Nature – Page 45 – Sheila365

Nov 24, 2010

This is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I worked til about 1:00 and then the guy came to install the new blinds in the gameroom. I’m hoping they will ward off the cold this year. And just in time, too! It has been crazy hot and muggy here all week. We had a high of 87 today. But TOMORROW night it is supposed to be in the 30’s and then perhaps into the 20s on Friday night.

I think this is the cold blast that brought snow to Seattle over the weekend… it’s just taking its time making it down here.

This is a shot of part of the little forest in our backyard. We have a normal back yard/lawn area behind the house, beyond that a thick stand of trees, and then beyond that a clearing in the part of the back yard by the shop that gets full sun.

I really love my little forest of trees in the middle. We have hacked at the scrub trees and pruned tons of branches every year to help out the native trees – but it still looks wild.

The sun was sinking low on this last warm autumn afternoon. I’m looking forward to some rest and relaxation. I hope you are too.

Nov 21, 2010

We had another nice weekend. The weather was really warm – in the 70s. Monte worked on the boat and I worked on fun stuff.

If you recall my post a few weeks back about the catboat windtoy that monte made me… well this weekend I painted it and we put it up, and it works great! Here is a link to an animated gif to see it in motion (you’ll have to wait a bit for the 2+ MB file to load).

I also tweaked my blog a bit and have indulged myself by getting a dedicated domain name for it: sheila365.com. It’s still hosted on WordPress, but you can get to it directly with the new domain name. Any and all old links to sheila365.wordpress.com will still work, too.

This is a shot of the Chinaberry tree outside the shop. All the leaves have fallen and it’s just loaded berries. Monte suggested taking a picture of the many chinaberries looking up against the sky. This is my take at it. The sun was just dropping so there’s a bit of pink in the sky.

Nov 20, 2010

I saw the early morning sun filtering through the leaves in of the red oak in our front yard this morning. By the time I got my camera and went outside the light fog had lifted and it wasn’t quite as pretty as I saw through the window.

But it is a beautiful tree and a beautiful Fall morning.

It got pretty warm today, actually. But I know the cold days are on the way.

…and pretty soon all of these leaves will be on the lawn.

Nov 14, 2010

Cow Creek is a lovely spot on Lake Travis. It’s not one we get to see very often because it’s about 20 miles up river.

The walls are always raining with water from the rocks. The fall color this weekend was really beautiful.

Our friends Teri and Ace invited us to stay with them on their boat, since Cupholder is in the shop. We had a fantastic time – they are awesome hosts. I got my dose of laughter to tide me over for quite a while.

Nov 10, 2010

The neighbor’s crepe myrtle has turned a beautiful shade of crimson. I just had to take a picture.

Nov 3, 2010

Ok, yes, I know my photos have been less than impressive lately. It’s hard to find interesting material when I’m sitting in front of a computer all day and night.

I need to get up and about, this is nuts.

Anyway.

I know it’s going to get a lot colder, but as for today, 55 degrees seems pretty COLD!

Oct 23, 2010

I walked around back tonight as the sun was getting low. I like how these virginia creeper leaves are backlit, illuminating their fall color.

Oct 16, 2010

We spent a wonderful day on the lake today. For the beercan regatta I crewed for Lori on Camelot. It was her first race and my first time working the rigging by myself. I had a blast.

At sunset the wind pretty much died altogether, and all 4 boats inched their way to the finish line. That freed me up to get the camera and take a few shots. This tree stood out against the brown/green/gray background, especially in the light of the setting sun.

Oct 6, 2010

We have lots of large oak trees in the front and back of our yard. We’re used to them dropping acorns in the Fall. This year, however, there seems to be about 100x the number of acorns falling. I guess it’s due to all the rain we’ve had. For the last few weeks we’ve been listening to them hit the roof and roll down onto the patio, table and chairs out back. They make a loud pop when they hit the roof or the skylights. In the 4 years we’ve lived in this house, I don’t recall there being this many, making such a racket. You can hear one hit the roof from across the house. They hit pretty hard! I’m starting to wonder if our homeowner’s hail-damage policy will cover the damage these little babies are making. 🙂

It’s going to be a big year for the squirrels.

Oct 3, 2010

We slept on the boat last night, but came back early this morning. This is our last day of vacation so we’ve been getting some things done around the house today – with the windows open! This is the ever so brief time of year when the neither the A/C nor the heater is on.

I’m going to enjoy it for as long as it lasts.

Sep 24, 2010

The leaves are just starting to turn here in New York. I had an invite to come back up in 2 weeks to give a talk, and I declined because calendar conflicts. But I really wish I would be able to make it, because in 2 weeks the leaves ought to be spectacular. That alone would make it worth it.

I’ve had Nat King Cole’s Autumn Leaves running through my head non-stop. I love that song.

It will always remind me of a lovely day outside of Parma on our honeymoon.

Sep 7, 2010

Seemingly out of nowhere a tropical storm formed in the Gulf of Mexico late Sunday. It is named Hermine and is passing just to the west of Austin. Hermine has brought a bunch of steady rain to Austin today and more to come tomorrow. Julie is headed off today for a meeting on campus and to do some exploring, so the rain is not what we would have ordered for today, but we’ll take it any way we can get it.

Aug 25, 2010

It got down to a chilly 79 degrees last night, which is putting me into an Autumn state of mind. For as hot as it gets here in Austin, when Fall decides it’s finally ready to appear the weather sure changes very fast. That won’t be for another month or so. Even so, the big Red Oak in the front yard is loaded with acorns. The squirrels are going to have a big year.

Aug 24, 2010

Wow, it’s been HOT for the last few weeks. Thankfully a cold front came through at about 5 pm tonight, bringing cooler air and a short downpour.

The pic on the left is from our indoor/outdoor weather station at 4pm. 105.6 outside. The pic on the right is from about 2 1/2 hours later, after the front blew through. The temp had dropped by almost 20 degrees. I wonder if this is the end of the triple digit temps for the year.

The weather station also shows inside temperature and records the 24-hour min/max below each of the inside and outside temps. You can see that the max for inside temp today was 84 degrees. That was about 2 pm today when the old A/C unit seemed to just stop blowing cold air and it got very hot and stuffy in the house. I turned it off for a while to give it a rest and started it 30 minutes later. I’m very glad that it kicked back on. I fear a new A/C unit is in our near future… but we’ll see.

I’m very happy for a break from the heat, no matter how short.

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