City Cleaners

Here's our cleaners we like to visit. Mark's been going to them for many years now and I take my things there also whenever I need special care for my clothes. This is family run and they are really nice folks who remember you and if you forget a Spurs pin on your lapel (several times), they will keep it safe for you. :-) We like frequenting family operated business like City Cleaners.

Downtown Seguin

Gosh it's been a tiring week and today was another eventful and draining day at work. It's the weekend, however, so that's a chance to relax and do fun things for ourselves. This evening we started with another great workout at the Wellness Center, a yummy pizza (yah! no cooking!), a great visit from my step-daughter Melissa, playing online, finishing up my James Rollins book and watching the Spurs (though they are losing, again!).

I was going through some pictures I snapped recently and I liked this one enough to share. I shot this downtown on River Street, just outside the doors to City Cleaners. I'll post about them soon since we like taking our clothes there. As you can tell, it was a gorgeous day with a beautiful sky to go with it.

Tomorrow's fun? Bee activities and then lunch with a great friend from SA. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Sky Watch Friday

Hello everyone and happy Friday. The Caterpillar plant is coming along nicely and looks to be quite a big and great looking site. And lately, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous here! It's been a great fall so far with an awesome amount of cool days of sunshine and slightly chilly nights. I love it like this. As you can tell from the green of the grass and the amount of water in the retention pond, we've been getting a decent amount of rain finally. Things are blooming still and everything's beautifully lush.

I pass this site going to and coming home from work. All I have to do on the way home is pull up to the light at Kingbury, roll down the window, point and shoot. Hence the power lines. I could have edited out them out using PhotoShop but most of the time, I like to keep my stuff simple and unaltered. :-) Maybe next time, I will park and cross the road for a clear shot. Maybe. It's a busy intersection.

Be sure to check out other Sky Watchers if you want to see some cool shots of skies around the country and world.

Boo!

Happy Halloween everyone! Be safe this evening. :-)

Spurs Fans

Guess what time it is, Spurs fans?? Basketball season! Last night we went to the first game of the season against the Hornets. We beat them and we looked great though defense was not so great in the second half. The guys looked energized, Manu looked great and Timmy only had to play like 22 minutes. Unfortunately, we lost to the Bulls tonight. And we looked pretty awful. Still, I love my Spurs.

Here are a couple of shots of great friends at work who are also big Spurs fans like me. :-)

Wedding Festivities

This weekend was a fun one with plenty going on around town and for us as well. Before I prep for the work week, I thought I'd post about some of the fun I had. I shot this while sitting at the reception for our friends, Jessica and Tim -- congratulations, you two!

Mark and I met up with Sonia and we had a lot of fun in New Braunfels at the Conservation Plaza. I'd never been there so it was neat to check out the old buildings and decorations. It was a pleasant enough evening though a touch on the humid side. We are suppose to get rain over night so I'm glad it held off for the wedding though a few sprinkles did come down after the outdoor ceremony was done.

Mark and I also drove around the countryside a bit to spot a new bee yard and a potential new bee yard. It's so exciting to think we're going to get more bees and that we'll have a good spot where there's plenty of food sources for them. When it's all worked out, I'll let you see a shot. And of course, you can always check out the Gretchen Bee Ranch blog for more information on the bees. It's always interesting to me and I seem to learn something new every time I visit them with Mark. Today I saw them acting in a way I had not seen before and Mark told me they were robbing a hive. More than likely that hive won't make it but he still has four good ones out in the country.

Butterflies & Moths Abound

Happy Thursday, everyone! Lots of butterflies and moths have been meandering through the area as of late. I just feel terrible when they kamikaze themselves in my windshield. Elevate, butterflies! Elevate.

Do you think these two are sharing or fighting for the right to enjoy the bloom solo?

