Mardi Gras in Slidell

Margot and I are down in Slidell visiting with Emily and Mike and Lauren. Not only is Emily walking at nine months she is also really into computers.

Very precocious.

Good thing that rain kept us from attending the Slidell Krewe of Selene parade last night. Margot needed a couple more hours to finish Emily's Mardi Gras hat.

Emily is starting out small on her Mardi Gras career. If you were expecting wild and crazy pictures from New Orleans you will be very disappointed.

Her first parade is the Diamondhead parade.

She had a little nap on the way over so it took a few minutes to warm to the festivities.

We met Ryan and Keri and their son Bailey in Diamondhead. They had arrived early and staked out a spot on Diamondhead Drive.

Lauren and Keri.

Here are the king and queen of the Krewe and their court.

A bunch of clowns on a pretty neat truck.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of Mardi Gras parades let me give you a quick primer. You dress up your vehicle in some outlandish scheme, wear some sort of costume, drink beer, and throw trinkets to the crowd.

You may be asking why about now.

There is no really good answer for that.

I guess it is just another manifestation of the whole Mardi Gras concept of a big blowout before Ash Wednesday and Lent.

Mardi Gras parades run the gamut from the huge New Orleans parades like Bacchus and Endymion to the theme parades like Barkus to community parades like this one.

The basic idea is to wave to the people on the floats and get them to throw you beads.

I helps if you are a cute little baby.

Three year old boys do pretty well, also.

Sometimes you wonder about the judgement of some of the costume decisions.

By the way, those are incoming beads thrown in my direction.

You wonder if everyone buys into the costume decisions. I guess that is what the mask is for.

Face paint works as well.

I got nothin' for this one.

Did I mention that Diamondhead is mostly a retirement community?

Cute children collect a lot of swag. Emily will be in her prime until she is about 6 or 7.

Beads in flight.

A family affair.

A close up.

Another family float. Usually these floats will do a number of parades over the 2 weeks or so of carnival season.

They spent some time and money on this float.

Some of those beads on Lauren were thrown to Emily. The ability to attract beads seems to peak at about 25 for women. Lauren still does ok.

I would NEVER call those beads on Margot sympathy beads.

Finally, here is Emily with some of her beads and stuff.

Hawk

I'm guessing this is the same hawk that has been hanging around the backyard for awhile. He is attracted to the sparrows that are attracted to the bird feeders.


Only an inch or less of snow yesterday.

Took these through the window. You may see some reflections.









I think we decided he was a probably a Cooper's Hawk. Please correct us if we have it wrong.

The sparrows tend to seek shelter in the honeysuckle vines when this guy appears. They tend to stay still unless he gets too close then they make a dash for freedom.












The other day we saw him grab one from the ground behind the air conditioner. I guess that one made the mistake of moving while he was looking that direction.

He very quickly flew off with the sparrow. Nothing left but some feathers.










Took these pictures today of some of the sparrows in the Honeysuckle vines.

The hawk wasn't around today.

Here are some of them at the feeder. The one on the right looks like he is keeping an eye on the sky.










This House Finch showed up at the feeder today, also.

Christmas Travel - Crystal Bridges Art Museum - Cardinals and Nuthatch

Did some traveling over the Christmas holiday. Went to visit my parents in Arkansas. On Wednesday or so we went for a walk at a park in Bentonville.

These are views of an art museum that is being built near the park. The museum is being funded by the Walton Family Foundation.

Here is another view of the complex. It is a big project. It is being built in a valley with the creek and a couple of lakes as part of the design.

This sign gives a little more information.

http://crystalbridgesmuseum.org/public/

Here is a link to a 2012 posting about the museum after its opening.

Crystal Bridges Posting - 2012  <--- Click Here





It was a nice, sunny day, although cool. Here is a picture of six of the walkers.

From left, Theresa, Greg, Margot and Jacques, Nancy and Hal.









The Walmart museum or visitor's center in downtown Bentonville is undergoing renovations. However, they do have some of the exhibits open around the corner.









It sounds kind of corny but is pretty interesting. Sam built quite an empire from his start in Bentonville.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/6163






I never lived in NW Arkansas even though my parents have lived there twice. OK, here is the story of my parents closest brush with the Walton family. Back in the 70s, my mother, Nancy, once attended a coffee also attended by Alice Walton, Sam's daughter. They were both wearing the same blouse.

The next day was gray with a little snow in the air. We amused ourselves by taking pictures of birds at the feeder outside the dining room window.

It was pretty windy as you can see from the Cardinal.

Here is Mrs. Cardinal.

Is this a Tufted Titmouse at the feeder?









Here it is cracking into the sunflower seed.












A White-breasted Nuthatch, I'm guessing.

Do capitilized bird names look funny to you. I wasn't sure which way was right. I was surprised to learn that this subject gets a lot of discussion.

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v100n04/p1003-p1004.pdf

Another shot of the Tufted Titmouse.

A Downey Woodpecker?











I know this one is a Blue Jay.











Another female Cardinal.











I understand that this is a Chipping Sparrow.

A couple more Cardinal pictures

A Cardinal sitting on a rock.

After Christmas we drove up to Kansas City to visit my sister, Sue, and her husband Bob and Alyssa and Melanie. Bob had both knees replaced a couple of weeks before. They weren't up for travelling to Arkansas.

I made everyone line up so I could play with the new flash I got for Christmas.

This is back in Indiana on New Years Day. I thought the cloud colors were interesting at sunset.