Live Music and Fall

Saturday night I went to see a friend's band, Mississippi Rail Company, play their first ever concert!  They were amazing, with a really bluesy feel that just made you want to dance.  It makes me so happy to see people actively pursuing their dreams, and being surrounded by creative people really makes you seek creative outlets in your own life.  Being at the concert made me realize how lucky I am to be in a city where live music is simply de rigueur.  To me, there's really nothing better than some live music while you have a casual dinner with friends and family, enjoy an end of the week cocktail, or simply walk down the street.  

In other news, fall is finally here!!!  Not just no humidity, but actual cool weather (we've turned off our AC), and I got to wear a sweater and my beloved boots today!  It's pure bliss.  This is the time of year that I live for, although I do wish that it could be accompanied by the lazy days of summer instead of mid terms.  

A beautiful dragonfly (or mosquito hawk as my parents call them) in the park.  

View from our pool.

A Night at the Aquarium

This weekend was amazingly spontaneous.  Friday night, I was reading in bed, planning to spend my night catching up on some reading, eating collard greens and quinoa.  Instead my friend and I decided to go out for a drink, and while we were out we ran into some people who told us about Scales & Ales, an event at the Aquarium.  So our casual drink turned into a night at the aquarium that included petting the sting rays (somehow I always imagined they'd be a little scaly and rough feeling, but they were so smooth!), watching the penguins who got very excited with all the activity (drunk people tapping on the glass), marveling at the beauty of sea horses (did you know that they hook their tails around seaweed when they sleep?), awing at the adorable otter that was floating on top of the water asleep, clutching a beach toy, eating delicious New Orleans food (the duck salad from Commander's would make me eat my veggies every single meal), watching the Moray Eels, and dancing to Soul Rebels.   

The seahorses.

The kids sections at museums - the best part! 

Petting the rays.

The Mississippi at midnight.

Our next stop?  The insectarium.  

Seeing all of the beauty of the underwater world makes me more than ever want to get SCUBA certified and see the amazing diversity of the coral reefs before they're gone.  

Happy Moments

Isn't it funny how incredibly excited you get about anything that reminds you of your childhood?  Well, to most of the world this is simply a picture of a junk dishwasher sitting on the curb waiting to be hauled to the landfill where it will sit for eternity and be forgotten.  For me, though, this was a treasure worthy of picture.  It is almost exactly the same dishwasher that I grew up with.  When the relic finally passed away and the dishwasher people came to replace it, they couldn't remove it and had to send out a special person the next day because it was so old.  Don't you love the blue racks and the porcelain tub?  I'd guess that this thing is 40 odd years old.  Now that's a good dishwasher.  Why don't they still make appliances of this quality? 

This is my Ansel Adams wall.  I adore looking at his stunning photographs on a daily basis, especially when I wake up in the morning.  60% of the photos that I've hung up are from California.  Do I need another reason to want to move out there?

Aristotle and the Landscape

Today was (is) the most perfect day ever.  It's brilliantly sunny with absolutely zero humidity.  Not a single cloud in the wide blue sky.  It's actually a miracle.  These rare dry days are a precious commodity around here and I truly cherish them.  They're the kind where you can sit outside in the shade for hours reading and not look like someone dumped a bucket of water on you.  I've come to love bringing my lunch to school with me so that I can find some little courtyard or bench and eat my sandwich en plein air.  It's wonderful.  I've befriended a little squirrel at one particular bench.  He isn't afraid of me at all and he sometimes sits right next to my bench and looks longingly at my food.  Other times he hangs out in the tree above me and lays out flat on the trunk and just surveys the world.  As I was reading Aristotle today (ick!) I came across a nice line (truly a rare occurrence in my opinion - he's far too wordy) that, once again, encourages living for love: 

"...it is by doing just acts that the just man is produced."  

Does it follow, then, that by doing loving acts a loving person is produced?  

Now, a few reasons why I love New Orleans...

...because we have gigantic banana trees...

...that actually grow bananas.

...because we have elephant ears as big as, well, elephant ears.  

...because we have gold fish ponds in syrup kettles.

New Orleans in Color

I will never tire of walking the streets of New Orleans and being amazed by all the wonderful architecture.  New Orleans is such a unique environment in that the slightly worse-for-wear house sits right next to the glossy magazine special house.  The citizens of New Orleans seem to ooze that particular joie de vivre found in no other place into every aspect of their lives, especially in the choice of house color.  Having grown up in New Orleans and being used to the brilliant colors usually only acceptable to the rest of the world on a funky beach house, my uncle was sorely disappointed by Charleston's pride and joy, Rainbow Row.  He renamed it "Wussy Pastel Row"which I think almost any New Orleanian would whole-heartedly agree with.  Here's how New Orleans does color.

(Notice the lawn ornamentation in the blue house - also known as a toilet.)

(As I was walking I happened to look down a side street from just the right vantage point to see this old box fan in the garage attic.  Isn't it wonderful?  As my Mamma said, it must be a New Orleans trait to hold onto everything!)

Turning Street Signs into Flower Gardens

This morning on my way back from the gym I passed by this street sign.  Someone had taken the time to plant this beautiful flowering vine around your plain old "One Way" street sign.  How beautiful is that?  It certainly made my day, and it will make my day every time I pass by now, and I'm sure as soon as someone else notices, it will bring a little bit of joy to their life too.  

The last two weeks have been very hectic getting back into the swing of school, but this afternoon I did make time for myself to take some pictures, and, as per usual, New Orleans provided infinite beauty.  

Maple Street Bookshop is my favorite bookshop in the world.  The only one that even comes close is Shakespeare and Co. in Paris.  

I also passed by this house whose peeling paint, rusted window unit, and general slow decay I found very beautiful.  For some reason these sorts of houses seem to epitomize the South to me, and especially New Orleans.