This past weekend, we managed to get outside for a bit though I think my sinuses nearly made me want to remove my head. Smokey just loves it when we are outside. He performed many feats of bravery and insanity to entertain us and entice us to play with him. Here he decided to climb into the rosebush I was trying to photograph. What a funny nut.Today I am in Lewisburg, PA. The closest photo blog I can find is for Bellefonte, PA. It's definitely fun to explore new parts of your own country. I have not been in this area before. During a jaunt out to find sushi for dinner, my coworkers and I stumbled across the downtown area of Lewisburg and we hope to do some exploring before leaving tomorrow afternoon. It looked lovely at night!
Smokey went with us yesterday to check out the garden. Things are going well. The tomato plants in the tub are bigger and we saw some of our seeds sprout within 6 days of being put in the ground. This is the sunflower seeds we put in. We also saw the okra come out as well. We had a few sprinkles the past several days but no significant amount of rain has fallen in Seguin. It's been overcast and in the upper 70s and low 80s.
I spotted this interesting new use for wine bottles. I never thought about using them in landscaping but I this looks pretty cool. Spotted this in the front yard of a house on Austin Street.
This is a photo of Fergie & Reverand Greason at the 2005 Banquet. They were fantastic and really enjoyed meeting the people of Seguin. They also liked what the City was doing to honor Joe Williams. The players who have joined us have not only been great athletes but also great people. Past speakers have included local news celebrities, Monte Irvin, Buck O'Neal, Reggie Rivers (Broncos) and many others. One of the nice things about having this kind of event in a small town like Seguin is that you have a chance to get up close to the players and really talk with them. If we had the same players in San Antonio (35 minutes away and 1.5 million in population compared to our approximate 26,000), more than likely fans would not be able to get too close.Another thing I love about helping Mark when he works on the Banquet is that we play host to these fascinating men and we get to know them as friends. We try to schedule press conferences, meet & greet opportunities particularly so they can talk with young athletes, dinners out and other activities which allow us to show them some good ol' Seguin hospitality. Mark and I are already working on an itinerary for Fergie and our keynote speaker Juan Marichal. So far, we're thinking of a Spurs game and also a tour of our steel mill, and of course an interview on the local radio station.You can read more about Smokey Joe on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website and also on Mark's blog. Mark has been researching Joe Williams and his family for the past nine years. His research has become his passion and has taken us from Chicago to Washington, DC, to New York City and back to the court house here in town. It's been a fascinating adventure. There's not many people still living who knew Joe Williams so Mark's trying to find and interview as many as possible. There are no immediate family members left that he has found but he has been in touch with a second cousin of Joe Williams. We'll see where that takes us.
In case you are in town or will be in town, think about checking out the banquet with us! It should be a lot of fun that evening and it's for a good cause. The money raised goes towards a scholarship for Seguin High School athletes; one for a male and one for a female athlete.I'll write more about this later. We're off to SA for a Spurs-Clippers game. Go Spurs go!!
After all that prepping, we got three tomato plants into the tub. This tub is pretty cool and I'm sure it's had quite a history. We live in an old house (circa 1860) and we have spent about 8 years really working on renovations and it's finally looking pretty great and we love being home to enjoy it. This tub used to be in the bathroom and we thought about refinishing it with a kit from Home Depot when we saw the cost of a new cast iron, clawfoot tub a few years ago. However, prices came down and we decided to get a new tub. When we turned over the old tub, we saw information about the company who made it and the year. You can see a shot of it here.Updated 3/26/08: Abe made a good comment about how we're going to water this. We put bricks and then a layer of gravel on the bottom for drainage and the drain is open. We'll see how it works out. We've water lightly everyday now. Once the full Texas heat arrives for summer, it means a lot more water everyday.
Do you know that song? It's by Peter Gabriel and I like it a lot. It's an oldie. Not a golden oldie, but considered an oldie these days.We got to work on the garden this weekend and really enjoyed being out in the yard together again. Here I am working on mixing up peat moss, manure and rich soil for our tomato plants. We also put in green beans, yellow squash, cucumbers, okra and sunflowers. And I'm going to try to grow some rosemary too. I'll take pictures of the plants once there's something to look at. Right now, there's just a lot of dirt. :) I'll post more pics of our gardening this week. Hope everyone has a great Tuesday! Thanks for all your nice and sometimes hilarious comments. As usual, I always enjoy reading what you think.
