Bee in the Esperanza

This year our Esperanza bush finally came back on its own without my having to prune it back, which is what I've been hoping it would do for a while now. We have actually been lucky enough to receive a little bit of rain here and there this year though we're still in drought. It is, however, still nice and green around here and there is some food for the bees. Still, we could use more. After work one day last week, Mark told me the bees were getting into the Esperanza so I tried to catch a few shots. They were such busy bees, it was hard to snap them but I do like the way this one turned out.

Tomorrow is a holiday so we have it off from work in order to observe Memorial Day in honor of our servicemen and servicewomen. I am grateful for them since I wouldn't be here in this great country had it not been for the people who helped us in Vietnam and then our sponsor helping us out of Vietnam. Not a day goes by that I don't realize how different my life could have been and I know that I am truly blessed.

Caterpillar Comes to Seguin

We're all very happy that Caterpillar is bringing operations to Seguin! The land is being prepared and it looks pretty impressive each time I pass by going to and coming from work. Before I left for North Carolina, there were two homes still up and plenty of trees so that you couldn't see IH-10 from Kingsbury/Hwy 90. I am gone a week and a half and it's all changed! It's exciting to see the new changes around town. Across from here, the Breismeister Middle School is also undergoing some growth construction.

We're Home & So Are Mark's Books

We're back!!! And it is so wonderful to be home after ten whole days away. We are both feeling refreshed and ready to tackle things we need to do. But first...

Mark's books arrived finally!!! I was so hoping to see them before I left for NC but it wasn't meant to be. But they are here now and I am so, so happy for Mark to get his first book on the topic published already! It's so cool to stack the books up and flip through them, knowing that he pulled together all the information...and to think about all the stories to be told about those people listed. It's truly amazing. It's also a very interesting look into what life was like for Seguinites back during the 1840s through 1865. The publisher (Janaway Publishing) did a fantastic job on the format and look of the book. We really appreciated that they spent more money in order to make sure the old documents and photographs came out great. And now Mark's going to start a lecture and signing tour -- he's got a couple of "gigs" lined up so I'll keep you posted on where he'll be. [By the way, thank you to those of you who have ordered copies and others who have called or spoken with us about buying a copy from us. We really appreciate your interest and support. :)]

You can also check out Mark's blog because I believe he's going to post about the book this week also. :) Congratulations, honey. I am SO proud of you!!

Home Sweet Home & Happy Days

Greetings from Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina! I am so happy to be at the Outer Banks and to finally show Mark the island I love so much. For my big 4-0 birthday, Mark is taking me on this trip and I can't tell you how much we are enjoying ourselves. I can't post everyday even if I wanted to because we don't have wi-fi where we're staying AND there is absolutely NO AT&T service anywhere on the island. At least none we found. Yesterday we took the ferry to Hatteras so that we can see a few text messages so people know where we are and to call our moms for Mother's Day. By the way....HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY moms out there. :)

Anyway, we just enjoyed some beverages here at the coffeehouse and checked some personal email. I refused to log into work though I thought about it for about 3 seconds. LOL. No work. It'll just have to wait.

This is a shot of us on the two hour and fifteen minute ferry ride between Cedar Island and Ocracoke, crossing the Pamlico Sound. I so enjoyed it, as you can tell by the big ole grin I have on my face. Didn't spot any dolphins this time but I hope to before we leave. Having a blast and will upload more pictures when I get home. It's gorgeous and perfect for another dip in the sea after lunch. I love the Atlantic waters.

Hope you are all enjoying the weekend and hope that the new week will be a great one. Catch you later!

Quiz for Thursday

Who knows what this is? :)

And guess what? I'm on V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!!!! And I am sooooo excited. Not sure I'll post between now and when we get home next week so if you don't see something new, you know where I'm at.....

Greetings from NC

Hi everyone. Before I get on to do some work, I wanted to get a post up for you. I'm in NC so I'm going to have to dig through some pictures to share with you from afar. I am L-O-V-I-N-G visiting my home state again. It's wonderful to be back and see all the changes in the area as well as some good ole things that haven't changed. AND I got to have lunch with my best friends from college as well as dinners with my sister and her family. I love snuggling with my nephew.

