Bottled and ready to share (July 2, 2025)

 We bottled 5 gallons of honey. Thank you, our sweet honey bees! We're sharing with family and friends. Yours should arrive soon!

Harvest time for us and the bees (Sunday, June 29, 2025)

Tomatoes! Peppers! Okra! Martin says true Southern girls make fried okra. I can fry it, but the batter always falls off. So maybe I'm faux Southern? We've discovered that sliced raw okra is delicious on salads. We're also pickling some. But for some reason, pickling brings out okra slime in long strings, like strings of cheese on pizza.

We could have taken the leftover comb back to our hives. But we decided to share some of it with the neighborhood bees. Thousands of bees collected wax for several days.

A lot of honey was still in the combs. We melted them. The honey settled to the bottom, the wax rose to the top.

We gleaned 32 ounces of honey from the melted combs.

The 5-gallon bucket is nearly full!

  

Esther's Follies with Fox (Saturday, June 29, 2025)

 Funny, energetic SNL type show, or as Esther's describes it: "contemporary vaudeville." We had seats front row and center, hoping Fox would be called on stage to assist magician Ray Anderson. Turns out you should sit at the end of the row to be picked. Next time?

Fox and me at Esther's. We first had dinner at the Velvet Taco on Congress Avenue. Great fusion tacos! Red velvet cake too, but we didn't indulge. But we did catch some stand-up comedy at the Velveeta Room next door to Esther's after the show.

Annual honey harvest (Friday, June 27, 2025)

Honey comb on four frames. We only harvested 10 of about 48 frames of honey in our eight hives. We left the rest for our hardworking girls to enjoy over hot, dry summer, when the grass is like straw and there's not one wildflower for nectar. The two new hives have 18 frames each, and the six established hives have 28 frames each. But not all frames are for honey. Some are for storing pollen, some comb cells are for brood. If the queen has no place to lay eggs, the hive might swarm to find more space. 

Several hundred bees rode home with us. Papa brushed them off before taking the frames inside. We love our girls, but didn't want them buzzing around the kitchen!

Amon and Fox clawed the honey out of the comb.

The honey is strained from the comb. See the line of honey in the bottom of the box? We'd eventually collect 5 gallons!

So much honey! So much comb!

 

Angel Fox (Friday, June 27, 2025)

 We meet Greg and Roy every Friday at Taquero Mucho for Happy Hour. Amon and Fox joined us on this Friday. The Taquero Mucho theme is pink. Pink chips! Pink drinks! Pink photo ops!

Sunflowers (Wednesday, June 25, 2025)

Where's Papa?

Sunflowers at sunset

 

Big Boy is the boss (June 2025)

 "My box!" No putting those last three Waterloos away.

Your pantry too? No, Big Boy, you don't get both!

Much Ado About Nothing--in the 1980s! (Saturday, June 21, 2025)

 Love! Deception! Social expectations! Some things never change, even after 500 years. Danny aka matchmaker Don Pedro and some of the Much Ado About Nothing cast. See Al and Joyce in the background? We followed the play over four locations at the historic Earle Harrison house and gardens in Waco.

After the play, we had "dinner" until 1 a.m. at Old Chicago Pizza. Fox told Danny she's her mentor. 

In Houston with Martin (Tuesday, June 17-Friday, June 20, 2025)

Dear brother Martin was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, June 15 with pancreatitis. His Monday text to me was simply "At St. Luke's for possible surgery." After none of us could reach him all day, I drove over on Tuesday. Poor guy! Uber had dropped him off at the hospital's back entrance instead of the emergency room. He'd had to baby step through the parking garage, doubled over in pain, to get to the ER!  By Thursday, he was well enough to review hospital admission documents during the oxygen treatment, which he likened to a spa visit. 

The "robonurse" room spy made sure nobody tried to get out of bed or break any other rules. Or else a very loud reprimand would bark over the speaker! 

Donna flew in on Friday to stay through Sunday. Martin didn't need surgery after all. He'll finish recovery at Brookdale Galleria with physical therapy until he's totally ambulatory and ready for home.

 

Happy Father's Day! (Sunday, June 15, 2025)

Papa and I celebrated the day with Amon and Fox at Cheko's, the Mexican restaurant around the corner from us. I wish we could have celebrated with all you fabulous fathers in the family!

No Kings rally at the Capitol (Flag Day, June 14, 2025)

I believe the underlying attack on truth and justice comes from Project 2025. I think Trump is their puppet, probably unbeknownst to him. He's easily manipulated, as world leaders know and those behind Project 2025 know. 

An estimated 10,000 of us were there. 

