While these pretty wildflowers (weeds) bloom for much of the year, I remember seeing a field of them in a vacant lot on the way to pick up favors for our April wedding – seventeen years ago!  So when I see them, especially en masse, especially in April, it makes me think of our anniversary.   I love that there are some tiny purple pea plants mixed in here as well!

I bought a half flat of strawberries and cut them up and froze them for smoothies.  I made a gorgeous salad with local beets, tomatoes, strawberries, goat cheese and egg, plus baby kale, sunflower seeds and balsamic vinaigrette.

I feel so rich and so lucky.  Go see Anna Kunnecke at her blog and click on “You’re rrrrich” and see if you feel rich too.  I bet you can come up with a hundred reasons you’re rich – or more!  Oh here’s one more for me – within two feet of me right now are white wine, dark chocolate, and a sleeping cat.  And a sweet husband in the other room playing Bo Diddley/Soft Boys/Bow Wow Wow on guitar and singing.  Yep.  I’m a lucky girl.

Right now weather is fantastic, cool and crisp and sunny, and everything is blooming.  Jasmine, magnolias, gardenias – it’s white flower season.  Everything’s super-green because we’ve had some good drenching rains.  And I’ve been out and about enjoying the weather, taking photos and composing a zillion blog posts in my head, but not actually writing them!

If you’ve been curious about my lovely Appalachian Trail trip a couple of weeks ago, head over here to see what happened.

Ok – back to festival time.  After resting for a day post-hiking, I hopped on my bike to catch the end of the French Quarter Fest last week.  This festival is completely free and in the past few years it’s been ultra-crowded!  Here’s my photo essay – my take on catching the very last act of the Fest and soaking in the ambiance of the riverfront, clichés and all.

1. How have I never noticed this Historic Algiers Ferry sign? So people have been living in Algiers since 1719!  Wonder what they did before there was a ferry across the river?
Even though it was the last act on Sunday, the riverfront was packed.  I was by myself (my sweetheart was still on a trip to Costa Rica with his students) and so I people watched shamelessly.  What I noticed most was the tremendously happy, relaxed vibe.  Everyone was just grooving on the beautiful day and the rhythm of the horns and bass and drums.  No wonder people come from all over the world to be here!
Met this fantastic gentleman named Bo.  He was born and raised in New Orleans, but now lives in Seattle, Washington and has for 30 years or so.  He grew up with Trombone Shorty’s older relatives, and all these famous New Orleans musicians, so when Trombone Shorty (playing on stage) comes to Washington, Bo has the band over and makes them gumbo and red beans and rice.  That is super-cool.  He’s smiling in the pic, even though it doesn’t seem like it!  We had a great chat.
And Trombone Shorty kept playing his heart out to the crowd.

And I savored some crawfish etouffee.  There was so much food to choose from!
And I watched this guy in a yellow shirt and his sweetheart singing along and dancing to old school tunes you could tell they recalled from more youthful times.  As they sang and shimmied and smiled and laughed and spinned and twirled each other, it was like they’d gone back in time thirty years.The steamboat Natchez was looking swell.  I need to remember – every city doesn’t have a paddle wheel steamboat!  Cliche or not, it’s a beautiful sight.
I caught the Iguanas for their encore piece.  I remember going to see them all the time in the early 90s. Now they looked so much older but still sounded great, still.  How can they look so much older when I feel exactly the same?
I love this statue by the river.  She always has at least a few beads…

The clouds were 1000 times bigger than the river or the bridge, and the golden evening light was magical.
I rode my bicycle under the twin spans of the Mississippi River Bridge, just lighting up, and then continued on jasmine-scented streets all the way  home.  I do love this home of mine.

I had big plans to set up a week’s worth of pretty posts for you while I’m gone, but alas, it is not happening.  But if you head over to my coaching website (I’m officially certified as of Wednesday – yay!) you’ll see lots of beautiful nature photos – I’ve been taking a ton of wordless walks and posting pics, and also inviting guest posters.  If you like this blog I think you’ll like its sister site, Living Wild and Precious – check it out and give it a follow if you like!

So what have I been doing?  Going on Wordless Walks in the swamp – I’ve been there three times in the past two weeks!  The last one was moonlit – just last night, and it was truly magical.

I’ve been walking up and down the levee trying to get a little bit of conditioning before going hiking.

Steeper than it looks.

My little camera finally died and I’ve been carting around a big one, but not all the time, so I’m sadly missing some good stuff on my journeys through the neighborhood. But I have a few sweet images to share in the upcoming days.

We went to Mississippi, as I’d hoped.  And saw the anise.

And the mountain laurel.

And made a fire by the creek.

I’ve composed dozens of posts in my head but living keeps getting in the way of writing, and in the way of reading too, at least reading on the computer.  I’ve just begun reading 1984 again – and I’m also about halfway through Swamplandia! and intrigued by the magical realism of the novel.

I have a lot of appointments each day – tutoring and coaching. But I still have time to sit in the grass and pet the cats.  And blogging will find a rhythm again soon too, I hope!

By the way, if you’ve been following this blog for a while and are intrigued by my whole life coaching thing, and you were trying to decide if it’s something you’d like to try, this is the time to check it out for cheap! My coaching website says my rates would go up April 1, but  if you get in touch with me by this Thursday, you can lock in the current packages. This really is the last call, so email me at carla@livingwildandprecious.com if you want to give yourself the gift of coaching for less than half of what my rates will be once I wrap up the certification process in the next week or so.

Happy April!  Are you experiencing spring (or fall in the southern hemisphere) showers?  It’s pouring here right now . . .

If you live in New Orleans, grab a newspaper and check the classifieds under “St. Joseph altars.”  Then head out to be amazed.  Or if you’re far away, pop over to last year’s post that has a lovely slide show and more background information.  Enjoy!