Bee on Indian Blanket

Hello my friends - I'm on vacation while family is in town so I'm behind on all sorts of things including posting. Here's a shot I snapped last week when I visited the Lazy U Ranch where we have one of our bee yards. I love it out there - it's an organic ranch. Pretty cool concept in my opinion. I didn't even know there was such a program for ranches before we met the owner here.

Texas Theatre & Texas Sky

 Both were lit up and beautiful this evening. Have a great weekend!

Did You Have a Nice Easter?

I hope so! Bonus for you! I am getting in a SECOND post in one day. Normally I don't have time to ride around and spot events and such for the blog. Working two jobs is getting in the way of photoblogging. :) So I'm tickled I actually got three different opportunities for cool shots. I want to share this one since it's specific to Easter. We were driving to church and saw this great scene at Emanuel's Lutheran Church around the corner from our house. Loved it. Reminds me of the egg hunts we used to have when the kids were younger and when my nieces and nephew came to visit one year from the East Coast. Fun. Easter Bunny still visits me and Mark as well. Really. Yuummy.
Updated 7/31/13: Thanks to Woody for catching the church name, which I originally mistakenly put at Faith Lutheran, which for some reason, I often do.

Easter Bee

Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful day with your loved ones.

First Trade Days of 2012 - Musical Interludes

These lovely young dancers were one of the highlights from this weekend's events down on the town square. As we worked our honey booth, we enjoyed the different groups that performed yesterday. This group is from the Teatro De Artes De Juan Seguin and it was their first performance in front of a crowd. We all think they did great. There were other performers from the non-profit organization that also did a marvelous job, including some awesome accordion players. There' something about conjunto I just really enjoy! Here's another group I really liked - the Navarro High School Jazz Band. LOVED them last year and was thrilled when they came on stage. We had great seats right behind the gazebo. Made for great background music though I did get a crackly throat throughout the day trying to talk over all different sorts of music. Worth it, however.

Happy Fields of Flowers

Can't ask for a lovelier Seguin as of late. Y'all have a great weekend! And if you're going to Trade Days tomorrow, please come see me at our booth and say hi. We have a double booth behind the court house.

Wisteria and Bees

Good morning, everyone! Just a quick hello from Seguin. Haven't had much time to post as we had a big event this past Saturday for our new beekeepers. Here's a shot of the latest thing to bloom in our yard - upright Wisteria. I love it and so do the bumble bees. Yesterday I saw three of them buzzing around the tall plant. Their flight behavior is so different from our honey bees so I enjoy watching them dart around in start/stop fashion (versus the more smooth flight of the honey bee). Here's a shot of our class from Saturday. We had a SUPER FAB time and now there are at least 24 new beekeepers in South Texas, keeping gentle bees. That's not counting the folks who got a jumpstart on things and picked up nucs weeks earlier. Let's hope we all have a great honey harvest this year!

Huisache in Spring

This year the Huisache is blooming all over the place like there's no tomorrow and they've got to show themselves now! It is pure eye candy this year in terms of flowering trees and bushes in addition to wildflowers. Everything is so lovely and colorful and green. Seems like we are getting rain every week or other week - what a great thing for us! The tanks are getting full as well. Many had dried out during the harsh drought last year and I didn't know how long it'd take or how it needed to rain to fill them all up but it looks like we are on the right track for sure. Love it.

Oaks at Dusk

This is a shot I snap at the Farm bee yard along Highway 123 and Kingsbury. I roamed the hillside as we were "stuck" for a bit on the side of one of the lovely slopes. Note to you - do not attempt to turn your vehicle around and allow your tires to rest on any green. :-) Looks like the wet winter and spring has really soaked our grounds! It pretty much became ice under our tires and we managed to slide about eight feet down the hill. This is what the ground turned to after spinning tires for a bit and slip sliding around. Towards the tank.
 
Time to call for backup! Our friend David came to the rescue and brought along a very long cable and voila - we're pulled back up the hill. Thanks, David! It was still a lovely evening and I got some play time in while the beekeepers worked on getting us out of there. Here they are strategizing on the best way to proceed.

Luckily I had my boots on so I could explore all I wanted to without worry about bugs, bees and snakes. Poor Bluebonnets. Sorry we trampled you. We didn't mean to but you grab our tires and wouldn't let us go! Y'all have a great weekend!

