The weather’s warm, flowers are blooming, and Natchez ladies are donning hoop skirts.

That can only mean Spring Pilgrimage is here.

At The Parsonage, hostesses reviewed their lines one more time before the first tour of the season.

Rimona Kelly was one of the ladies receiving at the house Saturday. She joined the ladies in hoop skirts in 2004 after she and her husband moved to the area from northern Indiana.

“We moved into the dependency, a detached kitchen, at Texada, and I helped show the house,” Kelly said.

Soon, she met Gay Metcalf and started showing The Parsonage.

“It’s been a joy,” Kelly said. “We’re history buffs. I think we’ve been to every Civil War battlefield in the United States.”

Kelly said her favorite part of Pilgrimage was meeting people.

“People come from different countries and different states,” she said. “I’m a people person.”

And while some of the hostesses are newcomers, others have been showing houses for years. Glenda Voss is one such hostess. Voss, a staple in the antebellum houses, said she loves Pilgrimage partly because of the camaraderie among the hostesses.

“These are all my friends,” Voss said.

And this year, for the first time, Voss’ two granddaughters from Hattiesburg, Julia, 15, and Caroline Bradley, 11, received, too.

“Their mother grew up here and received,” Voss said. “Natchez is in their blood.”

“Our grandmother was going to do it anyway, and since we’re on spring break, we are helping out,” Julia said. “We’ve been in the Pageant before, but this is our first time receiving. It’s fun.”

The guests appeared to be having a good time, too.

Allan and Patricia Currie from New Hampshire stopped in Natchez as part of a kind of Southern tour.

“We’re waiting for the weather to get warmer in New Hampshire,” Allan Currie said, laughing. “We went to the visitor’s center, and I thought the first thing to do would be to see the houses.”

Down the road at Richmond, Linda Moskau and Charlotte Blackman, both from the New Orleans area, were just finishing taking a tour of the house.

“We love being here,” Moskau said. “It’s all about the hospitality. It’s nice to see how people lived and the history of it all.”

Moskau said she liked how the tours were preplanned for her, making her day more organized.

This was Laurabeth and Drew Harris’ first Pilgrimage. The couple from Port Gibson said they enjoyed both the items in the houses and the stories of the people who lived there.

“I like the different architecture and designs,” Drew Harris said. “It’s interesting to see their dreams and aspirations. And it’s cool to see the creativity that went into the houses, how they tried to differentiate themselves from each other.”

Lela Jeanne Nall, co-owner of Richmond, was one of the hostesses receiving Saturday. It was something she has had a lot of practice doing, she said.

“I’ve been receiving all my life,” Nall said. “I had a costume before I could walk. My mother made sure of it.”

Nall said as a child she learned about the house under the teachings of her aunts and by watching those giving tours.

Nall said she liked giving tours to small groups of individuals best. They sometimes determine the direction of the tour.

“I can see by people’s expressions if they’re interested in this or if they like that,” she said. “I just like telling people the history of the home and its people.”

Katie Stallcup is a staff reporter for The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached by e-mail at katie.stallcup@natchezdemocrat.com