Great Weekend

Well, after the dissappointment of the cancelled Opera, Christopher and Dad and I set off for the weekend at the Lake.  Lake St.John, where the lake house is, is some  120 miles away from Baton Rouge,and to get there we crossed into Mississippi and drove through Natchez,which is an old city and was one of the wealthiest cities in the U&gS before the civil War, as you can see from the homes.  There is also the wonderful vista of Old Man River himself.  We walked along the cliff path for a  bit, just taking in the atmosphere and casually chucking in a couple of stones.

It was about at this time we started to say "is it getting cold?" Across a hugebridge over the River and back into Lousianna, and on to the camp. It was one of those magic moments, when you walk in the back door of an ordinary looking house, and then look out the front and say 'WOW'. The Lake was like black glass and the cypress trees were reflected in it and there was a million little black ducks, and lovely white cranes swooping, and my personal favourites, the big blue cranes. the house is actually built out over the water, as we family members know, and then there is a jetty, or dock as they call it, which stretchers 100 feet out into the Lake, with places to sit and watch the sunset, places to park your boal, places to jump off and swim ... and it was getting COLDER!

     Canette and the boys and the dogs didn't come up till Saturday as the boys had soccer, so we had an early dinner, watched "The Bucket List" on cable and slept cosy in the highest bed I have ever encounted.  It almost qualified as a 'top bunk'.  The morning found us cruising in the Miss Liddy, throung the enchanting world of the everglades. We came home at speed and it was FREEZING.

The family arrived, my new best friend , Miss Lil, from up the way a little, invited me to go to Mass with her at 4p.m., and we went to this little church of St.Francis of Assissi, in the little village called 'Waterproof"!!!  I kept meaning to ask why that name.  There was 11 of us there, plus the priest, who welcomed me and told me he was a Carmelite missionary from India, who had been here for 2 years.  He still had his very pronounced Indian accent, but kept adding things like 'ya'll' .

On Sat night we had a progressive dinner round the Lake, riding in Lil and Paul's party boat.  It was VERY FREEZING and I was joking about "the Snuggie" and next morning, Lil, who had been to the market, arrived with a blue Snuggie for me!!! We met some lovely people and ate tootoo much.

It is not quite winter here yet and autumn is just starting, it is not the sort of winter landscape like in Surrey. which was so stark and beautiful, especially when it froze and looked like diamonds, but the trees growing in the water and reflected in the water and hanging with Spanish moss, have that same cold effect.  They say that the leaves will have all fallen by next week, but it has been very hot again today, so they will probably get a further reprieve.

Mr.Sweet and Miss Gloria  came up on Sunday with a huge amount of shrimp to be boiled and eaten.  I myself had left over vegies from the previous night  and watched in awe as the others gobbled extraordinary piles of the little suckers.  However  I did indulge in several "S'mores" which are marshmellows grilled in the open fire and encased in chocolate and bikkies.  "Give me s'more"

  

There were no fish biting and only a few cat fish on the set lines so Sweet and Gloria decided to come home on Monday as well.  We had to come home a day early as the Opera had been rescheduled to the Monday night.   It was a really great couple of days.

  THE 4thGRADE OPERA

Loved it Loved it Loved it.  It was clever and funny and hard to believe that it was all done by 8 yr olds. Luke, ofcourse was the best.

As The sun sinks slowly in the west we wish you adeiu from Lake St John.

Luke's Opera postponed due to Tornado

Luke' s forth grade opera that was to be performed at 7.00pm tonight was postponed until Monday due to the chance of Tornadoes.  What are the chances of that?  Turned out to not even be a bad storm but in this day of Doppler 10,000 the decision was made to play it safe.  This photo does not show the actual funnel cloud because there never was one.  The new date is Monday night provided there is no meteor strikes in the vicinity.  We are off to the camp in the morning.  See you soon.

week two

How are we fitting this all in??? I told you about the heat, well now I want you to send Snuggies. We had a big storm overnight and the temp dropped about 20degs., with the Louisiana version of a Westerly. We went off to soccer and that nasty old wind came sweeping down the plains. The boys played a last minute replacement team ... of GIRLS.....who we swear were descendant from the Amazons, they were older, AND they had hips and elbows, AND THEY BEAT US!

