A Bit of Beauty in the Marsh!

  Down in the marsh, there are a lot of plants that seem to flourish in the brackish waters.  One of these grows right next to the pier.  It brushes my shoulders each time I pass.  Usually, I am more concerned about any critters that may be hiding among the thick leaves than I am the limbs.  Bees, beetles, ants, spiders and moths all seem to love the bush!  Today, however, I was a bit leery about getting the little tufts of fluff caught in my hair!  As I eased my way off the pier, a flurry of tiny, hairy seeds rose into the air!  It looked like our version of a snow storm.  (Here in the Deep South, we have to use our imaginations to have snow!)

  The Groundsel bush was covered with the white achenes (seed like things) that go flying in all directions at the least disturbance.  I pondered about this bush as I finished my hike up the hillside.  In the spring, blossoms dot the bush but are not significant enough to call notice.  Come fall, however, the bush is a pretty thing with its silvery white fluffs and oval leaves.  Hundreds of the shrubs dot the marsh edges as far as you can see back into the Bayou.  It makes for a beautiful sight!  

  The Groundsel bush is the only eastern species of the aster family to get to tree-size.  It can grow up to twelve feet in height and branches out to be a rather full shrub.  It is tolerant of the salt spray making it a nice ornamental plant for the Coast.  It does have rather weak wood and breaks easily but is fast growing.  If a storm does flatten it, a couple of months later, it is back in place.  I like the Groundsel bushes and their flying tufts.  They bring a bit of brightness to the otherwise drab marsh.

The Big Ball of Fluff

  The weather is acting a bit out of the norm for the Deep South.  It is cold.  We are not accustomed to cold.  We live in an area of high heat and high humidity.  Cold is different.  I like it.  I could get used to not feeling as if I have a bubble of steam surrounding me.  I could get used to not sweating.  It is amazing!  This does not mean that I am not taking measures to warm the place.  The old wood stove is chugging along quite nicely.  The stovepipe on the rooftop is sending out poofs of smoke like an old time train engine.  Armloads of firewood are being toted in to fill the wood bin and I actually have on a sweatshirt instead of a t-shirt!  Again...I like it!

  While this weather may suit me, I am not sure the Bayou Princess is in agreement.  Ms. Nycto is a spoiled house cat.  She came to live with us quite by accident after being abused and dumped out on the road.  She wandered to the Little Bayou House and never left.  The adjustment was an easy one for us but not so much on her.  While we welcomed her with open arms, she had big shoes...errr...paws to fill.  The Bayou Queen, Ms. Put, (RIP) was a working cat that kept the place free of rodents, she stayed outside by choice and would only occasionally need attention.  Ms. Nycto, on the other hand, is just a big ball of fluff that would rather snooze on the bed and eat canned food than do any type chore.  She does, however, want to be outside during the daytime hours.  That is a bit of her undoing.  She begged to go outside early this morning only to find that it had turned a bit chilly overnight.  The decision to remain outside was a hard one but one she chose.  An hour later, I found her huddled near the greenhouse door with fur fluffed at its fluffiest!  Poor baby was not entirely happy with her decision.  

  It was not long before she was back at the front door meowing at me to open it for her.  Once inside, she made a beeline for the upstairs where she could nestle down in the big comforter on the bed.  Yes, she is spoiled but, then again, what does a princess expect?  

Just add a little cinnamon!

  This has to be one of the wettest summers on record for the Bayou and surrounding area. Most years, we are in a full drought during late summer/early fall.  The plants are usually withered and dried.  By this time, leaves are usually falling from trees due to the lack of moisture.  The fire hazard rate is high and heat is stifling.  Not this year, however.  It has rained nigh on every day for the past several months.  Hard rains...inches of water is being dropped each day.  The place is beginning to look more like a rain forest than a marshy bayou!  Not that I am complaining, though, as I love this type of weather.

  Just to show how wet our hillside is, I found that the ground, itself, has grown mold!  Lovely fluffs of white mold can be spotted every few feet of any hike about the hillside.  Whether there is some other stuff beneath this mold remains to be seen.  I have not yet felt inclined to topple one to find out just what the mold is covering.  For all I know it may be dog poop! Nope!  Not going there!  The white mold can just keep on doing what it is supposed to be doing and I will admire it from a distance.  It is rather an attractive thing if you can get past it being mold.  It sort of resembles some miniature fluffy, white pup....if you have a great imagination...or really bad eyesight.  I have both.

