Gruene Hall (pronounced green)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let's do the two step across the hill country!

Dance halls with crooked worn floors, tables carved with generations of names, and rainbows of neon that reflect in the patina of time.

The walls are made of screen to let air circulate on sultry Texas nights.
Gruene--the oldest continually operating dance hall in Texas. 

it's carnival timmmmmme!! o, it's carnival time!

Mardi Gras!!

When I was a child we never missed a parade, and Mardi Gras was a time when all our families met to celebrate the day. Mama packed a picnic lunch, and we spent the day in downtown New Orleans and the French Quarter.

It has changed a lot now--so many more young rowdy tourists. However, the suburbs still retain the family aspect of carnival with many meeting to barbecue and watch parades that are all over the region.

I no longer have the stamina to endure large crowds, few bathroom facilities and no places to park so I will have to just remember the good times!!!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!!!

you say "ya-no", I say "la-no" said the birder next to me

courthouse in the distance

slab road across the river

the nest as it appeared from the highway

the courthouse

I can tell you're not from Texas said the birder next to me when we stopped along the Llano River to watch the bald eagles at their nest. We don't say it with a "y" in Texas!

O--sorry --I thought double "l's" were pronounced as a y in Spanish. I was so proud of that since I haven't remembered much of my Spanish since my years in college.

The photos show how dark and drizzly it was that day. The eagle was lagniappe. I had followed its progress on the internet mail lists, but was surprised to accidentally come upon it as we browsed down back roads.

We drove across one of the "slab" roads that cross the rock bottomed river and then on to the town itself, an iconic little Texas town with a courthouse at the center.

Grandma's rose

Illuminated by the morning light as it came through the kitchen window.

sandhill cranes

taken with my iPhone

While driving down an east Texas road, we spotted these large grey birds feeding in a field. My husband and I looked at each other and shouted, "What the heck were those?". We backed up and I was able to get a shot or two of these sandhill cranes with my iphone and lumix. 

Last fall we missed seeing them at Bosque del Apache in New Mexico, where they winter. But we did see several flocks in flight then.

We were amazed at their size and so happy that they stayed long enough for us to get good looks.

This shot is from the iphone, and I guess the camera focused on the fence posts, but I am happy to have the photos!

send on the martins!

A new bunch of gourds, another higher pole, reports of purple martins headed this way.

I hope we have better luck than last year when a Cooper's hawk plucked the first arrival off the gourd as he courted a mate.

No fledglings last year.

kingcake time

 

Beginning on King's Day, January 6, and continuing until Mardi Gras, kingcake parties are popular events. The plastic baby is hidden in the cake, and whoever gets the slice of cake that contains the baby must host the next party. I can remember my first party, and that my mom warned me not to get the baby. We didn't have the space or money to host a party.

The cakes started out quite simply as twisted bread dough with a little colored sugar sprinkled on top. However, now they have evolved into more complicated concoctions with fruit fillings, cream cheese, and icing. Bakeries through the region have developed their own styles and compete for favorite status.

No parties here, but we don't need a reason to buy a kingcake or two during the season, and then regret the extra pounds later.

dreaming of roses

 

 

After many weeks of much needed rain we had a break, and I was finally able to work in the garden.
Where to start? Fruit trees, hummingbird flowers, flowerbeds along the house, a patio garden, veggies?
Roses got the vote because they needed to be pruned back hard and fertilized since I have neglected them in recent years.

So with heavy gloves and layers of shirts with long sleeves, I plunged into the thorny mess and whacked away. It never seems right to be cutting so much off, but usually , and I said "usually" , they rebound with a great bloom in the spring. I fed them with all my magic nutrients, and now I am dreaming of fragrant, colorful clouds of roses.

New Orleans welcomes the Super Bowl

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super Bowl and Mardi Gras at the same time. It's going to be a great party!

Lots of good food, music, parades, a championship football game,  and folks from all over the world!

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Let the good times roll!

the bee tree

A hollow water oak----

 I paused to see if they were stirring. O, yes! they whispered when they buzzed pass my ear.

a curly tailed visitor (bobcat--felix rufus)

bounding across the pasture, stopped briefly to measure the ducks on the pond, out of reach..., he turned to stalk the woods, time for only one quick photo

ahh---a day filled with sunlight--

knocking on the door

Let me in! A couple of loud thumps on the door, so I opened the curtain, and there in the icy wind and rain was brother possum.
His pink feet are so neat--

a soggy landscape

ponds are overflowing

roadside ditches have disappeared and rivers are out of their banks

gardens are saturated and the flowers are battered

It's a soggy, dreary, cold picture, but mayhaws are bursting into bloom--spring and warmer temperatures can't be far away.

finches

A raspberry colored purple finch joined the goldfinches at the feeder for a few moments. The goldfinches are regular winter residents, but the purple finches are uncommon.

I think I need a new feeder--it's looking a bit shabby. However, the birds don't seem to mind.

more on the way--the rain gauge for one day!

Red sky at night

A surprisingly colorful sunset. As I ran out to catch the brief flash of color I was startled by the sound of splashing water and flapping of wings as the wood ducks that had settled on the pond for the night took off in surprise.

the poinsettia that didn't post

 

a little color in a bleak time of year

After the dinners are cooked, the presents unwrapped, and the house is still again, it's time to appreciate the poinsettia. It has been a long streak of cold, windy, overcast days. When the sun came through the dining room window for a few moments the poinsettia lit up from within and filled the bleak winter world with luminous color.

out my back door

An otter!

While drinking our morning coffee and watching our back pasture through the windows, we saw a sleek, small animal slithering across the field. It was so alien to what we expected to see that it took a moment to register--an otter!

We only have small ponds on our place, and no moving water. The nearest creek is about a mile to the south of us, but this fellow came from the north. He sniffed around the pond and bounded off to the wooded south and hopefully the creek.
I know this is not a very good photo--but it is the best I could manage in my excitement--somehow the camera refused to focus.

Happy New Year!

Black-eyed peas, rice, some kind of pork, and cabbage are the local tradition for New Year's Day dinner.
The pork is roasting, the peas and rice are ready--and the cabbage, "money", is on the way.

I wish everyone good health and prosperity!