She's bigger in person than I expected. Like, WAY bigger.
Friday, July 31, 2009
This is not one of my own photographs, but I wish it was. It's the Jefferson Memorial at sunset, from across the Tidal Basin, taken by a guy whose Etsy profile just describes him as "photome" from Brooklyn. I wish I knew more; I'd attribute this to him. I love his work.I am disappointed and dismayed by the choices of the people who are in charge here in Washington, DC, but I love this place. I haven't taken a single picture yet, but expect to see some soon. In the meantime, enjoy this oil painting by Nancy Merkle:
Thursday, July 30, 2009
The Original Martha
My sweet Grandmother... the original Martha. She's eighty-three and even more beautiful INSIDE than she is on the outside. I sometimes call her "shortie" because I actually am taller than she is. I think she's 4'10", and I'm 4'11". As a percentage of our total height, that inch is pretty important.
What a delightful lady. I love her so much. I think that, as we speak, she and my mom and my AuntyOH and my Granddad are painting over the hideous pink walls in my son's bedroom. How nice is it to leave town for a while and come back and have stuff done? Maybe I should leave more often... ha!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Ch-ch-ch-changes
It's awesome to watch my wee sister being a mom. She's always been the more responsible of the two of us; as a toddler, she would put herself to bed at night. She was born grown-up, I think. I, on the other hand, never really have grown up and don't expect I ever will.
Squirmy-wormy kids gotta have their diapers changed from time to time:
Is this kid not just yummy-scrummy adorable?
But she is ever the Squirmy-Worm, so cousin Marpha must distract:
And the Squirmy-Worm is also a Deluxe Spiral-Sliced HAM. The cameras come out and this kid lights up like a Christmas tree:
Ta-da!
Now she's ready to go back out and wow the crowds again.
Squirmy-wormy kids gotta have their diapers changed from time to time:
Is this kid not just yummy-scrummy adorable?
But she is ever the Squirmy-Worm, so cousin Marpha must distract:
And the Squirmy-Worm is also a Deluxe Spiral-Sliced HAM. The cameras come out and this kid lights up like a Christmas tree:
Ta-da!
Now she's ready to go back out and wow the crowds again.
My fifteen minutes
It's an article about Salvia divinorum, but because I posted a photo of Salvia farinacea and titled it "Getting a Buzz" it made it onto the NYT's feed. Bwa ha!
The birthday girlie
Miss Ava celebrated her first birthday in grand style this weekend, diving into her purple frosting roses with both hands.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Kindness
An anonymous person just gave us a new window unit air conditioner.
Someone else donated two boxes of food to us yesterday.
God is good, yanno? These are very real, tangible answers to prayer.
Rick is probably going to lose his job at the end of this week, so we're hunting pretty hard for something else for him to do that will provide for our family. We probably have twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars a year in medical expenses, assuming there aren't any catastrophic events, because of our children and their special needs. So even though we have had a decent income, our outgo is pretty steep.
I am grateful to God for continuing to provide for us. He has never EVER failed to do this, not one single time.
Someone else donated two boxes of food to us yesterday.
God is good, yanno? These are very real, tangible answers to prayer.
Rick is probably going to lose his job at the end of this week, so we're hunting pretty hard for something else for him to do that will provide for our family. We probably have twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars a year in medical expenses, assuming there aren't any catastrophic events, because of our children and their special needs. So even though we have had a decent income, our outgo is pretty steep.
I am grateful to God for continuing to provide for us. He has never EVER failed to do this, not one single time.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Enormous beauty
Saw a Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) today on my mom's lantanas. The thing was HUGE... had to have been a good six inches of wingspan. And it totally didn't care that I was there, flittering and fluttering and ignoring me completely (as opposed to the fritillaries, which spook at my slightest provocation).
So lovely.
ONE... singular sensation, every little step she takes
Tomorrow?!? YEEEESSSSSSSS!!!
Go Ava! Go Ava! It's your birthday! Go Ava!
Miss Ava, daughter of my beautiful hermanita Bethy, is ONE YEAR OLD TOMORROW!
Happy birthday, chicky!!!
More pictures to come, later, after the festivities. For now, we PARTY!! WOOHOO!!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Getting ready
I'm getting geared-up for my next visit to Washington, DC. This time I get to bring along the Real Camera -- last time I couldn't bring it because it isn't mine, it belongs to the school district. But this time I'm going to a teacher workshop at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and they specifically request that we bring along a digital camera. Yay!!!
I will take my laptop along with me, since there's wi-fi access at the museum and at the place where I'll be staying, and I will share some of my experiences. I am really stoked about this workshop; it's going to be intensive and busy and I expect to come back with a LOT of good ideas about incorporating art into the entire high school curriculum at Ballyhoo.
