R-A-I-N

If you are not located here in South Texas, you might not understand why I am posting about rain. It's been very, very hot here lately. Tonight, the weather man said that we broke our 1990 record of triple digit heat! And it's expected to continue for another 2 days or so. I believe we're at 11 or 12 days straight. Everything is brown and dry. The dust is pretty heavy and we are wilting away here! BUT....

We had a huge thunderstorm this evening during dinner time! It was wonderful to see the water coming down from the sky. I think it rained for about twenty minutes or maybe thirty even. And there was huge cracks of thunder and a bit of lightning along with a snappy wind to blow the trees and rain sideways a bit. Very exciting to watch. So we watched after dinner. And I tried to snap some pictures without getting my camera wet. This is our sidewalk out front. I liked the way the water makes it looks gelatinous.

Blooming in the Heat

I don't know how anything can bloom in this insane heat, but I am happy to see this cotton field, which can be found next to the Home Depot along IH-10 near Austin Street exit. We drove by last week to check on the field because it is within the 3-mile radius the bees fly so we were looking to see if any bees were there. Sure enough, we are happy to report there were bees. Now, we can only hope they are our bees from the backyard. :)



This is the best looking cotton field around the area, as you can tell by the healthy looking leaves and blooms. There are many other cotton fields in this area but they are looking pretty pitiful due to the drought we are in still. It is so hot and dry out here, it's amazing. We've had many three digit heat days and there's been so little rain to provide relief. It's all so dry, so brown, so crunchy. The heat is so oppressive, you simply don't want to go outside even.

Hospital Revisited

Remember a couple of weeks ago when Mark took me to the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center for my bee sting? Well I returned the favor. :) This past week has been pretty exciting and exhausting and I don't really want to focus on what happened though I will say that Mark is at home now and recuperating just fine. Thank you for everyone's well wishes and prayers; we really appreciate it!

Here he is, getting a heart ultrasound while at the hospital. That was really cool to see his heart in action (it's fine, by the way)! Everytime you see red flashes, the technician told us it was blood being pumped into his heart. Cool. And yes, I asked Mark if he'd mind if I took pictures. :) And believe it or not, this was the only time I took pictures during the week's main event. I was a bit distracted, lol.

This is what I really want to say about the hospital here in Seguin: it is GREAT! Well, it's really the people working there. You know, you hear about ER and hospitals and usually it's not so positive. But given that we were stressed and scared, it was the best place and the greatest help we could have asked for in our opinion. The staff was amazing and simply wonderful. Everyone from the ER to the nursing staff that cared for Mark AND me while we were there. I really felt like they created a safe place for us while we dealt with all the tests and uncertainty.

So here's a great big THANK YOU to the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center. You all are wonderful and we really appreicate you and all you did for us!

Happy Father's Day

I hope everyone is enjoying this special day and that you are also surviving the heat. :) We were very happy to have Melissa join us for church this morning and then we took Mark to lunch. It's been a wonderful day and now I'm off to call my dad.

Wesley Harper United Methodist Church

Last night Mark presented another talk on his book during the Juneteenth celebration at Wesley Harper United Methodist on Court Street. We had a very nice crowd join us and I never tire of listening to and watching Mark talk about his research. What is really nice is that everyone has really been wonderfully accepting and very interested in the book. Sometimes people ask if we have encountered any negative reactions since this IS about slavery. The answer is, we have not. It doesn't seem to matter the skin color of the reader, they just want to know about their/our history. And Seguin's history. It has been a truly wonderful to experience this whole adventure with Mark.



We also had musical performers for the evening: The Lampkin Family Gospel Group. Talk about beautiful. We first heard them during a musical program at Second Baptist Church a few years ago and we loved them! I was sooooo excited when I saw that they were on the program along with Mark as well as a young artist from Seguin, Howard Crunk (Howard displayed several beautiful pieces of his paintings and wood sculptures). If you have not heard of the Lampkins and you enjoy gospel music, then you should definitely check them out. They have two CDs out (available at Hastings) and they also brought home an award from the 2009 San Antonio Gospel Music Awards! The Seguin paper did a story back in May on the family, which you can read here. If you'd like to hear some of their music, search for their MySpace page and check out "God is Good." I love that one. :)

Sky Light Watch

...and a trip to the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center. So I thought this would fit with the theme since it IS a shot of a sky. :)

Last weekend Mark took me to the emergency room because my bee sting had gotten worse by Sunday morning. You know, this lovely sky shot really brightened the ER and it made me feel better because it is so cheerful and healthy looking. I thought it was a very nice touch to add to the ceiling. That's right; it's on the ceiling! It also made the space feel bigger. As a matter of fact, our little hospital is going through some rather extensive construction and so far, everything is looking super! I can't wait to see what the hospital will look like. There is a lot of glass in the design so I'm sure it will be very modern.



