Man Over the Melt Shop

Here's what my office mate and I saw out our window while we sat on a conference call...that crane was so high up in the sky! Wow. And we couldn't imagine being the person in that cage. Yikes. We watched it descend. Too fast for our taste. And then later during a break, we had a slightly brighter, more mellow view. Thanks, J, for the lovely, tasty distraction!

Working Up High

Hello there. Way up there. WOW! I was driving back to work after lunch and I had to turn around for this shot because it so captured my attention. The picture doesn't really convey the height in my opinion. There's something about driving under this man as he worked way up there. That's the bridge on Interstate 10, above New Braunfels Avenue along the railroad tracks. See what he's doing up there? Chipping away at that ledge. That man has some guts. One wrong step and it could be bad. Did I mention that cars are zipping by him on the other side of that wall? Likely going 70+ miles per hour.

Lightning, Thunder, Wind, Rain

It has been a wonderful time of year because we've actually gotten rain in South Texas. Great news for the wildflowers and bees, not to mention every other living thing around here. Last night we had a marvelous storm packed with flashes of lightning and claps of thunder. Thankfully we didn't have any limbs come down from the pecan nor did we get struck by lighting or fierce winds as others suffered. We only lost power for a few hours I believe. I tried to sleep through most of it with a pillow over my head to muffle the thunder. Didn't work great but it helped. This is FM464 on the way to work (well, one route anyway).
And this is what I call Lake Caterpillar - it's at the stoplight for FM464 and Kingsbury/Hwy90.

Clear Springs

Last week we went to Clear Springs, which doesn't seem like the healthiest of choices BUT if you get the chicken club salad and a soup or the grilled fish tacos on corn tortillas, it's not tooooo bad. Right? :) I liked this darker look - gives the place a totally different feel. As compared to the color shot below. I am really enjoying snapping shots with the iPhone and then using one of these apps to create new looks: Camera+, tadaa, and Instagram.

Chúc mừng năm mới!

Today is the first day of the Lunar calendar and it's the Year of the Dragon. I wish everyone a very happy and blessed new year ahead. Here are some of the things that I enjoy each year to ring in the new year with Mark. The green rice cake is a tradition for this holiday. My mom has made this every year as long as I can remember. She's not able to make them anymore but she can oversee my older silblings making the cakes. They did a great job and we sure are glad they took on the project. It's about the equivalent of making tamales here in this area. Labor and time intensive but well worth it. The ancesteral table holds offerings to those who have passed on already that they will watch over us and bless us this year.

Sunset Over Our Home

I shot this last night as I came out of our Honey House. The weather has been unusually mild for winter. I believe the meteorologist said we are about ten degrees warmer than normal. Boo. I want more winter before the heat returns. Please. Check out the other sky shots for this week at Sky Watch. I haven't had time to participate lately but I'm going to try and make time this year. I love looking at the shots posted there!

New Subway In Town

No, not transportation - food! We're getting another Subway shop in town. This one is next to the Whataburger on Highway 46 at IH-10. One day, it will be completed. Meanwhile, we're all watching to see who can possibly move slowest on construction. Schlotzky's or Subway. :)

Last night we went on a cruise about town as we both needed to get out of the house for a bit. I was happy to see the Texas Theatre all lit up - they are showing Driving Miss Daisy, great movie. If only the other theatre downtown was lit up a few nights a week (the Palace). I just love seeing their lights on at night.

By the way, this was shot with my iPhone and then I used two apps to play with filters - Instagram and Hipstamatic. Both are free and are a lot of fun.

Foggy morning

Good morning everyone. I sometimes enjoy a foggy morning. It makes everything soft. Lovely in a way. I just wish I could capture it more fully in this photo. It doesn't appear very foggy but it is.

Oh What a Sky Does

I'm back at work now after a nice long break for the holidays. Ten days off was awesome and our visit with my family in Florida was really wonderful. I am refreshed and ready for work now - this is the field across from the steel mill. I love it in the different seasons. It has a different loveliness based on the sky as well as what's growing or not growing in the field. :-)

And on a beautiful, sunny day...the greenness of the field right now just takes my breath away! The contrast in grass and sky colors is spectacular.

Happy, Happy New Year!

