May 16 2015 Plymouth, Maine   64 degrees cloudy

Red arrow points out the hardest working, smartest, sweetest, prettiest ,graduate from the University of Maine this year. Our granddaughter.

My apologies for not closing up the blog for the summer as usual. We had a deadline to be home for May 9th for our granddaughter's college graduation and there were extenuating circumstances.

Our old, high mileage car was revolting against the long trip ahead and we had to buy a new car which sent me into shock when I saw the price.  Once bought however, we

 packed up immediately and left Texas three days after the papers were signed.  

So we are home for the summer.

Still, we look forward to returning in the fall.  Maybe you will look for us again...  right here....around the middle of October for a winter of a slightly warped or maybe that should be opinionated view of Winter Texans in trailers.

                                                                         Namaste.

April 16, 2015 9pm cdst  70 degrees

My mother used to say that there is no great loss without some small gain.

All the rain I have been complaining about all winter has produuced some mighty fine blooms like this Orchid tree........

and this Mexian olive tree that will bloom as long as there is enough rain to keep it interested in doing so.

And our spring birds are back.  This is a scissortail flycatcher.

And this roadrunner who thinks he is hiding.

This wild turkey scurrying to get out of my sight but has no place to hide is a nice example of why the wildlife people are trying to get the growers in the valley to create wild corridors that connect areas of natural habitat.

And while we are talking about wildlife, can you see any in this picture?

Bet you can't guess what this is.  

The city of Harlingen has taken down an old water tower and is in the process of cutting it up.

About a week after Easter, we saw this guy carrying a cross thru Harlingen.  Bet Jesus didn't have wheels on his.

It appears that the Lucky Food Store is selling Diesel fuel at $7.77 a gallon!  I think they would be lucky to get anyone to buy it at that price.

Oh my goodness, surely there isn't coffee in that tanker!  The trooper must have thought it a little suspicious.

This trucker is using a kind of unusual pit stop, but when you have to go, any facility will do I guess.

Oh, by the way, that was a baby alligator in the pic above......

and here is his mother.  They are at Laguna Atascosa. If you are wondering, I took this pic with a long lens from a high bridge.

   Mama gators don't like intruders.

I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night.

March 31, 2015 11 pm cdt  70 degrees

This week we went to Resaca de la Palma State park.

And I took some of the wierdest bird pics... some of them look like the bird is deformed   This green jay fanned out his wing just as I took the shot.

I don't know..is this bird singing opera?  Or is it two different birds? Or maybe he was born with his head on backwards.  I don't know  but he just doesn't look right to me.

My version of Angry Bird (s)

and finally, this chachalaca who seems offended at his fellow chachalaca's butt in his face.

We shared  the park that day with 75 kindergarteners. Cute but noisy.  Kudos to the teachers who bring all those 5 or 6 year olds to a park and actually keep them interested and well behaved.
Maybe they were amazed by the crazy birds antics as I was.

A couple or three years ago there was a huge fire in a building that housed many cans of paint and chemicals.  After the fire, no cleanup seemed apparent.  We saw an article in the local newspaper last year saying that the owners were given xxx amount of time to clean it up.
  When we came back this year, no changes have been made  and lo and behold, there are animals...horses, cattle etc.,  grazing  there.  Incredible! What are the owners thinking?!

I don't think there is a bad-looking live oak tree but I like some more than others.  This one is in Luckenbach, Texas.
I Wonder how old it is.

March 24,2015 10 pm cdt  72 degrees

A couple of days of partly cloudy/sunny weather and its time to get back to being outside like these river fishermen....

and hope we have seen the last of flooded fields.

We were in Brownsville and driving by the University of Texas in Brownsville.

Beautiful buildings.

Can't say much for the spelling but this is the age of texting so maybe Rek is acceptable  for the Rec building.

So I'm thinking that my granddaughter who graduates U of M this spring  and says she is so tired of the snow and cold temps from this winter ( So cold she has nosicles...her word), might like to apply here for graduate school.

And if she gets lonely for Maine, there is a Red Lobster nearby.

