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.

Texas critters

This is a striped back scorpion.

It was crawling up my calf late last night while I was enjoying movie night.

This is the actual one, only after I killed it and one of the cats played with it. I was surprised how calm I was when I flicked it off my leg. For the next half hour, I was doing an "OMG" dance around the bedroom trying to find it and visualizing a nest of them under my bed. When I did find it scurrying around the baseboards, I squealed and slapped it with my sandal, which brought my terrier to the rescue.

Pushing the eager terrier back and slamming the critter with my sandal, I wondered why not one of my cats had alerted me to it. Why else would you have multiple, critter-killing kitties if not to take care of the creepy crawlies? Certainly not for the joys of litterbox cleaning, shedding hair clumps and hairballs?

It took me a while to overcome my fear and crawl into bed. This was only after tucking the sheets in tightly and then tearing them up just making sure no scorpion had taken refuge there.

I've heard some people keep scorpions as pets. Not me. Few critters make me cringe and scorpions are one of them. They look prehistorically dangerous and I have experience in how frightfully painful the sting is. Yet now as I sit here recalling the experience, I wished I hadn't panicked, had captured the scorpion alive and taken it outside - far from the house - and released it.

Some would think that silly, but as scary as they are, they do eat bugs. They do serve a purpose, just not in my house.

On the other hand, I have yet to find any redeemable quality for fire ants. I take vengeful glee in kicking a nest mound and dropping fire ant killing stuff on it. (I've learned never to kick a fire ant mound twice.) Since I moved to central Texas 10 years ago, spring has always been heralded by fire ant bites. This year they are harder to locate because of the dryness, but they are here. I have the festering, itching bites to prove it.

reminder

A mourning dove was just outside my window on the ground. So I took a photo. Not because the bird was so close, but because it reminds me of a faraway friend who decided when she sees these doves, she says "chocolate." We would laugh deciding that the dove is a sign we should have chocolate. So I took the photo -- to remind me of a friend.

it's the little things

I love the unexpected. I was amazed how healthy my silverado sage was staying in this drought. I was even more amazed when I walked out this morning and my row of sage had burst out in blossoms. Honeybees busily gathered nectar. Beautiful.

ranch rodeo

I may live in Texas, but I'm not a fan of rodeos.

But a few days ago, a friend called and asked me to accompany her to a ranch rodeo in celebration of the National Day of the American Cowboy. I had never been to a ranch rodeo and it was supposed to be different.

It was. Interesting. Slow. Amusing. Dusty.

The cowboys and cowgirls (some teams were mixed and one was all women) formed teams of about five members and participated in the events of their choice: steer-tying, branding, stampede, 2 rescue races, wild horse ride. The all-female team won the trophy.

In the steer tying event, the team had to head (lasso the horns or neck) and heel (lasso the back legs or leg) an about 800-pound steer, while other team members had to bring the take the uncooperative steer to the ground and immobilize him by tying three legs together.

The header ropes the horns and turns the cow so the heeler can lasso the hind legs.

This was the point the steer turned and bumped hard into the heeler's horse. The horse just absorbed the shock and kept after the steer. I'm not sure the first heeler was successful, but notice that a second team member is ready just in case.

My favorite thing to watch were the horses: how athletic they were, how well trained, how they acted when their rider just left them. One riderless horse actually helped herd a steer into the holding pens, while another showed his displeasure of no saddle pad by bucking with his rider across the arena. Oh, the cowboys were nice eye candy too.

A captured steer signaled the others to finish the job.


The steer got its revenge for the treatment. This one chased one of the unhorsed cowboys up the arena fence before the officials could get it back into the pens. Someone sitting nearby commented, "Ya gotta watch out for those Brahmas, they don't forget."

One event was call a rescue, but I don't think I would want to be rescued this way. But it was exciting. The participants could choose a shovel or a cowhide to be pulled behind a horse to the other side of the arena where the pulled person was dumped off and another jumped on and was dragged racing across the arena. Several lost their hold on the shovel and were dragged across the finish. (As long as you were dragged across the line, you were still in the game.) OUCH.

