Maybe I should give you a little background information on the Louisiana Outdoor Writers Association before I post the third in the series about our 70th annual conference. LOWA is the official professional organization for outdoor journalists in our state and the keeper of the official state Fish Records. Arthur Van Pelt may have been a…
Skim across the surface of the warm, fecund waters of the shallow marshes of South Louisiana in midsummer and behold the gift of a floating field of the largest flowering plant in the state. The wind whips the giant leaves, some as broad as two feet across, making them appear to take wing. Their pale…
Recently I’ve noticed multiple warning posts on social media sites about Vibrio Vulnificus, a naturally-occurring, necrotizing bacteria found in our Gulf coastal and inland saline/brackish waters. These posts suggest things like “Be sure and keep Hydrogen Peroxide on your boat.” Of course, Mamma always cleaned our scrapes and cuts with it before applying a Band-aid, but back in…
This morning I noticed a hand-painted sign near the road at a little old man’s house just up the road, so I whipped in and bought 9 beautiful, home-grown tomatoes for $3.50, and he threw in the fresh-picked “Improved Celeste” figs as lagniappe (lan-yap = “something extra”), and I couldn’t wait to get home and make…
Often overlooked as a landscaping choice when visiting your local nursery, the Dwarf Palmetto is a complex native palm of Louisiana that deserves a closer look. Able to grow in even the poorest soil conditions, this palmetto, Sabal minor, thrives in the heat and humidity and is even hardy enough to survive the chilly winters…
Once upon a time, there was a young woman who lived in Denmark. Her name was Anna Christina Hansen. No one really knows why she left her country, but at the age of 16, she bravely boarded a ship headed for the new country sometime around 1924. She ended up in Michigan where she met a…