I'm leaving a few days early and meeting my BFF there. I had to use up the last of my American Airlines airmiles by August 1 and I had enough for two round-trip tickets, so she's flying in and we're going to spend a couple of days together before school starts up again. She's the very best companion for a DC visit, since she lived and worked there back in the 90s.
Next time I come to DC, though, I'd really like to bring my kids and show them around. I'd like for Isaac to be just a tad older, though, and for him to have some idea of what we're looking at when we go. I'd also like to bring a group of students to DC and spend a week going through all the Smithsonians and Capitol Hill and the monuments and stuff.
But not this time. I have work to do, and there won't be as much time for wandering and sightseeing this time. There will be some, of course... I'll have The Camera, and it would be a travesty not to use it. Right?
And besides, there will surely be more opportunities for amusement, like seeing a guy walking around with the dry cleaning tag still sticking out of his shirt.
I will take my laptop along with me, since there's wi-fi access at the museum and at the place where I'll be staying, and I will share some of my experiences. I am really stoked about this workshop; it's going to be intensive and busy and I expect to come back with a LOT of good ideas about incorporating art into the entire high school curriculum at Ballyhoo.
I'm leaving a few days early and meeting my BFF there. I had to use up the last of my American Airlines airmiles by August 1 and I had enough for two round-trip tickets, so she's flying in and we're going to spend a couple of days together before school starts up again. She's the very best companion for a DC visit, since she lived and worked there back in the 90s.
Next time I come to DC, though, I'd really like to bring my kids and show them around. I'd like for Isaac to be just a tad older, though, and for him to have some idea of what we're looking at when we go. I'd also like to bring a group of students to DC and spend a week going through all the Smithsonians and Capitol Hill and the monuments and stuff.
But not this time. I have work to do, and there won't be as much time for wandering and sightseeing this time. There will be some, of course... I'll have The Camera, and it would be a travesty not to use it. Right?
And besides, there will surely be more opportunities for amusement, like seeing a guy walking around with the dry cleaning tag still sticking out of his shirt.
Sad news
WHAT?!?
No... say it ain't so, Rachel, say it ain't so.
Bijou is despondent. As am I. One of the coolest dogs on the whole internet, Sunny Lucas, has died.
I have always loved reading Rachel Lucas' writings about her chubby Ridgeback and seeing the hilarious photos she posted of her. I grieved to the core when she had to leave Sunny behind here in the US while she moved away to England, but was glad to know she was safe and sound at Rachel's parents' home.
I know Rach is devastated and that there aren't any words I could say to make anything better. Sunny was loved so much, and I'm going to miss her.
No... say it ain't so, Rachel, say it ain't so.
Bijou is despondent. As am I. One of the coolest dogs on the whole internet, Sunny Lucas, has died.
I have always loved reading Rachel Lucas' writings about her chubby Ridgeback and seeing the hilarious photos she posted of her. I grieved to the core when she had to leave Sunny behind here in the US while she moved away to England, but was glad to know she was safe and sound at Rachel's parents' home.
I know Rach is devastated and that there aren't any words I could say to make anything better. Sunny was loved so much, and I'm going to miss her.
To RedFish and my cousin Heather: do NOT read this post.
You were warned.
I smacked at a moth a few minutes ago and missed. He fluttered onto the windowsill, where he was promptly attacked, much to my delight:
Gotta love a zoom lens, right? And I love me some good bug beat-downs... anytime a bug gets an asswhoopin from a friendly neighborhood spider, so much the better.
And I should be ashamed of the cobwebs in my windows, but there's just so much other crap needing to be done in this house, I frankly haven't bothered.
But then I looked a little closer.
Unless I'm quite mistaken, this is a REALLY BIG female brown recluse spider.
Oh crap.
Okay, I have lost the irrational spider fear I used to have -- honestly, I really have -- but this is just not going to work for me. Rick will be spraying and vacuuming all the windowsills immediately. As in, this minute. As in, I ain't fixin' lunch for NOBODY until the windowsills have been cleared of this menace.
Mama ain't happy, folks.
I'm putting the "pets" tag on this post because this spider is roughly the same size as my dog.
I smacked at a moth a few minutes ago and missed. He fluttered onto the windowsill, where he was promptly attacked, much to my delight:
Gotta love a zoom lens, right? And I love me some good bug beat-downs... anytime a bug gets an asswhoopin from a friendly neighborhood spider, so much the better.
And I should be ashamed of the cobwebs in my windows, but there's just so much other crap needing to be done in this house, I frankly haven't bothered.
But then I looked a little closer.