We had had a private party for Chif on Fri.16th which is his birthday, and Canette made a supa doopa Humming Bird Cake [no Madeleine, we did not use actual Humming birds, just eggs and flour etc] and then on the Saturday night, we had the party proper, to which the world and his wife came. It was a lovely, lovely night and we met the entire neighbourhood. Luckily, the wind dropped and even though it was cool, it was great.

Monday was very special. We went to the boy's

school where they were giving awards for the Honors Program and both the boys received the Principal's award for achieving straight A's. We were very proud. Then we went off to view the two schools Canette and Christopher are considering for James next year. You know, I had never realised that these big schools are all "inside" You go in the front door and along these wide corridors lined with lockers and it is all in there; the classrooms, the music rooms, the gym and the canteen. They don't use lockers any more, there has actually been a ruling because of kids bringing bad stuff to school, in some schools you have a set of books which you keep at home and another set for you to use in the class room. It was all very orderly because of it being open day.

BUT TODAY NEW ORLEANS It was the most picture perfect day, the tourist office must have been in heaven. We parked near the river and had a little walk along the Mighty Mississippi, past the Paddle wheeler, Natchez, stopped for cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe du Monde , walked through Jackson Sq; took a peek into St.Lewis Cathedral, and went to the Cabildo, the museum which tells the history of the settlement of Louisiana and and everything I have always wanted to know about the South and its customs. A brief flit through some shops [where I purchased the obligatory tee shirt to wear to the gym] and then into the car for a trip to see

what progress had been made in the restoration of New Orleans. There are still huge areas of abandoned houses, but in places things were looking up and the little shotgun houses have been repaired and painted in all sorts of fabulous colours, and then of course, we did the drive up St.Charles Ave to gaze in wonder at the beautiful homes there.

This Friday we are going up to the Lake, so that will be a whole new adventure.

We are fighting fit, and hope you are all safe and well.

Shopping & Food

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This is the life ..... there seems to have been a lot of really good food here. First we had the familylunch with Mr Sweet and Miss Gloria, with Miss Canette cooking the Southern Fried chicken the old fashioned way, with smothered squash and potatoe casserole, and a fresh salad of tomatoe and cucumber, followed by lemon icebox pie, yum, and it was so great to see Sweet and Gloria.

The big college football game on the Saturday night [which we didn't go to] was amazing, with almost every person in B R wearing their purple and gold LSU Tigers shirts and caps, either there or glued to their T Vs. There are 92,000 inside the stadium and every other fan who possible could, is in their big car, or pickup or, indeed, their motor home , ss close as they can get, with the BBQ and the big TV hooked up. We tailgated at Mr.Jimmy's before he left for the game and then rushed home to watch. Unfortunately, we was whupped and now no chance of the finals.

Canette and I have also had cafe au lait and beignets at Coffee Call ..... Wright kids please note ... Anna, we only had a small serve between us and didn't eat them all.

So what with a bit of shopping, walking the dogs, catching forward with the Bold and the Beautiful and attending a school function at Wild Buffalo Wings [food] and Luke's book club [more food e.g. crunchy apples dipped in organic peanut butter], things are pretty hectic.

Fortunately we have stopped falling asleep with our mouths open, so we are right on target for Christopher's birthday party ... the trip to the Lake... and Halloween. We have actually been to the Halloween shop and got our costumes [Paul was a trifle surprised to find he is expected to dress up too]

talk to you again soon loveloveloveglynne/mum/moppy

Off to Louisiana

Welcome to our new blog. Check in regularly for all the latest news.

Last Friday, Glynne and I jetted to Louisiana to see Chif, Canette, James and Luke. We were excited to be flying straight out of Brisbane on the new V Australia direct to LA. The flight couldn't have been better with the food terrifis, seats wider than Qantas and me watching 5.5 movies. Our Connections were good despite a storm in Dallas our flight was not much affected. We arrived in Baton Rouge on time at 5.30pm and were greeted by Chif and the boys.