Reader question from Denise P:

When you have some time, please tell the story behind your gator icon on LJ. I've always wondered about it.The gator photo is from at the Isleño museum complex in St. Bernard Parish (now almost totally destroyed, of course) during their wonderful annual festival ... I want to say in 2004. I remember I was with my ( Read more... )

We made nine St. Joseph's altars yesterday. The best, as ever, were those in St. Bernard Parish -- more this year than last -- particularly one in the Arabi home of a woman who had lost everything, whose husband had died this past year after 47 years of marriage, who was still in the process of rebuilding her home -- but she held that altar anyway ( Read more... )

The house is back in hand, more or less. I am king of my castle, dammit. This king spent most of today putting down most of a floor. Don't remember the last time I was this sore, but the hardest part of the job is done. Carnival is getting in my way; I had to park on one side of St. Charles and dodge across the parade route to the other. I don't ( Read more... )

This short movie is one of the best pieces I've seen about the unpublicized destruction in St. Bernard Parish. It will break your heart, but it will educate you. (Requires Quicktime, I think ( Read more... )

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The Shell Beach pictures are up. Please take a walk with me from the drawbridge over Bayou La Loutre to the waters of Lake Borgne at the end of the Yscloskey Highway, and remember that this was once a beautiful (if slightly ramshackle) community of friendly people who worked and played hard. Unless I seriously underestimate the spirit of St. ( Read more... )

Not satisfied with simple incompetence, FEMA is actually looting us now.There are no words for how Shell Beach looks now, or if there are, I haven't found them yet. I'll try to get the pictures up later today. The ecosystem does seem to be rebounding well; it's hard but necessary to realize that while hurricanes are disasters for people, they are ( Read more... )

I just saw a female American Goldfinch at the feeder outside my office window, though she was promptly chased away by a pinheaded Mourning Dove who was too big and unwieldy to eat out of the feeder. The fact that this extremely common winter bird (though they aren't usually seen right here in the city) is a lifer for me just goes to show what an ( Read more... )