Squirrelly beggar tugs the heart strings

You know those beggars at the traffic light that bring their pets to tug on you emotions.  This little squirrel decided to strike out on his own and came right up to our table as we were eating outside a restaurant in Mandeville a while back. Hard to turn a cutie like this down.
--steve buser

Squirrels, Louisiana, Mandeville

Powered by ScribeFire.

Nourishing nature's long-necks

Little Sophie gets a close up view when my wife, Linda, shows her how to feed the giraffes at Global Wildlife Center -- a free range preserve in Folsom -- about an hour out of New Orleans. I thought for awhile that the smiles on the kids faces my be permanently pasted on. But, like kids tattoos, they wore off in a few days.
--steve buser

Giraffes, Global Wildlife Center

Powered by ScribeFire.

Global Wildlife Center --head butting

Two young buckS tangle antlers trying to prove their "staghood."  We were at the Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, La -- a pleasant country drive north of New Orleans. 
The animals would come right up to our wagon train for food, but I was surprised to see how many tussles and arguments ensued as they fought their way to the front and then wanted exclusive territory.  The kids loved it all  (as did the adults -- our daughter Vicky and husband Aaron pulled triple-duty  -- feeding the animals, taking pictures and helping our grandkids learn who you could feed by hand and for which animals you had to drop the food on the ground.)

--steve buser

Global Wildlife Center, Louisiana 

Powered by ScribeFire.

Fill 'er up!

Linda and I, went with her family to the Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, LA, his weekend (its about 45 miles north of New Orleans.  It consists of about 900 acres of free range for some wild animals including deer, buffalo, camels, giraffe and other exotics.  If was amazing to see the kids' faces (and the adults') as they animals came right up to the wagon train to be fed.  Here, Linda loads up a longhorn steer with a cup full of feed, as Sullivan gets ready for his turn.
--steve buser

wildlife, Global Wildlife Center

Powered by ScribeFire.

Sacked out

Sitting on the Canal Street ferry wharf,  these two Brown Pelicans wait for the ferry to come and whip up fish from underneath the rolling Mississippi River.  Notice the pelican on the left.  He has leaned his head so far back and opened his beak so wide that it has pushed his gular sack - usually hanging below his beak -- up through the top of the lower mandible -- a sight I have never seen before.

--steve buser

Brown Pelican, New Orleans, Mississippi River

Powered by ScribeFire.

Get your parade face on

I am proud of myself.   I suspect you are pround of me, too, even if you won't admit it.

I will take your silence as a an acquiescence that what I say is true. (silence speaks louder that words).  But, just for the others, let me inform them of that which swells my pride.

I have made it to the middle of October and only shown one or two Mardi Gras shots  (Out of season that is, not the ones during and just after Mardi Gras.) this year on this blog.

I would fill this blog daily with Mardi Gras pictures if you would allow it. I suspect my Mardi Gras parade of pictures would even spill over into other nearby blogs (much to their "consternation", as they say -- personally, I am not sure I have ever been consternated, for if I were, I would have visited a drug store for relief.  But, I digress).

I have dutifully withheld my bounding joy for the  Carnival -- Carne Vale, perhaps is derivation.  I will leave to your Latin learning to fill in the rest.

No, like a good Felix Sit Annus Novus! reveler then penitent, I have fullfilled my resolution for the year and kept aulld acquaintence from mind -- the mnd of this blog, at least.  While I looked personally back, I did not let that aquaintance fetter your enjoyment. 

Nonetheless.   There comes a time when one must act on that which burns inside himself.  That, I do today.  Please accept this montage of float-leading parade faces from the 2008 season not so much as a failing, but as eruption of memory, suppressed for a time, but no less powerful.

One can put it out of mind for a while , but at some time,  Les Bons Temps va rouler.

--steve buser

Glossy Ibis

This Gloss Ibis is a frequent wanderer around Lafreniere Park in Jefferson Parish (the neighboring parish to New Orleans)
--steve buser

Powered by ScribeFire.

Reflecting the times

The Conservatory of Two Sister in City Park in New Orleans is the visual icon for the gardens.  This was shot there during the Celebration in the Oaks some time ago.  I just hope my schedule will allow time to make it again this year.
--steve buser

City Park, New Orleans, gardens

Powered by ScribeFire.