Happy Halloween Everyone!

Well, tonight we see how many visitors we have. I have my candy bowl ready and Mark and I managed not to eat all the Snickers, 3 Musketeers and Almond Joys (my fav). Hope you all have a great day and plenty of fun!

Honey from our bees

They didn't make as much as Mark had hoped but our bees in the backyard should have enough for the winter. They swarmed early in the summer, splitting the hive in half. We are glad they all didn't leave us!

Lights, camera, action!

We don't know what they were "shooting" -- couldn't decide if it was a movie, commercial or print shoot. It's not everyday you see the Texas Theatre lit up so we drove by twice (thank you honey) so I can see what was the best shot. I mainly wanted to get the theatre lights. There were several trailers, trucks and other vehicles. Not to mention tons of equipment and people working in the dark.

Praying mantis

This "little" guy hangs out in our front yard quite a bit. Here he was just walking along the driveway. I actually don't know if it's a he or she; how can one tell? Anybody? There is also a green one that I am still trying to get a good shot of to post. It hangs out on our plumeria, which is about to bloom. We have lots of late bloomers in our yard; like the plumeria and esperanza...they always bloom much later than other people's plants.

Pecan Fest

It's time I gave blogging here another go at it now that things have settled down a bit for me and I'm not traveling as much. Here in Seguin, it's fall and the weather is actually acting like fall would act elsewhere in the states. :)

This weekend is our Pecan Fest so in honor of that, I'm posting this picture. I'll try to catch some of the activities this weekend. Our crop is fantastic this year. There are pecans galore all over town and they taste GREAT. We have two pecan trees only and we can hardly keep up picking them up. Mark is shelling them. And when you drive around town, you have to be very careful of pedestrians b/c everyone is out and about picking up pecans wherever there's a tree nearby! Even if it means along the side of the road!

Calvin Williams but in DC

While in DC for a library conference, we went to visit the African-American Civil War Monument b/c one of Seguin's very own soldier is listed on the memorial wall!

Though I am working in town now, the new job is requiring more time and energy than anticipated. So I must go on break for a while. I will post at some point in the future. Meanwhile, you can check out photos on my flickr page if you wish. I try to post pictures at least. Take care and have a great summer!
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Indian Blankets

Lesser known than the famous Texas Bluebonnets, the Indian Blanket flower is quite pretty. It blooms later than Bluebonnets so it doesn't have to share the limelight. It is a couple of weeks past prime right now. I took this and forgot to post it earlier.

It is amazing to me the variety of wildflowers in south Texas. I am really enjoying getting to know more about flowers that I did not know growing up in North Carolina.

Have a good week everyone.

Texas Peaches

Though we are not pulling in a "crop" of these goodies, our peach tree is at least producing more peaches this year than last. They were very pretty to look at and pretty tasty to munch.

Lately we have been very very humid. I have learned to tolerate it after 12 years here but I don't like it. Makes everyone feel yucky and lethargic. Especially when you go for a walk, which we did this evening. It was hard to keep moving. On Friday, the temperature was 93 degrees but with the heat index, it felt like 102 I read. That is not good. I hope this doesn't mean a crazy not summer ahead.

Memorial for Teyran "Ty" Patterson

Today was the memorial service for a local hero. His name is Teyran Patterson and he is the son of friends of ours. Ty served as a game warden and though I did not know him personally, I wanted to post a tribute to a young man whom the community loves so much. The Patterson family and local officials expected about 1000 people to attend the service, standing room only at our coliseum. It is a statement of what Ty meant to Seguin and to his colleagues in law enforcement.

Update June 5th: the local paper today states that about 2100 people attended Ty's memorial service.

Lemongrass

We have had a lot of rain lately. I think it has been the wettest (?) May I have seen in a while. So, as a wonderful result, all our plants are nice and green. This is a lemongrass plant that my mom gave me year before last. She always has a wonderful garden no matter where she lives and her gardens always seem to thrive! It was shaky at first but my cutting from her original survived and now I have successfully split it and put some stalks in a pot.

Memorial Day

We made time to take a spin around town and it was really nice to see all the flags on display to honor our armed forces personnel.

Update on the Water Tower

We happened to be driving by and saw some activity on the tower. I snapped several shots of the skirt going up so you can click on the pic to go to my Flickr page for more. The skirt was huge and looked so cool going up; it was a very impressive job they did. It only stayed up for several hours and came back down. Looks like they sandblasted while it was up and we should see a new paint job soon. It still has the little "hat" on it as of today.

Seguin Water Tower

I was driving by the Library a while ago and noticed a funny thing happening with the water tower behind the Public Library. Looks like they are doing some work on the tower. This made me think the tower had a "hat" on. I am not sure what the setup is but it looked neat. I tried to get a good shot of the tower but it's hard. Didn't want to get too close so b/c you can't see the top well. I shall go back by there and see what progress has been made.

Sorry for the lack of postings. However, I hope to be working in Seguin very soon so that means no more commute to San Antonio. Which means, possibly, more time to post. Of course, I have a whole list of things to do to catch up around the house and town so give me a bit of time to do all this.

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.