The Wellness Center

Shot this one with the Blackberry so it's not a crisp one; however, that's fine as I would not want to pull out the real camera and make everyone self-conscious or whatever. So I snuck this one as I was walking on the treadmill off to the side. It's hard to get a good shot when you're walking! LOL. So, I love that there are two walkers reading books. If I tried to do that, I would become so engrossed, I'd forget to walk. I tried watching football on Sunday while I was on the step machine and when Brady threw the 40 yard pass to Randy Moss, I caught myself stopping mid-step and beginning to yell at the TV! Yep, I better just use my time on the machine to listen to music or simply think about things.

We are really enjoying the Wellness Center here in town. Not only do we feel better, but we also get to see friends there. We're going to really try and stick with it by encouraging each other to go, even when we're tired or just feeling lazy. It's amazing to me how great I feel when we go to the gym and I get so excited about it but then it's so easy to get out of the habit of going. Crazy. Well, now we have a goal in mind so we're going to shoot for that. I should do before/after pictures.

Anyway, if you haven't been to the Wellness Center, then you should check it out. The staff is great and the facility is super clean and the equipment new. There's such a great variety to choose from -- regular treadmills (and fancy ones with individual TVs), all sorts of step machines, all sorts of bikes (with fancy tracking software, racing software, etc.), indoor pool, hot tub, racquetball court (did that in college, not interested in getting smacked by that mean ball), classes, weights, and so on. Oh, there's a juice bar as well. It's really cool!

Friend-ly Bikers

The past several days have been wonderfully cool and low in humidity around here and I love it. If my allergies didn't get all crazy, I would spend even more time outdoors! LOL. This past Saturday, because I knew we were going to check on the country bees, I geared up by doing not one but two nasal rinses and took Zyrtec AND an Aleve-D. Still managed to get a bit of a headache but it was worth it to enjoy the great outdoors a bit with Mark and the bees.

On our way back from the bee yard, we have to travel on some country roads and as we pulled up to a stop sign along the way, we noticed two bikers. It was a friend of ours from our San Antonio Library days! She and her husband were scoping out the route for an upcoming ride and there they were. We pulled over and had a great visit -- it really is amazing to me that I look out the truck window and there's a friend I just would not have expected to see riding a bike out in the country near Seguin (she lives in SA). Hi Letty & Gilbert! It was GREAT to see you guys. :-)

More Prettiness

This time the prettiness was photographed on my drive home. Right around the corner from us on Camp Street is this great big mass of vines and on the vines are some of the most amazing flowers you'll ever see. I have been wanting to stop and shoot these for some time (like every year they bloom for the past 3 or 4 years) and yesterday I decided it was time. And the lighting was nice I thought.

I love the vibrant colors. With all the rain, everything is so green, so lush. And the layers, textures and numerous elements of these flowers just amaze me. There are different varieties in different colors. If I could find one potted, I would take my mom one. She has such a green thumb and I think she'd love the uniqueness of this. Do you know what it is? (Without clicking on my Flickr b/c I put the name there.)

Prettiness

...at the Mill! These flowers are blooming at the Mill and I love looking at them. I don't know what they are called though so if you know, tell me please! :-) Lately we have finally started receiving steady rain so everything is green and lush and flowers are everywhere. I'm glad since this is a little extra goodness for our bees! Speaking of which, the ones here in the city are MEAN. You know what that means...

Hope everyone's having a great week. We are half done with the week already!

Happy Friday

Made it through another week and it was a pretty great one overall. And to celebrate my uplifted spirits, I chose this shot because this little guy looks happy to me. Work is still a bit rough but I'm just trying to get through as many projects, assignments, etc. as possible without getting all stressed out. So in an effort to de-stress, I have made it a point to do things I have always enjoyed doing but moved away from for a while. Here are my highlights fo rthe week:

