Baja St. Martin

I have just returned from a trip to San Diego, Calif., where I was happy to spend a few days with my youngest daughter and her husband in their new home. They are in Fallbrook which I think is about an hour north of San Diego. Hilly country, lots of vineyards, avocado tree farms, plant nurseries. The weather was nice as I think it is almost always in California.

I love to visit California, love to visit my daughter, but I would not want to live there. It is a “nation” of drivers! Driving is the life-blood of a California resident. On the way to the airport early in the morning of my return flight, the freeway was a steady, solid stream of vehicles, both ways. There are car pool lanes, toll lanes and lanes for everyone else.

The kids have a Garmin GPS thing and I could see where it was almost essential. This one seemed to do pretty much everything but drive the car. Pretty neat and oh, so, helpful!

Flights home were good – a little bumpy around Houston, which, by the way, is a very busy terminal. My connecting flights there allowed me about 30 minutes from one boarding area to another and that was barely enough time.

And I don’t know what I did to deserve it, but I managed to be assigned a seat in the last row of the plane where I sat kind of “squashed” between two nice, but large men.

So, now I’m home again and faced with a yard of dead stuff! My schefflera is done-for but maybe the roots are OK. Surprisingly, my Norfolk pine seems to have survived. My staghorn fern did not.

I believe I will follow advice I once was given, to leave frostbitten plants alone for a while to determine exactly what needs to be cut off and what could possibly regrow. I know for certain a few things that are completely and irrevocably dead, but am not sure about a few others and for those I’ll wait. Besides I think the weather forecast calls for freezing temps again in the near future.

Belle River has been hosting thousands of cormorants the past two days. It is so entertaining to watch them. When some fish are spotted, all the birds dive simultaneously. It’s a “now you see them, now you don’t” event and really hilarious. When something alarms the birds they all take off en masse. They are heavy-bodied birds so their feet splash water for a number of thrusts before they actually become airborne. The water is churned to a froth!
I have not yet met the new Stephensville Elementary principal. Perhaps he/she will make an appearance at the sheriff’s gumbo lunch this coming Saturday.

Food for Seniors is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 23, same places, same times. I will check with Grover before that date as always to make sure. It will be nice to see everyone again.

The Belle River landing is pretty full most days with trucks and trailers. Lots of guys are going out to check the traps they left out last year, re-establishing their hold on certain pull-boat roads, etc. I don’t think anyone is catching much.
I saw a sign in Morgan City the other day advertising boiled crawfish, I think the price was over $5 a pound which would be reasonable for this time of year. Just talking about boiled crawfish makes me hungry.

I will be buying some shrimp from Chuck and Tammy Frelich of Belle River when next they make a trip. I wanted to take some shrimp to California with me but discovered I was entirely out. Tammy said Chuck would be going out in March, but all I have to do is watch when their boat passes my house and I’ll know when to call in my order.

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