Monarch caterpillars

This is a Monarch caterpillar and will transform into a Monarch butterfly in a few weeks.

If you want to have Monarchs in your garden, go to your local nursery center and ask for milkweed. Sometimes its labeled as butterfly weed, but its the same thing. Milkweed is the only host plant of this butterfly so its important to incorporate this plant in your garden.

I counted five caterpillars on one milkweed! Can't wait until they turn into butterflies!

Victoria Blue Salvia

This is one of my favorite salvias. Its called Victoria Blue Salvia (Salvia farinacea) and it starts blooming as soon as spring arrives. Right now its really the only plant blooming.

Here is a close up of the flower stalk. I've it planted at the front of my bed because it doesn't grow tall, I'd say around 18-20 inches tall. This is a perennial and doesn't require any extra effort. I like this plant so much that I bought 3 more plants last week.

Catnip is another healthy plant in my garden. Ginger loves catnip!

She got a hair cut last week and now she is much cooler.

Laying in the catnip is Ginger's favorite spot in the garden.

I'll end with a group picture of our two inside cats, Mike (orange) and Kitty (black and white).

Birds

A Louisiana Iris that started blooming a few days ago. I know I planted a red variety of Louisiana Iris but it hasn't bloomed yet. Hopefully it didn't die on me!

Now for a few pictures of the birds at my bird feeder.

I will end with a picture of Mike, one of our inside cats. He is laying on an empty egg crate. He lays on the strangest things. He is a big cat, the egg crate is big enough to hold 25 eggs! Soon he will get a hair cut at the vet's office. I get him trimmed so he will be more comfortable during the summer.

Tunica Hills WMA

Sunday morning we drove to Tunica Hills WMA. It was a perfect day for hiking! We didn't see any wildlife but we saw plenty signs of armadillos, turkey and deer.

These are pictures from the trail we hiked down to a dry creek bed. Some parts were steep with sharp drop offs. I was scared one of us might step on a copperhead snake but we didn't. With all the brown leaves on the ground they would be hard to spot.

Dry creek bed at the end of our hike. It was easy getting down to the creek but very difficult walking back up. The trail was so steep! Lots of animals had walked through the sand and I took pictures of the tracks.

Pretty sure that is a deer track.

Turkey track.

This is what you see when you look up at the sky. There are so many trees there that the trail is mostly shaded.

San Francisco Plantation

This weekend the San Francisco Plantation held their annual arts and craft festival called Frisco Fest. There were lots of vendors selling pretty things but I didn't buy anything! I wanted to buy lots of paintings and other art work but I'm running out of wall space at my house.

We toured the plantation home and the most interesting fact I learned was how the plantation got its name. There is no connection to California or to Saint Francis but there is a link to a French phrase meaning "I don't have a penny left in my pocket". When you say that phrase in French, it sounds like San Francisco, hence the name. Running a sugar cane plantation costs money and the owner was said to say "I don't have a penny left in my pocket!" after paying all the bills. Neat factoid, right?

These are pictures from the front and back and the side water cistern. The pipes connecting the cistern to the house provided running water to the home.

Lots of arts and crafts vendors! So many things to look at!

People made from wine bottles.

Coasters! There was a really cute LSU coaster, see next picture.

Lots of pretty wooden bowls! He had some nice cedar pieces too.

Hand painted ceramic plates that were inspired from historical places in Louisiana. She had so many different churches, schools and famous restaurants. I stayed in her booth for a long time looking at everything.

If you are ever in Garyville, LA make sure you stop by San Francisco Plantation. Tours of the house are $15 per adult and they are well worth the money. The tour guides dress in period attire and are very knowledgeable!

Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum

We went to two museums housed in one big building in Patterson, LA. The full name is the Wedell Williams Aviation Museum and the Cypress Sawmill Museum. The museum is a division of Louisiana State Museum with free admission! Wedell and Williams were two guys from LA that were very good at flying/building airplanes. Here are some pictures!

This platform is where we watched a video telling us about the history of the planes on exhibit.


Next we walked over to the Cypress Sawmill Museum. The cypress trees were cut from the Atchafalaya Basin and the surrounding bayous in Patterson/Morgan City. For the most part, the logging equipment was on display. This was my favorite part because I like trees better than planes. I am in most of the pictures to show scale (not because I'm a camera hog!).

This is the oldest harvested cypress tree!

This is a rain cistern made of cypress wood. Cisterns were made from cypress wood because the wood doesn't rot. It was huge!

A log flipper for cutting the wood into planks.

Mortar and pestle made from cypress wood.

My grandfather made his own sawmill for planking wood and this piece of equipment reminds me of his sawmill!

This is a Navy plane on display in the front parking lot. Dave is standing by it.

That's it for now, until next time!

Bird nest

I found this bird nest high up in a maple tree in our front yard. I noticed the nest while walking to the mail box a few days ago. What type of bird makes this nest?

I hope the baby birds don't fall out the nest, its very high up!