Travels with Lizzy

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021

This year, the parades were cancelled, so Mr. & Mrs. Redwine brought me to St. Charles Street in New Orleans where many of the homes were decorated like the parade floats. 

But first, we had to stop at Ms. Linda's house to pick up her famous street food called, Yakamein. It was FREEZING in New Orleans, so it was great to have this wonderful food that warms you up. It is a mish-mash of Creole and Chinese cooking. Since it is street food, we sat in the car on St. Charles Street and slurped this warm soup up! It is mmmm-mmmm good!

We drove all the way up and down St. Charles, then we went to the French Quarter, and then we drove back over the Ponchartrain Bridge to go home. 

Here (above) is a video of a fabulous New Orleans house with nice music themed decorations.  The largest man was Dr John.  We were listening to the famous New Orleans clarinetist Pete Fountain on the radio as we passed the house, with Lizzie dancing along!  Pete played on the Lawrence Welk show (ask your grandmother about that show!) many times over about two and a half years.  Evidently, Mr Welk fired Mr Fountain for jazzing up a song on a Christmas broadcast.  When asked why he got fired, Mr Fountain replied "champagne and bourbon don't mix."  

Driving down live oak lined Esplanade Avenue, passing an almost empty Bourbon Street, then seeing some Mardi Gras revelers pass in front of us, all the while listening to, perhaps, the most famous of all New Orleanians--Louis Armstrong.  His nickname was Satchmo, which was a shortening of what his friends called him when he was growing up-- satchel mouth, because he could open his mouth so wide that his mouth looked like a satchel!  Ask your grandmother what a satchel is!

Okay, that's it for today! I miss you...when should I come home?!?
​~Lizzy

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2021

Today is Lundi Gras! Lundi Gras in the Monday before Mardi Gras, which is a very important celebration in New Orleans. Everyone gets excited about the "carnival season" that ends tomorrow on Fat Tuesday (English for Mardi Gras) with lots of parades, music, and celebrations all over town. Really, the celebrations take place all over Louisiana! There is a king cake that everyone loves, beads & doubloons are thrown from the parade floats to the visitors, and it is just lots of fun. 

Anyway, being here during the carnival season is fun, fun, fun! We also had very unusual weather here. It has been freezing cold and we had sleet and snow! (I know, you get it up there, but it really is exciting when it happens this far south. 

There are lots of traditions in New Orleans. One is about cooking. There is a cool book and a song that describes the wonderful food that they make here and includes which days they make it! That's kind of unusual, don't you think?!? Anyway, Mondays are for Red Beans and Rice, so that's what we cooked today! I didn't eat it, so I could keep my slim figure. (Some might say I'm flat, but I prefer to think of myself as slim!) Here's a picture of the Red Beans we made. They said, if you like Red Beans and Rice, they'll send you the recipe when I come home!
~Lizzy

It's a tradition to eat red beans and rice (although Leslie has made us be on a diet forgoing rice, so there's that!).  Anyhow, we had red beans, sans rice, for dinner Monday.  Every bean was so good!  Of course, to make it really good, we added a lot of pork--smoked ham hocks, Tasso (a specialized cured Louisiana pig meat), and a German sausage which the early New Orleans people gave a French name--Andouille (pronounced "and ooowie!").  This andouille sausage was made by our friend who is named (and I kid you not) Spuddy!  After we awoke from our red beans induced coma, we drove to New Orleans for Mardi Gras day!    

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2021

Today, I am going to tell you all about the water! Mr. & Mrs. Redwine took me to Raceland, Louisiana, which is near New Orleans! Here I am near Bayou Lafourche. A bayou is a slow moving body of water ... sort of like a small river or large creek and the water moves so slowly you can't even tell it is moving. We did not see any alligators or turtles in it, but they are usually there! It was a little chilly and they like warmer weather. How about you?

