Happy New Year! Yesterday was a good day to be a Lake Travis sailor and a Seahawks fan. Not so great a day if you suffer from cedar fever. But I can take the bad with the good.
We had a really nice sail on Nirvana with Kevin & Edie. Nice winds. A gorgeous sunny January day. Then we made it home in time to watch the late game. My team won and is the number 1 seed in the NFC! 💙💚
I joined my dear girlfriends today for a delicious birthday lunch. And then spent an afternoon at Pease Park.
We loaded up Porter Belle on the trailer yesterday to help John with the dock at his lake house. When the rain came over the July 4th weekend his cove went from high and dry to full in about 24 hours.
His formerly dry dock floated just fine. But its ramp/walkway sank. It’s still attached but hanging straight down. Its flotation block must have broken away in the storms. All the professional dock wranglers are still booked up so we spent the day giving it a shot ourselves.
At the end of the day, we were not successful. But it was fun to row up and down the cove a dozen or so times. And to problem solve different ways to try to raise the walkway. None of them worked. But the best part was that when we packed everything up, the giant flotation block miraculously floated by! We snagged it for when the professionals eventually make it out. There’s a reason they call them professionals 🙂
There are many ways to spend a good day at the lake. This was just one of them.
The flooding that hit the Hill Country this month brought terrible destruction and loss of life, especially along the Guadalupe River.
The highland lakes’ series of dams were built to contain floodwaters for the lower Colorado River. They’ve been doing exactly that and now Lake Buchanan is 100% full. Lake Travis has risen to 90% full, up 38 feet in the last two weeks, only 6 feet short of full.
As someone who has spent a good part of the last 20 years on the lake that has experienced too many droughts, this brings me joy in the midst of the sadness from all the loss.
Today we went out to the lake to take it in. And it’s a beautiful thing. The docks are close to parking lot level now, which is certainly a treat. Next week the marina will move all the individual docks back to their respective locations.
We went for a long sail on Nirvana with Kurt, Kevin, Gordon, and Scott. The wind was up and we had a really great day.
It’s nice to have our lake back, for however long it lasts.
Monte and I finally made it to Parker Jazz Club this week. It was a fantastic show. We’ll definitely be back. Laura advises and works closely with the club and completely surprised us with a bottle of bubbles and a shout out from the stage. 💙
You should all go whenever you are in Austin!! Link with info about the club and their calendar here.
I planted an American Beautyberry about 4 or 5 years ago. She’s doing great! 💜
Several years ago we planted a few new trees in the way back. One is a Mexican plum (link here). It has established itself in the face of drought and recent hard freezes. I was excited to see that this year it has fruit on it!
I am not one to complain about all the great rain we’ve gotten this week. God knows we need it. Yesterday was mostly overcast but dry. It was a good day for a drive in the hill country, and for a pickup party at Becker.
During Noreen and David’s visit, we got out and about quite a bit to enjoy our beautiful Central Texas Spring weather.
I spied this interesting conjoined twin Texas Bluebonnet at the Wildflower Center. The stem was wide and flat.
Today we drove a couple hours into the hill country to see the annular solar eclipse of October 2023. We originally thought we would drive to the center of the path, but decided to head for the eastern edge. This meant we wouldn’t see the complete “ring” of the sun around a concentric moon passing in front of it. Instead, we wanted to see the edge of the moon barely passing by the sun, hoping to see some Bailey’s Beads. That means the passing moon wouldn’t be centered inside the sun, but just barely touching the border. I wasn’t able to capture any Bailey’s beads his time – I think the sun’s light was still too bright. But it was a fun roadtrip. The next eclipse is less than 6 months away!
We drove to the west side of Canyon Lake. Eclipses are pretty cool. 🙂
Monte and I crewed on Camelot for Kurt & Kevin this weekend during one of the Austin Yacht Club Summer Series races. It was a hot and steamy day on the water but we had a great time.
We took our friends Tim & Fiona and their three kids sailing on Nirvana today. We’ve done it many times over the years during their Spring Break holidays.
The kids are now 13 or 14, and 19 years old. It’s amazing to watch them grow up. They all have an intuitive feel for the helm. Monte and I didn’t need to steer much at all. It was a beautiful day for a nice long sail. I’m glad we got to spend it with them.
It’s hard to predict because of the seemingly endless droughts and freezes, but the Texas bluebonnets are blooming early and it looks like it will be a big wildflower year.
Monte has been grooming our front yard bluebonnet patch for years. Looking good! More photos to follow.
We spent yesterday and today cutting and dragging broken trees and limbs to the curb. We’re not done. The biggest jobs remain: our formerly 40+ foot tall live oak’s dozen or so broken branches, several large branches still hanging way up high on one of our large pecans, and cutting up the trunk of a beautiful live oak that keeled over in the way back.
But our curb is mostly full for now. So we’ll have to wait til the city hauls this bunch away. it sure doesn’t look like much in the pic but I walked several miles getting these branches out there.
For now, I’m enjoying a well-earned glass of wine.
Sheila365 