• Thoughts

    Reviewing The Year | 2013

    I debated if I was going to do a review of the year or not like I see other bloggers doing, but then I went back through my archives from January of last year and though ‘Awww, I remember that!’ and decided I was going to give a whirl. First, a short run-down of my ‘word’ from last year and then a post or three from each month that I enjoyed while reviewing my archives. Action was my word for 2013 and beyond March I think I dropped it. In fact, I was thinking my word was prolific but apparently that was my word for 2012. Sooo…I think I’m going…

  • Thoughts

    Projects, Projects, and More Projects

    A house….is full of projects. I mean, they are good projects and I love my house, but sometimes it seems never ending. The lists had been compiling in my head for long enough that today I sat down and wrote out everything we still needed to finish, such as the laundry room which is 90% completed. I wrote the other day about Chris’ dock building adventure and he got a lot more accomplished today. Now we can walk out over the pond!! Looking north into the pond, towards the creek. And south towards the dam and the entrance to our neighborhood. It’s so cool! I went out and I told…

  • Gardening

    Dock Building

    Chris has been itching to rebuild the deck and extend it out over the water for a full-fledged dock since we moved in. He’s had the pieces for the base of the dock stashed under our carport for months, staining them as he could. Finally, before Christmas he put them together and waited until today to install them in the water. Next he’ll cut the boards for the top and install them, staining them afterwards. Eventually he’ll put the deck in too! Several months ago he bought two Adirondack chairs online, put them together and stained them. They look fabulous and will look even more fabulous when they are on…

  • Family

    The Faces of Christmas Eve

    First up was Christmas Eve at my parent’s house with my brother, sister-in-law, and the niece and nephew. I think Grayson gets it this year more than last year as is evident in the photos below. Lots of great facial expressions from those kidlets this year! Next up we’re off to Chris’ side of the family! Happy Christmas y’all! (I’m gonna have to find a way to watch Happy Christmas Miss King sometime today…dangit, it’s not on Netflix.)

  • Gardening

    Winter Solstice

    Yesterday while it wasn’t raining and the air was a perfect 75* and balmy, I took a series of short videos around the garden. I was searching for the beauty that is hiding somewhere amongst the dead and brown in the garden. It’s there, you just have to look a bit harder. Today we’re expecting rains for the solstice and a continuation of some warmth with maybe a dip down into the 50s and 60s, but nothing like it was two weeks ago. This is my kind of winter. We’re going to spend solstice doing some final Christmas shopping, and I’m going to do a little housework and then some…

  • Outdoors

    Backyard Birds | December Edition

    Top two: Bluebirds, an active group in our backyard. Third: Great White Egret Four: Mockingbird, looking fat and happy. Five and Six: Turkey vulture across the street. Love watching them fly the thermals, swooping through the air. Not pictured: the loud crows, despite my best efforts to locate them…the osprey that has been hanging around the ponds lately. Oh, and the never-there-at-the-right-moment belted kingfisher that flew by as we were picking up my neighbor’s leaves to use in our compost bin.

  • Gardening

    The Almost Winter Garden

    +Oakleaf hydrangea offers beautiful foliage this time of year. +A ginger shows the damage the freeze gave to tender tropicals. +Fred has to escape the wrath of Tom. +Chris harvested some carrots. Just a bit early for them. +The bees play hide and seek, scaring us a few weeks ago into thinking the colony was dead. We had a couple of days of warmer weather and all of a sudden they were all out. Apparently they hide well in their hive. +Alyssum from seeds we sowed last spring. Some made it through the summer, a great surprise for me. +The flowering ‘maple’—aka: Abutilon has weathered the cold and decided to…

  • Outdoors

    Room for Rent | Owlets Wanted

    Chris built a barred owl box out of old fence wood that came from his mom and step-dad. He built it on a whim over the last few days and we finally put it up in a tree this morning. I happened to be out on our balcony on the second floor this morning and spotted the perfect tree to put it in, an elm, so that it would face the balcony and we could easily see it from our bedroom window as well. The perch came from a branch Chris found down by the pond. It worked out perfectly I think. Now all we need is an owl to…

  • Gardening

    The Little Things

    The last few weeks I’ve mostly avoided being in the yard or garden. I think I attempted to do a little bit early in the week of Thanksgiving, but for the most part it has been cold and dreary, and too depressing to be outside. Depressing because most items are dormant or have died from the freeze. Well, I hope they didn’t die, at least. Let’s just go with dormant. If there’s anything that is abundant in the garden right now that would be the greens. Greens everywhere. With some radishes, and a carrot Chris attempted to harvest today. The carrot was still a bit early. The crazy thing is…

  • Hiking,  Texas

    9 Miles at Nails Creek State Park

    Lots of photos, details at the end… Last weekend, still wanting to stretch my legs after our failed attempt on the Northeast Texas Trail, Chris and I decided to hike the Somerville Trailway starting at Nails Creek State Park out west of Brenham. Our AT friend RedHat lives that direction and we invited her to join along. I had only seen her two other times since the AT, meeting her once for dinner and then hiking with her on the Lone Star Trail for a dayhike, but that had been almost two years ago! She’s always heading back to the AT to visit her boyfriend who is a ridgerunner in…