And then I see that the International Bridge to Matamoros Mexico is within walking distance from these beautiful buildings.

Matamoros: The home of the Gulf Cartel ...syndicated crime and drug trafficking organization, four members of which were recently arrested for an assassination attempt on the Mayor...

So, maybe the snow and cold aren't  really so bad, after all.

We went back to nice safe Arroyo Colorado and watched this barge come up the river.  Big baby, isn't it.

I do wish they would clean up the shores, tho.  This is a county park and I think it is a shame that it is not kept clean.

Why do you allow this mess Cameron County?!

The people at this house give new meaning to feeding

the ducks.  They feed them on  the front lawn

march 19 2015   9:30 pm cst

It's  spring. Cute baby goat.

Here I am again after a kinda long hiatus.  Neil was scheduled for a knee replacement  in March, left one this time, but the Dr.s office called us one day in late February and asked if we would be ok with having it done  a few weeks early and if so, could we be ready in two days.  Neil was all for it so since then we have been more or less home bound and actually kinda busy. Lazy me couldn't come up with an interesting blog.

We did manage to go to South Padre Island one day at the beginning of spring break  to just get out of the house and maybe photograph a lovely sunset.  Not much action at the beach and no sunset visible because we have had such rainy and cloudy weather.  Not complaining, tho, after seeing the pics the folks back home have sent of the huge amounts of snow and freezing weather.

Despite the rainy and cooler weather, some visitors  found wheels of different  types to get around.  These Segways are rented and get one around...albeit a bit slowly.

A few young folks brought their skateboards.

Also these not-so-young these skateboarders.  I guess you are never too old to learn and I believe that, from what I saw, they were just learning.   I think they  probably did more walking than riding.

And bless this man who provided his rather elderly dog with wheels so he could mosey on down the road  without the bother of a leash.  

 Ooooh, don';t know what this guy did wrong but there were a lot of police cars all around. Notice most of our policemen now wear cameras on their person to document the action.

This billboard annoys me....not because I am a hardhearted doubter about most statistics published  these days, but because I had just seen this on the internet

And speaking of confusing messages, this is a message Neil left for me on the white board one day not long after his operation.  I think he was still on pain meds.

Written in a hurry and not proofed so it wasn't  obvious that he was reminding me to call the bank.

By the way,he has been making a remarkable recovery  and feels really good.

February 17. 2015  10 pm cst 45 chilly degrees

Noble Drilller: An oil drilling platform in Brownsville...I don't know if it is in for repairs or if it is retired  (It was built in 1976) but it was cool to see it up close cause this thing is huge.  It can drill down to 25,000 feet.  That's a helicopter pad on the right side.

We thought this ship which was nearby might be the supply ship for the oil rig....  which would indicate that they were definitely in need of repairs.

I wonder why  this area is so beautiful and expensive 

 And this area which is nearby is neglected and rotting.

In a completely different place... the Arroyo Colorado....... Theresa and I saw these kids.   I have shown this pic to Neil and George and they say they had BB or Air guns at an early age and see nothing wrong, but it disturbs me to see these very young kids, unsupervised, shooting at something...probably just a tree or something  but that is a kind of powerful scope so it must have some range on it.  And then they get in this boat

where they have only paddles and only one has a life vest.

 Amazing that we got this pic of a dolphin because George saw them going up the river, called Theresa who then called me and  I had to get dressed and boogie on over..only about the distance of a city block.
 And those sweet little fishies,  (yes, I know they are mammals) waited for us.
 We just got our cameras out and they made a nice little run down the river right near where we were.

Think this guy is dressed warm enough for a boat trip on the Gulf of Mexico?

Been meaning for a long time to include some pictures of the Harlingen library.
This is the entrance.
Sitting on that bench is a bronze of Mark Twain, and just beyond the arch are statues of two children catching fireflies in a mason jar.

And these are just some of the bronze Remington statues that are among the artwork inside. 

It has been one of my favorite places to go until today when I had to return overdue books.  It cost me 2.25 for three books that were due day before yesterday.  Well, I guess someone has to pay for all that art.