Mother’s Play Group


Last week, Shattuck joined up with a play group in ‘My Big Back Yard’.  He had fun playing with his friends Hunter Humphreys, Elizabeth Dunavant, and Kreider Tayloe.

Kreider wasn’t very happy about sitting for a group photo… there are more fun things to do in life than sitting for a photo… there were things to play with… sand piles to dig… hills to climb.  One can’t be expected to sit for photos that eats up play time.

Break time… means… snack time.

Kreider found the big dog’s house…. I wonder if the BIG DOG IS HOME!?!

There he is… Shattuck found the BIG DOG!  He seems to be very nice.


Fall Planting Day

Todays is Fall planting day.  Lale, Shattuck, Fletcher, and Mintie went outside to plant flowers.  Hopefully, James and Andre will come over Thursday to clean up the leaves.  We have 17 large trees (mostly pecan) and two magnolias that leave our yard full of leaves.  Shattuck will love playing in a giant leaf pile next year.

















Actually, we rarely work in the yard.  The neighbors are having an open house today from 2pm to 4pm, and we were just setting up the image of good neighbors taking care of their house and yard while playing with the dogs and children….

… cue the deer…

Veteran’s Day

Shattuck and I played together this evening while Lale searched on the computer for fabric patterns and other thing he and I know nothing nor care anything about.

We had more fun pulling things off shelves, chasing the Westies, playing in the bath tub… you know… guy stuff. 



I forgot to put the two photos below on the blog from 2 nights ago… I just liked them.



New Orleans Fishing Trip


West Lewis and I went to visit Shattuck’s Uncle Gray and Aunt Shelley in New Orleans.

We arrived Friday evening and enjoyed a few drinks in their back yard before dinner.

As exit their back door… you enter a sub tropical garden.  A path leads you down to the deck.



Passed the bench…



Before you reach the deck… you have to pass the guard dog.








The next morning… Gray, West, and I went out on Gray’s new fishing boat.















Old Fort Beauregard Ruins ( Fort Proctor ):


Fort Proctor is a ruined 19th century fort in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Also known as Fort Beauregard or Beauregard’s Castle (after P.G.T. Beauregard, who supervised its construction with architect J.G. Totten) is located on the shore of Lake Borgne just north of the mouth of Bayou Yscolskey. At the time it was built in the 1850s, there was also a railroad port called “Proctorville” adjacent.


The fort was intended to be part of the fortification protecting water routes towards New Orleans, Louisiana. Due to delays caused by hurricane damage, and then the outbreak of the American Civil War, the fort was never garrisoned, and by the end of the war improvements in artillery had made the fort design obsolete.


In the 1940’s and 50’s, before it was engulfed by the lake, the ruins of the fort became a somewhat popular gathering spot for high school aged children seeking a spot where they could not be supervised.


The construction of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal in the 1960s cut off all land access to the fort site. It can be seen in the distance from Shell Beach, Louisiana. In 1978 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is now completely surrounded by water about one foot deep. There remained one small piece of dry land inside of the fort, and after Hurricane Katrina, very little of that one dry spot is still dry.







Not everything was beautiful… some of the images near the marsh land were weird…



….bizarre…



…..and a little disturbing…









I was so happy to see Shattuck when I came home… I’d been to a different World… one someday I hope to share with him.