Louisiana, The Creole, Cajun, and Bayou State

Pine Mountain News
Hello again from Pine Mountain. It is the first week in September and it has been a very trying week for the people of northern LA. The fire called the station fire has been burning for over a week now. It is one of the largest fires in California history. Some 227 square miles of land has been burned. The fire is now about 42 % contained.

Here at the ranch the fire has been sending smoke our way when the wind blows from the South east. We have another month or so until the fall and winter rains begin. We hope they start early this year. Everything is so dry.

Now it is time for our poem of the week.


Poem of the Week





by Emily Stine

Some mystery swims with the waves in the Atlantic,

sweeping up with the sea unto the beach--it refrains

from nothing more than a whisper of a secret

as it bubbles up to my toes, I can almost hear it,

but before the sound translates thought, it sinks

sifting through the sand, speechless so to speak.

I glance up to the lighthouse, resolute on the New

England shore. Knowing it must have been intimate

with the sea, soothing secrets in its nightly glow.

Like Virginia Woolfe, my pen gets the better of me--

sketches a journey to the lighthouse. Once there,

something sure to break, the waves, the silence

the mystery inside the sea. Overhead, the moon

peaks through. But inside my head, a conversation

like a dance, between lighthouse and sea.



and now our feature story


Louisiana the Creole, Cajun, and Bayou State

We left the state of Mississippi and entered the State of Louisiana.

Louisiana bayou

This is the bayou state which is what the numerous small waterways that flow through this rich Mississippi delta area are called. Named for king Louis XIV of France the majority of the people in the state before 1803 were Spanish ,French , or African. In this state local divisions are known as Parishes instead of counties. The biggest city is New Orleans and the capital is Baton Rogue.



New Orleans



Louisiana Oil Refinery

History

The original Louisiana was split between about 25 Indian tribes when the first Europeans arrived in 1541. The Hernando De Soto expedition claimed the area for Spain. the French arrived in 1682 under Robert Cavelier de la Salle. In 1755 several thousand french Canadians from the Eastern part of Canada arrived.Cajuns descended from these people.

Spain transferred ownership to France in 1800. Needing money for his military campaigns Napolean sold the whole area to the United States for 15 million in 1803. This purchase doubled the size of the United States overnight.


Topography

Most of the delta area of the state is 10 feet or less above sea level. The northern part of the state which is prairie and woodlands is about 50 to 60 feet above sea level. The highest point in the state is 535 feet.




Louisiana Plantation


Mardi Gras

Our Travels

We took interstate 55 to New Orleans. we looked at the French Quarter. We tried Cajun and Creole cooking. We even tried crawdads. Most of the food was hot and spicy but it was very good. We headed west on Interstate 10 and explored Baton Rouge. We kept heading west and soon we were in Texas.



Pine Mountain Evening

It is another evening on the Ranch on Pine Mountain. We have just finished dinner of Mashed potatoes and gravy with fresh peas from our garden and a pot roast. We had black berry pie for desert.

Now we are relaxing in the family room and I am enjoying this weeks sample coffee from http://www.coffeefool.com. Tonight my sample coffee is Blueberry Cinnamon Swirl. This fine American roast coffee is blended with blueberries an then stirred with a cinnamon stick to create a unique desert coffee.
Tonight we are enjoying a classic movie called " Lord of the Rings". Well the movie and my fine dessert coffee are finished now and it is time to head off to bed. Good night all see you next week.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana



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