So, it is too hard to see in this picture, but we were driving over the Mississippi River on the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge! The Mississippi River is the second longest river on the North American continent. (Maybe you can see it on a globe or a map.) It's nickname is the Mighty Mississippi. It is a very interesting waterway that goes from northern Minnesota down to the Gulf of Mexico! Someday, you might be able to visit it or learn about it if you find it interesting!

On our way home, we went over the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway bridge. It is the longest bridge in the United States and the longest continuous bridge over water in the world. The bridge is almost 24 miles long! Mrs. Redwine told me that sometimes the Louisiana State Bird, the Eastern Brown Pelican, flies alongside the bridge right along with the car. I hope I get to see them while I am here in Louisiana! 

Lake Pontchartrain is a big lake that is north of New Orleans and south of Covington, where Mr. & Mrs. Redwine live. The lake is not very deep and people catch all kinds of fish in it. Redfish and trout are two of the favorite fish in the lake. The water in the lake is brackish, which means it is not fresh water but has salt in the water, too. It is not as salty as when you go to the beach. If you have ever played in the water in the Chesapeake Bay, it is also brackish. The water in Lake Pontchartrain is not very deep in the lake, except in the places that the big ships go through. 

The weather here is getting rainy and very cold! Here in south Louisiana, it rarely snows, but it is going to be freezing this weekend.

Well, things here are fun! I hope you are all doing well!
~Lizzy

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2021

Yesterday, the sun finally came out, the rain had dried, and the air was warm in the sun. We all decided that we would get outside and do some construction work.

I climbed a ladder to put the wooden siding up on the new building. I learned how to use a hammer and a nail gun, a level (to make sure the boards are all level), and a measuring tape. Have you used a measuring tape? It is like a ruler but it is very long and curled up inside the case. By the way, when you learn fractions, a measuring tape is a great way to see fractions in a different way. Ask your grandmother ... er, teacher ... about fractions and measuring tapes! 

I don't know what we will do today. Mr. Roo, or Louis IV as Mr. Ben calls him, woke us up at 5:00 AM this morning! It was still dark outside, but he wanted to crow VERY loudly. He has a friend somewhere nearby who crows back at him. They kept doing their rooster talk for about 10 minutes!

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2021

Today is cold, cloudy, and rainy so we are staying in, keeping warm by the fire, and reading books. Ben asked me if I wanted to go outside to play in the rain, and I said, "Are you crazy? I'm made of paper!"
~Lizzy

​THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021

After stretching this morning, Mr. & Mrs. Redwine took me out back to take a look at their pond. They call this place Fern Hill because of the beautiful ferns they found all over their property.It has fish, turtles, and frogs in it and the beautiful great egrets and blue heron visit (so they tell me, but I have not seen one yet) and enjoy walking in the water and feeding on the wildlife. I saw polliwogs but they were too small to photograph. The weather is beautiful! I miss you all and wish you were here. 

What a surprise! They have chickens and a turkey named Katie! I got to feed them today. I am a little worried about Mr. Roo, the rooster, since he seems to be a pretty strict disciplinarian with his "girls". Of course, Katie pays him no mind, as she is considerable larger than Mr. Roo. You can see Mr. Roo behind Katie in this picture.  Mr Redwine told me he doesn't know where this "Mr Roo" name came from.  Evidently, the rooster's name is actually Louis IV.

Surprise, surprise! While doing our chores on the homestead, look what some nice chicken left for me! Wow! Fresh eggs should taste really good!

There is a lot to do here! I helped plant onions and beet seeds this afternoon. There are 8 planter boxes in which to to grow vegetables.

I helped Mr and Mrs Redwine repair their fence which keeps the birds in the chicken yard, and which keeps predators out.  That's what the fence is supposed to do, but, in reality, Katie likes to fly out to lay her daily egg in the herb spiral, and, occasionally, the other chickens fly out also to explore the countryside.

I'm tired today, so I'll write more later!
​
Love Lizzy - I miss you all!