Here I am sitting and waiting for the PA to fix me. I am only smiling because of two things:

1. That HUGE contraption behind me. Really, I felt like it was this creature that was going to zap me or something. It loomed there...ever present. They didn't use it on me; I guess that is good. I just had to have a picture of it.
2. After I got my steroid shot, there was not much to smile about, that's for sure. I have gotten those shots before and I do not recall it being painful! It was not the needle going in or coming out. It was about one minute AFTER I got the injection that I felt the stabbing pain where I received my medication. Wow. Don't get me wrong. I appreciated the relief. But still!

So, about the bee sting. This is my second sting and I'm not sure why I reacted so differently since the first sting was no big deal. My hand swelled and itched like crazy. It was at least twice the size of my left hand and it looked WEIRD. All poofy. Also, I had to have antibiotics because it looked like it might have been getting infected. The Benadryl did NOT help the itching nor did it knock me out so I could sleep. I learned a good lesson: gear up from now on to check on the bees! :)

Local Author Book Signing

:) It's Mark! Last Thursday Mark had his first official book signing and I made it in time to catch the last few minutes of his talk and then I worked the purchasing table. The books are moving pretty swiftly and the publisher even spoke with Mark about buying some back...interesting! I am so happy for Mark because he enjoys talking with folks about the book. Saturday we went to drop copies off at Hastings, a local book/music/movie store, and while he was waiting to do paperwork, I strolled around looking at the books. Next thing you know, a "fan" was chatting him up and he signed her book for her. Sweet. I loved it.

Garden Update

I haven't talked about our garden so I wanted to give an update. It was late but we're beginning to really enjoy some harvested veggies lately. Above, Mark put hay around the garden and that has helped them plants retain some moisture these days. We are ranging from 98F to 101F degrees. Ugh. HOT! Below is a shot I really like of the green beans. I love the dainty white flowers but it's always hard for me to get a great shot of them. I'm glad I got this one, which includes a new green bean coming along as well.



Here's one of our yellow squash plants, doing pretty well! I love to saute these when we have pork chops, baked chicken or fish. They have a wonderful flavor I don't taste when we get them from the grocery store.



Here are some other veggies we have this week. Tastes wonderful! The zuchinni was served with some baked basa catfish and rice. Going to put the bell pepper in a stew we're going to do in a few days. The tomatoes went on top of some nachos we made for dinner. We have more green beans to pick so we can have that with more baked chicken. :)

Moo Jesus Ranch Dairy

Since this is my first post in a WEEK, you get a big one! This past weekend, we had a wonderful visit from Mark's mom, dad, uncle and aunt. We headed out to the Moo Jesus dairy farm, which is only about twelve miles from our house. Who knew such a neat place was that close!?! I loved the experience!



The drive out there was very beautiful and peaceful. Once you're there, Gina greets you with a big, beautiful smile and a very warm welcome. She told us all about how natural foods help our bodies and we even sampled many of the cheeses they make there -- my favorite is the jalapeno cheese (we bought some!). After that, her husband Edward tours us around the property on our modern day wagon. It was nice to have the shade overhead as it was quite warm on Saturday.



Once we got back to the main area, we took a breather in the restaurant and waited for lunch. We even got to sample some fresh milk (super wonderful) and a drink that I can't recall the name of but it had beet and cayenne in it. Way too sweet for me but I'm glad I tried it.



On our way back home, we drove by El Capote Ranch since Mark's family and I have never seen it. The Capote has a rich history -- better told by Mark so I won't butcher it here. You can Google but you can also check the Texas Handbook. This is a wonderful day trip for the family. I highly recommend it!

Sorry about not posting at all for an entire week! I'm not sure I'm going to be any better anytime soon so my apologies for this weird period where there are infrequent posts. Work is really draining my time and my mind to be honest with you so when I am traveling every week, I get all caught up in what's going on right now. I hope things will settle down a bit and when they do, I should be able to once again enjoy photography and posting for you. Meanwhile, be patient with me!

Note: all these shots were taken with my Blackberry! Not bad, right? I couldn't believe my camera battery was DEAD. Not even one shot. Oh well.

