Halloween Sweetness

Hope you all are enjoying your Halloween weekend so far. It's been a gorgeous day and tomorrow is suppose to be more of the same. It'll be good weather for trick or treaters so I hope we have plenty of visitors tomorrow evening.

This cake picture is one of my favorites and has about 3,700 views to date on my photostream in Flickr. People must find it as fun to look at as I have. It's fun to see how creativity people can be with their baking and decorating!

October - Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Check out how great our new hospital makeover is looking these days! I had a 7:30a appointment so the lighting is a bit on the dark side. I’ll try and go back on a beautiful afternoon to show some panned views of the completed front – it looks so great and really adds a classy look to Court Street in that area.

My appointment was for my annual mammogram. We all know how important early detection is so I hope all you ladies out there are taking care of yourselves! This was my third year and every time I visit the Imaging Department at the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center, they are so wonderful to me. And while I have heard not-so-great stories about mammograms, my checkups have been just fine – no horror stories, no pain, no drama. The machine below is what is used and I can’t remember what that white plastic piece is called that’s above the plate but it is was purchased about 1.5 years ago as a trial to see if it would help with the discomfort of the exam for some women. Seems to work for me. I hope you go. :-) Please visit the Susan G. Komen site for more information about breast cancer.

Sky Watch over Texas Agricultural Education & Heritage Center

Recently Mark participated in Ag Week at the Red Barn here in town. We call it the Red Barn but officially, it is the Texas Agricultural Education and Heritage Center, founded in order to educate the public about the importance of agriculture as part of our heritage and how it impacts our lives today. Mark was out there speaking about the importance of bees so I was glad I had a chance to visit during lunch one day because I had not been to the center – it is really neat out there! I still need to go back sometime and check out all the buildings since I only had about twenty minutes there during that visit. Here are a few shots of my brief visit.



Above, Mark is speaking to one of the many groups of fourth graders from surrounding area schools that have been scheduled to visit during Ag Week. They asked questions if there was time and shared stories about getting stung and interesting things they know about bees. When asked if they knew what food bees make, he said one of the kids told him bees make cereal (as in the Honey Nut Cheerios from the commercial that many kids like to tell us about when we go to fairs and shows). Too cute.

Below is a shot of another group I passed by out in the garden area. I think it’s great that the kids are learning about gardening and the benefits of growing your own in addition to having produce from the farmers in the area. There are so many other things to see out there, I will be sure to visit again and highlight other things for you.

The skies have been gorgeous lately as we move from summer to fall. Be sure to check out other skies on the Sky Watch page. Have a great Friday, everyone!

Busy as a Bee

Here's where I spent most of this beautiful weekend so I thought I'd share it with you so you'd know why there aren't other photographs to share right now. We are super focused on our bee biz and that means getting lots of photos and some videos for a new website we are building. We are so excited about it but it does take a lot of our time getting all this going so for a while, that's what will consuming us. :) If you'd like to see the video I was shooting in this photograph, you can visit our GBR YouTube page.

Check out the bees below. They are carrying pollen into the hive like there's no tomorrow. Do people still say that? LOL, I do! Anyway, I LOVE to watch them doing this - the way they land, the little steps they take to get into the box, the way they sometimes flop over clumsily. So cute.

Evening Out

Things are settling down just a tad now that the Fair is over. Our bees are back home in their hive at the bee yard and Mark and I go back to work. Me at the mill and Mark at the Heritage Farm, educating hundreds of fourth graders. Tomorrow I'll go visit him during lunch and take some pictures of that place and event. I've been wanting to go check it out!

Here's a lovely little nest I spotted as we departed the Big Oaks bee yard this evening. It was a perfect Texas evening - I love this time of year. The weather is gorgeous and the air was perfumed by the numerous flowers still in bloom. Seriously, this year has been an incredible flower year. AND my allergies are in good shape - maybe because I've been downing quite a bit of our honey the past two years. No severe headaches after an hour or two outside. I couldn't have done this before so thanks little bees!

And thank you to those of you who stopped by our GBR booth during the Fair. We enjoyed meeting you and we're glad you stopped by and talked with us. Always fun to meet folks. :) Y'all have a GREAT week!

Grand Champion Honey!

Hooray for us - our comb honey entry won Grand Champion in the Home Products category. We are very happy and proud as can be. :) Here's where we'll be spending all our time through Sunday.

Guadalupe County Fair - 2010

Time to hit the Fair again, folks. Come out and enjoy the beautiful fall weather for us since we'll be inside the entire time! :) If you come to the fair, be sure to stop by our booth in the Coliseum and sample some Guadalupe County honey - mesquite and wildflower. AND meet about 20,000 of our sweet little bees and their queen. Mark's got the observation hive ready to go. We had a lot of fun in Gonzales and we look forward to seeing how this year's Fair goes for everyone. Check out the Fair's website for more information.

Here's when we'll be there:
Thursday, October 7, 3-8:30pm (Free until 6p)
Friday, October 8, 11am-9pm (Students Free until 6pm, Military Free All Day)
Saturday, October 9, 9am-9pm ($5.00 per person – Children 12 & Under Free)
Sunday, October 10, 11am-6pm (Free for everyone!)

Come See Us in Gonzales!

Sorry but it's been a super busy week between work and prepping for the Gonzales Come & Take It Festival. Gonzales is a quaint town about 30 miles from Seguin on 90 - come and visit our Gretchen Bee Ranch booth if you are in that area. We're on the square on the side closest to the theatre (can't recall the name right now). We're there through Sunday and so are about 20,000 of our little bees in their snazzy observation hive. You know you want to see them up close! :-) Have a great one, everyone!