1. Took pictures. Even if it was just with my Blackberry! Not at all satisfying but it allows me to document something significant in a pinch. Wouldn't want to be a photo snob, right?
2. Spent a little time each day reconnecting with a friend.
3. Called family members. Got a lot so I still need to make the rounds.
4. Set aside time each day to meditate, pray and center myself.
5. Met Hope for lunch. What a sweet lady! Hi Hope! :)
6. Met Josh for the first time. He's been an online friend and so it was wonderful to meet such a nice person and great photographer. I love his work.
7. Went to a SPURS game!! Yes, it was preseason. And no, we didn't win. But I had a blast with Mark and we enjoyed seeing the new players.
8. Sold out on our honey. Can you believe that?!?
9. Laughed a lot. I love to laugh. I don't like it when I realize I hadn't laughed all day. Luckily, if this EVER happens, all I have to do is tell Mark and usually he has me in stitches pretty fast.
10. Started a book -- Ice Hunt by James Rollins. So far, so good.

And now? I shall go check out a new website to see if I want to print some of my photos for Christmas gifts. I'll let you know what I think later. Goodnight and I hope you all have a really wonderful weekend! Tomorrow's suppose to be gorgeous!

Tools, Tunes and a Cold One

Who says you have to be a man to appreciate this thing! Check out this fancy toolbox. I'm not even sure you can call it that. Perhaps it's more of a work center. Not only are there drawers for your tools (if I had it, I'd put all my bead stuff in there!), but it also has a CD player (yes!) AND a mini-refrigerator on the bottom left!!! How cool, right?? Check out that price tag. We spotted this at our local Home Depot. :-)

Pink Flamingos & Some Honey

Hello everyone, I have two pictures for you today. The pink flamingos just make me happy because I love pink and on Saturday, when it was all dreary, the burst of color along College Street really brightened the day!

Mark and I worked on our bee business a bit this weekend and had so much fun! We have launched a new blog (check out Gretchen Bee Ranch and see what you think), designed a special tag and packaged some of the honey we are selling. I probably won't blog much about the bees on this blog anymore now that they have their very own site. I just love the way the honey looks with the natural lighting.

A Cup of Joe & Some Art

This is a mural depicting scenes from our town's past and can be found on the side of the Chiro Java, a coffeehouse down on the square.

Artful Food

It's been a bit hectic with work and all so I haven't had time to find intriguing shots for you guys. I did, however, think that you deserved something new to check out so here's a work of art that I never tire of really. I don't like cheesecake all that much but I can appreciate the beautiness of artfully presented foods. Just look at this gorgeous dessert! The day of this specific meal, I actually had the flan and loved it. ALMOST as good as my mom's. The picture was not as dramatic as this so I chose this one for looks. ;-) Goodnight everyone. Got an early morning tomorrow -- 7am call with our Croatia location! Better go set the coffeemaker.

Flowers, Candles, a Bride and a Groom

Last week we were happy to be a part of my stepdaughter's happy evening as she married her high school sweetheart. And now they are awaiting news of where her husband will next be stationed with the Coast Guard. They are very happy and we wish them all the best in life.

Well, here we are at the start of another week and it's nearly October! I'm not closer to getting some relief at work so that's a tiny bit of a setback in terms of a return to my happy-happy state. Oh well. I remain hopeful that in this economy, surely we can find some great workers out there! Please send good vibes my way. ;-)

Fighting or strategizing?

We bottled up some of the honey yesterday and had a great time. It's a lot of fun to work with and learn from Mark about how to do these things. And now we have some cool ideas for Christmas gifts that may involve some intense crafting! :-) Watch out You're So Crafty!

A Day with the Bees

Is it me or does anyone else see the great states here in the honeycomb? :-) Today was extraction day finally since rain, travel and illness prevented us both from doing it sooner. It was my first time to extract so I wasn't sure what to do or expect but I had a blast. Tiring, but I think it was because we were both not at 100% as it was. Luckily for me no stings! No so lucky for Mark since one of the backyard hives was pretty mean. He got multiple stings but handled it well, as always. One sting on me and I puff up. Needless to say, we suited up appropriately today and were sure glad we did. Above is honeycomb Mark pulled out from one of the feeders. I loved the colors of it all so I took a ton of shots I really enjoy looking at now. Below is Mark pulling out some frames for extracting.

