Brian comes over to my mom’s on Fridays a couple times a month to watch movies with her. Today he brought his 5 year old teacup pomeranian, Chip. She’s just recently been groomed for summer but she’s still so tiny! I could stop calling her “kitty.” 🙂
Today’s movies were quite the mix of genre: 300, Goodnight & Good Luck, and the first two episodes of the John Adams series. I could not keep up.
Oh, and IT’S FRIDAY!!!
This morning these lilies from Mother’s Day were still closed buds. Tonight, voila! Very pretty.
I made it to Seattle last night 3 hours late but safe and sound. Today Noreen and I shopped for a while then headed over to mom’s. Two of my nephews, Jake and Aaron, are spending the day with her. So I got to enjoy time with them as we’ll.
Aaron came down to Austin for a visit about a year ago. He is lobbying heavily with his mom and dad to come down again soon. This is a picture he drew that he showed me exactly 3 seconds after I walked through the door today. 🙂
Pretty flowers in the house. Thanks to Monte!
It’s pizza night! These are the works of art from tonight’s installment. Rachel and Julie were the pizza artistes. Monte’s homemade crusts, of course. The top left one is margherita with tomatoes, mozzarella, home grown basil and olive oil (instead of red sauce). Top right is tomato sauce, prosciutto, onion, basil, red pepper, olive and goat cheese. Bottom left and right are varying amounts of prosciutto, mushroom, olive, onion, red pepper and mozz.
Yum – life is good !
We have another niece visiting us this week. Rachel and Monte went out to the lake and sailed for a few hours. Then Julie and I joined them about 4 o’clock. We sailed around for a couple more hours. Then got a great table at the Oasis. And surprisingly enjoyed the appies that we ordered. The view of sunset was awesome, as usual. Very, very nice!
For the last 15 years, Becker Vineyards has had a Lavender Festival. Its been one of the things on my todo list. This year, i put it on my calendar several months ago, so I wouldn’t miss it. And, it worked! Today we headed out for a long drive through the hill country, in the miata with the top down. And we had a really great day…
We walked out through the lavender fields. They have several different varieties. It didn’t look quite like I had expected – i was imagining endless rows of deep purple, like in Provence. But it was pretty, nonetheless.
They also grow their own artichokes. I have never seen them in the wild before!
We walked through the vendor booths. Lots of lavender goodies, flowers, herbs, nibblies and such. 
Then one more walk through the fields, this shot is looking back at the winery.
We packed a light lunch and ate it at the festival while sipping wine and listening to the Raggedy Cats (we really enjoyed them).
Then a winery tour. Lots of new factoids. Becker has been here 20 years or so, and in that time, they’ve increased the amount of their wine that they make from grapes grown at the winery to 85%. The rest come from Lubbock.
Can’t wait for the Fredericksburg peach harvest!
On the way home we decided to dodge the brewing thunderstorms and buzzed over to Der Lindenbaum in Fredericksburg for some German home cooked food for dinner.
The festival is open tomorrow, too. Get out there if you can, this year or next!
Ok. This post is not for vegetarians. Look away. Now!
Tonight Julie brought home a couple of magnificent ribeye steaks. From now on, Julie is the official steak shopper. 😉
These babies were an inch and a half thick!
They turned out perfect. We also whipped up some delicious sides: sauted zucchini and yellow squash, roasted mushrooms, and corn casserole. A Thursday feast!
On another topic… Monte just made this great tray / carry-all out of some cypress that he recently acquired. Tonight it carried in herbs for the feast.
Yummy!!!
Whew! That was a crazy week! I’m glad it is Friday.
Julie made beef and veggie stir fry tonight. What a great meal. And colorful, too.
Julie hasn’t felt good for the last few days. Tonight after work we went to a nearby urgent care place to have them poke and prod her and look her over. There sure are a lot of these urgent/emergency care places cropping up. Have you noticed?
The Easter Bunny just left. Happy Easter!
Almost Friday… woo hoo! Tonight monte made a lovely seafood risotto. Ginormous gulf shrimp. Bay scallops. Cod fillet. All stirred into the sumptuous yumminess of risotto. Here’s a peek:
Whew, what a long week! After work I walked around our yard out back to see what I could see. My plumbago is thriving with little to no water, as usual.
The hardest working retiree has been busy this week. He spent an entire day cleaning the house (thanks sweetie!) and today he spent all day tilling and planting his garden out in the way back. Tomatoes, basil, chives, parsley, dill… and zinnies! Can’t wait.
Then I surveyed the trees out back. One day there’s no leaves. The next day they are covered in green.
At the base of this red oak I saw something I’ve never seen. Neon green golf ball sized balls growing on the branches. Very odd. Google tells me they are a sign of oak apple gall. Home to the apple gall wasp larvae till it hatches. Learn something new every day!
Enjoy your weekend!
Today at about 6 AM central time, Spring arrived in Central Texas. But Winter didn’t sneak away quietly. Approximately 3 hours before that we were all woken up abruptly by the terrific racket of hail pelting the roof – the leading edge of one last Winter coldfront was passing over the house. Unfortunately, the cars were out in the driveway. By the time we were up and about it was too late to go out and move them. Luckily it was only about 1/4″ to 1/2″ and didn’t damage the cars. That was exciting.
In keeping with my life-view that everything happens for a reason… as Julie and I were groggily standing at the sliding glass door watching the hail fall on the back patio, she said, “Hey, isn’t that Monte’s laptop?” Sure enough, it was sitting on the table outside the door. I guess he left it there on his way in from the shop the night before. We were able to grab it and bring it inside before it got drenched by the rain that started to fall a few minutes later. Funny, eh?
Anyway, I should have snapped a shot of the hail, but I wasn’t quite awake enough at the time to think to do that. So, i’ll leave you with this picture of tonight’s selection. Cheers to Spring!
Sheila365 