And now to the picture....guess what I got to sample before leaving Texas?!?! Mark's first batch of honey. OMG it was DELICIOUS!!! I wish I had taken some with me. In this shot, Mark is scrapping the wax off the top so that we can get to the honey. This is called "capping." The bees seal up the little compartments (sorry honey, I don't know the official name and you're not sitting across from me for me to ask) once it's full of honey. This is my simplified explanation. Anyway, it was really neat. That one little frame produced quite a bit of honey. And at first, I thought it looked really dark so I assumed the honey was dark. BUT that was not so...check out this shot below. The comb is dark but the honey is very clear. Cool. I love being married to a beekeeper! Miss you honey (my man, not the bee stuff)!

Beetle Battle!

Beetle Battle!
Originally uploaded by tgretchen

Visiting the bees DID help perk me up quite a bit today. I just love watching them, busy with work! It's an amazing world to me. I was so pleasantly surprised by the growth in Mark's hives...they stand pretty tall now so it was pretty impressive. We even took one small frame back with us to sample the honey. Verdict: DELICIOUS!

This is one of my favorite videos and I've been trying to record one where guard bees are at work protecting the hive. They protect against robber bees (from other hives) and intruders such as this beetle. They pushed it out and made sure it left before they returned to the entrance of the hive. That is pretty neat in my book. So now I know there are drones, workers, attendents, guards and the Queen. :)

By the way, they are still very gentle and accepting. I snapped photos and videos without wearing a veil or gloves and never got stung. At one point, Mark even pointed out that I was right in the middle of the flight path and they just flew around me. It was so cool to stand among all the bees. Really made my week. Thanks for taking me out there, honey.

Week's End Summary

Sorry. I had really intended to post garden shots this week for you while I was in Irving but it just didn't happen. :( I'm afraid I've been woefully neglectful of my blog so I apologize. Things have just been so darn busy that I don't even remember to eat breakfast sometimes. Now that's bad! LOL.

I always enjoy driving by this house because they were very creative with their garden -- I love how it's right there by the door in the flower beds! I have not seen this anywhere else so I just had to share it with you. There's just something about seeing the cornstalks next to the house. Very cool looking, if you ask me. Their tomato plants are looking pretty nice also.

Our garden is coming along though we're not sure what we'll get this year. I'll keep you posted. Like I said, maybe the mere act of gardening is the therapy for long, stressful days and weeks. That and visits to the beehives. Speaking of which, Mark is taking me tomorrow to visit the country hives. I'll see what's new and share with you. I do know our city bees in the backyard are bringing in all sorts of colorful pollen on their little legs. It's really neat to watch.

Long beans

Greetings from Irving, everyone.

Here's a shot from the garden - it's amazing how fast it's growing with a little rain! Though we are a little late putting the seeds in, we still enjoyed doing it and we'll just have to see how they do. I love the way the cover of the seed is being pushed off here. Looks pretty neat to me.

Heart-shaped Prickly Pear

We pass this lovely cactus on our walks and yesterday during my outting, I approached it from a different direction and I'm so glad I did. This little heart caught my eyes immediately! It made me very happy to see such beauty. It also made me realize that sometimes you just have to take a new approach in order to fully appreciate the situation. And while it helps to do so with your eyes wide open, maybe it's even more important to keep your heart and mind open as well.

Flower Power

This morning I ran a bunch of errands while Mark rested as he was feeling a bit under the weather. There were so many people out and about today since Trade Days happened down on the square (I have blogged about this before) so it seemed like everyone took advantage of the event and tagged on their own yard/garage sale or cookout fundraiser. All I know is that there was a ton of traffic. Not SA "ton" but a lot for our little town.

While I was out and about, I took some time to just roam around and enjoy the blooming beauties about town. Not only are the gardens fully engaged (though ours is a bit behind since we waited so long), but there are plenty of flowers to enjoy as well. I shot this along Camp Street. The wind was gusting a bit and it was fun to try and sneak in some shots between gusts. I like this one because it reminds me of the fun I had trying to beat the wind. To me, I can feel the wind in this shot.

