told that her name is japanese for kitty. I decided to just believe that, but I just call her kitty kitty. She came to live with us about 2 months ago ,she is 7-8 years old and was born in Pearl River, Miss. We had to adjust to one another because I have never had a cat, only dogs, in fact when the kids were growing up each one of them had their own dog (5) and each dog had friends, but they all lived in the yard. I doctored them when they were sick, only learned recently that you don't give a dog aspirin! I have used it a few times when I had a sick animal, today I know more. Pets are really special All of my children have pets today, most them have more than one and they treat them like their babies and I do too! Koneko does not like change, likes the same kind of catfood, food and water in the same place,etc. We love her a lot!

Back to the Book

The factory wasn't open today. I just had to finish the book that I am reading on my Kindle. It is the Rembrandt Affair, as you might guess all about art, thieves, spies and love, the more you read, the better it gets. I always hate to finish a really good book!

My Factory

When my five children were growing up I had a pillow factory,according to them, that is. I did a lot of sewing in those day and I saved all of my scraps for a quilt that I was going to make someday. Well, I never actually made a quilt, but I did make lots of pillows. I would draw something in a center square and embroider it and do patchwork pieces or strips around it, maybe use a ruffle or lace around the whole thing. Anyway, when the urge to create pillows hit, I would go to my sewing room and work (in between chores like cooking, cleaning, cutting grass, chauffering and other). This would go on for days and days until I was pretty tired of it, I would then clean the room and leave the door open. The kids would say " Mama's pillow factory is open" or Mama's pillow factory is closed today" Point is, I have always needed a factory to go to no matter how busy my real life happened to be. For a few years now my factory has produced pressed flower art and since last year Cotten Angels. I feel like I will always do this! I never look at a flower without wondering if it will press and hold its color. I have lots! and now the cotton fields are blooming away and soon I will be picking again. I have already made lots of angels, each one is diffrent as most handmade items are. More later.

Mayhaws and More

Do you know that Mayhaws grow wild, but can be cultivated. The fruit is about the size of a cranberry, not sweet ,not much flesh. Not for eating like grapes or plums. BUT MAKES THE BEST JELLY IN THE WORLD. If you have never eaten Mayhaw jelly on a hot buttered biscuit get busy and get some fast. Remember, we are not promised tomorrow, enjoy this while you can. Colquitt, Ga. declares itself to be the mayhaw capitol of the world!

Murals,Mayhaws and Swamp Gravy

Isn't it interesting that we have taken these foods, Mayhaws and Swamp Gravy and written songs and plays about them. They have become our brand here in Colquitt, Georgia. Who would ever have thought such a thing a few years back. The stories about Swamp Gravy (the dish) tell that the indians first cooked this dish.After they had fried their fish, they poured off all but a very small amount of grease and then they chipped up potatoes and onions in the pan, when these were soft they added tomatoes and maybe a little water to make the gravy . Then the best part, they poured the gravey over their hush puppies and enjoyed it with their fish.
The logic........they took what they had and made something good out of it!
More later about Murals and Mayhaws.

Colquitt's tallest and proudest mural

The mural committee working with muralist Charlie Johnson is getting very close to completing the design. Charlie has been busy all last week cleaning the grain bins and getting them ready to paint.I can just imagine how excited and interested we are all going to be just watching him every day and seeing the scenes develop. Many folks have worked very hard to make this happen, the vision, the fundraising, finding just the right artist in a nationwide +Canadian search has taken much time and dedication .Charlie and his wife Sarah are from Canada and she will be returning soon . I have a feeling that from now on when we travel and people ask" where are you all from" we will answer and say,we are from the home of Mayhaw and Swamp Gravy and the second largest mural in the United States. We will all feel so proud!

Special Times

Cory and I enjoyed being together for a couple of days this week Monday morning I drove over to Valdosta to spend some time with her. Summer session is over and the fall semester hasn't yet begun so she was free to be with her grandmother for a while. Dottie said that everytime she called we were either eating or about to go out someplace to eat. I have to admit, we did do that, but we also completed a really neat project. We painted and decorated her guest room in a day and it look scrumptious. I went with her to for a dental appointment this morning, she had her first cavity and was really nervous about a filling, but all is well. I am telling all of this to say just how precious family is, I am so thankful that I have a large family and that we all love one another.

