We checked out trees at a nearby nursery. They didn’t have many, but I found the mums mesmerizing.
Then we stopped by the beer garden at Austin Beer Works brewery and enjoyed a couple pints and some trailer-fare for dinner.
With temps still in the 90s, it’s hard to imagine a chill in the air. But that, too, shall come.
We’ve been busy! This past weekend, we made a roadtrip out to west, stopping first at William Chris Winery, where we caught up with a friend of ours that we ran into, by chance; then we hopped over to Wildseed Farms to pickup a bunch of seed; then made it over to one of our faves, Becker Vineyards, where we had a tasting, a picnic, and checked out their new field of zinnias. Just beautiful.
On the way home we headed over to the Real Ale Brewery in Blanco. We took the river road south/southeast from Hwy 290 to Blanco, and stopped along the way several times to check out the now lazy river that was uncontrollably raging just 4 months ago, tragically sweeping away homes and families over Memorial Day weekend.
At Real Ale, Monte sampled a flight, and I sipped my favorite – Hans Pils.
Then Sunday rolled around, and we headed out to see the Anderson Mill historical site, near its original location at Cypress Creek on Lake Travis. The Anderson Mill Gardeners do a wonderful job of preserving the site and its history.
We made it to the boat in time to cheer the Seahawks on to their first win of the season, enjoying the recently repaired air conditioning on Nirvana (yay!).
About an hour before sunset, Kurt, Barbara, Dakota and little Leila joined us on the boat, and we motored out to the body of the lake to drift and watch the supermoon lunar eclipse.
Have I mentioned taking photos of the moon and stars on a moving boat is hard? I didn’t get any good shots. But I thought this one was kinda cool… you get the idea.
It was a great weekend, indeed.
It was April 20th when Monte and I last picked up a pint of Blue Bell ice cream at Walgreens on the way home. We each had a scoop or two and then read the news about all their products being pulled from the shelf that day due to listeria contamination, and, sadly people had died.
Well a long 4 1/2 months later, and after a lengthy cleanup and with FDA approval, Texas’ favorite ice cream is back on the shelf. We should probably wait a while, but we couldn’t stay away.
When rafting up with friends on Lake Travis, we invented this game to amuse ourselves – everyone takes turns playing a song from their iPod that they think is awesome. We pass the plug from one person to the next. You strive for a song that others will agree is awesome. Some songs take people down their own memory lane, some are just funny, some songs everyone sings along to, some are songs other people never heard before. It’s a great way to pass the time, under the stars, on a boat, with friends, slightly impaired, at anchor, off the grid, into the wee hours of the morning. Here’s the typical scene.
Awesome! 🙂
I met some friends over the weekend to catch up. We’ve all been off doing our own thing for quite a while. Yummm – white sangria!
Happy Champagne Day!! My calendar tags August 4th every year for this bubbly celebration. Google also lists various other champagne-related days in October and December. I, for one, will celebrate them all!
We sipped as we played a few rounds of pinochle with these nifty vintage cards – found in the time capsule.
Cheers!
Worked from mom’s house again, and then headed out to meet Colleen and Jake for dinner. Our table had a beautiful view overlooking Elliott Bay. Simply gorgeous.
The Great Wheel after sunset: 
And….. The golden hour:
We hit Gig Harbor tonight with Fran and Art. Nice burg. Nice brews!
Today we set out for a day of crabbing. What a beautiful day! Sky was blue. Sun was out. We got our fill of crab – both dungeoness and rock crab. We boiled them up at home and were treated to an exceptional dinner.
At one point during the day, a bald eagle circled right above us for a while, riding the thermals. This was the best I could capture. Pretty bird.
Rachel flew in today, so we met her at a local brew pub to catch up. I’m a fan of most beers in a green bottle — lagers and pilsners. But those are not so easy to find here in the yeasty, hearty, and dark brew-pub PNW. I happily discovered Alaska summer ale yesterday and loved it. Tonight I tried Silver City’s Ziggy Zoggy lager and really enjoyed it.
Cheers!
We met Fran and Art for a beer after work yesterday. This is the view from the outdoor beer garden. The air is hazy from the smoke of nearby fires. That is Vashon Island in the background. Last fall I posted about a guy living in a shed on a floating raft anchored off this point. Well, his shed burned down since then, and now he’s got a teepee on the raft. A gaggle of geese are crossing in front of it.
I was introduced to cake pops recently, when a friend brought a dozen to a party. They are an excellent sweet treat. This weekend I took a stab at making a batch myself. Here’s how they turned out:
I did a little research beforehand, googling a few recipes and how-tos. This is the one I picked to guide me, and pretty much followed it exactly. I made one modification – I detest frosting-in-a-can, as its main ingredient is partially hydrogenated fat. I bought a powder mix instead – which was basically powdered sugar, really. I just had to add butter and a bit of milk. And it worked great for the frosting. I mixed up half a box (i.e., about as much frosting to cover half a cake), on the advice of the how-to that I was following. And it worked fine.
I bought pure white Wilton candy chips, and added food coloring. I have to say that the “dipping” phase is still a mystery to me. No matter what I tried, the candy coating was always the consistency of frosting. I tried both the microwave method, as well as the double boiler method. It was still very thick. So I couldn’t really “dip” the pops. I spun them through the coating and had to smooth with a knife most of the time. No matter, though, they turned out fine.
Some people recommend buying floral arrangement foam to use as a stand to hold your cake pops. I asked Monte to make me a few stands with wood scrap he had laying around in the shop. They worked great.
The lime tree out back is loaded with bunches of baby limes (the green centers of those white blooms). Each of the ones that make it is destined to become part of a refreshing frosty beverage.
We hightailed it out of town after work. The sunset from the back deck:
Sheila365 