Summer

Well, yes, I know we are slack about updating the blog - sorry. Lots been going on though. Boris and I had a lovely visit to NZ - Boris spent most of his time on the farm, it was hard to prise him away (the photo might give some indication as to why!)

It was great to spend some time with Tony and Kath - Tony has been very busy on the house and done a fantastic job completely renovating the upstairs bathroom (one job amongst many he has completed) he may well be working harder now he is retired than before... Just before I left one of the big trees in their back garden blew over which caused a bit of excitement.

As soon as I got back Rod and I took a group of students to New Orleans. What an interesting place it is. We had seen Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke" by means of preparation (highly recommended viewing by the way, but make sure you have a box of tissues handy).

We did all the obligatory things such as eating beignet (which Rod is attempting to do in the photo without getting icing sugar everywhere), hanging around the French Quarter eating oysters, alligator sausage and gumbo. (A lot of eating going on...)

We walked around the Garden District (very elegant) but also drove around the 9th Ward which was an area heavily hit by flooding post-Katrina. That was very sobering. The markings made by searchers are still on many of the remaining homes and the place is really devastated.



The site that the students are using for their design project is not in New Orleans but in Plaquemine's Parish, right at the end of the road where the Mississippi forms a delta which fans out into the gulf of Mexico. The area is comprised of wetlands which are the main defense against storm surge for New Orleans. Unfortunately the oil industry has riddled the area with canals which have caused massive erosion. If things don't improve rapidly then New Orleans is in real trouble. It is a fascinating area - it is also sinking due to the extraction of oil, so all in all, lots for the students to work on. The place is called Venice - how appropriate given that the place is now more water than land - at high tide even the road is flooded. The landscape is unmistakenly one of oil.


I had no idea there were so many oil wells - there are 3,500 just off the coast of Louisiana alone. There are over 27,000 abandoned wells in the Gulf, many of which are not properly sealed. It looks like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was an accident waiting to happen. On the way home we went to look at some oil - we had no trouble finding it (spot the clean-up crews). It is everywhere - brown sticky blobs all over the beaches. The water was also a nasty black colour - I guess because the oil is mixed with dispersants. No way I'd swim there!

Back in Auburn it is hot and dry - It hasn't rained properly for weeks. Boris is off on camp, the Smoky Mountain Adventure Camp no less. We had a letter from him saying he was having a great time and had lost track of time. It also pleaded for us to send some food (quote: the food is not that great) and some air freshener - apparently his cabin smells of sweat (this from someone who said he wasn't going to bother taking many showers while at camp...)