Merry Christmas!

May the joy that is Christmas be yours throughout the year!

gifts of Christmas

The glowing blooms of my Christmas cacti and bottles of California wine and olive oil.  Bright spots in the dark days of winter.

mountain bluebird

A female mountain bluebird--must have taken a wrong turn to winter in southeast Louisiana amongst piles of raw materials at an asphalt plant.

#174 on my year list

feather skies

a weather change on the way

air show

wingspan of B-29



On a bright cool October day we recently enjoyed a trip to the lakefront in New Orleans to see the WW2 airshow.
The aircraft are amazing, kept in great shape and still flying. Visitors can still ride them for a fee, which seemed rather steep until we were told it takes about $10,000 a month to keep the B-29 maintained and flying.
Business was brisk and there were many customers waiting for their chance to experience these old warriors.

Why? you many wonder would a old chick like me be interested in old planes?

I guess my interest came from raising 2 sons who were besotted with them and their history. Still hanging on the ceilings of their old bedrooms are models of the planes in the photos above. We often traveled to airshows then and watched history documentaries for hours.

Of course, in my generation we were raised to admire the men who flew those planes at great peril to save the world . Some of them were family and friends of our parents.

It was a beautiful day--full of history and memories, both  bitter and sweet.

Marfa, Giant, Paisano Hotel

The west Texas town of Marfa is a very small town in  a remote part of Texas. The movie Giant was filmed here more than 50 years ago.
The cast and crew of the movie lodged at the grand (for its day) Paisano Hotel.

The Paisano is still very nice and maintained as a luxury hotel for those who like desert scenery and hard to get to places.

The movie was premiered at the Palace Theater which is across from the hotel. All that is left of any of the movie sets is in the last photo---the posts for Jett Rink's ranch sign and the wind mill. 

marfa lights

While in west Texas,  we couldn't pass the opportunity to view the Marfa lights.

Marfa is a small community situated in very remote west Texas. The skies are big and one can see for very long distances. There are very few towns and the skies are dark at night making for great star gazing.

It was a beautiful evening when we drove down the empty highway admiring the vivid sunset and anticipating the Marfa lights. When we arrived, I was surprised to find the attractive and comfortable viewing area created especially for observing the lights.

We sat with a few other people who showed up. No conversation--just the dark and big spaces. A light twinkled on in the distance, then another--they bobbled, flared, changed color , sometimes combined or split, faded out and then others took their place. I really didn't think I would see so many.
Some may be lights on a distant highway, but those that were above the horizon or on mountains were unexplainable.

I don't know what they are--electrical phenomena that occur because of the geology of the land? certainly not extraterrestrials --
but magical they seemed to me in that very far corner of Texas on an autumn evening.

west Texas highways

A quick trip to west Texas---buggy windshields and empty highways.

I loved it!

a foggy morning

Foggy mornings.

Weather continues warm and the farmer is still making hay.

Hoping for some cooler weather later this week.

Venus and Jupiter

Tempted by the dazzling dawn display of two planets kissing, I braved the West Nile carrying mosquitos and snapped a quick photo with my iphone.

I managed to see 2 Perseid meteors while I waited and heard the great horned owls on the north end of the place.

Fair reward for the risk.