Yellow Wildflower

Bluebonnets often get the most attention in terms of wildflowers here in Texas. However, we have plenty of other gorgeous flowers to enjoy thanks to all the rain we have been getting! Now that the blue has faded away, I see a lot of yellow flowers along the highways and in the most unexpected places. I snatched these from a parking lot curb! I don't have my wildflowers guidebook with me so I don't know the name of these. I will add the name when I find it. Have a good evening everyone.

Green Gate Nursery Greeter

Yesterday we stopped by Green Gate Nursery on Highway 123 near the Wal-Mart. Green Gate is a wonderful place to go when you need plants or trees or soil of some sort. I also like getting mulch there. This colorful birdy was watching the store when I noticed him from the checkout counter. I went over to snap a shot of course. The staff was a little busy so I didn't ask any what's-the-story-with-this-bird questions I wanted to but I will next time I go.

We selected a beautiful white mandevilla, which was being nicely trained on an inverted u-shape bamboo form. The lady helping us wrapped the pot very nicely in a somewhat burnt orange (Go Longhorns, we were going to Austin afterall) and a white/orange bow. I highly recommend the nursery if you are looking for a good shopping experience.

As an aside, I also love going to the Schulz nursery in Marion. They are also a great staff and they have a great selection that different than Green Gate so it's worth visiting both. I saw there was a new gardening business off Kingsbury so I will give them a visit the next day I have off for landscaping duty.

Misty days in Seguin

We have had good rain in South Texas lately. Which is very nice, especially once summer rolls into fall b/c it might not rain for 2 months straight, as it can do sometimes here.

I have been enjoying the misty days the past several days. The yards are all so green and trees are budding, many have full leaves now and blooms of all sorts are popping up everywhere. This is one of two blooms coming out on a cactus in the backyard.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

I ran to the store the other day and as I left, I was struck by the image of so many Our Lady of Guadalupe figures, arranged like an army marching out. I liked it for some reason. I love the colors. People like to decorate their yards here in South Texas. And I have seen many Lady statutes around Seguin. She is rather tall, the statute, as you can see if you notice a customer lurking in the background. Maybe she bought one, I didn't stay to find out.

Lonely Kitty

I know this is not a problem unique to Seguin, but I am worried about the number of cats we have running around. They are everywhere. My little Smokey does run around outside but at least he has a home and he usually sticks around the house within a house or two.

Everywhere I walk or drive, I see so many homeless cats. Even at Starcke Park, there are always at least 3 or 4 that we see. My husband use to work for the City of Seguin and at one time early last year, he said there was a family of 14!! They just kept having babies. And people would just come and leave out food and water.

This cat was one of at least 3 grown cats that I saw in a vacant lot. She was not too frightened of me and let me photograph her but she didn't let me too near. All 3 were very curious about us and why we were there.

Bluebonnets in bloom

When I first came to Texas 12 years ago, I was awestruck by the sea of blue blooms along the highway as I commuted to work. The blue sea was created by the thousands of Bluebonnets, one of the most beautiful wildflowers I have ever seen. Blue flowers were not something I was use to at the time and I just fell in love with them. And I still am. Along College Street in town, there is a house and every year, they have these gorgeous flowers in their yard. This year is a good year b/c we received plenty of rain and enough cold weather so everyone is saying we should have some beautiful flowers. I didn't have to adjust the lighting and color on my shots and you can see how vibrant the blue is! For more photos of the Bluebonnets as well as a flowering Dogwood (a favorite from my home state, North Carolina), view my flickr set.

Thank you to those of you who have posted recently on the Seguin DP. Especially about the ZDT Amusement Center. I am glad you are enjoying the posts and I hope you keep visiting and posting comments. Perhaps I will visit the INSIDE of ZDT soon and then I will provide a follow-up posting. If you have any requests for entries, photos or whatever, let me know and I'll try and capture a piece of Seguin for you.

Amy & Kathy's

I don't get to lunch in town often so I always enjoy going local when I get a chance. My friend took me here and it was very nice. Had their shrimp & avocado cocktail and a panini sandwich. Very tasty and the price is not bad. I like the location of the sandwich shop --- on the square downtown. So if you're on jury duty, this is a great place to check out and then you can grab a cup of joe at Chiro Java along the same block.

King Ranger Theatres

The only first-run theatre in town. I have been there once but it's been open for several years now. It's just a little too young for me (teens) but it's nice for them to have a place to go in town. I do like their star logo.

Spring is in the air!

