This is my 100th post to this blog! I've come to look forward to sharing my life as I chronicle my adventures. I thank everyone for reading and hope I've managed to put a few smiles on some faces.
This block below is the 6th block for the Mystery BOM being done at Fat Quarter Shop. I am impressing myself at how well I am staying up to date on this one. In the past that wasn't always the case with a BOM (Block-of-theMonth).
Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day. I decided to check out the progress on my garden. It held a few surprises!! Here are the largest tomatoes so far. The biggest has the diameter of a large tangerine. I counted more than 30 tomatoes!
As an experiment, we are growing some broccoli this fall. Never having done so in the past, I am not sure when it needs to be harvested. We decide this crown looked like it was approaching the stage of flowering, so we cut it, cooked it, and ate it. It wasn't very large, so we basically each got a couple bites. The jury isn't quite ready to reach a verdict on its tastiness. It smelled and tasted like broccoli. However, the texture was not the same as broccoli from the store. The outside of the stem was much tougher and the inside of the stalk was much softer. I don't know if that means it needed to grow more or was already beyond the point of perfect harvest. Will experiment some more with the other broccoli plants we've yet to cut.
Last Saturday afternoon was yet another perfect autumn day in Texas. We got in the car and headed north, thinking we'd see some fall foliage in the northern section of the state. WRONG!!! Surprisingly the majority of trees had already lost their leaves. HUH??? When did this happen? The leaves in Dallas are just now starting to turn, so I assumed a bit farther north would have been at its peak. Shows what I get for thinking!
Regardless, we saw some wonderful sights. This little church is the Methodist church in Sadler, Texas. Sadler is just south of Lake Texoma and thus the Texas-Oklahoma border. The town bragged a couple hundred residents.
The windows on the back of the church were even more ornate and colorful. I would have dearly loved to have gone inside, but the church guard dog (we suppose it was the minister's dog and the minister's house since they shared the driveway with the church) wasn't too thrilled that city-slickers had invaded his territory.
We continued driving north. Destination: Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge . The scenery was extraordinary. I don't quite know what to make of it. Some areas were rather marshy with tall grasses. I loved this picture. I was standing on a spillway at the same level as the lake and noticed the beautiful reflection of the trees in the smooth surface of the water.
We turned down one gravel lane and found quite a few cars pulled over to the side with people standing outside their vehicles, cameras in hand. Upon further investigation, we learned what the fuss was about. There were flocks and flocks of snow geese. Some circled overhead. Some stood in the meadow honking their calls. Yet others braved the waters for a swim or a meal. It was a beautiful sight... and wouldn't you know it?? I left the zoom lens at home. I'd not intended to be anyplace where it would be necessary and opted not to carry the extra weight in my pouch. That was the last time I'd be caught unprepared.
One of the most interesting facets of this wildlife refuge was puzzling. The gravel roads were little more than service roads to reach OILWELLS. Each road was designated with a number or letter which seemed to correspond with the pump number. The little shiny objects in the distance below are oilwells, pumping their contents into a network of pipelines that ran parallel to all the gravel roads. I was amazed at how many there were. It is almost as though Lake Texoma is nothing but one massive oil preserve.
Back to the water fowl. These were much smaller birds and brown. I don't know if they are wood ducks or some unfamiliar-to-me geese. A visit to the Hagerman website mentions some small geese known as Ross's geese.
You always know you are in Texas when you see certain "roadkill". This day proved no exception. There was a dead possum in the road and 2 HUGE black vultures were treating themselves to a free dinner. (From the homeschooling days I recall discovering that vultures are not birds of prey since they never kill another animal for food. They rely exclusively on carrion; therefore they are considered extremely helpful creatures since their sole function is to rid their territory of any dead animal carcass). One flew off into the distance as we drove closer. This one in the photo below decided to be bolder and only flew to the branches above his dining spot. I literally stopped the car beneath him and took photos without him stirring from his roost. He must have been very hungry to avoid the chance some other bird would come mooch his meal if he flew away.
Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
The windows on the back of the church were even more ornate and colorful. I would have dearly loved to have gone inside, but the church guard dog (we suppose it was the minister's dog and the minister's house since they shared the driveway with the church) wasn't too thrilled that city-slickers had invaded his territory.
We continued driving north. Destination: Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge . The scenery was extraordinary. I don't quite know what to make of it. Some areas were rather marshy with tall grasses. I loved this picture. I was standing on a spillway at the same level as the lake and noticed the beautiful reflection of the trees in the smooth surface of the water.
We turned down one gravel lane and found quite a few cars pulled over to the side with people standing outside their vehicles, cameras in hand. Upon further investigation, we learned what the fuss was about. There were flocks and flocks of snow geese. Some circled overhead. Some stood in the meadow honking their calls. Yet others braved the waters for a swim or a meal. It was a beautiful sight... and wouldn't you know it?? I left the zoom lens at home. I'd not intended to be anyplace where it would be necessary and opted not to carry the extra weight in my pouch. That was the last time I'd be caught unprepared.
One of the most interesting facets of this wildlife refuge was puzzling. The gravel roads were little more than service roads to reach OILWELLS. Each road was designated with a number or letter which seemed to correspond with the pump number. The little shiny objects in the distance below are oilwells, pumping their contents into a network of pipelines that ran parallel to all the gravel roads. I was amazed at how many there were. It is almost as though Lake Texoma is nothing but one massive oil preserve.
Back to the water fowl. These were much smaller birds and brown. I don't know if they are wood ducks or some unfamiliar-to-me geese. A visit to the Hagerman website mentions some small geese known as Ross's geese.
You always know you are in Texas when you see certain "roadkill". This day proved no exception. There was a dead possum in the road and 2 HUGE black vultures were treating themselves to a free dinner. (From the homeschooling days I recall discovering that vultures are not birds of prey since they never kill another animal for food. They rely exclusively on carrion; therefore they are considered extremely helpful creatures since their sole function is to rid their territory of any dead animal carcass). One flew off into the distance as we drove closer. This one in the photo below decided to be bolder and only flew to the branches above his dining spot. I literally stopped the car beneath him and took photos without him stirring from his roost. He must have been very hungry to avoid the chance some other bird would come mooch his meal if he flew away.
Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.
Until the next time....
1 comment:
I love these pictures. You are really getting good at them. In all of the posts from this one up I think they are just great. And your batik blocks are getting there. They do get a "mite tedjus" though, lol. I guess I will have to get busy soon, I think I have 40 of them done, so you are getting up there with me. Really enjoying your blogging, Gena.
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