Baby Bluejay

Last week Mark and I heard a great big bird commotion outside, I mean it was LOUD! So we went to check the action. I saw a Bluejay and it was squaking (or whatever the official Bluejay sound is called) like there was no tomorrow. And wouldn't you know it, there was Smokey, sitting nearby along the fence, looking suspicious (to me anyway). I went over to see if Smokey had anything to do with the fuss and the answer was y-e-s. Oh my goodness, he was sitting right next to this poor little baby and it looked scared to death! He wasn't on it; he wasn't biting it; he was simply there. About eight inches away from the bird, maybe less. So I snatched up Smokey and put him in the house so that the birds could settle down and hopefully fly off.

It didn't look like baby was hurt, probably just stunned, and it had trouble flying but it tried. In the picture below, you can see the zoomed out shot of where it took sanctuary after escaping Smokey's clutches. The parent bird is up on top of the fence, coaxing it. I think Bluejays are vey beautiful and unique looking birds, but they sure do make a lot of noise. Especially if they are feeling threatened. :)



My mom used to garden while we lived in NC and there was a Bluejay that would swoop down on her even though its nest was not near our yard at all. My mom would try to talk to it and tell it she wasn't bothering them but she wasn't going anywhere either. I don't know why, that memory has stayed with me a long time.

Sky Watch Friday

So I barely got in a second post this week but I've been wanting to share this one for Sky Watch (be sure to check out other cool sky shots!). Lately we have had a few storms rolling through and that is always a welcome weather event! I got several really neat shots of this sky activity when i was coming back from the Target in New Braunfels, which is about 15 minutes west/north-west of Seguin, along IH-35. I was so mezmorized by the clouds and color that I just parked and watched. I love storms. The color and clouds changed pretty rapidly so I just snapped away. I tried the panaramic setting but didn't get it right. I really want to practice that setting more. And I need to remember my tripod clip. :)

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Kicking Off the New Week

I have a presentation I'm working on for tomorrow so no time to upload pictures I took this weekend. Instead, let me at least share another one I liked when I snapped the Esperanza. My friend liked the colors of the shot and so do I. The sky turned a blue that made me think of a card, not true blue but still lovely to look at.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday today. We really enjoyed having an extra day together. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

Bee in the Esperanza

This year our Esperanza bush finally came back on its own without my having to prune it back, which is what I've been hoping it would do for a while now. We have actually been lucky enough to receive a little bit of rain here and there this year though we're still in drought. It is, however, still nice and green around here and there is some food for the bees. Still, we could use more. After work one day last week, Mark told me the bees were getting into the Esperanza so I tried to catch a few shots. They were such busy bees, it was hard to snap them but I do like the way this one turned out.

Tomorrow is a holiday so we have it off from work in order to observe Memorial Day in honor of our servicemen and servicewomen. I am grateful for them since I wouldn't be here in this great country had it not been for the people who helped us in Vietnam and then our sponsor helping us out of Vietnam. Not a day goes by that I don't realize how different my life could have been and I know that I am truly blessed.

Caterpillar Comes to Seguin

We're all very happy that Caterpillar is bringing operations to Seguin! The land is being prepared and it looks pretty impressive each time I pass by going to and coming from work. Before I left for North Carolina, there were two homes still up and plenty of trees so that you couldn't see IH-10 from Kingsbury/Hwy 90. I am gone a week and a half and it's all changed! It's exciting to see the new changes around town. Across from here, the Breismeister Middle School is also undergoing some growth construction.

We're Home & So Are Mark's Books

We're back!!! And it is so wonderful to be home after ten whole days away. We are both feeling refreshed and ready to tackle things we need to do. But first...

Mark's books arrived finally!!! I was so hoping to see them before I left for NC but it wasn't meant to be. But they are here now and I am so, so happy for Mark to get his first book on the topic published already! It's so cool to stack the books up and flip through them, knowing that he pulled together all the information...and to think about all the stories to be told about those people listed. It's truly amazing. It's also a very interesting look into what life was like for Seguinites back during the 1840s through 1865. The publisher (Janaway Publishing) did a fantastic job on the format and look of the book. We really appreciated that they spent more money in order to make sure the old documents and photographs came out great. And now Mark's going to start a lecture and signing tour -- he's got a couple of "gigs" lined up so I'll keep you posted on where he'll be. [By the way, thank you to those of you who have ordered copies and others who have called or spoken with us about buying a copy from us. We really appreciate your interest and support. :)]

You can also check out Mark's blog because I believe he's going to post about the book this week also. :) Congratulations, honey. I am SO proud of you!!