A kindle thing

One of my favorite things is my kindle, if you don't know what a kindle is I will share with you. It is an electronic reading device, it is lightweight and the page that you read from is about 6", you can adjust the size of the type so that you can read without your glasses and best of all you can go online and order a new book and it appears on your kindle in about a minute. I like mine especially when I wake in the middle of the night and I need to read for a few minutes to get back to sleep. I just push the button and there is the page where I left offand now all of my books are large print so I don't have to search for my glasses in the middle of the night! Right now I am reading a new thriller titled the Rembrandt Affair, very good so far.

thelmadot

Mayhaw and Swamp Gravy

Not from around here?Don't know about Mayhaw and Swamp Gravy? Then you had best listen very carefully because no matter the form, if you partake, then you have had a wonderful southern treat! If you hear folks talking about Mayhaw, they might be talking about the best jelly in the world that is made locally right here in Colquitt, Ga. We are famous for this stuff! We are also famous for our "Mayhaw" musical and comedy show featuring outstanding local talent, the show is performed here at Cotten Hall, which by the way is the home of Swamp Gravy. Now if you overhear a conversation about Swamp Gravy and how wonderful it is, listen carefully, did they mention fish and hush puppies or did they talk about the wonderful stories and the unforgettable music. Swamp Gravy is a wonderful gravy that we serve with fried catfish and hushpuppies. It is also the name of our Official Georgia Folk Life Play. The ingredients are the characters the original music, and the happenings and events in the stories of our ancestors brought to life on the stage of Cotton Hall.Learn all about Mayhaws and Swamp Gravy at www.swampgrvy.com

Mayhaw in July

The Mayhaw show opens tonight at Cotton Hall in Colquitt , Ga. It is such an entertaining show, great music and funny jokes,folks always leave smiling!

Friends make life worth living

Today, a friend of many years and I went to Dothan to visit another friend of many years. We had such a good day just sharing lunch and being together, talkin g about our children and grandchildren and other old friends. Of course, we devoted a little time to our aches and pains and I shared my love of my new Kindle and the books that we were reading. I took her a gift of framed pressed flowers, some of my orange Cosmos and a little cotton angel. It was a wonderful day and we agreed that we should all do this more often "while we can"! We are thankful for precious times like this.

A Hot Election Day

It feels like 110 degrees out there today, but it looked like lots of folks were turning out to vote. If we only knew what future events are being set into motion as a result of choices that we make when we vote! Would we change the way we do this whole thing? There are lots of new books out now about politicians and predictions...its scary. When I was younger I thought that those who served our country in Washington were the finest and most honorable among us. I am older now!

Books and flowers

I used to buy books, paperback, hardback,new,used, all kinds but now that I have my kindle I don't buy that kind hardly ever, I just go to Amazon and order one and I have it in a minute. But my old books still have work to do, most of them of any size are busy pressing flowers. Sometimes I pick up a book and out falls a flower that I placed there a year or so ago and even tho I had forgotten all about it, it is still beautiful most of the time. I sometimes travel with a big book and a pair of scissors in my car just in case I find something unusual that I just have to have!

A Wonderful Gift

For my birthday a few months ago my children gave me a Kindle and I have fallen in love with reading again. It is absolute magic to suddenly have a new book in your hands and never leave the comfort of your favorite chair. Imagine, it only takes a minute and there it is right before you! I absolutely adore my kindle.

Another Great Blog!

I like reading things written by Debra.

Always making the Most of it

I have a passion for Customer Service! I was made aware of this today when I shopped and the lady at the checkout counter never made eye contact with me, never smiled or said Good Morning, she was talking to someone else the whole time, made me wonder if she really saw me, except of course she took my money. What a difference it would have made if she had greeted me with a smile, made eye contact, maybe even called me by my name.People n otice when someone does a great job. To me, it is all about "THE GOLDEN RULE". If we just remember to treat others in the same way that we want to be treated-- then everyone has a great day.

Making the Most of it

Life is the most precious gift.I am very thankful for so many blessings ,the path has been hard at times, but good always overcame. Family and friends come first, but I am thankful for being created with a curious and questioning nature, there are not many things that I don't find interesting, even tho I can't understand some of it, I am creative and crafty and this keeps me busy and sane as I grow older. My pressed flower work is a joy. My love of books and reading has strengthened my spirit, opened doors to new places, provided escape when I have needed it and much more. I love most being with my hildren and grandchildren
I want to spend my time doing useful things, spreading the word and contributing my time and efforts to worthwhile causes in my community. I just want to make the most of it!