Baja St. Martin

The purple martins have returned. Not yet in numbers but the scouts, surely. As always, I hear their distinctive chirping long before I see them. I have 16 bird apartments ready for occupancy and have been a bit worried when some other birds seemed interested, but hope the arrival of the martins en masse will chase others away.

The weather has been beautiful, hasn’t it? Last week I was declaring I wished I had moved farther south. This week I’m happy right here. It is warm, the sun shines at least later in the days, I can leave windows open some of the time. When my sisters call to tell me it is zero at their houses and they’re getting two or five inches more snow, I can look out my back screen door and see mounds of clover.

On my levee walks, I brush against the fuzzy, red buds on the swamp maples and sit in comfort on a rotten log to read and contemplate the world situation. I think people must be becoming accustomed to the sight of me trudging with my nice walking stick along the spillway bank because a lot more are waving these days. Or maybe they read this column where I once (I think) complained that boaters never bothered to wave even when I was in plain sight.

One day last week I went with the Pierre Part Middle school 8th graders to plant 800 nuttall oak and native persimmon saplings on the property of a hunting club near Patterson. This yearly event is sponsored by the LSU Coastal Roots program and the PPMS 8th grade science teacher gets the seeds and plastic growing cells which he and his students nurture all season until the saplings are about two feet tall. Then they go by buses to this property where they break into pre-arranged groups and trudge off, sometimes for miles, into the woods where they plant the little trees.

The kids tended to go further into the trees than strictly necessary, but you could still catch glimpses of their T-shirts and red dibbles and you could surely hear all the giggling and laughing. They were pretty dirty by noon but happy to be out of the classroom.

The Coastal Roots program is really great. Professor Pam Blanchard seems to be in charge of the outreach activities. She couldn’t come on this trip, but usually comes with several LSU students.

One more week of school and then a week off for Mardi Gras. I will not be going to any parades although I’ve been invited to NOLA. I’m just not fond of crowds. I always send a feather mask to my two granddaughters, however. They have extensive collections.

There was a levee board crew at the Belle River landing today, erecting and welding a pipe fence at the south end of the parking lot. It is obviously meant to keep people from parking on the grass there but as I slowed to pass I asked one man, “Do you really think this will keep people off the grass?” He shrugged and said, “Probably not.” He’s right. If and when crawfishing gets busy, people will park anywhere. They will find a way to get a vehicle and trailer in the tiniest places, no matter what the obstacles. I don’t really see what’s so bad about that because it’s been going on for years and the grass isn’t noticeably injured.

Nobody wants to park any farther from the water than necessary. When you return from a long day of fishing, all you want to do is get out of the boat, into a truck and head for home.

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