I’m sorry. I just can’t help myself. This is my “honeysuckle gate”. The smell is so inviting right now.
And a new crop of spider lilies. Four in a row. I don’t think they’re appropriately named. Don’t spiders have 8 legs?
If you haven’t already, please back up one post and enter the NAME THE BIRDS CONTEST! I’ll be putting the names in a hat tonight and choosing a winner.
BW
Today is the sixth anniversary date of the BP Oil Spill off the coast of Louisiana. In April 2012, I drove down to Grand Isle to walk the chenier in hopes of seeing and photographing some beautiful neotropical birds. But before doing so, I performed my island ritual, which is to drive the Island from…
EPBush wants another point of view. Ask and ye shall receive! From the back deck, this is the south side of the house, looking toward the bayou. Then this is the north side of the house facing toward the bayou. So, Em, what do you think? Curiosity satisfied? This is what I saw from the…
In the spring of 2010, my email box was inundated with writers looking for the softer side of the story of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and following oil spill disaster. These seekers of a different angle flocked to my bayou to interview my shrimping neighbors. As a wetland advocate, I wondered how I could use this man-made disaster as a platform to further the cause of education and awareness.
It became clear to me early on that most of the journalists who arrived at my door really had no clue about our culture and way of life. So, if they wanted a story about how the oil spill had impacted us, then they must humor me and allow me to educate them about this vanishing ecosystem and its people.
What these well-meaning journalists needed first was a foundational perspective from the standpoint of a population of coastal communities who were suffering yet one more blow to their way of life. As a woman who lives, works, and fishes here, I could give them that perspective, which was simply this:
This oil spill was not an isolated disaster for the people of coastal Louisiana. It was like being kicked when we were already down. And here’s why.
My very special son (because all my kids are special) has been counting the days since the ad came out in the paper saying that two of the popular History Channel series, Swamp People, would be signing autographs at a local motorcycle shop in nearby Houma. Saturday was the big day, and when we got…
If you’re new here and not from south Louisiana, you might not have heard of the fabulous Satsuma, so be sure and buff up on the topic so we might all be on the same page. Locally, the Satsumas are still on the tree and nearing the time that they will be over-ripe. I took…
Yes, everyone, this is the big yellow dog that took up here shortly after our “Baby” was taken from us. We tried returning her to the owner a couple times, and she kept coming back. We gave up and she won her boy, Termite! I know she is poor looking, but we have wormed her…
OH BW I am SO jealous – we still have SNOW!!! AAAAHHHGGG…. last year at this time we wer planting our oats, this year we don’t even have the tractors ready because it is so friggin cold!!! LOL I love honeysuckle and those are beautiful – mine are red and yellow and the humming birds LOVE LOVE LOVE them. 🙂 Can you post more about your cooking, I live in Wisconsin and was COMPLETELY enthralled with the shrimp boil…
Oats? Farmer lady? Thanks for stopping by and for leaving a comment, Heidi! I love red honeysuckle, too, but someone mowed mine down–all four of them, “Uh, I didn’t know what they were.” Anyway, about the bayou cooking, did you check out the Bayou Woman Cooks for archived cooking posts? Come back soon!