February 2-3 2013 Biloxi, Mississippi

We went to Biloxi to visit Beauvoir. Beauvoir means beautiful view and was the last home of Jefferson Davis who was the only president of the Confederacy. It was built in 1848. Davis bought it in 1879. At the time is was 5 miles east of the village of Biloxi. Now it is in the middle of  the city.

John in front of a statue of Jefferson. In the background left to right are Beauvoir mansion, a guest house and the Jefferson Davis presidential library and museum. The museum is not completed yet. 5 of the 7 buildings and the gardens on the property were destroyed by hurricane Katrina. There was 2 feet of water standing in Beauvoir. It is built up on a hill and on stilts. They are still rebuilding and restoring. The museum and gift shop were in a trailer for our visit.  John sitting in a rocking chair on the porch of one of the guest houses.

The walls and ceilings are painted to look 3D, and they do look 3D. Only the white moldings on the windows and door are real. The rest is painted. One of the 4 bedrooms.

The doors are cypress, but were painted to look like oak. The two parlors. The front one-in the back of this photo was for the guests, the back one, in the front of this photo is for family and close friends.

A photo of a painting of the ‘cottage’ in 1883. There was originally no beach in this area, just trees stumps and sand. Now days there is a 4 lane highway, sidewalks and 300 foot wide man made beach that stretches from Biloxi to Pass Christian. Davis bought this place because it was peaceful. Not so peaceful now.  This camilla in the garden is almost florescent it is so bright pink.

The property is owned by the United sons of the Confederate Veterans. One of the stipulations of the sale was to keep it as a memorial and museum to Jefferson Davis and the Confederacy. Also it was to be used as a home for confederate veterans. It also has this cemetery with is a national confederate cemetery. these are two memorials, one to the unknown confederate soldier and the other is a memorial to confederate soldiers.

Confederate flags in front of the property. You cans see the beach across the highway. Above is the Katrina Memorial. The top of the black granite is how high the surge wave was in this area. On the right side of it is the list of the dead and missing. Much of this area was destroyed. They are rebuilding. There are many new homes on stilts and lots of vacant lots still. There had been historic mansions along the shore.

A close up of the wave in the memorial. It is a very pretty glass mosaic. Back at camp the no see ums descended at dusk. I had two citronella candles burning and finally had to resort to my mosquito net had. The ranger driving his rounds stepped on the brakes and broke out laughing. Don’t you like our no see ums?? Like anyone does. John brought me appetizers and I had to figure out how to eat them and keep the hat on.

Sunset was lovely. Today we hung out and relaxed. Here are some of the needles I collected in Alabama in the sun to dry. The green ones have to dry in the sun to get that nice brown color, if not they dry kind of white. Terry had cut off a dead branch of the tree so we could gather the dead needles on it, and these few green ones were there too. I didn’t want to waste them.  They have been in the sun for 4 days and still look the same. This may take awhile.

The wall hanging is done. I shellacked it this morning and it is drying. John is reading in the sun.