Missed photo opportunity

The plan today was to take Mom to her doctor appointment, then have lunch downtown at Schilo's and then take a river taxi to the newly opened section of the riverwalk. But since the day was forecast to be sunny and hot, we decided to just have lunch and skip taking the river taxi. The new section of the riverwalk would have been very interesting, there is even a section where the boat goes through locks!! Similar to the Panama Canal locks. There aren't many trees yet, though, in the new section, so it would have been a hot ride at that point.
So, I left the camera behind.
After lunch at Schilo's, we decided to take a little walk in the shady section of the riverwalk to Starbucks. Along the way, I pointed out to Mom and Guillermo the little shop where Martina loved to get a cookie, and the shop where she had fun looking for Western things. And right after that, we saw a most amazing thing on the banks of the riverwalk. A Yellow-Crowned Night Heron. Right there, not more than 6 feet from us! It was just enjoying life there on the river, with all the people walking right by it. It became a little more vigilant when it noticed that some people (us) had actually stopped and weren't moving on. We stood there for several minutes in awe of being so close to this beautiful bird. And oh how sorry I was that I had left the camera in the car. We couldn't have ASKED for a better opportunity to get some really good pictures. It just stood there, staring just as hard at us, as we were staring at it. Finally, we walked on, thinking how nice it was to have been able to see that heron so close up, and what a shame it was that we didn't have the camera with us.

These are pictures I took yesterday out in the yard.
The first picture shows Guillermo right after he moved the Bleeding Heart plant into the front yard and then a couple of pictures of the Bleeding Heart plant itself.



This is a beautiful zinnia growing in Guillermo's garden. It's a big one!
The sunflowers are starting to come out now.
This is for perspective. These sunflowers are huge!

Aunt Elfi was special to us

Yesterday we all got together at Kathy's house for a little memorial and remembrance of Aunt Elfi. Several of us talked about some special memories we have of times spent with her. Linda made a beautiful poster, that she displayed, dedicated to the memory of Aunt Elfi. It was obvious we all loved her and will miss her very much.

Clouds and Egret

I was watering the plants as a storm was approaching from the distance (watering while seeing a storm approaching just goes to show how much faith we have in storms actually reaching our house!) and Guillermo mentioned how interesting the clouds looked.  I looked up and right away knew I had to get the camera to try and capture that beautiful sky. And no, the storm did not get to our house.


A little later, I took a walk to the back to see if the creek had any water still running in it and to maybe catch a glimpse of the Snowy Egret that has been hanging around back there. We have been wanting to get pictures of this egret, but the few times we have tried, it is either not there or we scare it off.  This time, I finally learned how to approach the creek without the egret even knowing I was there.

Garden update

Guillermo's garden is really looking healthy right now. We've gotten some good rains, he has been relentless with the spider mites, and has succeeded in keeping the rabbit out.
We've been eating lots of squash, leeks, green (and purple beans) and peppers. Guillermo pulled up some onions and they are drying right now. The corn looks like it is getting close to being ready.
He and I have been slowly but surely working on all the plants in our yard. We have finally finished with cleaning up and trimming the last of the plants taken out of the greenhouses. With all the rains lately, our grass is really green and growing like crazy. It's still very pleasant to be outside, but it won't be long now before the mosquitoes are out in full force.

Remembering Aunt Elfi

It is a very sad day because our Aunt Elfi, my mother's twin sister, died today. She had been sick, but that didn't make the news any easier to take. She was a very special aunt, and I will always treasure every single memory I have of time spent with her.
I remember one time in particular, visiting her in Toronto, Canada. We were there in 1991, and I can still to this day remember how it felt to see Aunt Elfi in her kitchen, or see her sitting at the table. Seeing her made me feel like my mother was right there with us, because looking at Aunt Elfi was like looking at my mother. It was actually a very comforting feeling.
Another time I remember very fondly is in 2003, when Aunt Elfi went with us up to Bad Fusch. It was snowing so heavily, and my mother and she were walking down a slight incline and they both fell down in the deep snow. Neither was hurt, the snow providing a nice cushion, but I remember the expression on both their faces of surprise and then relief to know that all was ok.
May Aunt Elfi rest in peace.