The garden post will have to wait because this little man was so sharp with his suit for Easter. He is a sweetie and I adore him. And the look on his face and exclamation were so sweet. We had an egg hunt for the kids after the youth's Easter program. Lots of fun. Hope you all had a wonderful Easter.
Yesterday morning, we both had the day off for Good Friday so we had a full day planned. At 7:00 a.m., we went to Second Baptist Church for the annual Easter Prayer Breaksfast. There was a great turnout and we had singing, a wonderful guest speaker, a great breakfast and a lot of fun. I helped out in the kitchen with a fun group of ladies. Here's one of them preparing one of my favorites for b-fast...grits! I had some later with sausage. Yum!
After that, we took a coworker into San Antonio for lunch at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant and so that we could get to know him. He was visiting from Australia on a work exchange program. It was really fun to learn more about him and Australia. After lunch, we headed up north of Austin to see family in Burnet. We visited for a while and still got back in time to catch the last quarter of a Spurs game. Full day, full of fun. Hope you are all enjoying the weekend as well. Today was work in the garden day so I'll post something about it tomorrow!
Do you like it? It's on the market. I don't know the price but I'm sure it's up there, perhaps a few hundred thousand, based on prices for other houses around town. If I find out, I'll update this.Mark and I think the house is very pretty. One person I know told me she heard it was haunted. Makes it interesting, doesn't it? ;)
Here's a wide shot of the plant to show you where yesterday's photo came from in Seguin. Power from this plant actually is sold to other cities and none of it's power is used in Seguin. They sell to larger customers; our population is about 25,000 and it can power over 200,000 homes.But even though they don't power the city, they are active in the community and are involved in many different economic, educational and social efforts. I read you can tour the plant as well so I should check into that. I bet it would be very interesting.
I want to thank everyone for sending well wishes and suggestions for allergy relief. We got some rain and that always helps to wash down everything floating around in the air so I am feeling back to normal so far this week. I always appreciate all your visits and comments.Today it started off muggy and warm and when I left work, it was very breezy and much cooler. We got dinner in and a walk right before rain came again and it's a good thing we got inside. The dust from Mexico is up in our area and the rain coming down is creating a "mud rain" so everything is filthy. And while I'm on the subject of things in the air, I thought of this picture. It's a sort of quiz for you. Any ideas what this might be? I'll post a wide shot late tomorrow if you're interested. And no, this is not at my plant. Good night.
I'm back to checking the pollen count everyday. Saturday was off to such a great start and then after I posted to the blog, I enjoyed the outdoors but but it ended with a bee sting on the head (we weren't even checking on the hive, it was just a poor bee tangled in my hair due the wind) and a migraine from sinus pressure. And that wiped me out Saturday evening and most of Sunday. It's hard to deal with allergies late in life, especially when you've never had to worry about it before. So, all that to say this...I have not been out and about a whole lot so I am posting another picture from Thunder Paws. This mastiff was so sweet, just like Gracie. She just let Gracie run around and jump on her and act all wild like a puppy will and she just sauntered here and there. Very cute. I can't remember her name but she was cool. And her paw filled my hand. That's one big dog. :)
Last Saturday, I went to meet some friends at Thunder Paws, which is a dog training business on the town square. Gracie is their dog and I posted about her a couple of months ago when she was tiny. Now she's growing and learning how to do things to keep her safe and in control. There were other dogs there as well and one of them was Floyd (on the left). Here he was trying to help the trainers wear out Gracie a bit. She's an energetic pup.
It's a gorgeous Saturday here in Seguin. Sunny and on the warm side, will probably hit 90F today I imagine. It feels as if it has already. Mark and I are working out in the yard, taking care of neglected flower beds and also preparing for our garden! I'll take some pics of it when we are done prepping.
