Stormy Spring

Hi. It's been a crazy spring for us here in Seguin - we've hit the low 90s twice I believe and that was in February. Now close to May, we have been seeing weekly storms and some of the mildest temperatures since I've been here in Texas (about 16 years).

So I think it's time I admit to myself that while I can't give my first-ever blog to someone else, I am also unable to keep up with this in a way that is fair for my readers. I'm officially going to put this blog to rest indefinitely. Thank you so much for the many years of support you have given me! And it is still special to me when I meet one of you and you tell me you have followed this blog. Thank you. I am going to miss it. I already have been missing it. But time to move on now.


You can find me over at the bee blog for Gretchen Bee Ranch since that's where I spend 90% of my blogging life.

Ciao! Be happy, snap pictures and talk to people! It's what makes life so fun.

Thien

Attack of the Ants

Have you noticed that the ants are PARTICULARLY large this spring?? I am scared I am going to get bit up like crazy if I don't watch where I'm stepping and standing for pictures. :)

A Feel Good Story

That's Major Pena and that's a jar of our honey he's holding. In Afghanistan!!! Thank you for your service to our country, sir, and thank you for sharing your picture with us. The Major just happened to see it in the breakroom at a time when he was feeling homesick. Seeing the label and his hometown listed on the jar made him feel better. We are so honored to be a part of that and we pray he will soon return to his family safe and sound. And we hope we get to meet the Major when he's home!

Renovation Downtown

Last week we were treated to a tour of what's above our all time favorite shop down on the square - what a great space! I wish I had the money to renovate and live and work in that gorgeous space! Thanks for showing us around, Mary!

Signs of Spring

One of my favorite signs of spring is baby birds and bird nests. I loved spotting this one while roaming one of our bee yards recently - wonder what kind of bird nested in it in the past and what will be in there soon. Hope I get to see them. Thankful it's low enough for me to get some great shots.

Blooming Huisache

Another lovely sign of spring - the Huisache trees are totally bursting with blooms! I wish my mom was here to see it with me. :)

Mistletoe Year Round

One of the reasons I love Texas so much - anytime, anywhere. You can find it if you just look. :)

KWED Garden Show

This is my beekeeping man getting interviewed earlier this month during the Saturday morning garden show on our local AM radio station, KWED. As usual, I missed it b/c I was assigned market duty that morning. Boo.

Gorgeous Stormy Skies

Lately the skies have been wonderful to watch - one of my favorite things about this area. The sky is big enough and wide enough to see some spectacular sunsets, sunrises and plain old pretty skies year round. I love the landscape of the east coast where I grew up but I have grown to also love the Texas sky. :)

Happy Rainy 2013

After a long drought in rain and posts, I am back and so is the rain! We were just way to busy this past holiday season for me to attempt to keep up all the blogs so I had to pick the Bee Blog. Sorry! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and that the new year kicked off great so far. Here's to another really awesome year for us and our bees. :)

Year of the Snakes

If you are a beekeeper or you just work out in the fields of Texas, you should probably invest in some serious snake boots. I feel much better now that my beekeeper has a good pair of Chippewa boots.

Pink Fire Trucks Tour

At lunch I joined a few friends at the hospital to support a fundraiser and awareness campaign hosted by our local fire fighters association as part of October's breast cancer awareness month. So glad I went.

Working Together

Last week Mark helped out his former employer - City of Seguin - with a wild hive in Central Park. It was fun to tag along and watch him work to get the bees off the pecan tree. They were rather gentle but you never know with a wild hive so better to remove them now before they become aggressive, as wild bees here in Texas tend to get. And how fun to ride a cherry picker. :)

Hair Haus & Locks of Love

That's me outside Hair Haus yesterday evening - shout out to my favorite beauty shop! They were one of several local downtown merchants hosting a late evening opening as part of Seguin Night Life and in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, you could get your hair cut for FREE if you wanted to donate it for a good cause. In my case, I'm sending the little bit of hair I cut off to Locks of Love, a non-profit organization that accepts these hair donations in order to create wigs for cancer patients undergoing treatment which may cause them to lose some or all their hair. Here's what I started with -

Thank you, Audra, for making this such a nice moment for me and my sister. You rock.

Pressed Shirts

If there's one thing I love about men's fashion, it's the marvelous shirts and ties - so many colors! Even the understated colors are wonderful. When Mark went back to San Antonio for a few months, I was too busy with two jobs to iron (not a task I hate, actually) so I dry cleaned his shirts weekly. We love City Cleaners - small, locally owned company. Great old building. Friendly owners and operators who remember you when you come in. Actually, if they see you coming, they go ahead and start pulling your clothes. How lovely.

Cloudy Fall

 A wet fall and winter is always better for our bees than a dry one so we are thinking next year should be great for wildflowers given all the moisture in the air lately! I snapped the above one last Sunday morning. I snapped the below shot at lunch today as I left the office at the mill. I love a cloudy sky sometimes.

Cool Mornings and Open Windows

That's right - we finally are feeling a tad bit more fall in the air! And that means it was cooler outside that it was inside this morning and I opened the windows in the dining area so we could enjoy the sounds of the birds chirping in our backyard. Even Smokey is starting to enjoy the new sights and sounds of his new yard.

Raindrops on the Plumeria

It's amazing how crunchy things can get in the South Texas heat and drought. It's equally amazing what a little rainy spell can do to moisturize things around here. We're finally moving into fall a little bit and rather than the upper 90 degree temperatures we've been getting, we've been enjoying cloudy days and 80 degree weather for a few days now. Despite it being the one weekend we set aside for moving, we can't begrudge the skies for dumping rain. We welcome it. Makes for good blooming and winter honey for our bees. This is the Plumeria leaves on a plant that has struggled quite a bit through the years. My brother-in-law gave it to us maybe ten years ago and when we put it in the ground it finally really took off. It reached heights taller than my 5'1" reach but then suffered a huge setback one year. No, not from drought, but rather, from a very hard freeze we had. Poor thing. That actually happened twice but here it is - still alive. Sadly, the pink and yellow bloom Plumerias from my mom did not make it that freeze we had. This one blooms white and is quite lovely.

Sunset and Stormy Skies

We've actually been getting a bit of a rainstorm here and there and we even have a chance for a shower overnight. How lovely. Gives the bees a chance to build up some honey reserves for the winter. :) This was shot last night over the Lazy U Ranch along the Deadman Creek area. Lovely out there.

Rain in the Gauge

And we finally got some rain this past Saturday night - a wonderfully robust storm came through and dumped some much needed water on the entire area! Yay! Sorry for the lack of posts, it's been crazy busy with Mark working full time and us still trying to run GBR in the evenings and weekends. I also had to be gone two weeks for CMC so there goes August pretty much. :) Oh, and we'll be moving soon. Man, I'm a little tired.