Wild purple what?

It’s that time again.  The time where I come across one of my favorite things on the bayou:  WILDFLOWERS!

This week some beautiful flowers on the shoulder of the road caught my attention.  I literally stopped traffic to get a photo because I had to park on the road, since they were on the shoulder and I didn’t want to run over them.

First, I want to post a photo of some very special flowers that LilSis (Heather Here) thinks are not so special.

Ok, I know what these are.  They are in a pot next to my house.  They are special to me because this original clump of flowers was in the flowerbed of a little Houma Indian woman I greatly admired.  After her death, her son dug them up and brought them to me in a bucket.  If I had asked for a remembrance of her, I could not have thought of anything better.  I call them Wild Petunias.  Some people call them Mexican Petunias.  Either way, they spread rapidly and will take over your flowerbed if you’re not careful.

And then, there is a striking resemblance to the road-side flowers . . .

And for a closer look . . .

The purple ones have five petals just like the Wild Petunia, but the leaves and stems are not exactly the same.  Take a little closer look . . .

In the past, I could tell you the name of the blue flower, but it escapes me now.  Here’s what I need from you.  I am NOT going to look up these flowers in my oh-so-handy-wildflower book.  I would rather draw from your wealth of knowledge and have you educate me about this purple flower.

Please note that I have NEVER seen these two flowers growing side by side anywhere on the bayou before this week.  They are cropping up in great numbers, and I have to wonder if the seeds were washed in on the waves of Hurricane Rita tidal surge and have just taken this long to germinate?

Okay, my brilliant ones, any ideas on this flower phenomenon?  I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Bayou Woman and Producer Kovac Need YOUR HELP!

Award-winning videographer Guy Hernadez taking a serious look at the Terrebonne Basin near my home

This past spring, I had the honor of taking out a producer and a videographer who were in the early stages of a documentary about the cultures and way of life that will be gone when the Louisiana wetlands are no longer here.

It is my pleasure to ask you to take a few minutes of your time and visit the website for the documentary: Tide of Tears.

Then, if you would, please click the link below to help nominate this documentary to win some of the money American Express is so eager to give away. This banner should take you straight to the project we would like you to nominate.

I trust the producer, Stephanie Kovac, to do a good job of relating to the nation and the world what is at stake here if America does not stand up and lay claim to coastal Louisiana in the form of substantial coastal restoration. I could go on and on, but I won’t. It’s crucial that you go nominate this project and let the voice of the Bayou People be heard through those who have the means to shout it the loudest!

And from the bottom of my bayou heart, thank you all very, very much!

Merci beau coup, mon ami!

BW

8/18/08 My net has been down for two days. I have new posts I want to make but a pressing project has me seriously occupied from sunup until sundown.

Please go to AE and nominate “Reclaiming the Cajun Coast” project. We have until September 1st to help it reach the top 25 nominations! Please, you can help make a difference for the culture and way of life for all bayou people with just five minutes of your time. To all who have already voted, I can’t thank you enough. Merci a thousand times!!!! And please pass the word on nation-wide, no–worldwide! BW

Evening on the bayou . . .

Once again, Heather Here and I did not get to do all the things we wanted to do while she was down for a visit recently. And some of those things were going to have photos to go along with them just for YOU to see and enjoy. That means she’ll just have to come back when we can do nothing but fun things and NO WORK.

On her last evening here, I took her to a secluded spot to watch the sunset. We saw some interesting things along the way . . .

like this fire hydrant, at the very end of the road, where there was no more road, only water and marsh. There it stood, pouring water onto the ground, with no one around tending to it. We thought this was quite wasteful, and you?

and then there was the Leaning Tower of Dularge. It looks like just a touch of a feather would knock this building right over into the bayou. I just hope there is no one passing nearby in a boat when it finally falls.

And next there was Bayou Fabio’s stuffed garfish, which he taxidermied all by himself. Even though its head is starting to fall off, you’d think it was made of gold the way he displays it alongside the highway for all to see–marking the spot where he sells fresh garfish fillets.

And there we were; just two sisters at the end of a four-day work visit, still in our dirty work clothes, watching the sun set one last time before she had to leave.

We were just on the bayou bank, taking pictures of ourselves, giggling like silly school girls, when all of a sudden . . .

we got this creepy feeling that someone or something was watching us from behind the marsh grass.

something WAS watching us from behind the marsh grass . . .

and it was getting closer. Since I’m so brave and Heather is a chicken, I sent her with the camera to go take a closer look while I tried to distract the “something” away from her . . .

But it only came closer! And we could see its FIRY RED EYES, and it was SCARY!

But Heather was so brave, she just had to get one last photo . . .

before we made like hairs and SPLIT!!!!!

This is us, leaving that marsh monster behind.

We never did get to see the sunset.

But I promise you, next time we will have a pictorial post to beat all! Won’t we, Heather?

BW