With the spring blossoms come the allergies!

Holy geeze and sneeze and sniffle and oh my goodness, the car and everything has this yellow film on it.  And, I cannot breathe and my head feels like a pumpkin.  We're now enterning week 2 of the allergy fog with all sorts of Allegra and Zycam and thank goodness for my old standby Benadryl.  Just pray for rain.

Artichoke in the Garden!

So, fun and can't wait to see if they're tasty too!

The garden is blooming and we're through with the Organic Gardening classes on Saturday at the Methodist Church.  We had 11 the first class and dwindled down to 5 at the last class.  But one garden at a time, we're working on eliminating the poisons in the garden.  Here's one of my two blooming artichokes from the garden.  There are also sweet peas, roses and and more roses, and my tomatoes are setting fruit!  Once we have a rain, life will be sweeter than honey.

Off to see my dear friend, Miss Polly at the hospital.  She thought she had the cancer and they've been giving her chemotherapy and radiation, then they discovered she doesn't have cancer after all.  Not so good.

The Flowers are Blooming & the Birds are Chirping!

And, As Della Jean, the selling machine would say, "buckle up, the spring market is here!"  This is actually the very first Spring Market that I've experienced in Baton Rouge.  In 2006, when I moved here, it was all about "well, Ms. Margaret, you know about Katrina...", then in 2007, it was the beginning of the recession, followed by the prelude to our good 'ole friend Gustav, then the financial melt down. (Not necessarily in Baton Rouge) But, as we must remember, all real estate is LOCAL!, anyway 2008 was the year of paralysis...followed by another year of paralysis for 2009 coupled with the First Time Buyers Tax Credit, (not a Stellar idea in my opinion), but it skewed the marketplace here in Baton Rouge.  Once we lived through that, we began to see people peeking out of the covers as we saw an increase in activity in 2010, especially in the above $300,000 market, and especially in the Million Dollar marketplace where sold contracts doubled from like 12 in 2009 to 25 in 2010...

But life is not all about real estate and my precious Gabriel came to visit his Ms. Margaret this past weekend.  What a glorious baby.  Here he is with his blankey and his Monkey.  Liz brought him here on Saturday, before Miss P had arrived.  It was an action packed weekend and Liz left early on Monday morning to get back to Doctor her horse, Zoe's barbed wire wound.  It was great to be with my people.  The puppies behaved.

It's Mardi Gras!

It's storming outside but that doesn't keep the faithful away from the Mardi Gras madness in South Louisiana.  Schools out for the rest of the week for the parocial schools and most of the citizens are on holiday with their annual ski or beach trip.  I'm here in BR, showing property and playing catch up on paperwork. 

Coming from West Texas, I'd never really heard about Mardi Gras until I lived in Dallas and had a couple down the street, Roy and Ginger Enrico that had an annual FAT Tuesday pancake party.  Now I get it.  Fat Tuesday is the last time the Catholics can really party before they have to "give up" something for lent.  Lent being the forty days before Christ was crucified on the cross.  So, folks are party-ing pretty hard around here.  Roy and Ginger are now in Sacremento, CA. 

The Organic Gardening Classes start on Saturday morning down at the Methodist Church.  We have 7 signed up this time, but that's perfectly alright as it'll be more hands on.  I've got several transplants to get in the ground and numerous weeds to still pull before getting the garden in order.  It's a big job, but coming along just fine.  One of my Sunday School friends brought me some great starter plants and I'm about to put those in the ground.  Now is always a great time to garden.

And, tomorrow it's off to Ash Wednesday and then to office and appointments.

Ms. Nort's gone to Glory!

In the early 1990's I walked into the Ebby Highland Park Office one Monday morning for our weekly business meeting after a disastorous weekend.  I had found out that the current manager had worked on snagging one of my clients.  Now we're talking Big D., Highland Park, you really cannot get more Dallas than that.  Anyway, I turned around to see Bulldog and beside her was this prim little woman that looked just a bit dowdy with the widest grin I'd ever seen on such a sweet and dear soul.  And, she knew the scoop on virtually every piece of dirt in our marketplace or knew who to call.  The woman was absolutely brilliant.  Stubborn, proud and delightful, I loved this woman that was a dear friend.  She went to glory and the Lord on Monday.  It was her time and she suffered in so many ways and never complained.  She was always there for me and I love Carolyn and will miss her to the end of the days.  God Speed, sweetie.

P.S., Irene!

How could we forget the TOE!  Well, PTL, it's been since Saturday when she had her last dose of antibiotics and there's no "lick-lick" and Irene will even let me touch her foot.  It's HUGE. No toe amputation or more visits to the $cow! I love veterinarians!  Hooray for Antibiotics.

It's Mardi Gras Time!

And, Hidey Ho, what does Mardi Gras Time mean to you? 

Hidey Ho from the Orion Parade last Saturday night!  Here I am with my special people, John &
Shannon.  Great Parade.  Love the bands and their strutting guys and dolls.  Girl, the costumes make me blush!  They're rather "hootchie koo", if you know what I mean, and then they do the wiggle! in public!

I did get a huge amount of "throws", i.e., beads, cups and stuff.  Gave it all away to those who didn't have quite enough.

Mardi Gras to me, is very, very, very sweet and goo-ie stuff wrapped in a semi-flaky bread like pastry.  It's even called King Cake.  With a ton of colored sugar on top and a plastic baby inside.  This year, at my Race 'N Gravy group the African American man that got the baby, got a blackish baby.  The first one anyone at the table had ever seen.  Go figure.  It's also the parades (see above).

But, Mardi Gras is more than that.  They close down the schools next week.  Most local businesses are closed.  Of course, Real Estate Offices, like banks, close only on Mardi Gras Tuesday, the day before lent, when you have to give up something of importance in your life as a pentance to the Lord.  Go figure.

It's a great excuse for a huge month long party, because, the next day, Ash Wednesday, you'll see all those partiers at the local groceries and everyone's looking to see if you've got your Ashes!  It's south LA.  And, it's a bit like sitting around the table at Mi Cocina in Highland Park MiCocina's, sipping margaritas and looking over at the 6-top to see the mavens of Highland Park immediately after their botox appointments and they're having to hold their lips around the glass tops against their mouths as they awake from the anesthesia.  Another shot of America!  But, back to Mardi Gras.  Many people travel, many party and I think I'll plant by the light of the moon!  Above ground crops...