Windows

When I am photographing architecture, I find myself looking up a lot of the time, and I'm always glad I do, because I never cease to find interesting details to capture — especially when it comes to windows! The following photos of windows are just a few I've captured during my ramblings. This old church stands in a field in the Mississippi Delta, and its windows have long been "gone with the wind." I love the simple beauty of this vine's tendrils reaching toward the light from this old barn window. This is one of my favorite windows, which is on an old building in downtown Vicksburg. This family mausoleum in the Natchez City Cemetery is impressive on the outside, but I'm so glad I stopped to admire it up close. If you click on the picture and look a little closer, you can see a tiny bit of light coming from the back of the tomb. I'm so glad I stopped to get a closer look, because I would have missed this magnificent stained glass window. A huge bear playing "Peek-A-Boo" from an upstairs window of a shop in downtown Vicksburg. Poor thing, it looks like he lost one of his eyes, so I guess that's why he was banished to the attic. This window is in Old Town Vicksburg, and every time I see it I wonder what those old tattered drapes looked like when they were new. This window in an old building in Yazoo City, looks like it could be somewhere in France or Italy. Ornate bank window, downtown Vicksburg Old Sisters of Mercy Convent, Vicksburg Old carriage house window Window above the entrance to Vicksburg's City Hall This beautiful old Victorian home in Natchez caught my eye. Upon closer inspection, I saw this guy looking down from a third story window. He looked sort of like a mannequin, and I thought he was kind of creepy. I love this shop window in downtown Vicksburg. It reminds me of the 1950s. And, last, but not least, where else, but in Natchez, Mississippi, would you see a sign like this one in a downtown shop window? The next time you are out sightseeing, or just walking down a city street, don't forget to look up and notice the windows above you. I think you'll be surprised to see what you've been missing. [P.S. — If you would like to see some of my pictures of Church Windows, you can click on the link]

The Storm

A tornado almost a mile wide tore through Mississippi on Saturday, killing at least 10 people and causing significant injuries and damage. Fortunately, Vicksburg was out of harm's way as the storm moved northward.

Yazoo City, Mississippi, was hardest hit, and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, who was in Yazoo City where his home is located, called the twister "gigantic" and said that "in places [it] seemed to be several miles wide."

Preliminary reports indicate that at least 100 houses were destroyed in Yazoo County, and the death toll is expected to rise as rescue crews reach hard-hit areas where some residents may be trapped in badly damaged homes.

Governor Barbour stated, "By God's grace [the tornado] did not go into the most central part of the city, the most populous. However, it went through the southern edge and eastern edge of town in a number of large neighborhoods," he said. "A number of businesses have been destroyed and others severely damaged -- there are churches that have been obliterated."

Mississippi residents reported that the path of the twister was a half-mile to a mile wide, and news reports stated that the tornado had traveled 150 miles across Mississippi, starting in the western part of the state and moving northeast before weakening as it moved into Alabama.

In Eagle Lake, near the Louisiana border, 47 houses received damage and 10 houses were destroyed, and in Holmes County, approximately 50 homes sustained structural damage.

In July of 2008, I visited Yazoo City and wrote a two-part post about my visit. If you would like to read those posts and see Yazoo City as it was then, you can click here and here.

It's going to take a long time, a lot of money, and a lot of hard and heartrending work to restore the picturesque little town on the edge of the Mississippi Delta, but I have faith in the unconquerable spirit of Mississippians that has allowed us to recover from some of the most devastating storms in the history of our nation ... Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Katrina come to mind ... and I know the people of Yazoo City, as well as others from all over Mississippi, will come together as one to do what has to be done to rebuild their town and to help those families who not only lost their homes, but lost loved ones, too.

My heart and prayers go out to them, and I'm going to try to contact the shelters to see how we can help.

I'd like to thank those of you who wrote expressing concern for our safety here in Vicksburg. We were very, very fortunate to be out of harm's way.