Saturday, February 26, 2011

Lights, Camera, Honey!

Clover on black w/ hand

Today was dreary pretty much most of the day but we got ourselves to the gym early, had a nice mid-morning snack and then got to work on photographing our company products in the light tent we just got. Developing and building a new company website takes a lot of work and we're still working on several components, one of which is product shots for the online store. That in itself has been a real learning process and challenge for both of us but we are happy to learn. Back to editing. :-) Hope y'all are having a good weekend. We are suppose to have a few great, gorgeous days next week! Yay!

Smith-Victor Light Tent Kit

Monday, February 21, 2011

Spring is Springing!

Redbud Spring 2011

Once I see these two sights, I KNOW spring is right around the corner for sure. The Redbud is about to burst with blooms this week and the mockingbirds have returned to their nest in the Crepe Myrtle. Plus I saw our third sign though I couldn't get a photograph - our woodpecker is back and digging out treats from our pecan tree. He typically arrives when fall gets here and then again when spring is hitting us. Though I have enjoyed some cold weather (and snow even though I had to see that out of state, I count it), I do enjoy wearing short sleeves and shorts and sitting outside on the back deck. I have to enjoy this before the 95 degree weather comes along, right??

Sign of Spring

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Still Dry Out There

Spotted a 100 acre fire in the distance

On our way to the
Capote bee yard today, we were worried to see what looked like a big fire. Later we learned that it was about one hundred acres and something like seven fire departments worked together to get it under control. I hope they did and that everyone was okay. This winter has not seen as much rain as last year and things are still a little bit "crunchy" out there. Pretty easy to toss a cigarette or something out the window and cause some trouble. I see burnt patches of grass and field here and there as I drive about my business so I try to be conscious of the hazard.

Besides that bad news, we did manage to have a great day with our bees. Hope you got out there and enjoyed the warm weather a bit. So nice for a bit of glorious sun, right? The bees loved it and so did I. Here's hoping tomorrow will be just as lovely. :)

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Juan Seguin & Fountain on the Square

Juan Seguin & frozen fountain

Today was a glorious weather day - sunny, no clouds, 76 degrees. Amazing. But I still wanted to share two shots from our visit to the fountain on town square on Friday. Juan Seguin was frozen. :)

Fountain on square

Friday, February 04, 2011

Arctic Blast

Insulators in ice 3

Today we are currently at 34 degrees and it's sunny. It sure makes a big difference, I can tell you that. The weatherman says it's the first time we've been above freezing since Tuesday. That's a long time for South Texas. :-) It's been a fun evening and day of looking out the window to see what's new and listening to the news and seeing pictures of other local areas. We didn't get much but it is still a nice weather event to see. And the snow looked different. I went out with Smokey this morning to take a look and snap pictures - noticed the snow was super dry and more like small prefect pellets rather than the fluffy stuff. Interesting.

Smokey profile in snow

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Happy Lunar New Year

Incense to remember

...also known as Vietnamese New Year (Tet) or Chinese New Year. :-) It's the year of the Rabbit or Cat, depending on which book you read. Either way, it's off to a brand new year for us and that meant a day off from work, whic I have been trying to do for many years now. I make time in the morning to quietly pay my respects to my ancestors and to give thanks and ask for blessings in the coming year. This is part of the little prayer table I put together and it includes some fresh fruit as well as sweet treats, flowers, candles and incense. I know it will be another great year for our family!

Having a day off also means when I run errands and see something interesting, I actually have time to stop the car, get out and snap pictures. I had a great time today doing that despite nearly freezing my legs off in the 10 degree wind chill we had here in Seguin. I had not put on a second layer under my trousers and boy did I feel the difference. But more than that, my eyes watered to the point I couldn't see clearly to photograph after about seven minutes. What a wimp. It's so different from the cold I felt in Virginia last week. That was tolerable. I'm sure it had to do with the humidity levels. Anyway, here's a shot of an ice sculpture on Kingsbury/Highway 90 before you get to the Guadalupe River bridge as you drive towards IH10 West. Someone stuck their water hose up the tree. Hope it survives its encasing.

Ice tree 3

And here's one more shot of another tree that was iced because the sprinkler system was not turned off. We're expecting/hoping (I don't think I'm in the minority on this one) for a few inches of snow over night. I will certainly post a shot if we get anything worthy of mention. Keep warm out there!

Icy tree at CMC

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Weather Chaos

Deadman Creek yard

I finally got my warm weather outting photograph loaded! It's from the bee yard visit with Mark on Sunday. This is our Deadman Creek yard. I had not seen it since it was established so I was so happy we had a gorgeous day, filled with sun and a cool breeze. My bee suit can get warm but I sure appreciated the security of knowing none of the little ladies could get me.

Monday turned out to be a nice, mild day as well though a little less sunny. I did manage, however to spend a few minutes sitting on the back deck with Smokey when I went home for lunch - we have this nice little area where we planted non-running bamboo years ago and the shot below if of the leaves hanging over the deck. I love bamboo. If we had a big piece of property, I'd want to plant the HUGE kind that have poles that grow to 4-6 inch diameters. These are delicate and only grow to about 1/4 inch or so.

Bamboo, sun & sky

Today brings a cold front - the one that's dropping blizzards north of us! It is currently in the lower 30s with gusting winds that drop the wind chill to the mid to upper 20s. Nice! I feel like I'm back in Virginia! The forecasters are calling for snow later this week. I am not letting myself get too excited about that because I don't want to be disappointed. :-) Still, I'm hoping...