That's my cat Smokey relaxing on the grass. Now that it's warm in Seguin, he's spending more time outside. I spied him making friends with a new cat. I haven't seen her before. I think she's a she anyway. They were doing a funny follow-the-leader, slow walk around the yard. Very interesting to watch the animals (birds, squirrels, etc.) enjoying the change in weather.

Old Fire Station

This use to be a fire station. It is the American Bank of Texas and I just like the red brick of the building a lot. Makes me think of North Carolina where I use to live and still miss. We use lots of red brick there.

Ahoy mate!

I love this company we have in town. They are Waterworks Experts Inc. and I posted some frogs I first spotted last July. I pass the Experts everyday going to and from work and I find myself wondering what creature, vessel or other structure I will see. It's so fun! And what a cool thing to think Seguin is home to a group of people whose work is used in waterparks across the nation! I wish I knew where each piece will travel to and call home.

The Aumont

Per a request from an anonymous visitor, here is a shot of the Aumont Hotel. There is now a dance hall in there along with some office space and apartments. I think it would be neat to live there and to be near the center of town. We see more and more activities all the time downtown and the area is looking very nice.

The one story adjacent space is now a pool hall. Haven't checked it out yet but want to. It's immediate previous life was spent as a tattoo parlor. That didn't last long however.

New Year Money

For Lunar New Year, I like to give unusual currency for fun. We don't typically spend what we give each other. We like to keep it as a momento. I liked the $2 bills from my sister but I was so excited when I saw they had introduced a new dollar coin. I love coins and these have a wonderful feel to them. I'm going really try and circulate a ton.

Happy New Year!

According to the Lunar calendar, today is the first day of the new year. This year is the year of the pig in the Chinese zodiac. One of the things one does is to offer thanks to Buddha and also to your ancestors. And to ask for additional blessings in the new year. On the ceremonial table, you will find things such as water, coffee, cookies, candy, meat fill rice cakes, and other yummy treats.

Hagn House Retreat and Spa

I passed by this and was surprised to see it. I've been in Seguin for over 8 years and now all of a sudden, spas are popping up all over town. There's this one and another one, FX Spa or something. And then there's the medical spa, that's one on the fancy side so I'll swing by sometime and snap a shot.

I haven't tried any of these spas in town. I've only been to one and it was Patricia's in San Antonio. I get massages at the Hair Haus, where the staff educated me on how people have different meanings for "spa" and your spa experience at one place may be totally different from your spa experience at the next place. It was all very interesting.

Going back to the Hagn House, I'm curious if you can hear traffic and such since Kingsbury is a rather busy street right in front of the house.

Where's our veteran?

It was really cold that day but we wanted to see if the memorial brick for Calvin Williams had finally been placed. And we found it (thankfully) within about 20 seconds. Calvin was a Buffalo Soldier, was stationed at Fort McKavett (after marching hundreds of miles on foot) and settled in Seguin. He was also the grandfather of "Smokey" Joe Williams, who later was an amazing pitcher in the Negro Leagues. Joe was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. I know all this b/c my husband has done extensive research on the Williams family.

Misty Guadalupe River

This was taken last week actually but I only have some time and a good connection for posting it. This was on one of our ice days and we got to play hooky from work. It was very nice that the City of SA decided to close rather than have employees try to make it to work.

I really liked the misty setting when I saw the river. It was about 29 or 30 degrees that day.

Arctic Blast!

I am sure you've seen our area on the news the past couple of days. It's not everyday we have arctic air blasting through here with ice, sleet and snow! Seguin didn't get any snow unfortunately but the icy conditions did give us an "ice day" which made me feel like I was in school again. A day off meant lots of knitting, watching news coverage of the big storm and lots of photos being taken, of course! To be near and below freezing for so many consecutive days is rare here in South Texas.

Mark was nice enough to scrap ice off the car and drive me around town in search of interesting things to photograph. I had several cool shots and it was hard for me to pick one but I decided on this light. Love all the icicles!

Update on the Memorial

You may recall I posted a shot of the Guadalupe County Veterans Memorial November 8. Well, every time I drive by, it appears that they have added another component to it. I thought it was completed already! Personally, I liked it as it was on Nov. 8. It seems a bit busy now though I do like the eagle. What do you think?

Mockingbird on Pecan

Happy new year everyone!

This one is for Annie of Little Rock. This is from my kitchen window looking up into the pecan tree in our backyard. The birds were very active this weekend. The weather has been gorgeous after the rain last weekend. Temperatures are in the upper 50s, lower 60s during the day. And as you can see, no clouds! It was gorgeous.

I also spied this cool woodpecker. There were two of them flying around and I wanted to practice with my new digicam. More pics of the backyard animals are on my Flickr page.