Having a blog also means that your family and friends start looking around and seeing new things and saying, "Oh, take a picture of THAT, it'd be a good post!" I love it. So, my mother-in-law pointed out this cool shadow to me when we were together last weekend during their visit. I really liked the crisp shadow that the grass cast upon the sidewalk. It sort of reminds me of the media player screen when I play music. Or the medical equipment monitoring patients. Or a graph of how stock is doing (sort of).
There's just something about these a-frames that is so intriguing. I have lived here many years now and have traveled back and forth on Austin Street countless times and somehow I only saw this house for the first time this past week. And I may never have noticed it or maybe I would have eventually -- how could I miss that pretty blue?? At any rate, I credit my seeing it to the fact that since I started doing this city photo blog project, I try harder to look around Seguin and to try and see it with new eyes. This makes the third a-frame in town I have spotted. Here are number 1 and number 2 from previous posts.
El Ranchito is a local favorite with many in town (and out of towners as well). It's located on Highway 123 and is a great place to get delicious chips and dip as well as other meals. This is my usual when I go. El Ranch does it best of all the Mex. food places we have been.
I couldn't believe how busy they were today when I got home from lunch. I just had to get outside and see what they were doing! I was able to shoot for a long time and even caught some videos. They didn't mind me being there so close. See all the bright yellow? That's pollen! I wonder where they went to find all of that.
The weekend was so lovely, we had a chance to check on the bees as I mentioned. Here they are buzzing in and out of the hive --- using a back entrance! On the opposite side of this, they have a very wide entrance at the base of the hive. Mark says they probably chose this entrance for a number of reasons. There aren't as many bees during winter so the small entrance can accommodate them for now (the bees kill other unproductive bees so they don't eat up all the honey supply and then contribute little or nothing in return). They are probably congregrated on that side of the hive since the sun is warming it up and so they might come and go this route for convenience. He says once the hive starts growing again as the weather warms, they will likely return to using the big entrance.
I have no idea what this plant is but I really like the color and the shape of it very much. We've had some lovely weather lately and the mountain cedar pollen has finally subsided and so we are able to get out and enjoy it now. Today it's cloudy and windy and on the cool side but still nice. More and more blooms are coming out and that means more activity from our bees. I'll post a picture of them tomorrow. Mark and I are enjoying watching them as they start venturing out more and more for food. We watched them for a while yesterday and Mark noted they are carrying a good amount of pollen back to the hive. Good news for honey production!
Tonight was a special night for our family. Mark (in the gray suit) was ordained a deacon of Second Baptist and we were able to share the occasion with some of our family and friends. The church has been around for 142 years, as the banner on the right notes, and is rich with history. We love it there and have learned much and made great friends. Please stop by when you can, we all love it when visitors join us and you'll certainly be warmly welcomed. The singing is fabulous and our pastor is great!
Though these past few days have been on the cold side, we have actually had some very beautiful and warm days. There are lots of blooms coming out like the Redbud I posted earlier. This is from a small Mountain Laurel in our front yard. The flowers are very fragrant and the ladybugs just love it. I saw so many of the little bugs on the plant when I looked closely.How many ladybugs do you see? I love the little baby one. :)
Yesterday was a trying day at work and on the way home, I had a car accident. It ranks somewhere between minor and major. No one was seriously hurt thankfully but it was a scary experience to sit there and know that you can't do anything but brace for impact. Luckily my airbags did not deploy. The jolt just left me achy and kind of stiff though.On the bright side, this event forced me to relax by making time to soak in a hot bath to help ease the tension. The water color against the white was so pretty I had to take a shot. Then Mark made me hot tea and tucked me in on the sofa in front of the TV until time to sleep. It is really nice to have someone pamper you when you aren't feeling so hot. :)Also on the bright side, the accident happened at the intersection of Kingsbury and Hildago, which happens to be where Shanafelt Auto Shop is located. So...we didn't have to drive the car but a couple of hundred yards in order to have it at the repair shop. They are also very nice folks and have done great work for us in the past. I highly recommend them.