Here's a shot of Mark uncapping a small frame. I learned that means breaking the wax seal on top of the frame so that the honey can flow freely. It was really neat. And occasionally, we'd chew on a bit of the wax and honey...just like gum. Once the frame is uncapped, you place it in the extractor, which you can see in the bottom picture. You put four frames in at a time and then there's a handle for spinning the frames round and round, flinging the honey to the side of the drum and then it drips down to the bottom.

And then...the wonderful honey starts to flow. Oh my gosh, it was wonderfully sweet! Even though it was a really tough year for the bees, there was a good amount for them to share with us. Sadly, though, Mark did mention he has lost several hives. Don't know if it's the heat, drought, colony collapse or what. Or maybe all of that. At any rate, thank you little bees for our delicious harvest!

Raindrops!

While I was up in Irving this week, we started getting rain...a LOT of rain, actually. I hated missing the action. Apparently 1620 right out front of our mill was under quite a bit of water! It's fantasticly green this week and I love it. Today I am enjoying the cloudy day, with occasional rumbles of thunder, brief downpours, light sprinkles...I snuck out between showers to get some shots in. From where I sit in our office, we have a nice view of our plumeria and I really like the way the raindrops fall and collect on the giant leaves of our plant. Very refreshing.

Last night I didn't get into SA Airport until after 9pm due to the wild weather. Lightning up in the Irving area prevented us from taking off so we sat on the plane for over an hour, I believe. It was sure nice to get home. This is a fun-filled weekend for sure. Date night with friends, including bowling -- we love bowling even if we haven't done it often. Tomorrow is our church in the park (Starcke Park if you want to join us, down at the bowl near the falls) AND a bridal shower. And then a special dinner -- king ranch casserole. I'm gonna be busy! :-)

Dare I say it?

Rain actually arrived today AND it made it to our house - it's wonderful! AND on top of that, it's suppose to rain the rest of this week. AND I got some really cool cloud shots from our deck out back. I'm not complaining about the rain at all; I must, however, share with you the irony of its timing. After months of drought and heat and praying for rain, it looks like the week Mark decides to extract honey, we have 50% to 70% chance of rain. Everyday. Makes it hard to get to those hives in the country, right honey? :-)

Oh, beautiful moon...

...how I love gazing upon you. The beautiful moon called to me last night when I went out to turn off the water on the lawn (poor lawn...it's still dry, dry, dry). I grabbed my tripod and hung out on the back deck for a while to try all sorts of manual settings to try and do justice for the moon. It was fun since Smokey was out there keeping me company and Mark checked on me once in a while. What a fun way to end a wonderful weekend.

Having an extra day to catch up on things AND also to relax made such a great difference. I am so relaxed, I don't even dread going back to work! I am full of positive energy and, dare I say it, excitement! Yes, excitement. I hope to have some very nice news to share soon. Something that should mean a return of happy, happy and more crafting, photographing, blogging, socializing...

Sky Watch

Happy Sky Watch, everyone. Tonight it is actually raining in Seguin AND over our house. The sound of thunder and raindrops sound wonderful. I love falling asleep to those soft sounds.

Check out other sky watchers for some great shots and have a wonderful Friday!

Bees Get Thirsty, Too.

I believe we are on day fifty-two or -three of our blazing hot 100+ days. As I write this, Mark says the temperature is 103! 103 at 5:18 p.m. is just too much. This makes me think back to when I lived in NC. It'd be time to gear up for school and though it was hot, we knew that within twenty or thirty days, cooler weather would arrive. Then the beautiful fall. Hmm...not here I'm afraid.

Friday night we actually did get about ten minutes worth of a good downpour so that was very nice though we need many more of those to fight the drought. I haven't given an update on the bees in a little bit and Alan's comment about the beehouse made me think I should write about them.

