A Taste of Louisiana

Below are a few photos I captured while zipping around Baton Rouge and surrounding areas the week of 11/1/11. Sadly, some of the previous years' hurricanes have wreaked havoc on many of the trees in my beautiful state. Many were uprooted or beat to a pulp. Boo to Katrina and Gustav and Ike. You were not welcome and we curse thee.

Magnolia Mound Plantation
Baton Rouge, LA

Found floating inside a rusty basin at Magnolia Mound Plantation.
The caretakers assured me it was not real.

My first spotting of a Belted Kingfisher. Had to crop this down significantly which results in a less than stellar photo; wish I could have gotten closer.
Watson, Louisiana

Grace

An old kettle in my godfather's back yard. We had many a crawfish boil in this kettle when I was a girl.

My godfather's property is on a hill that backs up to a lake which is why there is a slope. This ferocious little dog is his neighbor. Each time I took a step toward him he retreated backwards, barking all the while.

"Don't come any closer! I MEAN IT!"

"Oh, I guess she doesn't mean any harm."

This was the above attacker's sidekick.
I named him Barney Fife.

St. Gabriel Cemetery ~ St. Gabriel, LA
My Uncle Bobby tells me this cross has been black since he was an altar boy in the 1950s, probably to represent death. All the priests in those days wore black vestments at funeral masses.

There's something about these crypts from the 1700s and 1800s that I'm drawn to. 

No visit to Baton Rouge is complete without photographing this unusual tree wart.
I think I pronounced his name Boudreaux last time I saw him.

The rest of these birds I found right outside my mother's apartment: