A Visit to Green Gate Nursery

Before we left on our pick-up-the-bees trip, I went to Green Gate to pick up a pretty poinsetta for our daughter and her husband. If you haven't been to Green Gate lately, you should go soon. Christmas is one of my favorite times to go because of all the beautiful plants they have for gift giving and decorating your own home. The poinsettas are always lovely, as was the case when I went so it took me some time to decide. In the end, I went with pink since I know Melissa likes that color and it's pretty unique. I love pink, too!



I posted about Green Gate and a certain bird back in 2007 also.

Bill Miller Pies

Yesterday a big group of us from work met at Bill Miller in order to celebrate a friend's birthday (yay Terry!). It's located along Interstate 10 and should be seeing a lot of business from all the workers building the Caterpillar site.

I noticed all the activity in the back room and watched several workers getting pies into pie boxes and found it fascinating. They were moving pretty fast - I would have worried about dropping pies. I am getting clumsier by the year it seems. lol. Anyway, there were all sorts of pies ready to go for ordering in, taking out for now and taking out for Thanksgiving! I opted for vegetable beef soup (very yummy) and a baked potato. For Mark, I took soup and a peach cobbler to go.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break with family and friends. May it be filled with love and happiness as we are blessed with so much to be grateful for in our lives.

Book Talk - Corpus Christi Public Library

The weekend before last, we went to Corpus Christ for another presentation about the research Mark is doing for his books (book #2 in process). The library system there is celebrating their 100th birthday and all year there are keynote speakers visiting their fair city, with former first lady Laura Bush headlining. :-) Pretty neat stuff. We had a great time on our little getaway. Mark gave a great presentation about how to use local resources in doing African American genealogical research. We had local customers as well as library staff in attendance so it was a lot of fun.

Green Pastures

Shot this one on a trip around the outskirts of Seguin one weekend. I love seeing the new babies out in the field - they're so cute! And even cuter when they stare at you from the field.

Bank Cameras

This is new at our bank, Randolph Brooks. It allowed us to see our bank teller as we completed our transaction and I assume she could see us also. Pretty neat since it's nice to have a face to go with the voice.

Sky Watch Friday

It's another beautiful south Texas sky for your viewing pleasure. :-) Isn't it a great looking spot? I snapped this on one of our jaunts around the countryside around Seguin. I always enjoying exploring new areas (and even familiar ones) with Mark. It's one of the ways we like to relax - cruising and talking or listening to music. Check out other Sky Watchers this week for more great sky shots.

I just got home from Irving this evening and I must say it's been the best trip I've had in a very long time. I actually was there to do training observation and assessment. Nice. I love doing that sort of work. And writing up trainer evaluation. So the big news for me is that I am transitioning from my current role to a new one that will allow me to focus on what I love -- trainer development and training delivery. Monday my replacement and new boss will be joining the company. I am VERY happy about this! And because I have an abundance of that great feeling right now, I hope that you will also have a wonderful day tomorrow that will bring you the same happiness that I feel right now. Have a great one!

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.