Guuuuuuuuuulllp...........

Dean is lurking hoping to be classified a grown up hurricane tomorrow. His timing is close to that baytch storm that caused the federal flood. New Orleans in her fragile recovery lie uncertain in the cone of predictions.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't worried. I would be lying if I didn't say that most of the people in this city are worried. Not that everyone is talking about it. Its eerily quiet. I think we all hope Dean will just go on his merry way to somewhere else. Just the thought of a hurricane is difficult in this city. I am Scottish and have no hurricane experience but considering our over preparations for Ernesto last year, have no fear we will be high tailing it out of here. I have read enough about the state of the levees and the failures of the feds to help secure our safety. I cannot bring myself to think too much about it, let alone blog about it. But rest assured our fear is warranted.

Its scary because I love this place. Our lives are beginning to go well. Its like when you send a loved one off on a journey you pray that no harm comes to them and they arrive back to you in one piece. I am praying right now that New Orleans journey with Dean is a safe one, hopefully observing from the sidelines. God Bless New Orleans!!

Pontchartrain Winery

Dazza and I took a trip to the Pontchartrain winery in Tammany Parish last week. We spent a good four hours there talking to John, the owner and wine grower, and, of course, sampling wine! You may think, like I did, that wine made in Louisiana cannot possibly be good. I was wrong!! The wine is actually really good. John makes it with a lot of passion and care, and he truly loves his product.

My favourites were the whites - Le Trolley (made from Blanc du Bois grapes and crisp and dry - very nice), Roux Saint Louis (made from the same grapes but stopped in the fermentation process to preserve some sweetness - it is sweeter that the Trolley but not too sweet - perfect to go with strawberries on a picnic!) and Louis D'Or (a woody white with Voignier grapes and Blanc du Bois - it was quite a shock after the other two but after a couple of sips it was quite addictive - unusual woody nutty taste that was crying out for some chicken etouffe).

Before the reds was a rose called "Zydeco Rosato" which was the most unusual colour - salmon pink. It is about as far away from a Zinfandel as possible (thank goodness) and was a real blend of the red and white grapes. It was on the dry side and I think was asking for a little spicy cajun food to accompany it.
His red that he makes from his own grapes (he grows only two - the Blanc du Bois and a red Norton - the Norton was damaged by Katrina - he hopes next year to get a harvest he can use) is made into "Rouge Militaire". The one we tried was the 2002 vintage and it was one of the most unusual wines I've ever tried. It had a nose that promised that it was port in the glass not wine but the wine, although with a lot of port qualities, was not port. It is a dry earthy, nutty flavour that doesn't apologise for its ruggedness. It take a few sips to get into it and understand its complexities but we came to love it (hence taking a bottle home). John said he had a girl come up to him at a tasting and tell him that she loved this wine because it reminded her so much of growing up in Louisiana. This is what John is passionate about, creating wines that reflect the region in Louisiana.

The other reds he has he makes from grapes that he buys from California. They are 'Le Grand Louis' a syrah and his cabernet sauvignon 'Criolla Rosso'. We also tried his port which is a real treat and its called 'Port of New Orleans'!!!

We had a great day, learnt lots, and I truly hope that John's little winery continues to grow and develop because they are producing good quality, original wines that are well worth drinking. I would highly recommend a trip up to see the place and taste the wine.

Things you see on the way home....

The Swamp Takeover

This is New Orleans. This is a swampy place. This is a place that, it could be argued , they should have thought twice about creating in this location. Not because of sea levels of the above and below variety, not because of the odd hurricane that whips through from time to time but just because the swamp will never agree to lie down and die.

Everything grows and grows and grows here, whether you want it to or not. The vegetation is one step beyond "luscious" to ferocious! The sidewalks are forever being reshaped into mountainous terrain by the large Oaks. The pavement sprouts weeds from concrete. The road develops more and more potholes and sinkholes overnight as the swamp continues its insurgency against us humans trying to live in its domain.

The pinnacle of this enterprise I found was when we lifted the blind in the back room of our half double shotgun (its OK we rent it!) and found that now the swamp and its vegetation are on the offensive and are determined to devour us in our sleep. I think we are at serious risk of having our own private little shop of horrors!!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder (or the blog grow duller)

No, I haven't been away on exotic travels. No, I haven't even really been having much fun to be honest. So ... hence my absence from the blogs of late. I've been feeling considerably uninspired. And I have to admit to having been wasting a great deal of time catching up with long lost dear friends on that newfangled thing 'facebook'.

But I've been looking at my stats and I feel a twinge of guilt that people still visit though there is no one here to offer them the hospitality of a good read and sometimes funny story of NOLA goings on.

So here are some photos of Dazza and I's trip south of N'awlins - we drove 75 miles south to the gulf hoping to stumble upon some rural gem of a town but instead found what we suspected, a drawn out Katrina disaster tour. Hardly a house was to be found. All there was were foundations with Fema trailers where small towns and villages once were. It was sad. So much so I couldn't bring my self to take photos (I have an idea that I've got for a collection of photos I'm going to post on this subject nearer the 2 year anniversary of Katrina).

The landscape was rural marsh and swamp that gradually gave itself over to more and more water. We never "arrived" at the Gulf - and the road got smaller and smaller passing oil industrial plants (and "Halliburton Road"!!!) that we eventually turned around and came home. But we first stopped in Venice (nicknamed 'the end of the world') for some fresh Gulf shrimp from a Vietnamese woman who had hundreds of chickens outside (I guess her family were likely bored with seafood!). The shrimp were huge and gorgeous and scrummy with garlic and white wine. We also stopped at a small roadside market and got HOT pickles and pepper jelly. So the trip was not wasted.

This is my favourite thing!!

Found a new N'awlins blog with brilliant lyrics for "These are a few of my favourite things" New Orleans styleee!!!!

NOLA and Glesga Humour!

I've just read an interesting wee post on longayelander's blog about how my fellow Scots are doing what they always do when faced with a frightening situation - they laugh about it!!

There is a true William Wallace in the midst of Glasgow (that's GlasGO) and his name is John Smeaton. He ruled the airwaves of the British media bringing the big lovely rolled up vowels of the Glaswedgian working class to the confusion of anyone outside of Govan. His heroism has been told and retold - how it was 'ah good job ah wis there' - to knock one of the men from the Jeep to the ground to let the 'polis' arrest him. It has inspired a website where people have bought him 1,000 pints to say thank you! There you can witness the youtube videos of this great man of Glesga patter!

My favourite quote (same as Katie's) on the website is the following:

"Those hapless al-Qaeda boys were to find out that Glasgow has no respect for international terrorism. Nobody gets between 10,000 Weegies and a £99 week in Ibiza booked on Thursday night through Barrhead Travel.

And most of all, no-one messes with The Polis. Not in this town."

It all feels very similar to NOLA. The satirical costumes of mardi gras, the New Orleans satirical paper "The New Orleans Levee" subtitled 'we don't hold anything back'. The bloggers' biting wit.

Maybe this is why I feel at home here. Whilst the rest of America quakes in fear of this war on terror, N'awlins laughs at the ridiculousness and tries to find humour in the sorry state of affairs that is post-K NOLA, so that humour can carry us to another day.