 

Very Austin. Political speeches, sure. But drummers and dancers too.

Yep.

Uh, okay.

At least their puppy is safe.

Sunflowers for Ukraine and bees (June 2025)

 Sunflower sentinels

Our sunflowers are in support of Ukraine and the neighborhood bees. A long time ago, Austin's monk parrots would stop by for the sunflower seeds. We haven't seen them in years though.

We stand with Ukraine!

Landlord and renter 30 years later (June 10, 2025)

 Papa and I met when I rented a room in the House of Light and Joy to study for the bar exam in the summer of 1994. The boys stayed with their Dad while I studied. Papa lived at his Mom's but would come over to check his mail. Two things that made a favorable impression on him: (1) I paid three months rent up front; and (2) when the plumbing in the bathroom backed up, I saved the wooden floors by stuffing towels under the door. Maybe TMI, but when he went shirtless to dig up the sewer line in the front yard, I couldn't help but notice his glistening muscles. Sigh. Plus he's a very sweet guy who's into yoga and cats. Only after we were married did I find out about the football hotline and a garage full of tools. All good! We exchanged vows on the deck of the House of Light and Joy on June 10, 1995. The spot is now at the end of the kitchen island, thanks to our 2008 remodel.

Some of you have shared our entire journey. Some of you have joined us along the way. Some have left us too soon, with sweet memories.

Evelyn wouldn't let Papa wear blue jeans. She hemmed some khaki slacks for him. We would have been just as married either way. But he did wear his desert boots! 

Micah put wire rim glasses on Papa for the bride and groom pinata.

What's a wedding without a chance to somersault out of the elm tree onto a trampoline?

Martin and Ramzi, skateboarder/snowboarder

Thirty years later. Same spot, same clothes, same bride and groom. The glass door in the 1995 photo is now the opening between the living room and kitchen.

Tangle of tomatoes (June 8, 2025)

 A forest of sunflowers protect the tomatoes and peppers from scorching Austin sun.

TC aka Big Boy aka Bubby (June 4, 2025)

 Can't you see I'm trying to sleep here?

Let the sun shine! (May 28, 2025)

The May 28th microburst pummeled us with marble-sized hail (baseball-sized 2 miles away); 85 mph wind gusts that toppled trees (we saw a giant elm limb crack off a neighbor's tree when we were outside parking Max in the garage); and 2-3 inches of rain in 30 minutes. Then, sunshine!
 

DNA information for my descendants, in case you're wondering (Monday, May 19, 2025)

 I was excited to see at least some French in there. I like the Breton heritage even better because I think I would have been at home in Celtic culture. Bretons are Celts who live in northwest France. Some 25% of Europeans have Neanderthal DNA. If y'all have it, it isn't from me. 

Papa's green thumb (May 11, 2025)

 Let the harvest begin! Papa nurtured the pepper plants in the greenhouse all winter. Our reward? Crisp, sweet bells!

First tomatoes and carmen pepper on May 22. June's going to be like the multiplying buckets of water in Fantasia.

Big Boy caught a mouse (May 9, 2025)

 Sorry little mouse! Guessing Big Boy found you in the garden? RIP! That makes two mice two days in a row.

A few days later, he hopped over the 6-foot fence into the front yard with this little wren in his mouth. Papa rescued it. Because it had two puncture wounds, Animal Control recommended we take it to Wildlife Rescue for antibiotic treatment.

I swear Colette was nowhere nearby when I brought the wren inside. She immediately darted in to check out the box. I had to lock the wren in its box in the master bath overnight until Wildlife Rescue opened. Meanwhile, the wren worked its way out of the box and was flying around the bathroom, banging into the window trying to escape. I have a feeling it recovered just fine at Wildlife Rescue.

Dead & Company at the Sphere (April 24, 2025)

The venue is huge and mesmerizing. Color! Lights! Sound!

Founding Grateful Dead member Bob Weir, age 77. He was with GD from 1965 until they disbanded in 1995 when Jerry Garcia died. Dead & Company came together in 2015 with former GD members and world-class guitarist John Mayer, now 47. I wasn't a fan of GD and I'm still not a fan. All their music sounds alike to me. I did like "Death Don't Have No Mercy," an old gospel blues song recorded by Blind Gary Davis in 1960, featuring Mayer's smoking solo. 

We were immersed in graphic images on three sides plus the ceiling. 4D effects? Kind of like 3D too, where images appear to leave the screen. Our seats shook when the motorcycle rumbled. Compare the image size to the band on the stage.

Dead & Company music lends itself to psychedelic graphics. The Eagles will play the Sphere in September. I wonder what their graphics will be like?