Tag: photoblog

Celebrate every day.

Crepes!

Maybe it wasn’t the best idea to leave nearly 5 weeks of vacation for the end of the year, but that’s the way it turned out.   So, after a long-ish Thanksgiving vacation just a couple weeks ago, we are now both officially on vacation for the rest of the year!

To ring in the vacation season, I made crepes this morning.   They’re SO YUMMY!   If you now have a craving, you can find the recipe in this previous blog post.

I hope I can decompress a bit in the coming week or so.  But as much as work can seem to mess with my life and mindset, I really have nothing to complain about.

My mind this week is especially on family members that are experiencing real challenges.  My sister-in-law is in the hospital recovering from surgery to treat recently diagnosed breast cancer.  She is a strong woman, though, beating her first bout with cancer several years ago.   One of my uncles recently was diagnosed with cancer as well a few weeks ago, and is preparing for surgery.    Another uncle is dealing with long-term health issues as well.

So, today I’m sending thoughts and prayers their way, and starting this vacation acknowledging how very blessed I am — and celebrating with crepes.

The Eyes of Texas.

Congratulations class of 2011.

Today was another welcome, wonderfully drizzly day.   We just need another 100 or so days like it.

My cousin graduated from the University of Texas yesterday with his bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering.  Today we drove to his parents’ house in San Antonio to celebrate with him, his family and friends.

On the way home we could see the UT Tower lit up in burnt orange from I-35.  But today, instead of the #1 on the tower, reserved for times when the Longhorns win a national championship, there was a #11, to honor the class of 2011.   Monte drove me around to at least 3 different vantage points on campus to try to get a decent shot.  This was the best one I captured.

Congratulations to all the new Texas-Ex’s!

Peek-a-boo Birdhouse.

Ready to hang.

A few weeks ago, I saw a birdhouse in a catalog which had sides that were hinged like doors, which when open revealed plexiglass walls inside.  The idea being that you could open the birdhouse to peek inside if any birds decide to nest and take up residence.

The design seemed simple enough, so I sketched something on paper and whipped one up out of cedar.   I think I’m more pleased about making it than I will be to find any birds inside.  But, stay tuned…

Thanks to monte for help on some of the work that required table saw cuts.   I’m certified to use all the tools in the shop, except for that one.  🙂

The shot above is of the newly finished birdhouse.  The wall on the left is opened up and you can see through to the inside through the plastic wall.

By the way, we have been blessed with some intermittent rain showers over the last week, so as you can see in the background, things are starting to green up a bit.  I was pleased to see the bluebonnets starting to leaf out, as they should in the autumn.   I guess months of searing, endless, scorching heat does the trick on cracking their tough seeds for germination.   I hope this is a good sign for lots of bluebonnets in the spring — though we’ll need LOTS more rain between now and then.

Leaning into it.

Help like this, I don't need.

It is not my intent to post lots of pictures of our bird, but I couldn’t help this one.  Keeto likes to walk around my desk, investigating everything.  He makes frequent trips to the keyboard to get his head scratched.  What a sweet bird 🙂

His cere is still a bit ambiguous – not quite all blue yet.  But he’s started vocalizing and mimicking, so my money is on male.

Watching paint dry.

Time to paint.

Before you can stand around watching paint dry, you have to apply the paint.  I took this shot as monte was painting the dining-room-extension-table.  One of the things we got around to on this chilly day today.

Ok, *now* bring on the Christmas Spirit!

Red & green.

With Thanksgiving safely in the record books, now I’m ready to look ahead to Christmas.  But it’s stunning how early all the retailers and television channels start to decorate for Christmas.  I saw Santa decorations out before Halloween this year.

As I was walking through the back the red berries and green leaves caught my eye.   I think this is a yaupon holly.  Very festive!

A Perfect 10.

My other beer goes to 11.

We had a crowd-sourced Thanksgiving meal today.  Monte and Tom provided 2 delicious grill roasted turkeys.  Kate and Glenn brought green bean casserole and Kate whipped up the best mashed potatoes (and peas!) that I’ve ever tasted.  Doray and Sandy made their sweet potato baked cup thingies.  Sue & Marty brought delicious, home-made cranberry sauce, squash, and irresistible bourbon balls.  I baked up some dinner roles,  made gravy from the drippings of the birds and whipped up a pink-jello-whip-cream-cottage-cheese-pineapple dish in honor of all our favorite aunts.  Everything was DELICIOUS!  Laura joined us after dinner, too.

The picture above is of one of the brews that Glenn opened.  He got it part way down before someone noticed the foam on the inside of the bottle formed a perfect number 10!   Pretty funny.   The poor guy wasn’t able to finish this beer for a while, for all the excitement it caused.   But it was a good omen for the day… it was perfect.

I wish all of you a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day.

Stopping to create posts on this blog every day (or so) has caused me to pause long enough to reflect on things in my day and life.   I have so much to be thankful for.

Got pie?

Smells so goooood!

Thanksgiving Eve preparations.  Tidy up the house.  Tidy up the yard.

We are having enough people over tomorrow that we needed a bigger table.   But, no folding card table for us!  Monte went into the shop and whipped up a free-standing shaker-style table the exact width and height of the dining room table, long enough to seat another couple of people.   🙂   After throwing on a tablecloth, it looks like one long table.

After dinner we whipped up some of the things that we could make ahead of time for dinner.   I made the traditional pies.    Here’s my recipe for apple pie:

Crust (makes 2: one for top and one for bottom)

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
6-7 Tablespoons cold water

Mix flour & salt in food processor (w/ plastic blade, not knife).  Add butter cubes slowly while mixing.  Mixture should be dry with pea sized chunks.  Add water, 1 Tbsp at a time while mixing.  Dough should start to roll into one large ball.

