no more peach ice cream

The utensils are clean and neatly stored. There is no sweet fragrance of vanilla and fresh peaches wafting in the air.
All is quiet and still.
Where's the lady that made the best peach ice cream I ever tasted? Alas, she has found a job at the bank and doesn't need to do cooking any more. I understand, cooking is a hard job.
But I will miss my trips to the peach farm to buy peaches and ice cream for a treat on a hot, Texas summer day.

Mowing around flowers

Sometimes you just have to mow around flowers..........

Mother's Day

Remembering my mom today--that's her holding me in my first photo. She was wonderful in so many ways, but could be fierce in others that are best forgotten.
She was an exceptional cook and homemaker, and outstanding nurse whenever we were ill.
I think of her everyday and appreciate the nurturing that got me through a sickly childhood.

The second is me and my two sons. What a great journey it has been ...motherhood!
So much learning for us all.

a last bit of spring

The great rush of spring is about over. A very heavy rain event yesterday beat the roses to pieces. It was needed though because it had been 3 weeks since we had a shower of any kind.

Things are very green and jungley now. Vines are hanging from the trees and the grass is growing rapidly. Migration of birds has slowed, though I did see a  yellow warbler today as he picked through the pecan blooms. Other song birds are feeding babies, and I didn't get a martin colony again this year. I think raccoons frightened them off one night. So I will lower the houses and tape the entrances to keep out the starlings and sparrows.

A few photos collected as spring unfolded:

a wild Louisiana iris
a wild pink primrose
my favorite geranium
the roses as they peaked
and the red bud tree as it reached full bloom

a visit with jaws

An obligatory photo op with jaws. It didn't hurt much.

the orchid

Loving the bloom on this orchid. Especially since I bought it at the supermarked last year,  nursed through the winter and coaxed it to bloom again.

a few Texas birds

A few days in Texas gave me an opportunity to add more birds to the year list.

male turkeys
ladder backed woodpecker
male lesser goldfinch
lark sparrow
blue winged teal
female ring necked duck
and the last two of a Lincoln's sparrow

I saw others, but didn't get photos--one was the roadrunner-- he was out there in a flash, beep, beep!

watching for manatees

Back to my favorite lake edge--it was a perfect spring day--no wind, no clouds, lots of sun, but, alas, not many birds either.

I was delighted to find the manatee area signs tacked up on all the posts. Someone must have sighted them. They are often reported in the warm brackish waters of the marshes around the lake in winter. Sadly, I didn't see one, but I introduced my grandson to gull watching and talked to him about how wonderful it would be to see manatees!

looking for birds

I went birding from the car since I still have the persistent cough and not sleeping at night.

It was midday and the sun was high overhead, not a good time for taking photos, but I added a few birds to my list. The pectoral sandpipers are a life bird.

The tides were low. Mudflats and exposed grass offered opportunities for waders and shorebirds, but there were very few present. The barn swallows are the first for the year,

plum blossom clouds

Wafting incense to heaven

first ruby-throated hummingbird arrived!

3 in 1

It still amazes me every spring! The camellia, Betty Sheffield, manages to produce a rainbow of blooms on the same bush. It is not grafted. These are sports often coming out on the same branch.

toasting our way through the French Quarter

Raining again and chilly, the flu virus still has its claws in me, and I am spending time looking at photos of brighter happier days.

After Hurricane Katrina, we spent a lot of time in New Orleans wandering the Quarter and patronizing a few restaurants and bars that were struggling to survive in the devastation. It was our duty to spend some money there.

I took a lot of photos at the time because I was not certain that the city was coming back. It was a feeling of "absorb as much as you can now".
Looking back, I am missing a lot in resolution, but I am glad that I have the photos.

looking up

It's not raining today, but overcast and a little warmer. Yesterday was almost as bad as it can get here, especially for this time of the year. The temperature remained at freezing, a steady drizzle came down all day coating the trees in silvery ice, and the wind blew.
In New Orleans, all the Mardi Gras revelry was quickly washed away--the papier mache floats, the painted faces, naked and nearly naked bodies--vanished quickly in the harsh conditions.
Most of yesterday's parades raced quickly down near empty streets in a hurry to get back to cover.

My last 2 weeks have been spent in an altered state brought on by a cold/flu/respiratory virus. I haven't been able to sort it out. I only know that I have almost coughed my lungs up, but still have phlegm and rattles that won't go away. Someone mentioned they had it, and it took 5 weeks to clear up. Things are feeling better today, but the deep cough is still there.

My son took the photo of me and the gulls a few weeks ago. I was throwing bits of cheese puffs--something I don't usually do. I feed wild birds at home, but usually like to bird watch without props. The experience was thrilling though. The gulls could hover a few feet away, and even in a strong wind, pluck the particles from the air as I threw them. It brought them so near and gave me an opportunity to observe their beautiful flight and ability to maneuver.

Mardi Gras icicles

Tied the record for coldest temperature on a Mardi Gras.

mardi gras

When I was a child we celebrated Mardi Gras every year. My mom made costumes for us, and we prepared food to take with us to parades. Morning started with homemade beignets dusted with powdered sugar, and then she prepared crispy fried chicken to pack for lunch.

In the weeks before Mardi Gras schools would have parades through the streets--- locals and parents would line the streets to see our costumes and small floats made out of shoe boxes.

One parade began right in front of our home in an old part of New Orleans. It was so exciting to see the bands assemble and the riders climb the floats with their "throws" for the ride. At that time, mules were still used to pull the floats which were very often garbage buggies covered in finery.

Later in the day we would migrate to downtown New Orleans to see Zulu (the black parade) and then Rex, the king of it all. Thousands of people from all over the world wandered the streets to costume and watch the parades. When I was young the highlight was to meet up with various cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents to share the day.

There was always nudity and naughty behavior, but usually it was confined to the French Quarter. Most of our time was spent in areas where families set up tables and visited.

Carnival is still very popular and a lot more glitzy and professional now. It grows every year, but because I live a 2 hour drive away, have no secure place to park our car, or convenient rest room available ( and truthfully, I am not as spry I used to be),  I no longer participate.

But I love remembering the times when we went to the Mardi Gras!