Wild Life...
I live very close to the French Quarter, just ten minutes walk, and you might think that it's quite the urban setting where I live being so close to all the action. It's only a half mile to Canal Street from my house...
But I also live only five blocks from the Mississippi River and no matter where you live in New Orleans, well, you are still living in the midst of the big mother swamp. I live on relatively high ground, a place with a lot of history.
A History of the Faubourg Marigny Historic District
Faubourg Marigny is named for the plantation's last owner, Bernard Xavier Phillippe de Marigny de Mandeville (1785-1868), the son of Count Pierre Enguerrand Phillippe de Mandeville, Ecuyer Sieur de Marigny, Chevalier de St. Louis (1750-1800), and grandson of Antoine Jacques Phillippe de Marigny de Mandeville.
Marigny plantation was owned by one of the wealthiest families in the New World. Their plantation house stood near the foot of Elysian Fields and was described as being nearly twice the size of other plantation homes. Money was spent freely by its owners. Legend has it that Pierre poured 1000 silver dollars into the melting pot from which his plantation bell was cast to give it a sweeter tone. The bell today is in the Cabildo Museum, property of the Louisiana State Museum.
In 1798, Louis Phillippe, Duc d'Orleans (who became King Louis Phillippe in 1830) and his two brothers, the Duc de Montpesier and the Compte de Beaujolais, visited the plantation. They were lavishly entertained. One story recounts that special gold dinner ware was made for the occasion of the Duc d'Orleans visit and was thrown into the river afterward because no one would be worthy of using it again! The Marquis de Lafayette was another famous person who was a guest at the Marigny Plantation in 1825.
When Pierre died in 1800, his son, Bernard (then 15 years old), became one of, if not "the", richest man in the new world. He inherited 7 million dollars (remember, these were '1800' dollars--he would have been a billionaire in today's currency!).
Bernard went to London to finish his business education and returned to New Orleans in 1803 bringing a new game called "Craps" which he introduced to America. The game was initially called "Le Crapaud", meaning "the frog", because of the position the players assumed while playing it.
As early as the 1790's a few parcels of land in the Marigny Plantation had been developed, but in 1805 Bernard de Marigny began subdividing the plantation and Faubourg Marigny was created. New Orleans first Creole 'suburb', was settled primarily by Creoles, free men of color and new arrivals from Europe.
The Pontchartrain Railroad, the first railroad west of the Alleghenies (and second oldest in the country), was completed in 1831 running along Elysian Fields from the river to the resort area at Milneburg on Lake Pontchartrain. The line was nick named "Smoky Mary" because the train was fuelled by coal which belched smoke and left a sooty residue in its path. The rail was later converted to electric but was discontinued and the tracks removed in the 1950's.
Bernard de Marigny named the new streets of his faubourg including one he called "Craps" because of his passion for the game. The name was later changed to Burgundy since the street address was a source of constant embarrassment to the four churches located on that street.
This "history" is perhaps a bit high minded... it doesn't mention that Bernard lost a lot of his wealth at "craps" and had to subdivide the plantation to maintain his lifestyle.
But to get back to the swamp...
My back yard this time of year is full of life. The banana trees are starting to shoot up, sometimes as much as a foot in a day, and as it gets hotter and wetter, some of the vines grow as you watch. This year there seem to be an extraordinary amount of birds all singing all day long with the morning doves starting just before dawn and the rest of them carrying on for the rest of the day. Usually it gets quiet once it's dark. But not now....
The damn frogs start singing! You can just see the two of them in this pic. And they are singing songs of love. And they will not shut up!
Frog movie with sound. ....don't complain to me about how long it takes to load, I know how long you've waited for porn downloads...)
Actually, they are toads, not frogs, but they are annoying just the same. The reason the movie is dark is because there's another creature about this time of year, one that is much more than annoying, a small but very ferocious creature capable of destroying homes, buildings, trees. It's the Formosan Termite and when they swarm, the male and female nymphs mate in the air and then fall to the ground to start a new colony capable of eating a wall of your house in just a year. They are attracted to light, so we keep it dark during the week or so when they swarm. In the worst case, a swarm of Formosan termites looks like a heavy snow fall. Our native termites have an important function; to get rid of the dead wood and turn it into soil again, and if there were too many of them, the toads would probably eat the excess in order to have enough energy for more toad-fucking and gooy egg making. (The just gum up the pump in the pond sometimes!)
But the Formosan's are a new arrival, coming to this area just after WW Two, (this was a big Navy base...) and there just isn't much to hold them in check, except for the local entymologists who seem to be making some headway. They've been able to treat an area of the French Quarter and the termite population there has dropped by two thirds. This effort required an enormous amount of cooperation between private property owners and public entities, but amazingly it happened. (It has not happened in Paris where Formosan termites are destroying the old buildings at an incredible rate. Successful treatment requires everyone to treat their areas and apparently the Parisians have not been able to cooperate on this level.)
I used to be a little freaked out about all this ferocious, vibrant life outside my back door. It was much more intense than what I was used to in my life up north near the Canadian border; things grew much more slowly...
I kind of like it now, it's like having the Nature Channel live! Kind of fun to watch.
But you do not even want to hear about the nasty stinging Buck Moth Caterpillars... they are nasty and painful should you accidentally touch one, which is not hard to do because they are every-fucking-where right now, crawling all over everything!... hehe.)