From happy, happy us. Here's to a wonderfully crazy busy 2011 - let's hope 2012 will be even better, filled with more adventures I will share with you all here. I hope to be able to do a better job posting to this blog - that's my one resolution! :) Meanwhile, be careful out there and be safe. Meet you back here in 2012, my friends.

Meowee Christmas!

 
Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you all have had a wonderful day filled with love, laughter and peace.

Fall in Our Lil World

As I got in the car this morning, I was struck by the beautiful coloring of our peach tree. I love having the bee boxes in the yard.

2nd Annual Gretchen Bee Ranch Holiday Open House

Sorry I've been busy - it's the holiday season so you know what that means! All sorts of events to get our name, honeys and beeswax products out on the market. We're having a great time meeting folks and sharing information along with our products but our favorite event is tomorrow. That's because people get to come to the Bee Ranch and check out the honey house - we'll have food, good music and a lot of fun. Hope you can swing by to visit and shop. Or if you're done with your Christmas shopping, you can just pull up a chair and chat. We'd enjoy that. Off to bed I go. We have class in the morning (10-12p) before the Open House; I'm going to need some energy! Goodnight.

Gobble Gobble

Hopefully you are baking, relaxing and/or spending time with loved ones...and I don't mean Best Buy. As much as I like BB. :-)

Game Stop Crew

I went with a friend to Game Stop so she could pick up the newest game out - MW3. I didn't even know what that stood for at first. And I had never been to Game Stop so I wanted to tag along. These two cracked me up! They were so funny and enthusiastic about their work, which I think is great. If it wasn't for them, then the rest of us would have to keep up with all the games and names and scenarios and tips for getting to level 4,506...and who can remember all the Pokemon names! I know Pikachu and Jiggly Puff. They had me laughing so hard, I knew I had to post about them. And as soon as I asked them for a shot, they had their poses ready. I loved that! So, if you need a game, go see the friendly guys at Game Stop in Seguin. :)

Boo!

Hope everyone's had a good Monday and a safe and fun Halloween today. I never got around to a bee costume but I did see it was a popular costume this year! Go bees! I ran to Walmart in order to shop for our neighbor, who's not able to get out and about easily anymore. To balance out the fact that it's challenging to shop for someone else, I had two really funny conversations --- this couple parked next to me and they were so fun and sweet, trying to explain to me who they were (I still am not sure) that I told them I would blog about them. They were really polite young kids. Then I ran to pick up some dinner and the server gave me my order and he had a face mask on...said it was an evil pumpkin. lol, made me laugh on both counts and I needed to laugh. I love it that people are able to enjoy life. It is a good feeling.

Beep-beep, Road Runner!

 
When I was growing up, Saturday mornings were the only days I eagerly got up without wakeup calls from my parents or siblings. Cartoons were on and we got to watch all morning until Kung Fu Theatre came on at noon. After that, the TV was turned off. :-) I loved the Bugs Bunny, Road Runner Show. I mainly just loved Bugs Bunny. I was often irritated by how futile the Coyote's efforts were to capture Road Runner. When I moved to Texas, I learned the Road Runner was called a Chaparral. Hmm. And it was not tall with long legs. And it did not run around, going "Beep, beep." :-) Bummer. But every time I see a Chaparral, I hear the beeps in my mind. And it makes me smile. When I go with Mark out to Deadman Creek bee yard, I get to see lots of Chaparrals so I get to smile often. Have a SUPER week, friends!

Revitalizing Rains

 
It's been a couple of weeks since our last great rainfall but we continue to see how alive the landscape has become with just a touch of rain. No amount of hand-watering can work the magic that real rain provides. It's wonderful! Things are green again and we even have flowers blooming, which is great news for our bees as well as for us. The color bloom we are seeing most is yellow - blooms of all sizes, large and small. The bees are loving it!

The Palace, A Goat & A Turtle

This evening we actually had time to rest and work on things around the house and prepare for our bee class tomorrow morning. Then we drove around town to see what was happening here and there - the Palace was nicely lit. We wish it could be a current run sort of theatre - would LOVE that! But any time it or the Texas Theatre are lit up it's beautiful. Below is a shot from a friend of ours when he wandered around the fairground last weekend when he came by to visit us at the GBR booth his honey was working with me at the time. I love turtles and I think goats are cute when they are small. This picture just cracked us up! Crazy goat! They do the funniest things ever. Like one minute they'll be standing there and then the next minute they kick up and trot around. Hilarious. Makes me laugh every time.