mauvaisbois1

Hooray!

ByCapt. Wendy

After two wetland tours with junior high and high schoolers, high winds, and rough seas, I am elated to shout to the whole wide world:

NO HEADACHES TODAY!

I feel human again. This may or may not be so good, but I have my appetite back, as well. Now, what am I going to do with three bottles of pain pills that I will never, ever take? Should I flush them? I’m pretty sure I should not drive to New Orleans and sell them on some street corner, should I? I think that’s still illegal, isn’t it?!!!

You know I’m kidding, right? I don’t want to see any medicine except the daily thyroid pill from now until I depart this beautiful bayou. Okay, so that seems unrealistic, but I will think it right now because it makes me very happy to think that thought.

mauvaisbois.jpg

See the early morning mist just over the water? This photo was taken approaching the interior of my favorite, and one of our last living cypress swamps.

Yesterday I forgot my camera, and today I was too busy to take photos, so I ‘d like to tell you what my guests from San Jose, California saw the past two days:

Great Blue Herons
Great Egrets
Snowy Egrets
King Fishers
Osprey
Buzzards
Anhingas
Gulls & Terns
Roseate Spoonbills – Breathtaking in flight yesterday!
Ducks in flight, hard to identify

2 mature otters frolicking. I mention this again because we so rarely see them out in the deep water, and the main character of my book is an otter.

2 alligators

That’s all I can think of right now. I was on the boat today from about 7:30 to 2:30, and my body is tired. I had to hold the wheel so sternly to fight the seas that came up on the lake when the wind increased unexpectedly. My body is a very good tired right now.

And there’s only one problem with this day. It’s not bedtime yet!!!!!

Doing a happy dance and thanking life for being so kind to me.

Still your effervescent Bayou Woman . . .

(Oh, I haven’t forgotten about Tarzan. I’m working on it. We have to do this juuuuust right!)

Similar Posts

  • Got honey?

    Springtime.  Flowers.  Blooms.  Pollen.  Nectar.  Honey.  Bees.  Bees? When was the last time you sat in your yard in the middle of a clover patch surrounded by wild honey bees?  Probably not since your childhood. Chances are, if you do see a honey bee, it belongs in a white box in someone’s back yard.  Wild…

  • Maurepas Swamp, Part 3

    The Swamp Next Door: Restoring Maurepas Swamp for Wildlife and Communities Written by Wendy Billiot for Louisiana Wildlife Federation Driving southeast from Baton Rouge on Interstate 10, many people may not realize they are driving through the second-largest contiguous coastal forest in Louisiana–the 140,000-acre Maurepas Swamp. Its southeastern boundary is near where Interstate 55 and…

  • Softer Side of Hunting

    Even as a child, I liked to wander unexplored territories, as much as that was possible growing up in a subdivision. It was nothing for me to jump the backyard fence, cross the concrete ditch, and shimmy under the barbed wire in order to explore the field behind the house. As I grew older and with a bicycle as my free ride, I went as far as my imagination and legs could take me, which was often to a pecan tree-filled lot beside the junior high school.

  • We got our fix

    Last week, Termite and I fished three days straight and my hands were hurting from so much fishing and so much fish cleaning. This week, we took a break from fishing and tended to other necessities. But when I woke up in such a foul mood today, I knew there was only one thing that…

  • |

    Dolphins and a Contest!

    Those of a particular generation acquired their first and only knowledge of dolphins through Flipper, the mid-1960s TV series about a precocious dolphin and its relationship with an adolescent boy. In the series, Flipper exhibited high intelligence and an extraordinary understanding of human motives, behavior, and vocabulary. This trained dolphin’s abilities, we now know, reflected the…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 Comments

  1. Yay-ay-ay-ay! I mean yea!!!!!

    I knew the headaches would go away. I am so glad. Now you can get back to your old self and we can go explore the Cypress Cottage.

    I’m not quite my old self, as I find I am very, very tired this evening. Trying to make myself stay parallel to the horizontal until 9:00! Come on down!!!

    Reply

  2. Glad to hear you’re on the mend! About your photo…..what bayou is pictured? Appears to be brackish. Do you fish in this area?

    The water was very muddy that day. It is a little canal that is cut through a cypress swamp, so it is freshwater. Near there you can perch jerk at certain times. Like I said, that cypress grove is the last big stand that we have near Bayou Dularge. All the rest, miles and miles, have been killed by saltwater intrusion. This swamp is the highlight of my tour and the reason I am pushing so hard for the restoration projects that will repair the last land bridge protecting this area from the saltwater of Lake Mechant.

    Reply