Here they are doing something that astonished me, and to be honest, mesmorizes me everytime I go out in the backyard -- they are drinking water! Have you ever thought about the fact that they do that? And have you seen them do it? I enjoy watching them because I'm amazed they found the water bucket we left out for Smokey since he's outside so much. All day, you can find at least several of them drinking from there and it's pretty cool to watch. If you want to see a video, you can watch this clip. I have other bee clips there as well. Enjoy!

Workshop and Beehouse

Tuff Shed paid us a visit this past Friday and Mark now has his workshop/beehouse in the yard! Ready for customizing. I had to work so Mark had the camera to document the event for me. It's incredible that a 16 by 20 foot shop will be made from that bed of materials the guys brought to the house.



When I saw this shot, the first thing that came to mind was that it'd be a great dance floor. :) Just kidding. The guys were grateful for the solid foundation on which they built up the workshop. Most of the time, people don't prep for their new building so it makes the guys' jobs more challenging. I'm very impressed with Mark's work because I know that workshop is not going anywhere. Good job, honey.



And the finished product! I love it and can't wait to see how Mark finishes it out. Smokey loves hanging out underneath, naturally. Steps will be placed and then tables need to be built inside. First priority -- the beehouse part! I can't wait to see how the honey extraction works.

The Wooly Moth

Update on August 22: Here's what I found on wiki: The moth Megalopyge opercularis has numerous common names, including southern flannel moth, pussy moth, puss caterpillar, tree asp, and, asp caterpillar.



What is this creature?? Anybody out there know? I am so intrigued by it. Mark noticed it hanging on our front door and when we looked closer, we saw how unique he is. I mean, look at all that fuzziness! And the color is so cool. I'm totally fascinated. And we check when we go by and it is still hanging there on the door. Weird but neat.

I'm home from Dallas! Yay! This was my one day trip. Flew up early, had meetings, flew home. :-) Happy to be home.

Workshop Project

Here's a shot of the space Mark's been working on in preparation for his workshop, which is being delivered by Tuff Shed on Friday. Hopefully. I can't wait for it to get here already!

Home Depot & Another Project at Home

I noted today to friends that this was a seesaw week, filled with highs and lows. I guess, however, that's just how life is and all you can do is try and focus on the highs so you can get through the low spells. I'm very blessed because it seemed when I was feeling particularly down (e.g., wanted to throw something Monday, had an urge to shake some sense into someone Tuesday, etc.), it was soon balanced out by a laugh, a hug, a reminder of good things or a story of someone else's troubles, which then made mine seem very trivial. Anyway, all of this gave me little inspiration or motivation to write. I like to keep this positive as much as possible. We have enough downers in the world. So, on to something lighter. Sorry about that.



We have a new home improvement project! Well, we usually have something going on but this is a big one. Mark has torn down the OLD shed out back and is going to put a new and bigger workshop where he can set up all his tools as well as his beekeeping equipment. We are super excited! Above is a shot of some of the lumber at Home Depot in town. It's so nice to have them here. I went with Mark to get out and away from the computer for a bit.



While he was busy working with a nice gentleman, I was playing with my phone, taking pictures and so on. Then I saw this CUTE display! I used to LOVE watching the Pink Panther cartoon when I was young and I still love the theme music. There was no question I was going to take a picture of the display. :) Below is a shot of some of the posts Mark's been working deligently on before we get the workshop in....I'll share a bigger view later. I just liked the way some of the posts shots came out.

I hope you all have a very wonderful and relaxing weekend. Thank you for stopping by the blog and sorry I am sporadic in posts lately. I hope that I will return to more regular posts soon. Goodnight. :)

Sky Watch Friday

The moon is so lovely that it makes me forget all my troubles, stresses, chores, work...just about everything. Mark called me out to see it and I'm glad I did. I imagine a day in my lifetime when we can just hope on a shuttle and visit the moon. Not as astronauts but simply as citizens of Earth. Wouldn't that be cool? I don't want to stay there nor do I necessarily need to touch down and disturb it (though if I'm up there, you never know). Just to get closer to it, to see the craters up closer -- wow! I think that would be awesome.

