Tag: photography

Mar 20, 2011

Chillin.

For the first time I can recall, at 9 AM in the morning, Monte and I were the only ones up.   That was SOME party last night.

Eventually heads started popping up on deck.

We had a great day, just chilling out.  The water is still too cold for swimming, but everyone was more than happy to sit around visiting with eachother.

As late afternoon rolled around, everyone reluctantly started peeling off to head home.

We had another great sail on the way home.  We didn’t have to tack once on the trip from Bee Creek back to the marina.  Very nice.

Oh, and today is the first day of Spring!!!!!  yeah!

Mar 18, 2011

Purple.

There are some colorful signs of Spring in Central Texas that I really look forward to.   One is the indescribable pink blooms that cover the branches of the Red Bud trees.   And another are the fragrant purple clusters of the Texas Mountain Laurels.

This is a shot of one of the mountain laurels in our back yard.  I took it this morning as the sun was coming up over the house.  The light was not great but I couldn’t resist.

Pretty soon the bees will be buzzing about.

Oh yes, and today is FRIDAY!  We’ll be rafting up with friends this weekend on our first raftup of the year.   Yay!

 

Mar 15, 2011

Beer… or cake… or both?

Monte’s birthday is tomorrow so I’m going after two of his favorites at the same time… chocolate cake and guinness 🙂

I found this recipe from Nigella Lawson and am giving it a try tonight.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Update:  It was DELICIOUS!  try it!

Mar 14, 2011

Lily.

This is a close up of one of the lilies that monte brought home the other day.

I’m thinking I’m ready to have a new camera to play with 🙂

Mar 13, 2011

Osteospermum.

Irene and Joseph left in the wee hours this morning for their flight.  It was definitely a shorter drive from our house to the airport than from College Station.

Today is another beautiful day.   The flowers I planted seem to be taking hold.

This is an african daisy – at least I think that’s the common name for this flower.   I’ve planted them before and though they are an annual, they will come back after a mild winter.   Last winter was definitely not mild for us, so these guys are newly planted.

Mar 11, 2011

They're here!

My morning stroll through the wildflower patch in the way back found 3 bluebonnets have their color.

And many more to come, i hope.

Mar 10, 2011

Grand.

I’m very excited that one of my best friends from high school, Irene, is here for a visit with her husband, Joseph.   They live in Seattle.  Their son Jeremy is competing in the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championship @ Texas A&M this weekend in the heptathlon, for the University of Washington.   They’re staying with us tonight before driving up to College Station tomorrow.  They flew in this evening and we went to dinner at Chez Nous (*love* that place) and walked around downtown afterward.

We buzzed through the landmark Driskill Hotel.  This is a shot of the huge glass ceiling decoration over the main lobby.

Nice.

Mar 9, 2011

Sequel.

It’s funny, really.   I looked out the front window today and saw that all of a sudden the ornamental pear tree out front had burst into bloom.  I looked back through the photos I took last spring, because I recall taking a photo of the entire tree full of white flowers.   It turns out I took that picture last year on the same day as today – March 9th.

Amazing how all this works.

Mar 8, 2011

Happy 1st blogoversary!

Today is the 1 year anniversary of my starting this blog.   To mark the occasion, I made a collage using all 365 of the moments that I’ve posted here.

I can recall taking each one.   🙂

I started this in early March last year, in time to capture the signs of Spring, and into the Summer as things began to warm up and as we spend so much time on the lake… then through the changes in Fall and Winter when we spend more of our time on projects and playing with friends on land.  I’ve come full circle, and am looking forward all the moments from the coming year.

Happy Mardi Gras!   and  HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lori and to Mary!

Mar 7, 2011

Day #365!!!

Today’s post makes the 365th moment that I have shared with you.  This is a shot of one of the geraniums I planted yesterday that I took today during a break between conference calls.

I’m very pleased that I have stuck with this post-a-photo-per-day-for-a-year project.  There were some days that I found it difficult to see something worth sharing.   But I have to say that most days I looked forward to toting my camera around with me, and was usually pleased to find a moment that was either a photo that I liked or at least made for a nice story to share.

Wow, a year.   365 moments.   It goes by fast.

I look forward to keeping my blog going.  I don’t know that I will be posting something every day, but I am definitely looking forward to posting more moments worth sharing.

A colleague of mine passed away over the weekend after a fight with cancer.  He was only 51.

I can only hope that you all have many more years left on this earth to share with your friends and family.   But since we never know when our time will be up, we have to take the time to enjoy and be thankful for each and every day that we get to spend with them.   I have done that for a year.   And I hope to from here on out…

Mar 6, 2011

Columbine.

Another great weekend.  I put out some more flowers.   These are Columbines, which I think are just beautiful.  They are perennials, so I’m hoping this will be year 1 of many years of blooms.

They were lit up by the quickly setting sun.

 

Mar 5, 2011

In like a lion.

This is the first weekend in March and it’s WINDY!   We took a break from cleaning house and varnishing the boat to take the awesome pirate ship kite that Santa brought me out for its maiden voyage.   It’s about 2 feet high and 3 feet long, made by New Tech Kites, a company here in Austin.

Tomorrow is actually the Zilker Kite Festival, but ironically, the wind is predicted to be in the single digits tomorrow.  So today was our chance!

It turns out the kite is rated for 8-20 mph winds, and it was gusting in the 20s, so it actually ended up being a bit too windy for it.  But we did get her up in the air and flying!   AHOY!

Mar 4, 2011

Bit o'color.

The yard is scattered with fledgling weeds.  This is one that seems to be pretty hardy.  It has small, spunky purple blooms.  It’s the only splash of color on the landscape tonight.

Today is Friday (thankfully).    And all is well.

After work tonight we pruned the crepe myrtles back.

Supped on a Tuscan pizza from Brick Oven (next best thing to homemade).

Watched an old Elvis flick on TCM (“Clambake” – um, not his best).

And then watched Jacques Pepin and Julia Child argue whether the turkey had enough or too much salt.

I wish every day was Friday (night)!

Mar 1, 2011

They're baaack.

As Monte is all too aware, I am NOT a fan of bugs.  Spiders in particular.  So, I am hoping you can appreciate the steely focus and determination with which I leaned in headfirst to within a couple inches of this guy while I manually focused to capture this moment and share with you.

Ok, so what if the spider was no more than 1/4″ long?   We all need to stretch beyond our comfort zone, right? 🙂

I was walking out back this afternoon and was a tad disappointed in the late signs of spring.  But then I saw this web glistening in the sun.   If the spiders are back, Spring must be right around the corner!