All I think about when I see flowers now is that our little bees are hopefully enjoying all the pollen! :) They are doing well. We took a look at the three backyard hives and they were active. We watched them for a while and noted that they were carrying in plenty of pollen on their little legs. So cute. And the pollen was all different colors. I really enjoyed it. Smokey sat with us for a while also. He loves it when we're out there with him. He's so like a little kid sometimes.

What we did this evening and are doing now:

1. Went shopping for work clothes for me. Thanks honey! Mark gives awesome fashion advice and I really trust his opinion on my outfits!
2. Had dinner at the Noodle House in SA. We both did pho. Yum.
3. Listening to Diana Krall. I love her!
4. Blogging and loading pictures onto Flickr.
5. Mark's playing with his new webcam. Now I can see him when I'm on the road!
6. Thinking about work. And what I SHOULD be doing. :-\

Prickly Pear Blooms

Hi everyone, I'm back in Seguin again. Last time I went with Mark to check on the country bees, we noticed the prickly pears were starting to bloom. I love the beautiful yellow of the blooms and if you drive around right now, you'll notice many of the cacti are in bloom. I hope the bees are enjoying them and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Hackberry Tree, Rain and the Spurs

The green of the new leaves coming out on the Hackberry tree out back is really refreshing. Though I'm not looking forward to the hot days of spring/summer, it is nice to see things blooming and budding. Green is beautiful. This past weekend we got about two inches of rain! We sure needed it and could still use more. It'd be great if we could get an inch a week for a while (at the least)...still in drought around here. But beggers can't be choosers so I'm very happy with what we did receive.

We're about to head off for game two of the Spurs/Mavs series. Ugh. Can't believe we lost the first game to them. And at home! Oh well, I won't dwell on it. I'll just go and enjoy tonight since it could possibly be our last home game. I hope not but you never know! :)

Game Time

We just got back from exercising and then dropping of the first round tickets to friends who share our season tickets package with us. We play the Dallas Mavericks in the first round and the first game is tomorrow night! Go Spurs!

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a huge Spurs fan. My coworkers here are teasing me that I must now be a Mavs fan since I go to Dallas all the time. Let's get this straight....I go to work. Not to see the Mavs. And the only time I would see the Mavs would be if the Spurs were also in the house. :-)

Home again, home again

I'm back from Dallas. It has been a really hectic week so sorry for no posting. I'm so happy to be home though I did enjoy seeing folks up at Corporate office. Here's a shot of a soothing flower that makes me feel calm and tranquil. I hope everyone's had a good week. Happy Friday tomorrow!

Happy Easter

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter today. We started off with our baskets...yum! I got these cute M&Ms and my favorite -- marshmallow bunnies. :) Mark got a good looking basket also and then we enjoyed a great breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. After that, off to see the 9am youth presentation at church -- the kids did a GREAT job reciting their lines they learned about the meaning of Easter. It was soooooo sweet. After service we had a great lunch at Chili's with our friends and then home to a nice, long nap. The evening was also very nice as we enjoyed baked rosemary chicken for dinner. This has been a wonderful, wonderful weekend! I hope you all have a great week!

Bee Activity

Here's another shot of when Mark "installed" the queen to one of our city hives in the yard. I was fascinated by how quickly the bees smelled her and gathered round. And as I watched them clammer all over her little box, I can see why she needs a little protection at first! I learned that it may take our bees a little time to get use to their new queen. And if we're lucky, they will like her and start feeding and caring for her. The other scenario would be that they don't like her and they will kill her. Then you hope they make a queen or you hope you find out soon enough that they killed her and you place another queen in there, if you happen to have another one on hand. :) So far, so good for our hives. Mark checked on them yesterday and all three hives in the yard appear to be doing just fine. That's great news to hear!

I have enjoyed being home again. Man, last week was gruelling but awesome up at our corporate office in Irving. I am really enjoying my visits up there because I can see how it helps us move along on our projects. Face-to-face is just necessary at times, especially since many people don't know who I am. :) BUT....being home rocks. AND having yesterday off helped me recover and catch up on sleep. I should be able to attack next week with gusto.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

Sea of Bluebonnets

So it's not Seguin...but I didn't think anyone would mind seeing Navasota's wildflowers since we didn't have any to speak of around here.

