Louisiana Lagniappe

I spent a couple of days this week with my parents at their home in West Monroe, Louisiana, and, of course, had my cameras with me. While I was there, I captured these pictures of the lake behind their house.

The lake has a lot of cypress trees surrounding it and the lichen-covered cypress "knees" remind me of little statues wading out into the water (you can click on the photos to enlarge them, if you'd like).

I think the trunks of the cypress trees are interesting, too -- they have so much character.

And speaking of "lichen," I'm not sure what kind this is, but isn't it pretty!

Leaves were falling all around me as I took pictures, and I thought these in the water were especially pretty.

And these, resting at the base of a cypress tree ...

Back in April, Mama and Daddy planted a little grapefruit tree, and proudly showed me its three little grapefruits.

They're still green, but should be ready to eat soon.

My sweet Aunt Jane came by to see me while I was there, and brought me this beautiful lemon from her lemon tree she bought in Florida years ago.

She said her tree had 16 lemons on it last year. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that!

An Early Morning Drive through an Historic Garden District

I was in West Monroe, Louisiana, visiting my parents recently, and decided to take an early morning drive through the Historic Garden District of Monroe, which is across the beautiful Ouachita River from West Monroe.

The Garden District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 3, 1996, and is unique in that part of the Garden District, Riverside Drive, has wonderfully renovated grand mansions, and another part of the district has a charming mix of bungalow, cottage, and even one "shotgun" house styles within it. This makes for a very interesting residential area, and gardens come alive in the spring and fall, with blooms and colorful leaves.

I enjoyed my tour of the Garden District and would like to share it with you. It was a beautiful crisp clear fall morning, and I arrived around 7:30 a.m. I soon found out that that was not a good time to be taking pictures because of the traffic. So, unfortunately, I wasn't able to get pictures of several houses that I wanted, short of evoking the wrath of "rush hour" drivers. As it was, I risked the wrath of several barking dogs and just knew someone was going to call the police to investigate a "suspicious person taking pictures of houses in the neighborhood." In spite of all these little annoyances, I was able to get a few interesting pictures (in my humble opinion).

This charming little cottage has been my favorite house in the Garden District for many years. The picket fence and huge old oaks are just lagniappe ...

[You can click on the photos to enlarge them]

I would love to replicate this beautiful old house someday on about ten acres in the country somewhere around Vicksburg, complete with the picket fence and oak trees.

This pretty rambling house has two
giant roosters to welcome guests ...

And a pretty red door and red geraniums
welcome the guests to this little house ...

Gotta love red geraniums blooming for Thanksgiving ...

This colorful house was probably on the fringe of the Historical District, and looks like an artist's house. If you click on the picture, you can see a little patio area at the entrance, with its interesting decorative accents ...

I love the front porch and large dormer on this house. There's a swing on the porch, and I it reminds me of "a grandmother's house" ...

This pretty garage with some kind of vine growing across it caught my eye. I planted Confederate Jasmine around our front doors in a similar manner, and I want to do this on our garage next spring ...

This is a picture of my front doors showing the
Jasmine "arbor" growing around them ...

I can't wait 'til spring to do the garage doors!

Sorry, I got sidetracked ... now back to the Garden District.

I love this raised Louisiana style house ...

And this is the sole "shotgun-style" house in the Garden District, which I love. My husband and I looked at this little house when it was for sale many years ago during our college years. In retrospect, it would have been a good investment at the time since real estate in the Garden District is very desirable these days.

And last, but not least, there's got to be a LSU Tiger fan living in this gold house, complete with an LSU flag ...

I hope you enjoyed seeing part of the Garden District of Monroe. Perhaps I can go back someday and photograph some of the old mansions on Riverside Drive (preferably not during "rush hour" traffic).

Sincerely,