Pretty guy

Guillermo found this in the yard today.  He sure is pretty!

Guillermo also cut down the peach tree that was in our backyard.  It was a nice tree only in that it provided a little shade.  Other than that, it wasn't that great.  It produced peaches but none of them ever had a chance to get big because of the squirrels.  Then part of the tree started dying, so he just decided to take it down.

The peach tree was where that round patch of dirt is.

And yet another video with the Great Horned Owls calling.  And there is even a glimpse of it flying.  

Beautiful fall weekend

Friday we had rain practically all day here and by Saturday morning, it was over and in its place was much cooler weather.  I went walking in a park Saturday morning (while Guillermo went to the gym) and the wind was blow ing so nicely in that park that it was like having my own personal fan with me as I walked.  Today, Sunday, is just beautiful.  We had a low of 62 last night, the sky is a deep blue and everything looks so green, fresh and crisp.  Most of our plants have already started rebounding from the intense heat so they are looking so much better.  Tonight the low is supposed to be 57!!!  Shiver..... but the plants will love it!

What a treat we got this evening!  There is a pair of Great Horned Owls that hangs around this area and today, while we were out on the deck enjoying the cool evening, one of the owls flies onto the top of a tree in the field behind our house.  We watched bob up and down as it did its call and we heard the other owl calling back to it.  Then, the first owl flew on but we couldn't see where it flew to but could still hear the two calling to each other.  Next thing we knew, the second owl flew to the top of the same tree the first owl had been in and then much to our delight we saw the first owl come back and JOIN the second owl in the top of the tree.  We were so excited to watch the two of them call together for about a minute or two before one of them flew off.  I wanted to take a picture while they were together but didn't want to miss a minute of seeing them, knowing how fleeting they can be.  Anyway, after they were both gone from the top of that tree, we could still hear them well so I went in to get my phone and made this recording.  Not sure why it sounds like the recording is made next to a fast running stream - there is no stream around here.

Making the most of what we have

Here is Guillermo adding to our "plantable space".  He is truly optimizing the space we have in our backyard for plants.  You can see our peach tree there on the left - it's barely there anymore.  It was nice and full and gave quite a bit of shade to the backyard.  But Guillermo cut a branch a while back and then another part of the tree started dying so he cut that part off too.  The whole thing is coming down, actually, because even though in the spring it started off with lots of little peaches, we did not get ONE peach.  The squirrels got all of them first.  We tried covering the tree with netting but the squirrels found their way inside of that too.  So, the tree is going to be replaced - maybe by a Pomegranate tree or something.

There is a shelf that he has already finished, full of plants already!

Another completed shelf already full of plants.

A new decade

It has been a nice day.  This is what I woke up to in the morning.

So, I was going to upload some pictures from today, but for some reason they are going on sideways.  I need to figure out what's wrong....

What a hassle it was getting that above photo posted!!   The picture is in its correct position on my computer, but when I would upload to anyplace from my computer, it went on sideways.   I had to upload the picture to Picasa Web Albums, where it of course went on sideways.  But in Picasa I was able to rotate it and blogspot accepts anything in Web Albums, so there you go.

AAANNYway, on the table there are breakfast tacos, a brownie, lotions from Bath and Body, pretty fall flowers and fruit and orange juice to accompany the tacos.  GREAT way to start off my 6th decade.

After breakfast we went outside to check out how our plants were doing after all the nice rains we've been getting.  We were on the side of our house and I was done with looking at the plants so I decided to go back inside.  Guillermo followed me a few minutes later and much to my surprise, when he came in, he showed me that he had been stung by a wasp!!!  Wow, that could have easily been me since I had passed through there just a few minutes earlier.  What a birthday present THAT would have been!!  Guillermo's arm got very red and swollen around the sting area and it stayed that way a good part of the day.

For lunch, we picked up Mom and celebrated at Pappadeaux Seafood Restaurant.  We had such a nice meal there.  Mom and I shared a Seafood Sampler plate and Guillermo had a plate with Fried Crawfish, Crawfish Etouffe and Dirty Rice.  I had my usual Swamp Thing drink, Guillermo enjoyed a beer and Mom had Earl Grey Tea.  It was a very enjoyable meal.

At Pappadeauxs.  My absolute favorite restaurant.

Guillermo's wasp bite finally started getting better in the evening.  He has been stung several times before, but was never affected like he was this time around.

Lovely weather

Wow, we have been having dream weather around here for the past 4 days.  We've gotten rain every one of those days and the weather has cooled off relatively speaking.  It has been so nice to wake up each morning to see that it has rained and to know that we don't have to go out and spend time in hot humid weather watering plants that usually don't look like they appreciate  it.  The water they are getting now, though, the plants like better anyway so we, and they, appreciate this rain immensely.  Right now, as I'm writing this, it is almost 10:30am and we've already had two good rain showers.  Yet it has gotten very dark again so there probably is another rain shower about to hit.  Yay!!!
(Yep, had to leave here for a minute to go close windows because it started coming down again!)
We think the stronghold that summer had on us has finally been broken!
And Fernando, we are getting this rain without the benefit of a hurricane.......  ;-)

I can still say I'm in my 50s!!!

On a more somber note, I remember exactly what I was doing 12 years ago today.  September 11, 2001, I had taken off from work to go get a mammogram.  Since I didn't have to go in to work, I got up a little later than usual that morning.  While getting ready to go to my appointment, Guillermo called and asked if I had seen the news.  He said a plane crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.  I said I hadn't had the TV on or anything but after we hung up, I turned on the TV to see what the crash looked like.  I didn't think a thing of it, other than to think how weird that a pilot would be so off course (or so out of it) as to crash into a tall building like that.  As I was watching the coverage, all of a sudden the cameras zeroed in on what looked like ANOTHER plane heading straight for the other tower.  The announcers got slightly hysterical and at that point, I started thinking that this was more than just some crazy pilot error.  As I saw the plane hit the tower, I was absolutely floored.  I just kept thinking of all the people in both those planes who HAD to know what they were in for right there at the end.  Also, all the people who were in the buildings ABOVE the point where both planes hit.  It was all too horrifying to even contemplate. Then shortly after that was the breaking news of the crash of another plane at the Pentagon.  It was THEN that I started feeling scared.  It was then that I knew we were under attack.  Then hearing, while I was waiting at the medical center for my appointment, that another plane had gone down in Pennsylvania made me feel just a little more than scared but also quite worried because it was starting to be, "where are they going to strike next???"  When I was finally called to the back, I have to say it was the worst mammogram I have ever gone through.
Then, knowing that Fernando was in Hawaii, and was supposed to be flying OUT of Kauai on September 12 was very worrisome.  With all the planes being grounded for several days though, he wasn't going anywhere for a little while.   So, he was just going to have to "make the best of being stuck on Kauai", until they allowed flights again.  If I remember correctly, he was "stuck" there 3 additional nights - which he made the best of by camping on the beach but then later moving to a hotel because he didn't have a tent for protection from the rain.