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| Nothing like the leaf blower and a stick to clean out the gutters. |
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| We love living under the giant elms and our neighbor's pecans and sycamores, but water won't run through gutters clogged with leaves and sticks. |
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| Just some of the debris blown out of the gutters |
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| The cats have us well trained. Zephyr only likes the gravy in the wet food, so she eats first. Fluffy aka Marilyn and Einar wait patiently at the door for their turn. |
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| After the gravy is gone, Fluffy aka Marilyn and Einar are thrilled to split the leftovers. |
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| We were going to go to Cornerstone for our egg hunt, but we didn't finish "lun-din," as Fox calls the lunch-dinner combination, until about 5 p.m. So Amon hid eggs inside while Fox and I waited in the bedroom. Fox found more eggs than I did, but I found the Golden Egg with the $5 bill inside. I tried to sneak it into Fox's bunny backpack but Amon saw me and called me on it. Regardless, Fox went home with the Golden Egg. |
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| Kindergartener Piper will be 6 on April 29. She made the butterfly magnets on the fridge behind her. Happy birthday, Piper! |
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| On his way home from Uncle Gene Cloninger's funeral in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Papa Tom spotted a field of bluebonnets just east of Corsicana, Texas. |
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| Papa Tom and I didn't get to spend Easter Saturday in Shreveport, but Donna did. She shared photos with me for the blog. Here, Dad wrote his name and Mom's on the driveway using the water hose. So sweet! |
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| Donna and Daddy |
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| Destry and Daddy |
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| We've thought of this hawk as Lady Hawk, but it's the smaller of the pair, so is likely the male (?). For now, we're calling it Lady Hawk. She likes to perch on the elm branch outside our kitchen window. Papa Tom heard an almost cooing sound and discovered Sir Hawk delivering lunch to her. Sir Hawk only stayed a few seconds, bolting when Papa Tom stepped onto the deck for a photo. I didn't get to see him, but Papa Tom says Sir Hawk is huge and might well carry away an unsuspecting kitty cat! Or is the hawk we're calling Sir Hawk actually the female? |
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| The hawk nest is at the very top of an elm in our neighbor's back yard. This hawk glides between the nest, our elm tree, and the neighbor's sycamore tree. Hawks are known for their sharp eyesight and hunting skills. |
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| Since the hawks' arrival, the squirrels have vanished from our back yard--voluntarily, we hope. An adult female hawk is called a "formel," an adult male is called "tercel" (from the German word "terzel," meaning "one-third," because male hawks are about 25 percent smaller than female hawks) and a baby hawk too young to leave the nest is called an eya. We've not seen the babies fly yet. |
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| Roy, Zephyr, and Roy's 5-year-old grandson Jackson, who was visiting from Plano, Texas. |
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| Roy, Jackson, Kendra (Luke's girlfriend), Roy's son Luke, and Tom. Kendra tore her Achilles tendon on a Ninja playscape. Her scooter will be a close friend for the next four months while the tendon heals. |
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| Einar never comes inside. But thunderstorms and the threat of hail and tornadoes plus a bowl of his favorite food convinced him to spend the night in the sunroom on Wednesday. He would have run away had I gotten any closer to him than the kitchen doorway. |
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| Dreaming on the deck on sunny Thursday. |
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| Hanging out. Zephyr meows at the kitchen window when she wants inside. |
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| Luring Einar inside on a sunny day. Zephyr is more interested in the great outdoors. |
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| Our stylin' Otis is a staunch Portland Trail Blazers fan. So far, so good. The Blazers won their first two play-off games. Go Blazers! |
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| Letting the good times roll at La Madeline. Shared my mimosa with Martha. Her first! |
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| Met Joyce, Al, and Emma at La Madeline for lunch before the Centenary College Choir's presentation of St. Matthew Passion by Bach with the Shreveport Symphony. |
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| Between lunch and the concert, I met Dad at the hospital to visit with Charles. |
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| Intermission. The performance was held at First Baptist Church. Excellent experience! |
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| Another blurry photo. Sigh. Here I am with my state representative Gina Hinojosa. Fellow Sierra Club member Eileen McGinnis is reviewing the bills we support with her. |
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| Heard a familiar voice in the ladies room. It was Lynda, mother of Ryder's best friend Seth Nesenholtz. She moved to Fort Worth years ago. She was at the Capitol lobbying for Planned Parenthood. She's a retired attorney who was one of my job references when I graduated from law school in 1994. She's still as compassionate and kind as ever. |
