Strolling

The other day I was downtown for about an hour waiting on my dad.  I had brought a book and was planning to sit in a coffee shop and read, although it was overcast, it was warm (the first time in quite a while) so I decided to take a walk.  It's always nice to take a lovely meandering walk - a stroll really - when you have nothing to do, no reason to rush by everything.

I loved the crescents in these shutters and the contrast between them and the red roof.

Maples are always so beautiful this time of year.

I noticed this two-toned "fish scale" roof on my walk and thought it was so interesting.  There are so many unique architectural details all around you if you only take the time to notice.  

I thought it was so interesting that they had a pepper plant as a decorative plant in their windowsill planters.  Aren't they such an great addition?  And festive too.  

Christmas in New Orleans

On Sunday I unexpectedly drove through snow for 6 hours.  It was quite a shock, but I was excited because I got to break out my fur lumberjack hat with the earflaps.  Between that and this cold snap I'm all ready for Christmas now, so here's a few Christmas-y pictures form New Orleans to put me in the Christmas spirit.

(I always thought it was so cool to hang Christmas ornaments in the trees outside your house.)  

Missing New Orleans

Do you ever see an airplane flying across the sky, especially on a clear day, and think about where those people are going?  For some reason seeing airplanes on a clear day, they look so delicate and fragile, and completely not meant to fly, and they remind me of John Denver's words from Starwood in Aspen "It's a long time to hang in the sky."  

While I'm looking forward to home, I'm also going to miss a few things about New Orleans.  

 This cute little house that looks like it got dropped into the city straight out of a fairy tale.

The camellias starting to bloom everywhere.

Passing by houses and finding incredibly unique things like this little sculpture porch for lack of a better term.  

This secret garden.  (When I grow up I want a beautiful secret garden like this.)

This beautiful gingko tree.  

Going Home

I've just finished my exams, and am baking Aunt Merle's ginger snap cookies for Christmas gifts.  Baking is such a homey thing, and I'm already thinking of everything that I'm looking forward to at home.  Here are a few things that I'm excited for (in photos).  

Watching sunset from the dock. 

Watching the sailboats in the harbor.

This beautiful ball of energy, who's always, always excited to see me (even if she barks before she realizes who it is).  

And of course, seeing all of my wonderful friends.  

Spiders

I would like to start by saying that I have arachnophobia.  And not in the typical, girly, "I hate spiders, snakes, bugs and anything that moves" kind of way.  I'm just innately terrified of spiders.  It's the creepy, crawly too-quick way they move.  My mother always tells me the story of when she first realized that I was afraid of them.  Apparently before I was even talking we were out on the porch and I saw a spider - I just stood there, pointed at the spider and started to shake.  No shrieking or overly theatrical dramatics, just simply stared, transfixed, and shook.  The same thing still happens today.  In spite of this crippling fear, however, I'm still fascinated by spiders.  And as long as they're not moving I enjoy watching them.  One summer I even looked forward to watching the banana spider outside our window - it was so beautiful and powerful and amazing.  

Long story short, when we were up at the country over Thanksgiving on Sunday morning we all woke up to go for a walk before breakfast.  As I slipped out the door and looked out at the field there were hundreds and hundreds of jewel-like orbs of web strung between the stalks of the grasses, glistening with dew like little tiny floating fairy lights.  I was completely fascinated by them.  

I've always loved big cow skulls dominating an earthy but sparse room in the tradition of southwestern homes.  I'm working my way up to a big cow skull.

Fall Color

As much as I love New Orleans' fall, I think I have to say that Charleston's is better.  While you get the perfect, crisp, zero-humidity days with the bluest blue cloudless skies and perfect autumn light in New Orleans, the rain trees are about the only changing color we get.  This has made me appreciate the color here in Charleston more than I ever did living here.  Here are just a few pictures from the country that I love.  I just can't get over how the leaves on certain trees stay green close to the trunk but start changing to yellow and orange at the tips of the branches, slowly changing inward.  It's such a beautiful color spectrum.  

Going Up the Country

After spending all day in airports Friday, I was ready for the crisp fall weather that awaited me in Charleston, and even more so for the delicious dinner at Evo, and the trip up to the country over the weekend.  It was so perfectly fall.  On the drive up to the country we stopped at Bee City (you really gotta love Americana - you turn off down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, and voila! there you are at Bee City Cafe and Petting Zoo, and might I add that there was quite a crowd there for being so off the beaten track) and bought some delicious Tupelo Honey (perfect for collards) and some candles for our Thanksgiving table.  