Spring Breaks

Happy Spring Break, everyone! Seems like the whole state is on break this week. The work parking lot is mostly empty. Makes me just want to skip work and take pictures of all the blooming loveliness about town. I snapped this beauty out at the nearby My Father's Farm nursery on Highway 123 close to our house, which is very near the center of town. I always wonder if people realize there are over thirty bee hives on that nursery property. They are doing quite well out there between the abundant wild mustard blooms and now all sorts of different wildflowers are coming out. Very lovely to see.

The Wind Sure Blew In Fast!

When I got home from work, it felt warm and muggy. Not pleasant to me to sit outside with Smokey on the deck. But after twenty minutes or so, I went out to carry in a small plant my mother had given me so that any hard rain (as is forecasted for us) would not damage it. Well, to my delight and surprise, the cold front was blowing in finally and the skies was churning clouds this way and that. It made for a wonderful show with the different shades of grade constantly changing. By the time an hour had passed, the temperature had dropped over ten degrees and it was cool enough to put on a light jacket for a dinner out. Then, a cup of hot chocolate. :)

Check out the other sky shots this week over at Sky Watch page.

Huisache in Bloom

Before I came to Texas and before Mark kept bees as more than just a hobby and way before we kept close track of what's blooming so that we know what our bees are feeding on...well, before all this, I never knew a thing about the Huisache. It, along with many other trees and low-to-the-ground plants, are in bloom right now and we couldn't be happier. Not only is the landscape taking on colors of the rainbow, but it means our bees are way happier this year than they were last year when the drought cut short the flowering season. So, happy eating little bees and happy eye-feast folks. Have a great week!

Repurposed Nursery

Not too long ago, the Schulz Nursery opened a location in Seguin on Highway 123 and we were happy they did. We always enjoyed visiting their Marion location. Unfortunately, their Seguin location has since closed and we were sad to see the pretty property sit unused. Then, an organic farmer (My Father's Farm) moved his business there and leased the property and asked us to move our hives along with them. It's been a good location for us, easy to get to and fast shot from home (about 10 minutes at most). I like to visit Mark and David when they check and work on the bees out there. It's so peaceful and at the same time, it's always just a touch spooky to me. I always think that the abandoned greenhouses would make a superb place to film a scary, suspenseful flick. :) Just not when I'm there alone. Not that I plan on being there alone anytime soon.

New Love's Truck Stop

I went with friends to the new Love's today so they could get some Arby's goodness for lunch. We checked out the shopping area - holy cow! You can find a lot of stuff in there. lol. From tires and the usual gas station fare to purses, shirts, crystal figurines and yes, even some gear for tonight's rodeo in San Antonio. :)

Paintbrush Sky

Another gorgeous sunset in little ole Seguin. What a lush winter we are having. This week is unusually mild - upper 70s tomorrow! Come Friday, it's suppose to snap back to a chilly reality. Good. I'm not ready for the cold to disappear just yet.

Rain at the Saffold Dam

This morning we drove by the dam to see the waters after all the rains we've been receiving lately. Nice to see it flowing well again. The second shot is a vintage filter I enjoy using from an app called tadaa.

Hello Clouds

Saw this pretty sky across from the mill this morning. :) More rain forecasted.

Early Flowers

The weather's been pretty mild lately with a few days of cold sprinkled here and there; pretty mild winter overall really. The wonderful thing is the rain we've been getting. Everything is so green compared to this time last year and the bees are building up for the flowers that are coming. Here's an early bloomer - the Agarita. I love the name and the look of it. If it bloomed in winter, I'd definitely cut some and put in a vase for Christmas. Very lovely.

Valentine's Sweetness

Happy Valentines' Day, everyone. Sweetheart or not, I hope you each have a special day and a lot of love in your life.

Windows & Birds

Here's a shot of some windows on the second floor of a building not currently being used for anything, that I know of anyway. I wonder what happened to the one with the broken pane. And I have been meaning to share this one of some beautiful little birds I saw last Saturday in our pecan tree in the backyard. I don't know what they are, perhaps finches of some sort? It was raining a bit that morning and chilly also. But the birds numbered in the twenties or maybe even thirties and they chirped and twirled a lovely melody as we waited for bee class students.