Portals I've loved

I like walking around with my camera, ready to snap a picture of something that moves me in some way. Today I put together a slide show of photographs taken in New Orleans and surrounding areas of doors and windows and alleyways that have caught my eye.
One of my new years resolutions is to mark my pictures with more specific locations than "French Quarter". I hope you enjoy looking at this slideshow as I had creating it.

A Change in Plans

This week's post was supposed to cover the Crescent City Blues and BBQ festival which we were excited about attending.

Unfortunately, the little criminal below decided to derail my husband from descending the stairs on Friday night, forcing us to spend Saturday morning in the ER instead of heading to Lafayette Square in New Orleans.



Lucky for Beignet, the use of those blue eyes and cat charm has kept her from being evicted from our home.

So instead of wonderful pictures of Tab Benoit or Kenny Wayne Shepherd all I have are pix of our beloved Deuce (McAllister) still trying to figure out what 'retrieve' means.

I apologize ahead of time for the fact that I recently did a post on Deuce a few weeks ago. But I spent the day in a dang E.R. and didn't have anything else to post about at this late date. Besides, the pictures are great and he's a pretty dog. (just kidding in case you didn't know).

We're proud of Deuce and can't get enough of him and he can't get enough of our stuff. Heck, this morning he stole the medicated pain patches and aspercream I pulled out of the cabinet to help hubby and spread them all over the back yard after chewing them up.

So here are a few of the 500 pix I took of Deuce in his first class of retrieving yesterday (Oct 14th) in the Bogue Falaya River in Covington, Louisiana.








I love his concentration in this pic















Check out the water droplets at the end of his tail in this picture











Hopefully I will put together something for next week's post that doesn't involve our pets.....or not! Have a good week, y'all

Up, up and away!

This blog post will be short on words and long on pictures to show what a wonderful experience attending a hot air balloon festival is.

I treated my hubby to a get-away weekend in Foley Alabama at the 7th Annual Hot Air Balloon Fest. Both the "glow" event and the flight of the balloons were equally exciting.

We arrived on Friday night to experience the "Glow Event". This begins with watching teams inflate their huge balloons and then light them up with the propane feed that eventually helps them fly. It was our first experience and I must say that I was as excited as a kid at Christmas watching all of the balloons come to life.








The "glow" happens as the balloonists open up their their propane valves to inflate the balloons. It's best seen right at sunset and it's an impressive sight.


This is what the igniter looks like



This balloon is glowing!









Some of the balloons took off that night and it was an awesome sight.



Saturday morning was to start right at sunrise and we made sure we'd be there to watch the balloons arrive at the festival grounds.



We arrived by 6AM and the moon was still up. There were rain clouds present, which made the arrival of the balloons run a little late. Balloons will not fly if there is a chance of high winds or lightening for obvious reasons.


So we bided our time taking pictures of the early morning light

The late running balloons made up for it with their beauty. Behold

































I think I may have found a new passion. It's a fantastic sport and one I can appreciate from the ground!!!

For anyone anywhere interested in attending a festival, here is a website for all hot air balloon fests. Enjoy!