Check out other skies this week at Sky Watch Friday.

The Ticket

We have a new bar down on the town square now and it's called The Ticket. The top picture is the front part of the bar, the bottom shot a look at the rear of the bar. It is nice to see something new on the square but I wish it was still The Grill. Remember that? It was a great restaurant! Great atmosphere, great food, awesome wait staff -- my stepson used to work there. :) Anyway, that's more my speed than The Ticket but if you want to try something new, be sure to let me know what you think of the place.

Mark and I went when they first opened so they didn't have a full menu yet. We had the nachos and a couple of beer. I'm no critic so I won't offer a review here since you should be allowed to form your own opinion. It does offer a sitting area/balcony on the second floor, which is a great spot to be in if there's a music event on the square.

Sunday Evening Thoughts

Since some of you liked yesterday's shot, I thought I might share a follow up of the flower. The top shot is the lotus in full bloom. I am intrigued by it and love looking at the bloom -- look at all that's going on inside the bloom! It's multi-layered inside amazes me. Each part like it's own flower really. I just think it's neat.

Below is my favorite shot for many reasons. I love pink and green together because it always reminds me of one of my favorite memories from childhood. It was when my dad colored with us kids once. I remember he used this green and pink combination and at the time, I had never seen that put together in such a way that it just really drew my attention. I don't know why that stayed with me but it does. More than likely, I just really liked that he colored with us and then he showed his creative side, which we rarely got to see. I'm all mushy for a Sunday night. I should call them tomorrow. :)

Hope everyone has a great week. No Dallas for me this week so I am very psyched about it! :) Nothing like being home.

Saturday Fun

Happy Saturday everyone! If you have some time today and want to have some fun, come by Second Baptist Church between 9am and 12pm. We're at 609 S. Guadalupe (1/2 way between the Coliseum and the Court St. intersection). Mark and I will be there along with other church members at our first annual SBC Bazaar & BBQ.

It was a busy week as we cooked beans (Mark), brownies and lemon squares (me). Plus I am donating eight pairs of earrings I made to our rummage sale. There will be lots of things for the kids to do so hope you can make it. By the way, I am in charge of the bake sale and I understand there's going to be cakes, cupcakes and cookies on top of my two items. Come on you sweet tooth...you know you want to swing by SBC. :)

This is a lotus bloom, very symbolic in Asian culture and especially if you are Buddhist. I don't have time to go into detail. I just wanted to share its beauty with you and wish you all a wonderful weekend with family, friends or on your own if you are just chillaxing solo (that's what the kids say these days, lol). Take care.

Baby mocks are back!

They're back! The mockingbirds are back this year and nesting in the crepe myrtle in the front yard. I love it when I hear them making noise for food. Let me back up a bit. First, I really enjoy the nest building activity. It's so amazing to me that little bits and pieces of wood are weaved together somehow into a nest that is sturdy enough to hold three babes and the mom. The nest is up high so I couldn't see how the eggs were doing. I was happy when I finally heard the babies making sounds.



Yesterday I got all excited and a little worried. Why? Because I saw one of the babies in the rosemary bush underneath their nest. So I was all happy because I knew it was a chance to see a baby. BUT I did not want Smokey finding it down there. Yikes. I saw evidence of another grown mockingbird done in out back so I worried for the little birdy in the bush. I don't know if it survived or not but I didn't see a little body around the yard so that's a good sign. And below is a picture of the momma bird watching me as I hovered near her little one. She didn't swoop down on me or anything. Nice.

Bees & Spiders

Here is a shot of us out at the country beeyard. My sister-in-law and nephew are checking out one of the two big spiders "guarding" our bees. It's a little difficult to see but you can spot the spider if you look at the yellow part of Renee's veil. it almost looks like the spider is on her veil since you all cannot see the spider web.