It’s a beautiful Saturday. Temps in the high 60s for a change. We are anchoring out in our cove.
We have the place to ourselves.
Tutti a tavola e mangiare!
And for dessert: HOT BUTTERED RUM!
Cheers!
We tried Emeril’s recipe and it was just right!
Category: inspiration
Worth the view.
Trying not to waste the few remaining days I have before going back to work , I took advantage of a wonderful, sunny day to explore a park that I have not visited before. I checked out St. Edward’s park, on the Bull Creek greenbelt. What a great bunch of trails!
It was beautiful. I only made it throughout the brown trail, which I found pretty challenging. I’ll definitely be back to explore the trails north of the creek.
Here is a shot looking across the creek over the canyonlands.
Tulips of white.
Monte brought home a set of tulips. My favorite, as you probably have learned. These are white and gorgeous.
Fyi, Google says January 17 is National Tulip Day in Holland. Go get you some!
A walk in the woods.
The cold and rain finally let up here in Austin, after a week. So, I set out to explore the new North Walnut Creek trail that was supposed to be recently finished. I was looking forward to a 6+ mile walk on the new trail. The nice, new trailhead at Balcones Park:
The lovely paved sidewalk ended about 100 yards later and the rest of my walk was through muddy, rocky trails. Walnut Creek was flowing pretty good due to recent rain, so I wasn’t always able to cross where the trail crossed. My shoes and feet were wet before too long. I got pretty messy, but it was great!
I was taken aback by the amount of trash near the trail. We’ll have to rally the troops to clean it up. This was one sight – the tire has been there a while…the tree has grown up through it.
And, I guess if you must deface things with spray paint, the least you can do is make it pretty and add a thought provoking statement…
AND While I was out and about, I found 7 geocaches. 🙂
A fun Sunday!
Playing hooky.
It’s COLD in Austin today! And since we are both off work, we decided to make it an adventure. We took the Austin MetroRail train downtown to check out the Austin Boat Show at the convention center.
Commuter rail is really only in its infancy in Austin. It doesn’t go to too many places, but it’s a start. People can and do debate the pros and cons of what Cap Metro has implemented. We have never tried it though, til today. Here are some things I observed:
– no park & ride parking lot at Kramer station. we had to drive around to find a free spot on a street nearby.
– a day pass is $5.50 per person (actually valid for 24 hours), easy to purchase at the kiosk. though one of the 2 machines was out of order at that station.
– trains don’t run into the evening (i.e. past 6:30 pm) on weeknights. but, since today was Friday, trains do run til about midnight.
– the train was nice, on time, and warm.
– the cars have wireless for passengers to use.
– there are bike racks inside the train car.
– there were not many riders – each train appeared to only have 2 cars.
– the ride from Kramer station to downtown station, which is right outside the convention center, took about 25 minutes, with only a handful of stops.
– overall, it was a nice commute. I’d ride it again.
After we got downtown, we were only 2 blocks away from one of my favorite restaurants, Chez Nous. And they had just opened for lunch! So, we had to go in. Delicious, as usual.
The boatshow was nice. Lots of power boats, travel trailers, and our favorite vendor: Texas Sailing. Go check them out! The show runs through this Sunday.
Treasure trove.
I recently discovered OpenCulture, a website that touts itself as “the best free cultural & educational media on the web.” And i’m a fan!
They have compiled a listing of free audiobooks, movies, massive open online courses (aka MOOCs), and bunch of other interesting tidbits to enlighten and amuse. I’m currently listening to a dramatized reading of Brave New World, narrated by its author, Aldous Huxley back in the 50s. I read this novel in a mind-expanding and life-changing English literature class when I was in highschool. It’s a treat for my brain, now that I have reached such an advanced age. 🙂
OpenCulture also has daily posts that usually are clickworthy, you can add them as a blog (using their url) to follow via your WordPress Reader page or another RSS reader, or like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
Check it out!
Ohmigosh, 2015 already!?!
I want to wish you a most happy New Year and all the best to you and yours in 2015! I have been away a while. Partly due to distractions. But also partly due to the fact that I had run out of online storage space for my blog @ wordpress, and I wanted time to think about how and or whether to upgrade the options for my blog.
In the end I decided to simply buy a storage upgrade (to add an additional 10G to the default 3G limit). When my domain options are up for renewal next year, I might consider upgrading to Premium on wordpress, which includes the increased storage, but I bought myself some time.
I think last we crossed paths out here in the blogosphere I was headed home from a long visit in Seattle, back to Austin. Suffice to say I have not been idle.
The day after coming home, we left for a fantastic week in Paris – a trip we took with little pre-planning; celebrating a birthday in a place we both love. And since then: Thanksgiving, family visiting, Julie graduated and left Austin to take the next step in her life’s path (sniffle), Christmas & New Year’s, and we have spent some fun times with friends.
Somewhere in there 2014 slipped away. Today I find myself on the second day of a new year — a few weeks delinquent in blog posts but looking forward instead of behind.
Here are just a few picks to fill in since last I posted:
Bon Anniversaire!
Post-Thanksgiving Day sail:
A day trip through the Hill Country and a hike to the top of Enchanted Rock on a clear December day with my sister & brother-in-law:
Christmas Eve:
And New Year’s Eve:
I can’t wait to see how 2015 unfolds….
Caching in the cold.
Fran and I went geocaching today. This cold front brought temps in the 20s overnight. And apparently it stays below freezing in parts of the woods.
This is one of the ponds we encountered, covered in ice.
A great day.
Today Mom and I headed to Seattle Center to see the amazing Chihuly Garden and Glass museum. Fran, Aaron and Colleen joined us. It was an amazingly clear, sunny day. We also went up in the Space Needle to see the 360 degree view. I took too many pictures to share here, but will leave you with a few.
Thank you, Veterans.
“Never…was so much owed by so many to so few.” — Winston Churchill
I visited several of the haunting and beautiful war monuments on my recent trip to Washington, D.C.
This is for Ross:
And this is for my Dad:
Thanks to all who have served, both in peace and in war. Because we have so much to lose.
100% chance of woo hoo!
I’m very thrilled to see the weather forecast for the next few days. FINALLY some not-rainy days!
I’m looking forward to spending some time outside! This morning I got an early start… went for a long hike in the woods. This shot shows the just risen sun peeking through the tree trunks at the horizon.
And in the middle of my hike I came upon this tranquil view. Very pretty.
Twelve-o-lantern.
Mom and I are ready for Halloween. And….GO HAWKS!!!!! 🙂
Quiet Sound.
Yesterday my walk took me to a nearby state park where I used to spend time as a kid. I had the place to myself. There was hardly a ripple on the water.
A view from the penumbra.
Crazy weather here. It rained and poured this morning. Then we had an hour or two of sunny blue sky, which afforded a glimpse of the partial solar eclipse through a hastily-made pinhole camera.
Then the cloud bank rolled in again with rain. I’m glad mom had a chance to watch it, if only for a half hour or so.
Pretty cool.
The next solar eclipse will be on August 21, 2017. Mark your calendar!
Sheila365 