A shot of tonight’s full sturgeon moon shining bright. 🧡
Goodnight, moon.
A shot of tonight’s full sturgeon moon shining bright. 🧡
Tag: inspiration
A good day on the lake.
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.
Good as new!
We have acquired about 3 dozen Tervis brand drinking glasses over the years. They’re not fancy, but they keep cold drinks cold, and hot drinks hot. They’re supposed to be indestructible, but over time we’ve had several crack open, some get little spider cracks that let moisture in where it’s not supposed to be, the artwork in some has become loose, and we’ve found that the newer ones often get cloudy.
Tervis has a lifetime warranty, so when we have 5 or 6 that need repair, I send them in. I sent the last batch in 5 months ago. But they just arrived bac in the mail. I was a little nervous because MY first and favorite tervis was in this batch – I’m always the sand dollar 🙂 And a couple were ones that we bought in the Bahamas and the BVI, hard to replace. Another was one of Monte’s first tervis. And, my lucky Seahawks Tervis!
They were able to reclaim the artwork from each of the broken ones and put them in brand new, crystal clear glasses.
Christmas in November! Thanks Tervis.
What the old ones looked like when I sent them in:
All that jazz.
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.
A beauty.
I planted an American Beautyberry about 4 or 5 years ago. She’s doing great! 💜
Sewing sails.
This time, I’m sewing a different kind of sail. Ann is becoming a grandma soon, and Shelly is coordinating a crowd-sourced baby quilt for her future grandson. She’s handing out a couple dozen quilt squares to decorate.
Here’s mine. ⛵️💙 🚼 🙃
I can’t wait to see the finished quilt.
Late night.
I worked an evening show last night at the Bass Concert Hall – The Decemberists. When I saw them on the schedule I signed up. I’m glad I did. Good show. But oh lordie did it get loud. I made it home before turning into a pumpkin by midnight.
Splash of red.
Monte planted a couple of rose bushes this winter. We got them from Antique Rose Emporium in Brenham, Texas. They have a booming mail order business but we drove to their gardens in January to pick them out.
This is a bloom from the Dame de Coeur rosebush. So pretty.
Sunday drive.
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.
Wildflowers.
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.
Park Warriors.
As we roll into this year’s Earth Day, I find myself coming home from a whirlwind trip to California where I experienced four national parks in four days with Lori, Doray, and Laura.
The first park was Yosemite, where I got a glimpse of the amazing scenery of El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridal Veil Falls, and Yosemite Falls. We walked through the Yosemite Valley, along the Tuolumne and Merced rivers.
We stayed at the Wawona Hotel. It was comfortable, but the shared bath/shower house attached to the Hotel might not be for everyone. There’s no elevator, so pack light, because everything must be removed from your vehicle at night to prevent attracting bears. The restaurant meals were good. The scenery everywhere was amazing.
The next park was Kings Canyon, a deep glacially-formed canyon where the ‘kings’ are gigantic monarch sequoias, including the one called General Grant. We enjoyed up-close views of these giants, and hiking through incredible groves of trees.
The next park was just down the road, Sequoia National Park. Snow and downed trees had kept the connecting road, Generals Highway, closed this season until just an hour or two before we arrived. This was a much appreciated surprise which saved us hours of driving.
Inside Sequoia, we stayed at Wuksachi Lodge for two nights. It was comfortable, but we schlepped everything up and down stairs here, too. The restaurant and lodge was convenient for breakfast and dinner. But we made our own lunches to eat on the go. We visited petroglyph rock, the Giant Forest of 2000+ year old sequoias, and its museum. We had lunch at Beetle Rock, overlooking the San Joaquin valley. The highlight of Sequoia for me was the hike to, and up to the top of, Moro Rock and its 360 degree views of the canyons and surrounding valleys. It was breathtaking.
Even though we were pooped, we made the trek down to see the biggest known single trunk tree, by volume, in the world, General Sherman. Impressive. But I sure wish it wasn’t downhill from the parking lot at the end of day three. 🙂
The next park was Pinnacles, which featured rugged peaks formed from volcanic eruptions. We didn’t spend much time here but we enjoyed lunch and a hike. We didn’t originally plan to hit this park but realized it was close enough to include in our trip after we arrived.
We started and ended the trip in Santa Barbara, which allowed us to see Laura’s beautiful new home.
I’m back home now. And scheming my next park adventures.
One step forward…
As Monte likes to say, every time we go to the boat to cross something off the todo list, we add 2 more things to the list.
On Monday we went to the marina to install 3 new halyards and new jib sheets on Nirvana. When we lowered the jib to change the halyard, I found a 2’ long tear along the edge of the sunbrella cover. So we rolled it up and brought it home.
No more over-sheeting the jib against the spreaders, please. It’s not the America’s Cup…
Yesterday I laid it out and mended it; should be good for a while. I ripped off the sunbrella cover, sandwiched the tear between 2 layers of new adhesive-backed 6 oz dacron, sewed it down several times, and then sewed the sunbrella back down.
One step forward…
Happy Birthday, Paul!
How is it that we know so many old people?! :). Today we celebrated Paul’s big birthday with him and his crew. It’s getting hot out there!!!
John Boy live.
Today I ushered for the final two shows of the Broadway in Austin play, To Kill a Mockingbird. Richard Thomas, formerly John Boy on The Waltons, played the lead of Atticus Finch. He doesn’t have the physical presence of Gregory Peck, who played in the film version released in 1962. But he made a great Atticus. I really enjoyed the show.
Fun fact: the actress who played Scout in the 60’s movie version had a different role in this production. Pretty amazing that she’s still involved with the show and its message, 60 years on.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Sheila365 