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Good news was in full bloom last week as warm temperatures slowly transformed our bleak winter landscape into a spring flower show.  Some of the good news on display included:

Two local filmmakers and a celebrity chef are planning big things for the local food scene. Chef Nick Wallace and producers Tate Taylor and John Norris plan to reopen the former Smoot’s Grocery and Steampunk Coffee Roasters on High Street as branches of an up-and-coming restaurant chain named Church Hill Variety. Wallace, a chef who has been featured on two popular Food Network programs, detailed the group’s plans during the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration. 

Cathedral High School junior Blair Smith recently struck gold when she won the Gold Key award in the Eudora Welty Foundation’s Scholastic Art and Writing competition. For her essay on George Orwell’s classic “Animal Farm,” Blair took the top prize in the competition among hundreds of entries. Smith’s piece will go on to compete in scholastic’s national competition in New York City. Congratulations to Smith for her achievement.

More than 500 people from Tennessee, Louisiana and Mississippi gathered in Natchez as part of Rotary International’s Presidents-elect Training Seminar. The three-day conference allowed local officials to introduce Natchez to influential leaders from communities big and small — from Memphis in the North to New Orleans in the South. Thanks to all of the organizers who helped make the Rotary PETS conference successful.

The Adams County Master Gardeners also played host to some of the region’s greenest thumbs during the 2020 Southwest District Master Gardeners Conference at the Natchez campus of Copiah-Lincoln Community College. Gardeners from across the region filled the school’s multipurpose room to learn the latest tips in gardening and to share stories with fellow growers.

As we continue to enjoy the spring landscape, let’s always be on the lookout for the good news blooming in our community.