The Wild West of Texas

We saw so many different kinds of animals and birds during our little weekend in the country.
Here is our shed.



The very first sign of wildlife we saw was in our own sink, where this guy was waiting patiently in the sink for help going home from the party.

 

We travelled around in a royal limo, inspecting the property and looking for road runners.

Part of the duties was to post signs and inspect the fence.

That's a good days work done!

It was time to sit back and look for animals. One of the first ones we saw ws this hawk.

We also saw this guy ...

 

 

The first day I made sure to get up early so I could watch the "deer" feeder go off. Out there, just about everybody has a deer feeder which shoots a small amount of corn off at a time you get to set. We were told our time was 7:28 in the morning, so about 6:40 we started intensely watching out the window so we wouldn't miss the event of the day. After about an hour of intense scrutiny we decided we must have misheard and the time was probably really 8:30, so we watched intensely again, but finally we decided we had better go check things out. We did a test and got thoroughly pelted with the hard kernels of corn and only then discovered that the timer was set for PM instead of AM.

It didn't matter so much since we had done a test discharge and eventually the animals figured out that there was food available. 

Of course the first thing we saw was a stampede of invasive European domestic pigs.

 

The little ones hung back until they were sure it was okay, and then they sped in too.

 

later the pigs left and the deer came. 

On a walk we got to see this little gut. (Close up below)

 

What follows (in no particular order) are other things we saw during our visit.

This quail was a bit camera shy.

I know my sister won't love this picture - especially since she isn't smiling, but I just love her "look" and the way her snake boots match her shirt. I had to put the picture up (at least until she makes me take it down.)

The organic design of this thicket fascinated me.

 Classic deer pose.

 

This was the first time I'd ever seen a tarantula in the wild.

 

And this was what I was most hoping to see. It took a little patience and a lot of  shots, but I finally got a decent image of a road runner.

 

A Trip to George West

My sister has some property out in the west, so we sent a lovely time out in the brambles and scrub watching wildlife and enjoying time together.

The drive from Houston always offers many contrasts. We left the city life of Houston and headed out  west.

Of course no trip to Texas is complete without a trip to Buc-ees.

 

 

Saw this sparrow at a barbecue place.

 

This kitty was across the street.

 and there were nice views of rural life in general.

 

We ate at this burger place owned by Carlos Garcia.

George West has this mural on one of the buildings.

And this is evidently a famous long horn.

This is what we saw before we got to the weekend dacha.
Next blog will show some of hte wildlife that we were able to see.

Trip to Texas

I will try to get back to my New York visit again laer, but in the mean time I took a short trip to Texas to visit my family and so I htought I would put up some images from that.

Originally I was going to drive, but after a sleepless night I changed my mind and got a ticket on Spirit airlines. I was a bit  trepidatious, because I had heard bad things about the airline, and they do indeed try to  nickel and dime you to death with additional charges for baggage, seats etc. BUT I do have to say I was pretty impressed with the airline and they are cute and I had no difficulties! Yes, the plane is very "minimal". Seats do not recline. There are no meals or frills, but the crew is friendly, the airline has a youthful feel to it and every thing ran smoothly. (Plus I got a direct flight which was really, really great.)

I left in the evening 

 

and had he moon with me for the entire trip.  My spousal unit claims that my super power is always knowing where the moon is. (Not perhaps the most exciting of super powers, but at least I have one! ;-) )

 

Here is an example of the "cuteness" of Spirit airlines. - You look out the window and on the wing tip you see a greeting:

 

I stayed in a nice hotel in the Westchase area (Country Inns and Suites) . It had a swimming pool and very clean and hospitable rooms.

 

It was wonderful being with my family. We went grocery shopping together.

 

and had a nice meal together the next day.

Tanager at the Feeder

New Knitting Project

Helene

The Met, Part 2

We had started off our visit to the museum with a little snack. The members' room at the Met has some delightful vegetable/fruit juices and a really good chocolate cake.

I seem to have gotten carried away with the fashion exhibit. Here is yet another of those leather dresses.

 

I adore this dress -it is Irish crochet (guige pur). - Lots of little pieces crocheted and then sewn together.

 

Here is a closer view.

 

 This is a lovely elegant dress.

 

 

 And then there are these....

Here is a detail of the dress above.

Some of the dresses are not too practical.

I'd love to see the one above on somebody as the patchwork quality is diffused by the lack of skin on the mannequin. (i.e you can't get the effect of the see-through quality so well.)

 

Others are interesting in their construction.  This one looked like it was made of bones.

 

I was curious how people got into some of the wrapped dresses. On the wall below you can see the unbuckled version of the center dress.

There was some intriguing ways of dealing with line.

I think the one below was Issey Miyake - there was a room devoted to him and a section on pleats and pleating.

I also visited the medieval exhibits, but since I had spent time there before I didn't take too many pictures.

This guy has always intrigued me.

And this griffin is stunning.

We spent a good part of the morning in the museum and then headed off to lunch for Mexican food.