January 20, 2015  8:30 pm cst  52 degrees

                                                                     blue heron

So I'm sitting in the car eating a Churro outside a convenience store waiting for Neil ......A churro is a fried dough snack with cinnamon sugar ....yum!

When this grackle lands on the mirror and gives me and my snack a serious look.  I was debating  breaking off a piece when he got more demanding and I have to tell you, he was quite intimidating,

About this time, Neil came out of the store and threw him some bread but i wonder what he might have done.  He was pretty bold.

Can you see a cat in this picture?  Answer at the end of this post.

They have been dredging the river..the Arroyo Colorado.... out in front of our RV park .  this is the front of the operation.  I dont  know exactly how this works but

the stuff that is dredged up goes into this extremely long pipeline and is blown into a settling pond where the silt settles out and the water is returned to the river.

Well, it is still rotten weather for southern Texas......the water stands in the fields 

If you are brave enough to go to the beach, it's a good idea to bring an umbrella.

I do like looking at the heavy surf, tho.

Gardens are doing nicely tho but I can't imagine what this gardener was thinking planting petunias and cabbage in the same garden right next to the road.

I saw this man walking downtown and took his picture because I thought he looked silly in a dress and not until I saw the pics on the laptop did I realize he was wearing a hospital gown and hospital socks..no shoes.  Escapee?  Wish I had stopped to see if he was alright.

Did you spot the cat?  The dog on the right and another not in the picture had the cat treed.  Cats are so cool..he just sat on the branch knowing he could outlast the dogs.

January 6 2015  10 pm cst 51 degrees

Neil and I have both had colds so by the weekend, we just wanted to get out of the house.  We ended up at South Padre Island  where we were pretty much the only ones there because it was cold and threatening rain.  There was only one brave guy all bundled up  walking and from the tracks I would say everyone else that visited this beach was in a vehicle.  Good thinking.

The red flag indicates heavy surf and dangerous currents.

Was pretty surprised to see that the sand castles that we saw last winter are pretty much still there.

Notice that the Marines sand castle has been there long enough to grow  greenery.

This one is the biggest one we saw and was constructed by Andy Hancock. (many of them were.  He gives lessons on building sand castles!)

But as you can see from this close up, they are beginning to crack and erode.  I don't know how they lasted this long although I do know that they put hardeners in the sand and spray with a mixture of glue and water.  Still it is sand and out in the elements so my logic says it should be  one good rain and poof!

We stopped by the turtle rescue and saw this poor unfortunate who, like many of the turtles that have been there over the years, has had a run in with a boat motor..  He will not grow new shell to fill in that open wound but he will  grow a sort of cartilage that will protect him and he can be released when that happens.

Too cold for even the turtles, their tubs were all covered.

We found some people who didn't mind the weather.  It was the last day of Christmas vacation for kids.  They were having a great time running on the rocks and fishing.

And finally  these people determined to have a nice day at the beach...all bundled up  and covered in blankets.  That's when we decided to go home before we caught cold again.  Seemed like the sensible thing to do.

December 30 2014 10:30 pm cst  64 degrees

This $7.8 million dollar facility is an aquatic center for the Harlingen School District due to open in January. It will feature 10  25-yard competition lanes with 400 seats for spectators,.separate  fitness pool, diving well, a gym, weight room, and a classroom.  Yes, this is for the junior high and high school kids.

Just showing their stadium to demonstrate what amazing sports facilities Harlingen has.
 When I contrast this to what is happening in the schools in my native state of Maine, I cannot understand how this aquatic building is possible when Maine schools are cutting back on programs, teachers, and extra curricular activities.  

These gulls spend the day in a field across from the cotton gin.  There must be a gazillion of them...I don't know what the attraction is but I am guessing that the  cotton seed that was dumped out there has lots of mice, rodents bugs etc.  to keep these hungry birds happy.

We have been to this bait store many times before and never noticed this giant snake (not real) wound around a tree.

This bug attached itself to our windshield.....handsome dude, huh?

Somehow I never noticed so much color on pelicans before.

I recently found this pic of my grand daughter that  I took a few years ago..like maybe 10 years ago...I still like it tho.

And this one of Neil and his nephew's son, Rommie.  Just putting them in my end of the year pics so I won't lose them again.

And finally, one of the last pics of Howie before he got very sick.  I still miss him.

Happy New Year

December 23 2014 730 pm cst  60 degrees

There were such interesting Christmas trees at the Arts Center's tree decorating display.   I have cropped some of the pictures because the detail should be seen and everyone knows how a Christmas tree is shaped so you don't need to see the whole thing.
So lets start with my personal  favorite.

It's called Deck the Paws and if you'll notice, there is a dalmation tail on the lower right hand side.  Love that touch,

Kinda liked this Wizard of Oz themed tree too.  See the Ruby Slippers ?

This tree had all glass ornaments..gawjus....

and this one had comic strips from the newspaper for a garland among its handmade ornaments.

Not sure how I feel about the family heritage tree displaying a book entitled Collecting Dead Relatives. Not very jolly for the holiday.

Here's an idea for all those Christmas themed ties that have been accumulating in the closet over the years.....make a tree skirt. By the way, all along the garland on this tree are those pretty folded paper butterflies.

A whole tree of shells for a beach themed tree, featuring these shell angels.  Those faces look like the
Fisher Price people my son had when he was young.  Is this a recycle?

Ok, now for the  What-Were-They-Thinking  photo.

I think a beautiful bride  with an evergreen skirt overlaid with organza was envisioned ,  but this just didn't work out.
She scares me.........I think I saw her in a Stephen King movie.

And the best laugh...this picture in an empty room.......evidently the Grinch stole Christmas.

December 16, 2014    9:30p m   cdt   70 degrees

Hidalgo, Texas does Christmas lights like no place else.  

Some year I am going to show up near this house a couple of weeks before December  just to see how many people it takes to get this display up. 

  I especially like the candy cane  entrance.

Oh my goodness! I believe....I believe this  is more than the eye can take in.

We kept seeing this kid with the light sabers everywhere.

There he is in back of the Chick Fil A cow.  For those who are not familiar with the fast food chain restaurant called Chick Fil-A.... their ongoing ads feature cows who  say "Eat mor  chickn.".

Here he is dueling.

Neither Theresa nor I  can walk for any distance so we took the tram to see the rest of the displays.  By the way, that kid was on the same tram and I believe he went to sleep halfway through.  Sword fighting takes a lot out of you.

Mostly the tram took us around a park that  did the 12 days of Christmas..this one obviously was 12 drummers, drumming.

On the way out George noticed that the one thing that was not covered with lights at the festival of lights, in fact had no lights at all.....................was a lighthouse .  That's just perverse.