Into his second week of retirement, Mark is already working on some research but this project actually belongs to someone in Chicago! When Mark was at the Seguin Library, he helped a lady with some family research since she was all the way up there. She recently wrote to let him know that her research project has the attention of History Detective, which is a PBS show, and that they might contact him for the story. I thought that was really neat. By the way, this lady is wondering if her great, great grandfather is Robert E. Lee!In doing his own research for"Smokey" Joe Williams, Mark has discovered a variety of sources on African-Americans in our local history room at the Seguin-Guadalupe County Public Library, in the courthouse records of the County Clerk's office and in church records at Second Baptist Church. We've also travel across some parts of Texas and into the archives in Washington, DC, as well as to City Hall records in New York City. As you know, the past was not always well documented for this group and so the past nine years has been a lot of digging around but I think he's gotten far through persistence, creative researching and luck. For example, Mark was trying to find a certain headstone in the Riverside Cemetery but it just wasn't where it was supposed to be according to the records. So Mark returned to the Cemetery again but this time he was checking on the grave of an early pastor of Second Baptist, William Ball, and wouldn't you know it, there was the other grave he looked for the other day! There it was right next to William Ball's grave. Why it was there and not where it was documented to be we don't know at this time. Mark took this picture along with others during his visit today to Riverside Cemetery. It's a very pretty little cemetery and is located on South River Street. It is the resting place of many of our early settlers and Confederate heroes. And most importantly to US, it is the home of at least two Union soldiers -- William Ball and Calvin Williams (grandfather of "Smokey" Joe). The City of Seguin is listed as the caretaker of Riverside.
I love crafting and this year, one of my resolutions is to get back into it. There are two crafting stores I have been wanting to check out in order to get into the right crafting mindset and here's one of them. This little shop is called Lil' Bug and they were in the midst of moving some things around when I visited a couple of weeks ago. I really like the fabric they had on hand. The vibrant colors and beautiful designs made me just want to start sewing immediately. The selection is small, but the owner said she really wanted to focus on unique fabrics since you can get the usual fabrics at the local Wal-Mart.Update 3/3/08: This store is located on King Street, very close to the Donut Palace, before you get to the intersection of Court & King Streets.
This little market is on Kingsbury and though I have not been inside, we often pass it and enjoy looking at the mural. There are 144 City Photo Bloggers participating in the March Theme Day. Be sure to check them out, there's some great photos to be seen! Last week I jumped the gun and posted a graffiti shot so you can check that out too if you wish. Adelaide, Australia by Gordon, Albuquerque (NM), USA by Helen, Aliso Viejo (CA), USA by Rodney, American Fork (UT), USA by Annie, Anderson (SC), USA by Lessie, Arradon, France by Alice, Ashton under Lyne, UK by Pennine, Athens, Greece by Debbie, Auckland, New Zealand by Lachezar, Austin (TX), USA by LB, Bandung, Indonesia by Guntur Purwanto, Baziège, France by PaB, Belgrade, Serbia by BgdPic, Bellefonte (PA), USA by Barb-n-PA, Bicheno, Australia by Greg, Boston (MA), USA by Fenix, Boston (MA), USA by Cluelessinboston, Boston (MA), USA by Sarah, Whit, & Leyre, Brighton, UK by Harvey, Bucaramanga, Colombia by Fernando, Budapest, Hungary by Zannnie and Zsolt, Budapest, Hungary by Isadora, Buenos