It's Mardi Gras again.
Fat Tuesday.
Everywhere else, it's just plain old Tuesday.
It's also 31 degrees.
I'm not a fan of crowds nor freezing temperatures,
so I'll watch some of the frivolities from
the comfort of my couch.
Last evening I was primed for Jeopardy (I really love
that show!) and I
was relegated to watching the meeting of the courts of
Zulu and Rex at Woldenberg Park,
complete with fireworks.
It was a spectacle.
However, it was misting rain and low temperatures,
so, again, I watched from the couch.
I could have turned the channel, but
I was glued to the pomp and circumstance
that is New Orleans "royalty".
I also got a sense of pride knowing that this was our
unique tradition that no one
else, regardless of where, within the state,
or wherever this holiday is celebrated,
can claim.
As lifelong residents of the area,
we sometimes take this for granted.
From the King Cakes and babies, the parades,
the bands and marchers, the bead trees
to the ubiquitous purple green and gold,
we love this season.
We love a chance to let loose with inhibitions,
and loose some stress along the way.
There's always a fair, a fest, a parade or some other reason
to celebrate.... anything at all,
from cultures, to seasons, to food.
There's so many reasons that I love this city.
We have a totally different mind set here.
The Big Easy.
It's a laid back way of life.
******************************************
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday.
The first day of Lent.
It begins the six weeks of penitence before Easter.
We get ashes in the shape of a cross on our foreheads
to symbolize that we are dust
and to dust we shall return.
As a kid, getting ashes was a study in patience.
We were admonished by nuns and parents alike
to NEVER remove the ashes!
But, c'mon....
we were kids!
The priest usually had no concept of how
to actually draw a cross on our heads,
it always came out as an amorphous dirty blob.
He seemed also to never be sure of
the amount of ashes it took to
draw said cross.
As a result, every time you wrinkled your forehead,
ashes rained onto eyelashes or in
eyes and mouths.
Also, it itched!
Sometimes, accidentally,
(wink, wink!)
We'd swipe our arms across our foreheads
and remove most of the ashes!
The horror!
The other Lenten thing is fasting.
In New Orleans,
since it is mostly Catholic,
we choose to adhere to the meatless meals of fasting.
We do not consider seafood meat.
Meat is red blooded.
So,
on Ash Wednesday and Fridays in Lent,
we eat seafood.
It's time for crawfish, fried catfish,
shrimp cooked in innumerable ways
that I won't go into for fear of
sounding like Bubba,
and a host of other meatless dishes.
Doesn't feel much like fasting to me.....
But,
it's not all glutinous,
unhinged jaw,
all you can eat buffets,
or
crawfish boils.......
in the vein of penitence,
we do give up something for the six weeks,
something that we love.....
like candy,
chocolate,
or maybe ice cream,
cussing, Coke......
(alliteration!)
You name it.
Different people have different vices.
So,
the usual question around these parts is:
"What did you give up for Lent?"
***************************************
The chicken girls are chatting with me.
I was harvesting some lettuce and they
followed me around the yard.
Nugget.
The entire cadre of hens are clustering
around my chair.
They are enjoying a snack of
dried mealworms.
Yum!
-------------
The girls didn't sit on the duck egg.
It had been too long without the warmth
of a mama's butt,
so the CEO tossed it.
I had envisioned a baby duck waddling after
the girls
but,
sadly nothing came of it.
******************************
The aloe plant.
The flowers were orange and opened
on the end to let the stamen poke out.
I removed some of the leaves in the pot and
noticed all the new babies.
So glad to see that the aloe is
blooming and reproducing.
This is where a bigger leaf was knocked off.
It looks like several more are taking its place.
----------------
We've been planting potatoes, tomatoes,
onions, kale, beets, cucumbers.
And
we're harvesting broccoli, bell peppers, onions
and lettuce.
As usual,
most of our plants are rescues or discards from
friends or nurseries.
Hopefully our small farm produces well this year.
Well,
nothing more to report yet,
so,
The End!
Shake a Tail Feather!
It's Mardi Gras!
