love me some muppets

Nothing like the gang to brighten the day!

a nap, not an invitation

I decided to take a nap, just a quick one. So I laid down on my bed -- BY MYSELF. When I woke, I had company. All four cats and my cairn terrier were in bed with me. The cairn had the good grace to be embarrassed and jumped off immediately. The cats, on the other hand, had the audacity to glare at me when I evidently disturbed them getting out of bed. I don't think any of them have gotten the message that this is my castle not theirs.

heavenly beauty

I love summer sunsets! I'm particularly thrilled having this photo opportunity appear with such regularity and right outside my door. I just grab my grab my camera and start shooting. This is from the front of the house to the west - a huge watercolor of cloud layers.

It's even gorgeous in the back to the east.

This was on a drive home up in the hills. I kept stopping at the top of each hill to snap a few shots. Took me a while to get home. The sight is overwhelming. The entire horizon is brilliant layers of color on color.

... and this is what it usually looks like just as the sun begins to wink out.

Lately I haven't had this treat. Instead of the slow beautiful end to a hot, sunny day, we've had heavily overcast skies of the last couple of weeks thanks to the rains of the past couple of weeks. The days seems to just blink out without the show, but that's okay, we were desperate for rain.

el destructo

See this creature. Isn't he cute, adorable, beautiful, graceful . . . destructive?

Several days ago I woke up to something rubbing on the outside wall of my house. I cautiously followed the noise to the porch and the almost three foot horns and the tops of his head were passing by my windows. I ran for my camera and by the time I came back he was across the road.

El destructo is a blackbuck, not native to Texas, but to India. Trophy hunters pay big bucks for the privilege of shooting these here and not having to go to India, but not on this ranch. A pretty large herd exists in this development along with a substantial number of axis deer (another Indian species) and a smaller number of whitetails.

I'm losing the year-round battle trying to keep this creature from rubbing his horns on my shrubbery and small trees. I have used 'Deer Off' on my shrubbery and small trees. It stinks so bad a skunk wouldn't get near. Even when I'm careful to stand downwind, I still manage to carry the stink inside and have to take a shower immediately. But when this guy and his buddies have the urge to impress the females with shiny horns, the stink doesn't bother them.

I'm all for shipping them back to India, a most impractical idea. *SIGH* Guess I'll continue the spraying and showering.

I swear he's smiling

Visiting my country friends yesterday, my host broke into my creative time by announcing his dragonfly model was here. Grabbing my camera, I went out shooting. My host had already had some gorgeous photos printed of this creature and I was thrilled to have a chance to get a few shots.

The dragonfly was very cooperative and seemed to have an innate sense of his best side. I'm convinced he knew and enjoyed the photo shoot.

See . . . he's smiling.

natural beauty

I love dusk clouds. As the sun goes down on the horizon, the rays of the lowering sun hit the clouds with this beautiful pink on the edges. The rest of the cloud deepens to a rich blue gray. The light casts a golden glow on the landscape. Even in the east, the clouds get the same pink lining. What a great way to end a day!

This is what greeted me when I cracked open an egg for breakfast. Over 50 years and I have never seen a double yolk. Fascinating. If it had been fertilized, would the chicks have survived? Would there actually been two? Seems the shell would have been unforgiving...

My next thought was, what's the folklore surrounding the double yolk. I discovered it depended on which folklore. Several cultures believed the double yolk meant pregnancy. (Definitely not me!) For another, it portended bad luck, for another good luck. Yet another, it meant a wedding and there was a reference to a death in the family.

For me, at least for breakfast, it meant good pancakes.