Mardi Gras Fun!

Dear Blogging Friends:

It's Fat Tuesday tomorrow, and then Ash Wednesday, and my days as Cathedral Organist are full until Easter!!!  Wow!  Time flies so fast!!!

I have my Mardi Gras Tree set up in the foyer, and it's pretty similiar to last year's.  It always makes me smile and I love the bright colors!  I have said before that I grew up an hour and a half from New Orleans, and we always went to the big parade-Rex-on Fat Tuesday.  Such happy memories from so many years ago!

Omar walked by as I was taking photos, and decided to sit and pose!  Silly kitty!

This is a fun little ornament of a mask, and directly above it is my little voodoo doll!  She has a blue feather on her head!  It's so cute--I bought it in New Orleans several years ago.  Of course, I've never tried to use it!  haha

These are two fun ornaments I stitched.  I especially like the comedy/tragedy masks, because I put vintage Mardi Gras beads across the very bottom of it.  And I like the plaid ribbon hanger.  Such fun!

This is a fleur de lis and I like the Mardi Gras colors.  You can't see it well, but there's a little matching charm and black tassel at the top left of it, where the hanger attaches. My mother loved New Orleans and went there often when SHE was growing up.  When I cleaned out her apartment after she died, there were many, many beads and she had 4 or 5 pieces of paper with the Mardi Gras colors on them--I guess she didn't want to forget!!!  If you aren't familiar, I'll share them:

GOLD for power, PURPLE for justice, GREEN for faith

I have described this one before, but for those who might be new, I have feathers at the top left and bottom right that belonged to my mother's friend's bird named Joe!  He was an Amazon Blue Front Parrot and regularly dropped feathers, so his owner saved them for me because I like feathers!!!  I have all colors and sizes.  They are so sweet!

Speaking of birds, we have had white pelicans in the bay of my neighborhood lately.  It was so exciting and we all would walk or drive by, just to admire them.  It seems that they were migrating back to Manitoba from the Gulf of Mexico.  I guess they liked the looks of things here, and stopped in mid-Mississippi for a little break so they could entertain us!  Aren't they wonderful??  They've moved on now, but we will never forget the excitement they brought!

 

Aren't they beautiful??  There were so many and we all loved watching them.

This photo was taken from the bridge, right by my house.  For some odd reason, they all were gathering in the narrow part of the bay.  It looks like they're on top of each other!  If you look closely, you can see more of them swimming toward the big group, in a line.  They stayed, for the most part, in a line.  Fascinating.  Also, you can see some egrets on the bank, just checking things out!

In addition, these ducks came through, too.  Lesser Scaup--I've not seen those and they are so lovely.

Speaking of egrets, you might remember the photo on my last post about them being everywhere.  They were here a little before the pelicans.  Later, I took this behind my house.  They were all gathered together, having a nice visit.  Some were even in the trees!  So funny!  Egrets are here all the time, but just not so many!

My "regular" birds are here, as usual, and are still being enjoyed.  I feed them all the time and wish the squirrels would get out of my feeders!!!  Oh well, they have to eat, too!

I'll leave you with another photo from Zoe's birthday.  She's my sweet girl!

Thank you for stopping by and please come back soon!
Frances