Home Sweet Home & Happy Days

Greetings from Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina! I am so happy to be at the Outer Banks and to finally show Mark the island I love so much. For my big 4-0 birthday, Mark is taking me on this trip and I can't tell you how much we are enjoying ourselves. I can't post everyday even if I wanted to because we don't have wi-fi where we're staying AND there is absolutely NO AT&T service anywhere on the island. At least none we found. Yesterday we took the ferry to Hatteras so that we can see a few text messages so people know where we are and to call our moms for Mother's Day. By the way....HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY moms out there. :)

Anyway, we just enjoyed some beverages here at the coffeehouse and checked some personal email. I refused to log into work though I thought about it for about 3 seconds. LOL. No work. It'll just have to wait.

This is a shot of us on the two hour and fifteen minute ferry ride between Cedar Island and Ocracoke, crossing the Pamlico Sound. I so enjoyed it, as you can tell by the big ole grin I have on my face. Didn't spot any dolphins this time but I hope to before we leave. Having a blast and will upload more pictures when I get home. It's gorgeous and perfect for another dip in the sea after lunch. I love the Atlantic waters.

Hope you are all enjoying the weekend and hope that the new week will be a great one. Catch you later!

Quiz for Thursday

Who knows what this is? :)

And guess what? I'm on V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!!!! And I am sooooo excited. Not sure I'll post between now and when we get home next week so if you don't see something new, you know where I'm at.....

Greetings from NC

Hi everyone. Before I get on to do some work, I wanted to get a post up for you. I'm in NC so I'm going to have to dig through some pictures to share with you from afar. I am L-O-V-I-N-G visiting my home state again. It's wonderful to be back and see all the changes in the area as well as some good ole things that haven't changed. AND I got to have lunch with my best friends from college as well as dinners with my sister and her family. I love snuggling with my nephew.

And now to the picture....guess what I got to sample before leaving Texas?!?! Mark's first batch of honey. OMG it was DELICIOUS!!! I wish I had taken some with me. In this shot, Mark is scrapping the wax off the top so that we can get to the honey. This is called "capping." The bees seal up the little compartments (sorry honey, I don't know the official name and you're not sitting across from me for me to ask) once it's full of honey. This is my simplified explanation. Anyway, it was really neat. That one little frame produced quite a bit of honey. And at first, I thought it looked really dark so I assumed the honey was dark. BUT that was not so...check out this shot below. The comb is dark but the honey is very clear. Cool. I love being married to a beekeeper! Miss you honey (my man, not the bee stuff)!

Beetle Battle!

Beetle Battle!
Originally uploaded by tgretchen

Visiting the bees DID help perk me up quite a bit today. I just love watching them, busy with work! It's an amazing world to me. I was so pleasantly surprised by the growth in Mark's hives...they stand pretty tall now so it was pretty impressive. We even took one small frame back with us to sample the honey. Verdict: DELICIOUS!

This is one of my favorite videos and I've been trying to record one where guard bees are at work protecting the hive. They protect against robber bees (from other hives) and intruders such as this beetle. They pushed it out and made sure it left before they returned to the entrance of the hive. That is pretty neat in my book. So now I know there are drones, workers, attendents, guards and the Queen. :)

By the way, they are still very gentle and accepting. I snapped photos and videos without wearing a veil or gloves and never got stung. At one point, Mark even pointed out that I was right in the middle of the flight path and they just flew around me. It was so cool to stand among all the bees. Really made my week. Thanks for taking me out there, honey.

Week's End Summary

Sorry. I had really intended to post garden shots this week for you while I was in Irving but it just didn't happen. :( I'm afraid I've been woefully neglectful of my blog so I apologize. Things have just been so darn busy that I don't even remember to eat breakfast sometimes. Now that's bad! LOL.

I always enjoy driving by this house because they were very creative with their garden -- I love how it's right there by the door in the flower beds! I have not seen this anywhere else so I just had to share it with you. There's just something about seeing the cornstalks next to the house. Very cool looking, if you ask me. Their tomato plants are looking pretty nice also.

Our garden is coming along though we're not sure what we'll get this year. I'll keep you posted. Like I said, maybe the mere act of gardening is the therapy for long, stressful days and weeks. That and visits to the beehives. Speaking of which, Mark is taking me tomorrow to visit the country hives. I'll see what's new and share with you. I do know our city bees in the backyard are bringing in all sorts of colorful pollen on their little legs. It's really neat to watch.