BlueskyStudio--Postcards from Ocean Springs

POSTCARDS from OCEAN SPRINGS

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Washington Avenue 1 / 2 ... Downtown ... Oakshade ... Around Town ... Links

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-Dedicated to Ocean Springs, MS – an incredibly magical place to be!

Included here is a photo essay of our visit there for The Peter Anderson Art Festival Nov. 6-7, 2004.

This year, despite the ravages of Katrina, the festival will be Nov. 5-6 .

We, as sensitive people, artists and art lovers, shall prevail.

Links are listed to provide more information about Ocean Springs

as well as photos of the incredible devastation unleashed upon this wonderful coastal community.

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Turning south onto Washington Ave. from Hwy. 90,

we entered the old town shopping district of Ocean Springs

and took a drive that changed our lives!

Images of Live Oaks and quaint shops captured our longing for something almost unexplainable.

As we drove past the shopping district down the awe-inspiring narrow road

toward LaFontaine (where we stayed at Oakshade Bed and Breakfast)

we were smitten– totally.

Driving in to Ocean Springs on Washington Avenue.

Down past the shopping district, the road grew sweeter and sweeter.

The first in a series of amazements – Clearance 11' – posted on a branch.

Live Oaks – hundreds of years of weathering storms. We knew nothing in November,

except that we loved them and admired and respected a community

where evidence of respect for their trees spoke volumes.

Ahead, we saw the beach in the distance, right before we turned to our destination –

1017 LaFontaine.

Front Beach just a few yards east of the Washington Ave. entrance.

Sunset with gulls vying for positions.

Song No. 6 for November 6th.

We watched the November sun set over Biloxi. The weather was outstanding

with a slight chill in the breeze, but who cared. It was too inspiring to notice with any concern..

And in the background, we had the remarkably unique music of Brand X carrying us along

with song no. 6 on the CD The Plot Thins.

"Isis Mourning Part I" melded so well with the motion and sound of the waves,

the colors of the sky,

the movement of a train in the distance, the waving grasses,

the flight of the seabirds,

it all mixed together to form the unforgettable.

It was such an experience, it has never left my mind.

When I play the song, I am inexplicably transported to the beach,

watching the sun set, and feeling, now, the chill.

I hear the waves and smell that wonderful ocean air

and I know I have to get back there.

Hidden Treasure – Home on Front Beach.

Moss swaying ever so slightly in the Gulf breeze of a November evening.

Post Katrina Note:

This area of Front Beach just East of Washington Ave. was devastated on Aug. 29, 2005.

Hidden Treasure, like so many other homes, no longer stands.

I took a walk into the loss of this wonderful homeplace on Nov. 6, 2005.

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Updated 6-12-06