After we got the bees, Mark helped me find nice spots to snap photos of the flowers. It was gorgeous! Before I came to Texas, I had no idea what a Bluebonnet was and once I saw my first blue sea of bonnets, I was in love. It's breathtaking when you see a field of them! I got some great shots of the flowers and it was all worth the fall I took while trying to get to the field. I think my excitment got the best of me and I didn't see the barbwire on the ground so my feet got tangled in it all and I went face down...hard and fast! Mark said one second I was there and then next blink I was gone. All I know is that I was stunned. Too stunned to yelp or scream and then I was motionless for a little bit. It was funny, it really was.

I save the camera in my left hand and the phone in my right. My forearms arm are bruised and upper arms hurt but all of that is subsiding already and I'm grateful I didn't break anything, camera or body. :) Like I said, the photos made up for it. But I do notice my body is NOT as forgiving as it once was.

The Queens Are Here

Last week was a real challenge at work and I was too exhausted to catch up on blogging so forgive me. I decided to give myself the weekend to just chill out, regroup and re-assess where I'm at, where I need to go and how I should get there. Do you ever feel like there are so many things coming at you -- people, email, phone calls, your projects, other people's projects, everything -- that you don't even know when you're suppose to stop to think? I don't often feel that way but I did last week and it weighed on me heavily. Anyway, I won't dwell on it here. What I will say is this...it felt GREAT to disconnect from the computer and work Friday as we headed off to Lake Jackson and Navasota in order to see family and to do a little beekeeping business. I had a blast!

We have family in Lake J so we went to visit overnight and also to pick up Mark's uncle, with whom he kept bees in the past. Lake J is near Houston and the drive was really nice and relaxing. It was really fun to catch up with them all but early Saturday, we had a hearty breakfast and then we headed out on a two hour drive to Navasota. There we visited Bee Weaver Apiaries in order to pick up three queens Mark ordered some time ago. It was my first time in that area and I was so pleasantly surprised by how lovely the countryside is there! It looks more lush than here and once we were in Navasota, the rolling hills with ponds and wildflowers just wiped away all the stresses I had. It was just what the doctor ordered. Thanks for taking me away honey.

The picture above is a little box with one of our new queens in it. Here we have arrived home and Mark was prepping the hive in order to place the queen in there. The bees buzzing on top of the little box are our City Bees, checking out the queen, whose scent they detected rather quickly. If you want to see other shots of our beekeeping fun, you can click on the picture and it will take you to my Flickr page. I have so much to share but I will end it here as this is long enough. I'll share more with you soon. I still have to tell you about my little tumble all in the name of photography. It was worth it but I'm still sore. :)

Saffold Dam

This evening I am feeling somewhat rebellious....I am not checking my work email. Well, I tried earlier but kept having some tech issues so I got out slightly frustrated. It's been a long, tiring week and I feel absolutely drained. I think I could have gone straight to bed when I got home. I don't want anyone to feel bad for me; I often find writing helps me to let go of things - writing therapy. We have so much going on at work but I still enjoy being there and as always, I am learning so much everyday. And I am so blessed to have encountered plenty of wonderfully nice people to balance out the not-so-sunny personalities.

Anyway, to escape a bit, I did or am doing the following this evening:

1. Watched Mark finish up splitting the hive in the backyard. Now there are three!!! I'll snap it in good day light.
2. Went for Chinese food. Comfort food. Some nights, you simply do not feel like cooking.
3. Listened to Mark tell me all about his day with the bees! I wish I could have watched him split the hives of Country Bees.
4. Learned that the queen bee does not just walk out the hive "door." One of the hives did not have a queen and Mark has theorized about how that could have happened...that's another post altogether.
5. Cruised around town, talking through things that concern me with the greatest guy ever. You know who.
6. Talked to my niece about things. Laughed.
7. Missed all my nieces and nephews.
8. Caught up A BIT with blogging and Flickr. Just a bit. Oh, and Facebook too.
9. Listening now to some of my favorite songs, currently we're on Yoyo Ma essentials.
10. Got showered and into my softest jammies.