Baja St. Martin

The price of crawfish is $3 a pound to the fishermen now so I’m assuming that nobody is catching very much. Every day I see trucks and trailers hauling boats heading to the landing but so far have heard nothing exciting. Fishermen say they’re looking around, once in a while saying they might have found a good spot – maybe.

The water is still high and cold. Seems to me like lots of things are late this year because of the cold. My purple martins are back but not in great quantities. They seem to be moving into some of the apartments but not all. I don’t see any birds around and/or in my small bird house just the larger one.

The ducks are laying eggs everywhere. I came upon a pile of eggs in the corner of my yard recently but I think they might have been abandoned. There seems to be a pariah female mallard in the neighbor’s yard. She quacks for hours, wandering about in the grass, all alone. I don’t understand duck psychology but I’m wondering if she has something wrong with her that makes her unappealing to the rest of the ducks. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen the rest of the ducks much lately.

My sisters report they are getting a bit warmer weather, but I don’t think it has reached above freezing more than once in the past few weeks. At that time, the snow melted but froze again and they say their drives and sidewalks are treacherous with a layer of ice covered by light snow.

I finally managed to purchase a truckload of black, cane-field dirt which I am slowly but steadily transporting to various flower beds. I’ve hired some guys to come help me but so far they’ve not appeared. Sporadic rains haven’t helped.

On April 11 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., there will be a lunch for veterans, location TBA. The purpose is to get local veterans together to share information, ask questions, just visit with one another. Shirley Akers is organizing things and inviting a Veterans Affairs officer and maybe someone else to come talk. If you are a veteran or know of one, please call me to say you’ll come to the lunch. District Attorney Phil Haney is going to furnish lunch so we need to know how many are coming. Seating will be limited so first-come, first-served. Call at 513-8622. I’ll get some flyers out soon.

This lunch, by the way, is just for veterans in Lower St. Martin Parish and I believe for St. Mary Parish vets also. No children, please. Veterans and spouses or significant others.

Food for Seniors is scheduled for March 27, same places, same times. I’ll have more details at that time about this veterans get together. It will be nice to see Grover again if he comes to this distribution. We all hope he’s adjusting to the loss of his wife as well as possible. Forty-seven years together is a long time. It was obvious at the funeral that Grover and Shirley had/have lots of family and friend support.

Isn’t the disappearance of that Malaysian airplane strange? It’s beginning to sound more and more like the plane may have gone in an entirely different direction than the flight plan. It must be terrible for families not knowing if their loved ones are alive or not. I guess we can hope the plane wound up in some strange place, illegally but intact.

A male cardinal has decided to attack my front door, pecking constantly at his reflection in the glass. My big tom cat sits just inside, looking out, growling softly, tail switching. The female, along with other birds and three squirrels, is eating the birdseed I toss onto my deck. Isn’t spring wonderful?

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