Aires, Argentina by Karine, Canterbury, UK by Rose, Cape Town, South Africa by Kerry-Anne, Chandler (AZ), USA by Melindaduff, Chateaubriant, France by Bergson, Cheltenham, UK by Marley, Chicago (IL), USA by U R us, Chicago (IL), USA by b.c., Christchurch, New Zealand by Michelle, Clearwater (FL), USA by Smaridge01, Clearwater Beach (FL), USA by Smaridge01, Cleveland (OH), USA by iBlowfish, Cologne, Germany by April11, Coral Gables (FL), USA by Jnstropic, Detroit (MI), USA by Taittems, Dunedin (FL), USA by Smaridge01, Durban, South Africa by CrazyCow, Evry, France by Olivier, Forks (WA), USA by Corinne, Glasgow, Scotland by Jackie, Greenville (SC), USA by Denton, Grenoble, France by Bleeding Orange, Guelph, Canada by Pat, Helsinki, Finland by Kaa, Hobart, Australia by Greg, Hyde, UK by Gerald, Inverness (IL), USA by Neva, Jackson (MS), USA by Halcyon, Jefferson City (MO), USA by Chinamom2005, Joplin (MO), USA by Victoria, Juneau (AK), USA by Gwyn, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by Edwin, Kyoto, Japan by Tadamine, Larchmont (NY), USA by Marie-Noyale, Le Guilvinec, France by ds2944, Lisbon, Portugal by Sailor Girl, Lisbon, Portugal by Jsaltao, Lodz, Poland by ritalounge, London, UK by Ham, London, UK by Mo, Mainz, Germany by JB, Maple Ridge, Canada by Susan, Mazatlan, Mexico by Kate, Melbourne, Australia by Mblamo, Melbourne, Australia by John, Memphis (TN), USA by SouthernHeart, Menton, France by Jilly, Mexico, Mexico by Poly, Mexico City, Mexico by Carraol, Minneapolis (MN), USA by Mitch, Minneapolis (MN), USA by Greg, Monte Carlo, Monaco by Jilly, Montréal, Canada by Douber, Moscow, Russia by Irina, Mumbai, India by MumbaiIteanu, Mumbai, India by Kunalbhatia, Naples (FL), USA by Isabella, Nashville (TN), USA by Chris, Nelson, New Zealand by Meg and Ben, New Orleans (LA), USA by steve buser, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK by Cassie & Chris, Niamey, Niger by Dinabee, Norwich, UK by Goddess888, Nottingham, UK by Gail's Man, Ocean Township (NJ), USA by Josy, Paris, France by Eric, Pasadena (CA), USA by Can8ianben, Pasadena (CA), USA by Petrea, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia by Murphy_jay, Pilisvörösvár, Hungary by Elise, Port Angeles (WA), USA by Jelvistar, Port Elizabeth, South Africa by Sam, Port Vila, Vanuatu by Mblamo, Prague, Czech Republic by Honza03, Quincy (MA), USA by Cluelessinboston, Radonvilliers, France by Deslilas, Riga, Latvia by Prokur, Rome, Italy by Giovanni, Rotterdam, Netherlands by Ineke, Saarbrücken, Germany by LadyDemeter, Saint Louis (MO), USA by Strangetastes, Saint Paul (MN), USA by Kate, Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation by Lark, San Antonio (TX), USA by Kramer, San Diego (CA), USA by Felicia, San Diego (CA), USA by Zentmrs, Santa Fe (NM), USA by Randem, Seattle (WA), USA by Kim, Seattle (WA), USA by Chuck, Seguin (TX), USA by Thien, Selma (AL), USA by RamblingRound, Sesimbra, Portugal by Aldeia, Setúbal, Portugal by Maria Elisa, Sharon (CT), USA by Jenny, Silver Spring (MD), USA by John, Singapore, Singapore by Keropok, Sofia, Bulgaria by Antonia, St Francis, South Africa by Sam, Stavanger, Norway by Tanty, Stayton (OR), USA by Celine, Stockholm, Sweden by Stromsjo, Subang Jaya, Malaysia by JC, Sydney, Australia by Sally, Székesfehérvár, Hungary by Teomo, Terre Haute (IN), USA by Zann, Terrell (TX), USA by Bstexas, Terrell (TX), USA by Jim K, The Hague, Netherlands by Lezard, Tokyo, Japan by Tadamine, Torun, Poland by Torun Observer, Toulouse, France by Julia, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina by Jazzy, Twin Cities (MN), USA by Slinger, Vienna, Austria by G_mirage2, Wailea (HI), USA by Kuanyin, Wassenaar, Netherlands by Rich, Wellington, New Zealand by Jeremyb, West Paris (ME), USA by crittoria, West Sacramento (CA), USA by Barbara, Weston (FL), USA by WestonDailyPhoto, Wrocław, Poland by Loompi, Yardley (PA), USA by Mrlynn,