Taking the back roads and driving through the low lying swampy areas dotted with saw tooth palmettos, and over those slow moving, tea colored rivers framed by the most beautiful splash of turning leaves was the best homecoming I could have asked for.  And getting to the country where we had nothing to do except take walks and play cards was amazing.  

While it now seems like just another tree in the woods, this house has a beautiful, ancient sycamore in the yard that truly stood apart from the surrounding trees due to the pale beauty of its bark, the brilliant flame-colored leaves and its sheer size.  

Rain Trees

Earlier I had posted a picture of this beautiful, brilliantly yellow tree, which I have since learned is a rain tree.  Ever since I saw that first one, I've seen them everywhere in the city.  And as fall closes in on the city, the blossoms on those trees are like our fall foliage - they turn from bright yellow to a mauve, and then to a red.  Here's the same tree about two weeks after the first picture.  

Halloween Festivities

In the last week I, unfortunately, haven't taken very many photos, but I've had a whole lot of Halloween fun!  Wednesday evening I carved pumpkins with my friends (and we subsequently have 4 pumpkins worth of roasted pumpkin seeds.)  Friday and Sunday I went to Voodoo Music Festival, which was so much fun.  Friday I hung out by the more local tents of WWOZ and Preservation Hall.  I saw a great young cajun band, Feufollet, and a zydeco band whose washboard player was over 80 years old.  It's so inspirational to see people at that age still livin' the dream, especially in a band where the other members were well under 40.

Sunday at Voodoo was so much fun too.  I saw Zydepunks for the first time, and they were great, and the crowd was a lively one.  You know how when Pigpen from Charlie Brown dances there's just this huge cloud of dust that engulfs him and anyone else unfortunate enough to get close?  Well, that's what happened in front of the stage.  Everyone was dancing so much that they were kicking up a huge cloud of dust.  Everyone was a little confused when MGMT took the stage to the Scooby Doo theme song, until we realized that they were dressed as the whole gang.  It was great!  Props to them for being true to the Halloween spirit (although the lead singer was a scarily convincing Daphne).  Macy Gray was an awesome throwback, Trombone Shorty was amazing (he did that elusive circular breathing technique and held a note on the trumpet for well over a minute, I'd guess close to two), and listening to My Morning Jacket while watching the stars was the perfect ending to a great festival.

After that we headed on down to Frenchmen St, to see the real Halloween freaks.  In true New Orleans style there were some amazing costumes.  There was an Angel of Death who was walking on stilts and had enormous black and red wings with a wing span of about 8-10 feet, there were some awesome papier mâché aliens, and a python named Kiki.

Then on Monday in celebration of All Saints Day, there was a second line that was a tribute to Jazz Funerals.  I'd never been to a second line before, so it was really amazing to experience.  I think the best part was when the motorcade had stopped traffic at an intersection and this guy just got out of his car and started breaking it down.  He was still painted slightly silver and his hair had more than a hint of green from last night's costume, and he was just loving life.

Photo Credits: Pig Pen, MGMT

New York, New York

This weekend I was in New York.  Unfortunately I wouldn't exactly call it a vacation because I couldn't escape from my work.  But such is life.  It was refreshing to have some truly crisp weather, and we walked the Brooklyn Bridge on the first evening right as the almost full moon was rising over the river behind the Manhattan Bridge.  It was so lovely.  (And advantageous because my homework for philosophy was to take a picture of the moon this weekend.)

And, as is tradition with my family, we gorged ourselves on delicious food.  The first night we had fabulous paella and sangria at a little Spanish restaurant that was very old world.  It was one of those places where the waiters were older and had clearly been working there for forever.  It was their occupation, their profession, not just their job.

We also saw a great exhibit on Messerschmidt at the Neue Galerie (which just so happens to be located in a splendid former house of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt).  It was incredible.  This sculptor made incredibly realistic heads of people contorting their faces into strange expressions.  They were more lifelike than any other sculpture I have ever seen, perhaps because the artist created them for himself, and so they were far more truthful and heartfelt than anything created for commission or to be sold.  To me they showed true humanity - man at the most extreme of any emotion that exposed the truth.  No masks to hide behind, no trying to look pretty, just someone mid-yawn or mid-laugh.  In any case, they were spectacular.