The weather remains dry and calm. Not a drop of rain for weeks. The spillway is coming up. The Belle River landing is partially underwater but not deeply yet. It is getting pretty warm in the late afternoon when I usually take the dog for a walk and often join my two friends with their dogs. The one friend takes his two dogs for exercise and throws balls for them to chase up and down the levee. It’s fun to watch them do this but by 4 or 5 pm its getting pretty warm and the dogs can’t take the heat for long so they are coming at a later time.
My other friend seems to not like the late afternoon heat either so he is taking his dog way early in the morning. I am not a real early riser so I’m not ready to go onto the levee at 6am and by 7pm I’m ready to call it a day. In other words, the three of us haven’t been getting together much lately. Plus my dog seems to have a gimpy leg and is limping a bit.
As I type this I’m watching two hummingbirds at my feeder just outside the window. These two guys empty the feeder in a day. I tried putting a second feeder out once some distance from the first but the birds got in huge squabbles.
The recreation district no. 1 met Apr. 28 in the Belle River Community Center. Aside from some budget items, the meeting was mostly about an electricity bill at the Belle River Center which had been extraordinarily high causing me much stress. Turned out the bill covered a period of time which made it seem unusually high but really wasn’t. since I’m the one who rents the building out I had been pretty worried so was relieved that nothing was out of the ordinary. The progress of the sewer line across he Stephensville park was noted. One board member reported that too many people were letting their dogs ‘poop’ at the parks and not cleaning up the waste. A letter to the guilty parties when possible might be sent asking for consideration. It’s not very nice to have dogdo on the ground where children play.
The Community Center had been rented every Saturday in the month of April. It’s becoming a popular place for parties, baby showers, et al. Clean, bright, accessible to the walking trail and playground.
Secretary Dee Hymel said she had learned of a possible grant for a small sided soccer field which could be something possible for the Belle River site. A resident pointed out that there are very few children in Belle River who might use such a feature. That got us talking about things older people, seniors, might enjoy and that brought up shuffle board, bean bag toss which I think is now called Cornhole and sent some of us home to do some searching. I was pleased that Ms. Hymel was thinking of ways to enhance the Belle River Center. I, for one, will be looking and searching for fun things for seniors.
The doors at both parks now have keypads with remote capability to adjust the thermostats and lights.
Right now, Debra Taghehchian, the nutrition educator for St. Mary and St. Martin parishes for LSU brings me a stack of Spice of the Month samples each month and these I share with Food for Senior people, Bingo and renters. This month the sample is Herbes de Provence. Last month it was Black Peppercorn and Lemon Pepper. Some are more popular than others but each little bag of spices is attached to a sheet of information and at least one recipe so they’re very popular.
Teche News’ Lower St. Martin correspondent, Linda Cooke, can be emailed at lindacooke1939@ gmail.com.
