Our Fair

Just in time for cooler weather, here are some of the Photos from the Fair!

The Chicken Lady

Ansel Adams I’m not.

at the fair

But what can I say? I don’t live anywhere near Yosemite and all it’s natural splendor (though I’d love to spend as much time there as Ansel Adams did.)

But I do live here, where we have great fairs!

at the fair

It was a lot of fun.

at the fair

We all had a beautiful time.

at the fair

I’ll have to reorganize the gallery at some point in the coming week; I wanted to post the pictures for our fair workers, but I’m sure someone will say “What in the world is my picture doing on the internet!?”. But seriously, it’s 2011 already!

So head on over and check out our fair. It’s a great blessing to the community here, and worlds of fun!

A View From the Natchez

Riverboat view of New Orleans

The Natchez is a riverboat docked perpetually in New Orleans, which goes out daily (and nightly) on jazz cruises. This evening the Catholic Foundation hosted an appreciation dinner for Priests aboard the Natchez. It was a great time.

Many great photos, but for now the above sums up the river view of the city from ’round the bend, and the night beckons for a good night’s sleep. Dark, cloudy, windy, and dropping a good 30 degrees before the morning. A wonderful start to the Fall season!

Katrina Anniversary

Yesterday was the Sixth Anniversary of Katrina, and it’s a sign of great improvement that I didn’t get around to posting about it until well, until today.

But, I’ve never gotten around to doing anything with these photos, so I decided to start posting them here. I know you’ll love them!

Er.. Hello? Helllooo…?

They’ll make it into a separate page, because why be maudlin? But it’s definitely a part of my early Priesthood, and a part of history. And I have things to say about that experience.

I have things to say about a lot of things that have happened along the way, as a matter of fact. Just you wait, I’m telling you.

Read more

Splendor In the Spillway

splendor

We have here some overly photoshopped snaps (forgive me, it’s a learning curve thing; I was playing around with ‘camera raw’ and ‘luminance’ and, well, it’s definitely a different look;) I took the other day while driving through the Spillway. It’s always interesting to see how high the water is getting in the spring.

Perhpas I’ve got a low threshold of excitement in my life.

More info on the Bonnet Carre Spillway here and here.

The Spillway

C’mon, admit it. It’s interesting!

splashes of water

Most of the spillway has concrete walls this high. The river is right at this level at the moment, you can see water splashing over the top and down the middle where this board is missing. Behind you can see a sliver of a large blue and red ship that’s out in the river.

flowing waters

Towards both sides of the spillway the concrete is lower, and the river is already flowing in through the wooden planks. It’s a lot more water than it looks like.

an embarrasingly overly photoshopped photo

I don’t know what I was thinking while I was playing with photoshop. And I don’t know what convinced me I had the time to play with photoshop.

But, we see here the water flowing towards the road, where it goes under in small rivulets.

raging waters

Small rivulets that pack a mean punch. I’ve seen guys on the other side of the road where these come out, holding fishing nets to catch some of the many, many fish that flow downriver each year and end up swimming through the spillway. It’s unbelievable how many fish they get doing that. Stunning, I tell you!

The dirt roads into the interior are starting to be closed off. These birds don’t seem to mind a bit.

It can get dramatic.

These streams pick up some steam as they head over to the lake.

A big question after Katrina was, why they didn’t open the spillway to let the water flow out of the lake?

The lake is lower than the river! Otherwise the spillway wouldn’t work very well.

A splendid oak tree in the spillway. It's definitely a water oak.

A water oak… lovely and serene. The spillway’s a lively place. And it’s about to see a lot more water.

Oh, and here’re some great views from an experienced photographer:

Sigh.

The Rev. Kenneth Allen