Baja St. Martin

I love this warm, dry weather we’ve been having but I hate the wind. One of my purple martin birdhouses has swiveled around in the wind so the openings are facing the north which I usually try and avoid.

It was so windy one day, I had to fasten pole props to both birdhouses so they wouldn’t blow over.

The Belle River recreation site is looking better. After a few discussions, the contractor is raising the walking trail paths by a foot and I believe the parking lot will be raised also. At first, the trails seemed to be finished but it was obvious the river would almost top them and it wasn’t even at a high level. The recreation sign has blown over again and this time it looks a bit damaged. When the fence was put up for the cows, the sign had to be moved into the ditch and the footing wasn’t as good. Next thing, over it went!

I called one of the local crawfish buyers to inquire about getting two sacks of crawfish for relatives to take back to Florida with them, but the guy told me the price to customers was $1.40 a pound and it would stay there until after Easter. Makes an Easter boil a bit pricey unless you have several families chip in. I was really looking forward to some on Sunday, but I guess we will have had something else.

I met the new Atchafalaya Basin Program director, Steve Chustz, the other night in Pierre Part. State Rep. Karen St. Germain brought him to the Assumption Parish Recreation No. 2 board meeting. He said the main use of the DNR money would be water quality and water management projects. Chustz used to work for the Department of Environmental Quality.

I had an appointment at Our Lady of the Lake hospital in Baton Rouge the other day and never have I felt such a rube. My first time there and I parked in the wrong place, had to come back out, go up several streets more and then spent half an hour trying to find a parking space. But people were really nice. In the wrong parking garage some nice lady told me where I should be and how to get there. In the right parking area where I couldn’t find an empty spot, another nice lady smiled and shrugged and gestured to keep looking. A visitor, on the other hand, tried very hard to sneak into a space just being emptied and I could see him/her pounding on their steering wheel in anger when someone else slid into the spot ahead of them.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with lots to eat, eggs to find, and friends and family close.

Linda Cooke

The Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be contacted via e-mail at lcooke9417@bellsouth.net.