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| April 11 was Conservation Day at the State Capitol. I joined about 20 other Sierra Club members to speak urge elected representatives to vote for bills to keep/make Texas more green. Only got to speak with two representatives,as the House was in session, but with office staff of eight other representatives. I parked the Zoomer at the HEB grocery store and caught a Capital Metro bus downtown, only having to walk two blocks from the bus stop. Parking wouldn't have been any closer. |
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| Motorized scooters are very popular in Austin. Thank goodness they're prohibited on Capitol Grounds. I've almost been run over on downtown sidewalks. |
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| Looking up, up, up into the interior dome. At 302 feet, the Texas State Capitol is about 15 feet taller than the U.S. Capitol building, but is not the tallest state capitol building. I'm proud to say the honor falls to Louisiana, with a 450-foot tall state capitol building (not as aesthetically pleasing though). Sorry, Texas! |
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| Had to take a sip from the fanciest water fountain I've ever seen. A little research shows there's a more fancy one outside. Check out https://memorialdrinkingfountains.wordpress.com/tag/austin/. Will make a point to drink from it next time I'm on the Capitol grounds. |
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| Love the doors and doorknobs! |
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| Even the door hinges are gorgeous. |
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| We heard this hawk calling from its perch in one of our elm trees. The squirrel in the next tree froze in place for the longest time. We brought Zephyr indoors. The hawk probably wasn't large enough to be a danger to her, but just in case . . . . |
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| Birthday girl Cheryl chose Denver as her 60th birthday destination. We had flights of award-winning beer at Tommyknockers in Idaho Springs, just west of Denver, on April 5, her big day. |
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| Yes, it's possible to order flights of bacon at the Bacon Social House in Denver. Cheryl tried all the flavors (applewood, BBQ, candied, habanero, paleo, and a featured flavor). I tried none. Instead, you can see arugula on my plate, which also contains an egg white/veggie omelet. I did splurge and have a cheddar bacon biscuit. We weren't sure about the shears, but guessed they were for cutting the bacon. |
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| Cheryl and I stayed in a HomeAway in the Pearl/South Broadway area of Denver, much like Austin's SoCo neighborhood. I couldn't help but think of you, Anjanette, when I saw this octopus/sea diver candelabra in one of the antique stores along South Broadway. Shouldn't the octopus hold eight candles? |
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| Patio on a gorgeous Spring day on South Broadway |
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| You keep a snow shovel on the back porch next to your covered patio furniture. |
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| A snowmobile is parked next to the recycling bin in the driveway. Flatlander here at first thought the snowmobile was a jet ski. |
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| There's a boot scraper at the building entrance. |
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| Waterfall in the snow at Idaho Springs, a former mining town. Many of the miners were from the tin mines in Cornwall, England. They brought with them their elves, called Tommyknockers, who lived in the mines and either created mischief or good luck if left food or gifts. |
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| The Mt. Evans Scenic Byway runs from Idaho Springs, just west of Denver, to Evergreen, just south of Denver. We weren't able to take the spur to Mt. Evans itself, where we could have driven on the highest paved road in North America (14,000 plus feet). Due to snow, the road is typically open only from Memorial Day through Labor Day. |
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| View from the Mt. Evans Scenic Byway. |
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| I promise you, we were in the middle of nowhere, several miles outside Evergreen. I'm guessing maybe hikers and cyclists were parking their cars along the road for extended periods? Probably wouldn't get too far in 30 minutes. But maybe a friend could drop you off and pick you up. |
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| The indoor hot springs called Indian Springs are surrounded by lush flora. We met the gardener, Ken McNickle, who was a contestant on Survivor and listed in Cosmopolitan magazine as one of the 50 hottest bachelors in America (!). He also works with the homeless in Denver through a nonprofit he founded, HumaneKind. |
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| Very happy gigantic yucca plant |
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| I wonder what these hanging blossoms are? They're beautiful! |
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| When planting flowers in the rose garden, I came across Fox's buried treasure from a couple of Easter hunts ago. I left it on the front porch for Fox to find. |
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| Before Fox found her egg, rascally raccoons , who must have found lost Easter eggs from other hunts loaded with candy, absconded with the egg. They left it broken open on the driveway near Papa Tom's truck. The egg is safely indoors now. |