  I was given the following bit of advice on "yard mold removal".  It seems that some folks find this stuff repulsive and wish to go around decimating each little fluffy "pup" of mold.  This is not for me.  The rain will merely replace the fluffs in a few hours regardless of my efforts.  But!  The advice is something that I would try if I was so inclined.  "Sprinkle the affected area with a heaping coat of cinnamon!"  Nice! Could you imagine how nice the yard would smell if I covered the ground of 8 acres with cinnamon!  Hey, it is fall, you know, and pumpkin pie spice does have cinnamon in it....sooo...just saying.  Still, I think I will forgo buying a half ton of cinnamon to eradicate the mold.  It can keep growing and, at the rate it does cover the ground, it will soon appear that we have an early winter complete with snow!  Even though, snow rarely is seen this far down in the Deep South!  So, go ahead and feel free to mold the ground, Little White Fluffs!  I do not have enough cinnamon on hand so don't you worry your little fluff about it!



 

The Return of Fluffy

  Last spring, Darling Daughter complained that she never gets to see the alligators that reside in the Bayou.  I informed her that since most alligators are a bit nocturnal, she would either have to get here at dawn or hang around here until just before dark.  Still, we made a trek to the pier and, much to her dismay, no alligators appeared.  That all changed on the way back up to the Little Bayou House, though.  Right where the pier meets the shore, I spied a tiny alligator just waiting to make its debut into the wild world of the Bayou.  The little critter was just a babe making it difficult to see.  Elizabeth and her husband, Robbie, both waltzed right past the little tot.  Had I not called their attention, the alligator would have gone unseen.   Elizabeth was so excited that she played with the little tyke for a few minutes and then named it "Fluffy". Why Fluffy?  I have no clue but that is what the gator became known as and from that day forward, she would ask about its whereabouts.  But as wildlife has a habit of doing, Fluffy made his great escape and hid from us for an entire year.

  Then, while Mark and I were on the pier this evening, Fluffy came calling.  Fluffy has GROWN!  The gator is now a nice four feet in length and is quite sure of himself.  He had outgrown the fear of being a tiny critter in a huge world!  In fact, the little gator was making his way to the pier to raid our crab traps!  

  The return of Fluffy makes me happy.  With all of the dangers of the wild,  tiny Fluffy could have very well become a meal for a larger critter. Even the other larger gators would not have hesitated to munch the poor babe.  While some folks argue my point, I think having alligators around the Bayou actually makes it a bit safer,  The gators are great about eating Cottonmouth Moccasins!  It is far easier for me to see a big, ole gator than a well-camouflaged moccasin.  Gators are good!  Welcome back, Fluffy!  It is a delight to see you again!

And Poof! It Was Gone!

  I have been doing a lot of clearing of new pathways for the past few days.  After checking the area for any critters or nests, I push the battered up lawnmower to extreme measures.  Although the thing is barely a year old, I must say that it has seen better days.  While most folks use their mowers strictly to cut grass, I push mine up under brush to cut small trees, underbrush and huge clumps of palmettos.  If I am going to go to all the trouble of cranking that thing, I am going to push it until it hurts....and it usually does.  The poor thing has had bent blades, lost gas tanks and a broken frame.  Son repairs it enough for me to start again and I am off in a whirl!  

  All of this cutting has led me to find some pretty interesting things. Just yesterday, I pushed through a bit of brush to find a small clearing that was filled with white fluff.  While I am still not sure just what the original bloom looked like, the seeds resembled a mass of soft white feathers. My first thought was that the Cooper's hawk had made another kill.  Closer inspection led to at least a much kinder identification.  Seeds are happier than dead bird parts.  I decided to leave my "feather field" for a bit so I could show Mark on our next walk.  (Hubby knows that I have a warped sense of what is beautiful!)  I took one quick closeup photograph and set to work cutting once again. 

  By the time Mark and I took our late afternoon hike about the hillside, my "feather field" was no where to be seen.  Gone! Kaput!  Vanished! Obviously, a stiff breeze took the fluffy seeds elsewhere!  This....this may be something that I regret at a later date as I know seeds make plants, plants grow tall and I shall have to mow....again.  And to top it all.....I was never able to positively identify said plant!  Knowing my luck, this is one of those highly invasive species of plants that will soon cover the hillside and marshes with white fluffy seeds!  Uh, oh....

