Geaux Tigers

I have never drunk a cup of coffee, for after my grandmother gave me a teaspoon taste of hers, I never went back for seconds. Tea is my morning ritual and I take it with honey. Lucky, lucky me got a Honey Badger jug of honey for Christmas.  Honey they say is a good defense against allergies.  LSU Honey Badger is a good defensive man against all other football teams.

Life will be close to normal after Monday and I’ll get back to stories about the birds and the bees, recreation and the environment.  A taste of one of my next ones is seen here under this LSU Championship banner.  It’s a giant hole filled with leaves and grass clipping, 762 bags so far.  In one of those bags I collected street side in Baton Rouge was this flag.  I deposited the leaves in my hole and saved the flag around the end of August.  It has stayed right there guarding the ever filling hole and watching LSU go 13 and 0. After LSU wins its forth National Championship I’ll tell you more about the hole.

Good Luck and Good Economy

I picked a cabbage from my garden at 10:30 AM yesterday to cook for lunch with my black eye peas, deer hot tamales, brussel sprouts and cornbread.  Most was from my own yard and that includes the chives, peppers, parsley, cilantro and dill to spice things up.   Sure was tasty! And yes, very traditional.  Instilled by my parents I have not missed the black eye peas and cabbage in all my years on earth.  They say it brings good luck and good economy. And looking back, I have been lucky.  One of the lucky things in my life is to have the desire and the knowledge to grow a cabbage as pretty as the one shown.  For a number of future blogs in 2012 I plan on reflecting on some of my good luck.

Besides that delicious lunch I resolve to continue eating healthy, getting out in the fresh air as well as exploring the backwoods and bayous of Louisiana and when I don’t get some other type of exercise. 

A happy, healthy and productive New Year to everyone.  And Happy 200^th  birthday to Louisiana.

Recycling

I am having a garage sale tomorrow.  Mainly, I want to reduce the clutter around the house and the office.  The fringe benefit is that some of the stuff will be recycled, i.e. used by someone else for a while rather than hitting the land fill.

Sounds of the Wing

Black skimmers and sandwich terns in flight at sunset

I had just finished running and was resting with friends when I asked Julie about her recent trip to North Carolina.  She said it was so peaceful and relaxing, I even heard the sound of a bird flying. To me that’s a normal day. Whether it is the buzz of a hummingbird, the whistle of a flock of blue-winged teal or the quietness of an owl flying over my head at night.  But to her with a busy life in Baton Rouge, family and job it was unusual and refreshing. A serene moment to catch up on the way it feels to really live on earth. Our conversation made me think it would do everybody good to take a few minutes off each day to listen to the sounds of nature.  You don’t have to be in a cabin in North Carolina or in the Atchafalaya Swamp to do it, for even in most big cities you can find a place to experience a little something called nature.

Seven Billion

I feel crowded.

About one hundred of the seven billion people on earth. 

Jeweled Web Print of the Month

Jeweled Web

 

About this print:
A winter morning backlit dew covered spider web shimmers and dances in colorful hues like jewels dangling precariously.

 

*For more info and to purchase your print  HERE*

Fall Hummingbirds and Surprise Lilies

Fall officially begins on Friday and I can already feel it in the air. We have had a few cold fronts that actually cooled off the nights enough to turn off the AC.  You don’t need a weatherman or calendar to let you know the best season is here, just the plants and the birds.  The summer garden is done, the muscadines ripe and dropped and the sugar cane is taller than my topknot.  The plant that really tells me fall is here is the bright red spider lily that some call the surprise or hurricane lily.  It pops up out of nowhere and in my yard there is always a new one or two not near enough to be propagated by last years. 

Surprise Lily

The cardinal flower is another.  I have a friend that calls it the summer’s end flower.  Its cardinal red also gives a spurt of color to the forest that will slowly lose its leaves throughout the fall months.

The birds are harbingers of the seasons too.  You can look in Dr. George Lowery’s book, Birds of Louisiana and see a list that shows which are here when...or better yet you can go out doors and look.  The blue-winged teal are here, the blackbirds are flocking, the warblers are leaving, and best of all the hummingbirds are flocking, or better put, there is a charm of ruby-throated hummingbirds in my backyard.  

When my one hummingbird brought in two, then three then more friends I got out my extra feeders. For eight days I have had six feeders out and the one by the kitchen window has had fifteen birds within inches of it at one time.  

Eleven Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds at my kitchen feeder.

I am estimating seventy-five birds in my back yard.  This will last for a few more days, then groups of them will head off to the south.  I clean the feeders, store them, enjoy the cool air and watch the leaves slowly fall, for fall is in the air.