Deep

The deep south is a strange and beautiful place.

At first I was wondering if I was in the deep south. I was near Tupelo, Mississippi at the time, headed toward Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Then I realized Alabama ends in the Gulf of Mexico, so if this isn't the deep south, nowhere is!

People here have gorgeous lawns and magnificent porches. There is an old world elegance to many of the neighborhoods, but there is also a wariness I am not used to. People don't seem to sit on these porches or lawns and they seldom smile and wave like they are genuinely happy to see each other. Maybe that is because I am a stranger, but I'm not totally convinced.

I suppose the heat makes a difference. Going outside feels almost dangerous in the afternoon. I feel like I am up in Grandma's attic trying on old wool coats, or maybe like a panini right after the iron drops and it knows there is no escape. Any moisture left in my body quickly tries to escape out my head and is wicked down onto my face.  By the time we go back into the house I look more like I've been swimming than taking a walk.

The house I am staying in is deep too. It runs under a long wide porch into an entry hall flanked on one side by a bright sunny dining room and on the other by a dark rich Victorian bedroom. The hallway pulls me down into the gullet where a gourmet kitchen and large cozy living room are lit by shaded windows high up in the wall. And if I keep going there is a master bedroom and ensuite dressing room-bathroom almost hidden off to the right. Or another hallway that wraps around a screened in porch as it slides by a laundry room and into a large dark bedroom at the end of the hall. It's a half a block of house cooled by ten foot ceilings boasting big fans in nearly every room. Big enough that each of the three bedrooms with their baths feel almost like separate apartments.

The house is lovely, dark, and cool in sharp contrast to the vivid Tiki themed screened in porch, or the deep comfy patio set and swing on the covered front porch.

Deep is the best word for this area. Deep shadows, deep rich sunlight, deep dark cool houses. Perhaps even some deep dark secrets and mysteries hiding in those shadows and overgrown woods nearby.