A glimpse of the beautiful sunset last night.
Goodnight, sun.
A glimpse of the beautiful sunset last night.
I’m beside myself.
Today the lake is lapping close to 665′. How amaze-balls is that??!!! The forecast has settled down enough for us to plan a night out. And it is amazing. The lake is up 45’+ and we are anchored up in a cove we could only look at on maps 2 weeks ago. Thank you! 
Kurt & Kevin joined us a little while ago. Who else is in?!!
A bit of pink for your Wednesday.
The hibiscus bushes are in bloom. So lovely. 
Beauty up above.
I took a walk through our greenbelt and neighborhood after the immense amount of rain stopped falling. I looked up and was treated to this before sunset:
Mammatus clouds after the storm.
Christmas in May.
We headed out to the lake yesterday. The rains have FINALLY been falling over the basin that flows into Lake Travis. We have been watching the LCRA lake levels like kids in a candy store. The lake is up to over 648′ today! which is up about 25′ from where it has been stuck for the last few years. We still want more – 30 more feet and brimming would be nice – but boy was it thrilling to see. I actually felt my heart rejoice. 🙂
The band of grey, exposed limestone is thinner now. Sometimes Islands are islands again! I’m glad I spent one afternoon walking the length of the peninsula while it was exposed earlier this year.
Our marina has moved half of its dock back to shore. All of the ramps for the letter docks are floating. And one of our boat ramps is usuable again. We went for a sail with Kurt and Kevin. We saw alot of debris in the water. And alot of these….. balls of red ants floating in the lake. Beware folks, you do NOT want to swim into one of these!
We anchored in our cove and spent the afternoon marvelling over how great it was to finally have our lake back. 🙂
Oh, and…. i want one of these:
Fuchsia fuchsias.
As long as we are blessed with rain and mild spring weather that we haven’t enjoyed for years, I’ll keep snapping photos of what’s blooming in our yard.
This is a fuchsia I planted about a month ago. It’s over transplant shock and loaded with buds. So pretty!
Future margaritas.
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.
High society.
This society garlic was one of the perennials I planted this year. I’m happy to see it putting up new blooms.
Crossing over.
The creek in the greenbelt behind our house is running. The stones are firmly planted and lead you to the other side.
Every rose has its thorn.
When we moved to this house, I scoped out all the plants and trees in the yard, looking forward to taking care of them: the amazing live oaks all over the place, a couple of pecan trees that are majestic but don’t seem to want to produce nuts, a redbud that has since died (sniffle), the ginormous red oak in the front yard, the (now ailing) flowering pear, the resilient Texas mountain laurels, several red yuccas that I love to watch bloom, silverado sage that forecasts the rain, a mimosa tree in the back with its fine pink puffy blooms… just to name a few…AND one tiny cactus that seemed to be too much in the shade.
It was small in the beginning. Monte mowed over it accidentally way back when, after which I staked it out with a ring of limestone. But now after 9 (!) years and much thinning of the small forest under which it sat, it has sunlight, and has thrived. And I am happy to see two buds on it this year! The first one opened today. I’m enjoying my flowering prickly pear cactus. Perhaps this is the yellow rose of Texas?
Chasing sunsets.
We popped into our local public house for dinner and some cards tonight. On the way home we were treated to an awesome sunset… complete with rainbow and mammatus clouds (Monte looked it up). We had to dash around a bit and didn’t get a good shot, but hopefully this gives you an inkling of how beautiful it was.
Renewal.
We have been working in the yard quite a bit lately. Two weekends ago we set out to save a stand of 5 or six struggling young liveoaks in our back wooded area that had been dealt two bad cards: they were being overshadowed by invasive hackberry trees, and completely defoliated by catepillars this spring. They looked like goners.
So we cut the hackberries down, fertilized the oaks, and sprayed to get rid of the remaining catepillars. For the last two weeks i’ve been checking on them every day, watching tiny lime green buds pop out up and down each branch, and then watching the buds turn into tiny leaves. And with all the recent rains they are starting to look like trees again. I think they’ll make it!
Red zinnies.
My first zinnia picture of 2015. 🙂
Last fall we visited Wildseed Farms on our way home from a trip to Fredericksburg. We picked up some zinnia seeds. We have a patch or two every year, but they always tend to be shades of fuschia, orange or yellow. Monte was looking for something more vibrant so he chose seed for red zinnias and planted them this spring.
They are just now coming up and are lovely. 
Saturday.
We enjoyed a lovely night on the hook. We cooked up some grilled red peppers, chicken poblano sausages and rice.
We’re spoiled now…used our phone as a wireless hotspot and then streamed shows off of amazon prime on TV down below until we both fell asleep. Not exactly roughing it. 🙂
This morning I paddled for quite a while then went ashore to scrub 6 months of gunk from the bottom of the kayak. I also checked on some geocaches I’d hidden nearby. All good.
Pretty sights: 
Tonight Kurt will join us for another night in the cove. An almost full moon should light things up.
Sheila365 