Happy Appearance

  In spite of all of the negative things happening in the Coastal waters, it seems that critters are pretty resilient.  Oil spills, flesh-eating bacteria (which may or may not be directly related to the spills), sewage spills and runoff of lawn chemicals all create dire problems for the waters. The most evident effect of any of these is the oil-laden birds that make the news.  Media is all about stirring up things when it can boost ratings.  Granted the water fowl coated in globs of oil tug at the heartstrings but how about those unseen problems that seem to stay just under the media's fine radar?  Without startling photos, a story just does not create mass hysteria so why bother?  

  The Bayou, alone, has seen its share of problems as of late.  With houses being built right on the water's edge, runoff is one of the biggest things to overcome.  Everyone wants their green lawns even at the cost of pure water.  It seems to me that polluting the water is about as stupid as stupid can get.  Eventually, that same water will be what quenches our thirst but, in the meantime, it is of the utmost importance to the health of many critters.  

  In the past few years, the duck population here has diminished greatly. Whereas just a few years ago, the Mottled Duck was reproducing quite nicely and we were seeing rather large families, now, there are just a handful.  This makes me sad.  The ducks nest in the Bayou and if the marshes and waters are not clean, the little ones cannot survive.  The same with many other critters.  Fiddler Crabs are not as abundant this year.  Their numbers have decreased steadily as well. Although I must admit that it is still a bit early for them to be scurrying about in great numbers, it does seem that they are not as thick as of late.

  On a happier note, the baby alligator so comically dubbed as "Fluffy" (Darling Daughter's doing...or undoing) is still hanging around the pier. I was worried about the health of the tiny gator since it had not been seen for several weeks but then yesterday, I found tracks.  These led me to think the critter is fine and just being a bit elusive. Elusive it the perfect word for something that blends so well with the marsh and mud. It is sort of like a game of "Hide and Seek" with this tiny critter!  I am not sure just how I will feel about this critter calling the pier home if it grows to be some twelve footer but, for now, it is welcome to stay. Perhaps since the critter was born during a time when the waters were a bit tainted, it has built up a resistance to whatever is there.  Stay safe, Fluffy!  Stay safe.

Fluffy, the Bayou Baby!

  My sweet daughter and son-in-law took me to lunch today at the neatest cafe.  After a delightful, vegan meal we came back to the Little Bayou House.  We wandered about the yard for a bit and then wound up on the pier.  There is just something about that water that draws everyone towards it.  Pop used to always say that we had "salt water in our veins".  I guess he may have been right since that is where I seem to be my happiest.  The Bayou calls and it is hard to resist.  

   As we were heading back up the pier, I called their attention to the newest resident of the Bayou.  Right at the base of the pier was a baby alligator.  This was the cutest thing I could ever imagine!  The little guy was only about 15 inches in length so I am estimating that he was last year's hatchling.  At first, we were not even sure the little fellow was alive.  He sat so very still that I had to look real close to make sure he was even breathing.  The kids (young adults, I should say) were mesmerized by this little alligator.  Elizabeth, especially, was excited. She was so excited that she decided to name our little friend.  "Fluffy!  I shall name him Fluffy!" she proclaimed.  So Fluffy, the alligator, came into existence.  (Unusual?  True, but all is well.)  She, also, wanted to hold the gator but since he was sitting on top of that mushy mudflat, that would have proved to be her undoing.  One step in that mess would have been quite distasteful.  Speaking from experience, you DO NOT walk on the mudflats around here.  You SINK!  The stuff is not unlike quicksand in the fact that it literally sucks you under and does not let go.  

  The little gator on the other hand was quite adept at skittering across the mudflats.  We watched for a while until we had to bright idea to feed the gator some sausages.  Up to the house we trotted and when we returned the little gator had made his escape..almost. He had gotten as far as the little tidepool where he was trying to catch bull minnows for dinner.  The tiny tot was not having much luck, though, and our attempts at feeding him were just as in vain.  He sat and stared at us and did not take one bite!  After a bit, the bull minnows started feasting on the sausage and grew oblivious of the danger that was lurking nearby.  SNATCH!  The gator was using the sausage as bait to draw his natural prey to him.  For being such a tiny tot, this little gator was smart!

  So, meet the newest Bayou Baby, the little alligator named Fluffy! There is never a dull day here on the Bayou.  Something interesting always pops up (or slithers, skitters, flies, scoots, runs or hops in) at the most unexpected times.