Baja St. Martin

I haven’t been paying much attention to the national weather situation so I don’t know why the spillway water level is so high, but it actually has come up a little this past week. My mowed walking trail is partially underwater necessitating a few detours as I walk. The Belle River landing is relatively clear but the pavilion floor is under water with mounds of water hyacinths around the benches. The landing, although mostly dry, looks a mess with drifted debris piled along the edges of the water line.
Toby is keeping things mowed and neat but there’s no way to deal with the high water trash until the level goes down to stay. I saw on TV that the flood wall gates in Morgan City will probably be closed by now since the water is above the flood stage.
We finally received some badly needed rain. It didn’t last long enough to thoroughly wet grass, plants, etc., but it certainly helped. It has been so hot and dry, the water in my birdbath, maybe two inches deep, has been evaporating in two days!
Isn’t it amazing how the weeds still grow with gusto, however? And trumpet vines are climbing everywhere. My sisters report temps in the 90s in Michigan, which is causing them to suffer mightily. My baby sister has a great Pyrnees dog, beautiful creature with long, thick hair. He loves snow. I imagine he’s miserable in the hot weather
I passed a truck in a roadside ditch this morning right here in Belle River that looked like it was where it shouldn’t be, but there was no sign of accident activity. Still, it didn’t seem to me that anyone would purposely park a nice truck with the rear end jammed into the mud like this one, but I suppose maybe it was that way on purpose.
As I walked the other day, I had my second (or is it the third?) encounter with the little raccoon. This time there were two, one of whom casually climbed a tree with vines while the other snuffled along in the grass. Neither of them saw me at first and this time I remained quiet as I sat and watched. Finally, the one on the ground raised up a bit, not more than 10 feet away, just looked at me curiously then calmly turned and disappeared into the bushes at the edge of the water. I’m getting used to these encounters and miss the little fellows when they don’t appear.
I missed the July 30 Food for Seniors and want to thank Wilbur and Lois McDaniel and Lanny and Nancy Duco for taking over for me. I could not reschedule an appointment at the hospital for this very morning, but the Ducos and McDaniels are wonderfully dependable. I did miss seeing my buddy, Grover.
As I pass Stephensville Elementary and Pierre Part Primary/Middle schools lately, I can see the activity revving up – faculty parking lots full, teachers getting their classrooms decorated, books unpacked, paperwork settled.
I believe I saw in the Teche News that some of the St. Martin schools were still in need of faculty and there were several administrative moves occurring because of the need to racially balance the schools. I haven’t read anything quite the same about the Assumption Parish schools where I taught, although quite a few principals and assistant principals are being moved from one place to another there.
Maybe that is due to racial issues also but I think these moves are more the result of putting “strong” principals in places where they are needed. All principals (and teachers) are not created equal, as we all know. Also, within a district, the areas served by individual schools can be vastly different and perhaps in need of different management styles.

Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be emailed at lindacooke1939@gmail.com.