Baja St. Martin

These last few weeks have been a blur of activity for me with school closings, special programs for seemingly everyone, most of which I cover for a newspaper. My large desk calendar has every little square highlighted with some event which I need to cover. But it will be all over in two days and then I’ll be champing at the bit, wondering what to do.
One of the things I will look forward to doing is to get a puppy. My wonderful lab passed away recently with late stage cancer and while I don’t plan to ever replace her, I miss having a dog around. My cat might not feel the same way, but I’m hoping that kitty will accept the new member of the household. After all, he (the cat) has had a dog companion since he first came to my house as a tiny kitten.
Don’t forget that Food for Seniors takes place on Thursday, March 28, in the usual places – Stephensville Fire station at 8 a.m. and Belle River about 9:30 a.m. same day. And on Tuesday, March 26, the St. Martin Parish Council will hold its meeting here in Belle River.
The mob of hummingbirds seems to have diminished lately. I still watch two or three visit my feeder every day, but for a while there were dozens. I wonder what the difference is? Maybe they were just on their migrating way and stopped off for a bit of lunch?
The purple martin babies have flown the coop. One day there were two fledglings on the dock, fluttering their wings, practicing their flight techniques I suppose. But they’re all gone now. And the wood ducks have left home, also, although I didn’t see them leave. I will check the nest box one of these days but don’t want to disturb things just in case.
I drove to Breaux Bridge the other day for the St. Martin Parish Council on Aging Health and Fitness Fun expo. I’m still sort of experimenting with approaches to the Sydney Mae Durand building and now this church. This time I tried a different route but sort of panicked when I saw a familiar street sign which turned out to not be the one I wanted and I wound up making a complete U-turn. But now I know what I should have done so next trip I’ll be OK.
Chuck and Tammy Frelich’s shrimp boat is just passing my house heading back upriver to their docking site. I buy my shrimp from them but don’t need any right now. They have beautiful stuff and sell at a good price. I also know it’s fresh!
Have you ever put together a 3-D puzzle? I love jigsaw puzzles (actually I like all sorts of puzzles like Cryptoquizzes, Sudoku, et al) but the 3-D ones are a challenge. This one is of a British house, not very complicated. I’ve managed to get it totally finished, roof and all, but there are a few empty holes which don’t match the five left-over pieces. I believe I’ll just let it pass!
My last puzzle was One Hundred Chickens and a Worm. I completed the puzzle (750) pieces but could not find the worm. I searched the puzzle with a magnifying glass, had several other people hunt and nobody could find that worm! So I went online to the manufacturer of the puzzle (it was on the box) and asked them where was the worm. They replied quite promptly directing me to look at a particular chicken, with brown pockets, etc., and sure enough there was the worm! In the chicken’s mouth! I could have spent the rest of my life searching for that darned worm if I hadn’t cheated a little. I don’t feel a bit of remorse, either.

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