Unintentional Art in New Orleans

Columbus Street, New Orleans, facing riverside

I noticed something on Columbus street the other day when I was walking the dog.  I didn't recognize it at first, but I kept looking at it and kept looking at it until I finally realized what it was that set my New Orleans-sense tingling.  It was perfect.

Plantation home, Columbus Street New Orleans

It was a couple of houses past my favorite house on the block between North Miro and North Galvez Streets.  My gaze kept being drawn back to the space between parked cars and I couldn't figure out why.  Then it hit me.

A tree grows in the 7th Ward

All of our guests this week are New Englanders.  We don't know why, but we have something in common to talk about if nobody wants to talk about New Orleans.  I was talking to the fellow from New Hampshire, and he was going to walk around the neighborhood to take pictures.  I told him about the new tree on Columbus Street.

Art or life?

It's a live oak sapling planted inside the hollow stump of a dead live oak.  The trunk is hollow from termite damage.  Somebody sawed off the stump nicely, making it obvious that intentional care had been taken in the planting of this new tree in place of the old.  It's like something a conceptual artist gets commissioned to put in a public park.  Here, it's just part of the 7th Ward landscape.  You never know what you'll find when you turn a corner in New Orleans.  

I was thinking that while the dog and I walked around our neighborhood:

Colorful Creole homes, New Orleans, LA

I always appreciate the orange door on the periwinkle house, but I'll always be a sucker for the facade of the yellow house.

House on North Prieur Street

Luckily there are street signs everywhere in this neighborhood.  These houses are on the corner of North Prieur and Columbus Streets, two blocks down from the tree.

Things are safer than they appear in New Orleans

A recent guest, one from Alaska no less, sent us a link to his blog today.  He wrote that he wasn't sure if we'd be interested in a guest's reaction to New Orleans, but, if so, he thought he would share a link to his blog.  We are always interested.  If anyone else wants to share a link, we'll be happy to read it.

This is what it's like to live in New Orleans.  I asked our guest if we could share his link here.  He said he didn't mind at all.  Without further ado: here is the link.  I know exactly what he means.

A votre santé,
La Belle Esplanade bed and breakfast.