I went to Constance Adler’s reading last night of My Bayou, her book about her love affair with this neighborhood and the bayou. I’m in the book twice as a character – once on September 1, 2006 bringing ziti to Swirl around the time it had just opened and become a gathering/healing place for the people in this neighborhood and another time at Swirl, bringing my menorahs to light for Hanukkah since I wasn’t in…
It’s that time of year again, post Nov 1st (read: post Hurricane Season), and the heat is gone and the air is crisp and cool, and right at this time of year, when most of the country is starting to put on snow clothes, is when we count our blessings. A November stroll through the park is magical with the cormorants drying their wings in the trees, a Great Blue Heron standing in the shadows…
We woke this morning to a silvery grey fog that hung and clung to landscape here on Bayou St. John. As Loca and I walked through the spooky park this morning, we marveled at how quiet the fog makes the world. It’s interesting because one of the lores of the South is that it is so hot people have their windows open and you can hear the private conversations for miles because voices travel easy…
Tonight is the eve of Yom Kippur and just as Eudora Welty said that Southerners live their narratives, well what could be more Talmudic than my mom in the hospital and me adopting a baby. The Talmud teaches about life, which comes and goes and always centers around common themes – love and happiness. As well as grace and duty. I begin my fast tonight with the sounds of a shofar from a congregation in…
A friend sent me an article from the Boston newspaper about New Orleans and its bohemian denizens – they referred to us as bayou bohos – not bad. If you consider that most of my adult life has fallen into one cliche or another – I gladly accept bayou boho as my moniker – wear it loud, wear it proud.
The pelicans are back on the bayou! I was walking Wolfie this morning and saw one big Louisiana brown pelican soar by me and land in the bayou. This is the first one I’ve seen and it means that fall is here. Although I was sweating when I saw the bird and the thick, humid air outside did not inform me it was fall, rather a continuation of summer. But the joy that fills my…