Our trip to Rockport

Well, the third time was the charm. We had tried twice before to go to the coast, once in March when Andrew and Martina were here and once in April. In both March and April, it hardly rained at all, EXCEPT for the weekends we were planning to go to the coast. With the rain, also came cold weather, so each time, we opted out of making the trip.
Rain was also predicted for the weekend in May that we were planning to go to the coast, but fortunately, the rain came the day before we left. So, that left beautiful cool weather for the duration of our trip.
We left on Sunday afternoon, meeting John at his house and driving down with him in his truck. The first thing we did when we got to the RV park was "set up" the RV, which meant getting the electricity running, the water flowing and the gas ready to go. It was all very interesting.
After that was all done, we went to Moon Dog to have lunch. The place was pure Texas coast. It had four different dining areas. As you enter the restaurant, you walk into the first dining area which was completely inside the building. Keep on walking and you get to the next one, which was outside but had plastic put up on the walls for a wind break. From there you could keep on walking to the third dining area, which was a covered patio, and open to the air on three sides. From there you could continue on out to the picnic tables that were completely outside - no cover. I'm not sure, but there may even have been a place to eat up on top of the covered patio. Anyway, it was great. We chose to sit in the covered patio and the weather was cool and windy. We had a great time sitting there, listening to the seagulls, watching the heron with his fish, talking about the boats around the place and eating a good lunch.

In the evening we went to a little ice cream place and we all enjoyed a nice big ice cream cone!
On Monday, we had breakfast at a little diner in downtown Rockport. Guillermo and John said their eggs were really good, and my pancake was the best - typical of the good pancakes you get on the coast.
After breakfast, we drove around checking out various motels and RV parks "for next time". Then later, we drove to the sand bar by the Copano Bay Bridge and walked as far as we could. We didn't have the right kind of shoes to cross the water at one point so we just stood there wishing we had brought different shoes and wondering what was on the sand bars on up ahead.

From there, we drove around Copano Bay Village, admiring all the beautiful homes and trying to decide which one we would take if someone said, "Pick one!"
In the evening we drove out to the Big Fisherman restaurant and had a delicious seafood dinner. Guillermo and I remembered when we had eaten there several years earlier with Fernando, and we wished both he AND Rebeca (and Jason and Eva) could have been there with us now.
After that nice dinner, John drove along the water as much as possible back towards Rockport. We drove by the marinas and bait stands and we also drove through Key Allegro, once again looking at beautiful homes.
The next day, Tuesday, we drove over the Copano Bay Bridge to check out two possible places to stay in the future. One was The Habitat, which has some cabins around a pond and is supposed to be a great place for birding. We looked at the cabins and liked them a lot, but the place is swarming with mosquitoes. It would be rough staying there. Then we tried to find the Crane House Retreat, which we did find, but the gate was locked. So we couldn't check the place out, but as we sat in the truck outside the locked gate, we noticed the windows were covered with mosquitoes trying to get to us, so we decided it was just as well that we couldn't get in. We probably wouldn't want to stay there either, with all those mosquitoes.
Well, all good things eventually come to an end, and it was time to head back to the RV, hitch it up to the truck, secure everything inside the RV and head on back to San Antonio. Guillermo drove the RV the last 40 miles into San Antonio, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say he's been hauling RV's all his life!! He did a great job and it was a great trip!

How 'bout that Rebeca!!!

Rebeca calls us almost everyday, usually around the time she gets off work. Today we got a late phone call from her. Turns out she went in at about 4:30 this morning, and got off work at around 7pm. And what she did at work was walk with a co-worker and two clients into Madera Canyon - which turned into an almost 14 mile round-trip hike!!!!!!!! When the day started, they had NO idea that the walk with these clients would be so extensive. We are super impressed with Rebeca that she did such a hike in one day!!
Guillermo, Fernando and Jeremy did a similar hike in Big Bend National Park, but they hiked for 7 miles, cooked food, spent the night and the next day came back down the rest of the 7 miles.
Rebeca did this hike in one day - 6 1/2 miles up and 6 1/2 miles down - with only water and a few little snacks.
I'm glad I didn't know it was happening WHEN it was happening, or I would have been a little worried.