Here in South Louisiana, we’ve been celebrating Mardi Gras since Friday. Now that Ash Wednesday is upon us, the revelry is over, but we wanted to share a few pics taken throughout the weekend in Lafayette and out in the country in Eunice.

I know many of you are wondering about the status of the recording of Flannery O’Connor found at UL Lafayette in late January. Last night was my final class with Dr. Mary Ann Wilson, and she played a few minutes of the recording for us to hear.

At Food Blog South in Birmingham last month, I stopped by the Zatarain’s booth to say “hey” from Louisiana. I asked the girl who was manning the booth what the New Orleans food company had planned for Mardi Gras. She told me they had created a radio station on Pandora especially for Mardi Gras this year.

Last weekend, the Deep South crew headed to Birmingham for the second-annual Food Blog South. With promises of delectable Southern food (there’s a huge pic of okra on their homepage) and guests like Virginia Willis and Helene Dujardin, the event drew close to 200 attendees this year.

Professor of English with a focus on Southern lit and women’s studies at UL Lafayette, Dr. Mary Ann Wilson was cleaning out her office earlier this month and came across an old audio reel labeled “Flannery O’Connor.” It turned out to be a recording of the author’s 1962 lecture at the university and is one of the few of her voice that exists.