Turn dough out onto floured surface and divide into 2.  Shape each ball into a hamburger shaped patty, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 mins.

Take out, let soften for a few minutes, and then roll each crust out.

Apple Pie filling:

6-8 tart apples
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup sugar
dash of nutmeg
2 Tablespoons flour
1 Tablespoon butter

Peel and slice apples.  Mix together with cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg and flour.   Place in pie crust.  Dot with butter.  Add top crust, seal and cut slits to let all the magic in.  You might want to put a cookie sheet under the pie while it’s cooking to catch drips.

Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.

Knockin’ things off my todo list.

Firebowl

Every day is a blessing.  But, to me, birthdays are extra special.   My day started with rain (yay!).   Followed by birthday coffee, birthday presents, and day 5 of vacation.

Having a birthday near (and sometimes on) Thanksgiving means that most of my childhood birthday cakes featured pilgrim candles.   For most of my adult years, I celebrate my birthday by taking the entire week of Thanksgiving off for vacation.   And I LOVE it.

I spent part of today shopping.  Yes, like a school girl 🙂   And I crossed off nearly everything on my list.

Then when I came home I set out to start (and complete) a project that has been on my Todo list for a while – Do-it-yourself Flaming Rock Bowls.   I saw these online a few months ago and wanted to give it a try.

I made 3.  1 broke.   So I have 2 left.   The shot above is of one of the bowls, curing.

I’ll light them up this Thanksgiving.   Stay tuned.

Most awesome adirondack chair.

Latest piece to come out of the workshop.

Over the years, monte has made some beautiful adirondack chairs.  He based the original pattern on a chair that his dad made.   The last 4 pretty much wore out.  Last year he made a variation on the adirondack chair out of cedar, more like a regular chair height, but with the features of an adirondack chair.   He made it to fit his height.  Which meant when I sat in it my feet pretty much stuck straight out.

This week, he started on a chair made just for me 🙂   Today, I joined him in the shop to work on the back slats and seat of the chair.   The picture above is a shot of the final product — cut so that my feet touch the ground when I sit on it.

I really enjoyed today – day 4 of vacation.   Monte and I spent months… no, years really… together in the shop working on Porter Belle, Cupholder, and many woodshop projects in between.  But, in the last few years we haven’t spent a lot of time making things together.   So, it was fun to be out there again today making sawdust.

I do enjoy and admire monte’s woodworking passion and skill.   And, I LOVE my new chair.   Thanks, sweetie!

Well groomed.

It is fun to watch Keeto’s emerging bird:human relationship develop.  He likes to sit on our shoulders.   If he is on my shoulder while I’m typing on the computer keyboard, he will walk down my arm, stand on the keyboard and peck at my fingers to get me to rub his head.   He is starting his first molt, so i’m sure the new feathers are very itchy.

As you can see in the shot above, he enjoys grooming monte – he’s got his work cut out for him though 🙂

Purified (or at least a bit renewed).

White hydrangea.

Today is Spa Day!!!  I spent the day with some friends at Milk & Honey Spa getting rubbed, polished and pampered.  Wow.  I really needed that.

Afterwards, a friend invited all the spa-warriors over for a late lunch.   She had a big vase of these white hydrangeas.   So pretty.   I feel as white and dainty as these look.   We’ll see how long that lasts 🙂

A day well spent.

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted something.  Things have been very busy lately.  So, i’ll take the liberty of a longer post today.

From the base of the Summit Trail.

We took today off, starting a much awaited and long overdue week or so of vacation.  The day was overcast and a tad chilly.  We set out into the Hill Country – destination Enchanted Rock.  This gigantic outcropping of granite rock was formed about a billion years ago.   It’s a stark contrast to the tree-covered, rough limestone hills that surround it.  The summit trail leads up the 425′ vertical climb to the top, which is 1825′ above sea level.  If you look at the picture above you can see a person approaching the top, and a few people along the way – which give a sense of the scale of the Rock.

Autumn in the Hill Country.

It was quite windy at the top.  But what great views!  We don’t get a lot of autumn color, so I really enjoyed seeing this patchwork of rust, gold and green from above.

The close up views were worth seeing as well.  The shot above is of the rust colored lichens that can be found covering the pink granite rocks.

Craggy.

On the way down I couldn’t resist taking this shot of a wind-beaten, twisted, dead oak tree against the sky.

Oh, deer.

After we made it back down we came across several deer, right on the edge of the parking lot.  This guy turned to say bye.

Barrel o fun!

On the way to the park we drove through Fredericksburg and stopped to walk through some of the shops.  We ate lunch at Der LindenBaum – home of awesome traditional German cooking.  On the way home, we couldn’t drive by Becker Vineyards without stopping in for a flight of wine tasting.

What a great day!

Keeto at about 10 weeks.

Little blue buddy.

We brought Keeto home a little over one month ago, at which time we estimate he was 6 weeks old.  He’s getting comfortable, growing a bit (I think).  We are trying to broaden his diet, which is working out ok so far.

He is a very sweet bird.  He looks a lot like Petey, but has a very different personality.  He’s quite the explorer – likes to run around the game room.  His wings are still clipped from when we picked him up, so he hasn’t mastered full flight yet.  He is hand trained, which was very easy from the beginning, and likes to have his head scratched.

We’re still not sure if he is a boy or girl.   After his first molt, which will be in the next couple months, his cere should change to blue or pink for good.   I’ll let you know how that turns out.