The thing I will remember most about the event was that I kept missing the significant photo moments. It's been so long since I've had a good camera, I keep forgetting to put it up to my face. Maybe next time . . .

you get what you need

This is my cousin.

He's ten years younger than I am. He used to pull my ponytail and run away. He was an irritating little boy.

I haven't seen him since 1992 when I was living in California. About three days ago he calls and he's going to be in the area and asks to stay overnight. Sure no problem, I tell him.

Now you have to understand that I am selling my house and just finalized things with the realtor. My yard desperately needed sprucing up. I emphasize DESPERATE. It has to be done. It is 100 degrees. I HATE this kind of yard work. And my cousin calls.

Without me mentioning anything more than the house is on the market, he INSISTS on getting the yard in shape. Won't take no as an answer. He knows better than I do how to spruce. Is he not a gift from the Universe? When I protest, he insists I accept as a gift from him. This job that was going to take me all weekend if not more and we will finish up tomorrow morning after two hours work tonight.

That's one.

Two.

I was facing having to get a plumber and electrician in to replace a fan with a light and replaces the faucets in the master bath at the realtor's suggestion. Expensive. Two nights ago after getting the faucets and light, my neighbor and I are having a chat in the front yard. I didn't mention my purchase or need. He's coveting my riding lawnmower. I tell him I won't be taking it with me. He asks about a work trade. To make a long story short, he's a plumber and can do electrical work. So tomorrow that gets done, all before the realtor really settles into showing the house.

Coincidence? Yes. Synchronicity? Definitely. Right time, right place and I didn't have to directly ask either person, it just came out.

IT RAINED!!!!

Amazing how exciting a bit of water falling from the sky can make one positively giddy. Giddy enough to try to take photos from inside a car (didn't turn out, what a surprise). Giddy enough to squeal with delight as one is trying to unpack the car in the midst of a deluge.

And then to see this in my backyard after the hard, quick rain:

It may not have been enough to relieve drought conditions, but it was nice being reminded what a thunderstorm is like. And how awesome is it to see a rainbow in your backyard?

struggle and hope

If you don't know this by now, it is HOT in Texas. Triple digit temperatures and it is supposed to be 2-3 degrees less in the Hill Country. It's not. This is what my backyard looks like:
Ten years I have been here and it's never been this dry.

So today I was sneaking buckets of water to my poor burr oak (water restrictions) and the pampas grass in the far corner. The oak has sprouted new branches and leaves at the bottom.

As I was crunching my way across the dry brittle grass I came upon this:

A bright spot amidst all the brown.

swimming with equines

It's HOT HOT HOT HOT in Texas. On a fine HOT day nothing is better than taking a bunch of horses and their people to a river and going swimming.

For those of us who love being in the company of these gentle, sensitive animals, this is one of the ultimate enjoyments. While they can't tell us outright whether they enjoy it or not, the horses went in very willingly. The horses who were experiencing this for the first time were introduced slowly and in a short time were willing to swim.

Like kids in a pool, several horses decided to see how big a splash they could make.

a dog's life

Part schnauzer and west highland white, Sassy is absolutely convinced that every time I get up something exciting is going to happen. She dances on her toes, runs excitedly in front of me and usually slides into a cat or a wall. No matter how utterly boring my destination is (bathroom, kitchen, back room, front door, etc.), she is absolutely convinced it holds the promise of being the most exciting thing that could ever happen.

When it turns out I'm just doing something routine, she shows no disappointment and settles in next to me. It starts all over again in the same intensity as soon as I start to move again.

Wouldn't it be nice if we all had that expectation for the moment? That something exciting was possibly going to happen right now? Would we be that ready to enjoy it?

And then there's Wiz, my cairn. Older and wiser, he waits to see what I'll do. Usually his excitement level depends on what shoe I put on: Athletic shoe = extreme excitement, possible walk; good shoes = despondency, obviously going somewhere dogs aren't allowed; paddock boots = restrained excitement and hopeful tail wagging, possible barn visit.

Between the two of them, I think Sassy has the right idea. Excited about the possibilities, Sassy readily accepts the outcome and then waits to enjoy the next moment.