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.
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.
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:- Went shopping for work clothes for me. Thanks honey! Mark gives awesome fashion advice and I really trust his opinion on my outfits!
- Had dinner at the Noodle House in SA. We both did pho. Yum.
- Listening to Diana Krall. I love her!
- Blogging and loading pictures onto Flickr.
- Mark's playing with his new webcam. Now I can see him when I'm on the road!
- Thinking about work. And what I SHOULD be doing. :-\
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!
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! :)
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. :-)
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!
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!
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!
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.
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. :)
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:- Watched Mark finish up splitting the hive in the backyard. Now there are three!!! I'll snap it in good day light.
- Went for Chinese food. Comfort food. Some nights, you simply do not feel like cooking.
- 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.
- 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.
- Cruised around town, talking through things that concern me with the greatest guy ever. You know who.
- Talked to my niece about things. Laughed.
- Missed all my nieces and nephews.
- Caught up A BIT with blogging and Flickr. Just a bit. Oh, and Facebook too.
- Listening now to some of my favorite songs, currently we're on Yoyo Ma essentials.
- Got showered and into my softest jammies.