Never mind.
durlx
I live very close to the French Quarter, just ten minutes walk, and you might think that it's quite the urban setting where I live being so close to all the action. It's only a half mile to Canal Street from my house...
But I also live only five blocks from the Mississippi River and no matter where you live in New Orleans, well, you are still living in the midst of the big mother swamp. I live on relatively high ground, a place with a lot of history.
A History of the Faubourg Marigny Historic District
Faubourg Marigny is named for the plantation's last owner, Bernard Xavier Phillippe de Marigny de Mandeville (1785-1868), the son of Count Pierre Enguerrand Phillippe de Mandeville, Ecuyer Sieur de Marigny, Chevalier de St. Louis (1750-1800), and grandson of Antoine Jacques Phillippe de Marigny de Mandeville.
Marigny plantation was owned by one of the wealthiest families in the New World. Their plantation house stood near the foot of Elysian Fields and was described as being nearly twice the size of other plantation homes. Money was spent freely by its owners. Legend has it that Pierre poured 1000 silver dollars into the melting pot from which his plantation bell was cast to give it a sweeter tone. The bell today is in the Cabildo Museum, property of the Louisiana State Museum.
In 1798, Louis Phillippe, Duc d'Orleans (who became King Louis Phillippe in 1830) and his two brothers, the Duc de Montpesier and the Compte de Beaujolais, visited the plantation. They were lavishly entertained. One story recounts that special gold dinner ware was made for the occasion of the Duc d'Orleans visit and was thrown into the river afterward because no one would be worthy of using it again! The Marquis de Lafayette was another famous person who was a guest at the Marigny Plantation in 1825.
When Pierre died in 1800, his son, Bernard (then 15 years old), became one of, if not "the", richest man in the new world. He inherited 7 million dollars (remember, these were '1800' dollars--he would have been a billionaire in today's currency!).
Bernard went to London to finish his business education and returned to New Orleans in 1803 bringing a new game called "Craps" which he introduced to America. The game was initially called "Le Crapaud", meaning "the frog", because of the position the players assumed while playing it.
As early as the 1790's a few parcels of land in the Marigny Plantation had been developed, but in 1805 Bernard de Marigny began subdividing the plantation and Faubourg Marigny was created. New Orleans first Creole 'suburb', was settled primarily by Creoles, free men of color and new arrivals from Europe.
The Pontchartrain Railroad, the first railroad west of the Alleghenies (and second oldest in the country), was completed in 1831 running along Elysian Fields from the river to the resort area at Milneburg on Lake Pontchartrain. The line was nick named "Smoky Mary" because the train was fuelled by coal which belched smoke and left a sooty residue in its path. The rail was later converted to electric but was discontinued and the tracks removed in the 1950's.
Bernard de Marigny named the new streets of his faubourg including one he called "Craps" because of his passion for the game. The name was later changed to Burgundy since the street address was a source of constant embarrassment to the four churches located on that street.
This "history" is perhaps a bit high minded... it doesn't mention that Bernard lost a lot of his wealth at "craps" and had to subdivide the plantation to maintain his lifestyle.
But to get back to the swamp...
My back yard this time of year is full of life. The banana trees are starting to shoot up, sometimes as much as a foot in a day, and as it gets hotter and wetter, some of the vines grow as you watch. This year there seem to be an extraordinary amount of birds all singing all day long with the morning doves starting just before dawn and the rest of them carrying on for the rest of the day. Usually it gets quiet once it's dark. But not now....
The damn frogs start singing! You can just see the two of them in this pic. And they are singing songs of love. And they will not shut up!
Frog movie with sound. ....don't complain to me about how long it takes to load, I know how long you've waited for porn downloads...)
Actually, they are toads, not frogs, but they are annoying just the same. The reason the movie is dark is because there's another creature about this time of year, one that is much more than annoying, a small but very ferocious creature capable of destroying homes, buildings, trees. It's the Formosan Termite and when they swarm, the male and female nymphs mate in the air and then fall to the ground to start a new colony capable of eating a wall of your house in just a year. They are attracted to light, so we keep it dark during the week or so when they swarm. In the worst case, a swarm of Formosan termites looks like a heavy snow fall. Our native termites have an important function; to get rid of the dead wood and turn it into soil again, and if there were too many of them, the toads would probably eat the excess in order to have enough energy for more toad-fucking and gooy egg making. (The just gum up the pump in the pond sometimes!)
But the Formosan's are a new arrival, coming to this area just after WW Two, (this was a big Navy base...) and there just isn't much to hold them in check, except for the local entymologists who seem to be making some headway. They've been able to treat an area of the French Quarter and the termite population there has dropped by two thirds. This effort required an enormous amount of cooperation between private property owners and public entities, but amazingly it happened. (It has not happened in Paris where Formosan termites are destroying the old buildings at an incredible rate. Successful treatment requires everyone to treat their areas and apparently the Parisians have not been able to cooperate on this level.)
I used to be a little freaked out about all this ferocious, vibrant life outside my back door. It was much more intense than what I was used to in my life up north near the Canadian border; things grew much more slowly...
I kind of like it now, it's like having the Nature Channel live! Kind of fun to watch.
But you do not even want to hear about the nasty stinging Buck Moth Caterpillars... they are nasty and painful should you accidentally touch one, which is not hard to do because they are every-fucking-where right now, crawling all over everything!... hehe.)
Never mind.
durlx
posted by durlx at 5/08/2004 01:21:00 AM
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