Unless I'm quite mistaken, this is a REALLY BIG female brown recluse spider.
Oh crap.
Okay, I have lost the irrational spider fear I used to have -- honestly, I really have -- but this is just not going to work for me. Rick will be spraying and vacuuming all the windowsills immediately. As in, this minute. As in, I ain't fixin' lunch for NOBODY until the windowsills have been cleared of this menace.
Mama ain't happy, folks.
I'm putting the "pets" tag on this post because this spider is roughly the same size as my dog.
Everything old is new again
Or in other words, what goes around, comes around. I think I have the same haircut now that I had when I was eleven. Sheesh.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Crape myrtle
One of the very best flowering shrubs anywhere, the crape myrtles (Lagerstroemia indica, hybridized with L. fauriei and/or L. speciosa) are in full force around north Texas right now. They range from white to pink to red to purple (no yellow or blue spectrum to speak of). Once highly susceptible to powdery mildew, more updated crape myrtle varieties have been developed which are resistant to disease. They are as ubiquitous here as the rhododendrons in Seattle or the azaleas in the South.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Oh, we'll know
When a tornado comes, we WILL know. Because this is right at the northwest corner of our backyard. When they run the occasional test, our windows rattle. Literally.
I'm glad, honestly. If there were a major weather emergency in the middle of the night, this WILL wake me up, guaranteed. Not that I have anywhere to GO, per se. But at least I'd know it was coming.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The eyes have it
My son's eyes just amaze me. They're nothing like mine; mine are just plain brown. But Isaac's are like gems. Rick's got greenish-brown eyes, too, but they're not quite this spectacular.
He is about to be ten years old at the end of next month. It seems like it could not have been a whole decade ago that all that was happening... being pregnant was awesome and I loved it so much. I wasn't ever sick, which helped, and it was just so exciting to anticipate the arrival of the little critter kicking around inside me. I felt pod-like, part of the universe's infinite and amazing creative processes.
I got to do it again very briefly when Isaac was about a year old, but it ended in an early miscarriage. I grieved hard; I wanted another baby so very much. Circumstances and health pretty much ended the prospects after that, though. If I were to find myself expecting today, I think I'd freak... babies are wonderful when you're young and energetic, but I'm forty-two and tired. LOL
I am so grateful that I got the one chance, though. I know so many who grieve the lack or loss of children and I do not take my gift lightly. Isaac has been a precious gift. And a pretty great kid.
He's gonna kill me for posting this pic, but I revel in the knowledge that he's still my baby boy, even if he is nearly a whole decade old.
Ow.
I have been battling bad headaches every day again for about two weeks now. I am working to try to alleviate them before my big Smithsonian gig coming up in a week or so; I can't afford to feel bad when I've got something so important to work on. I don't know why; it doesn't seem to be blood-pressure or blood-sugar related because I'm checking those. It seems to be worse when I wake up in the morning, which leads me to wonder if I'm just not getting good rest at night or good head support while I sleep. I had them during the road trip, too, though, so I don't think it's just my pillow or my mattress or the lack of air conditioning in my house. Could be hormonal, which is why I haven't blogged about it before now. As it is, I'm just recording it now so if it continues, I can at least pinpoint when it started.
Monday, July 20, 2009
El cantor toca la guitarra
A guitarist serenades guests at a restaurant on the Riverwalk in San Antonio.
Bougainvillea
One of my favorite tropical shrub/vines, the lovely bougainvillea. This bright fuchsia one was in the marketplace in San Antonio.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Funky fruit
Pomegranates are some weird-looking fruit, that's what.
They're like little alien spacecraft... or like a tomato that's being shot through with a bullet emerging out the end.
Just very weird.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
The absolute coolest thing EVAR
The main reason we wanted to make a trip to the Hill Country? Believe it or not, it was because my mom and I wanted to see the largest urban bat colony in the world... which just happens to be in Austin, Texas under the Congress Avenue Bridge.
The bats always emerge in the evening, sometime before dusk, to spend the night feeding on skeeters. Experts estimate that there are about one and a half million bats living under the Congress Avenue bridge (one of the city's bridges over the Colorado River). When they built the Congress Avenue bridge back in 1980, there were these approximately one-inch-wide crevices on the underside of the bridge. This happened to be just the kind of place that Mexican Free-Tailed Bats need, so they began moving in.
The headquarters of the newspaper (the Austin American-Statesman) actually owns the property from which the best views of the bats can be had. Being a good liberal rag, they set up a nice little viewing area for folks to congregate in each evening, so we doused ourselves with skeeter-spray and parked ourselves on the grassy knoll to await the bats.
And here they come!
They just poured out, appearing almost magically from the invisible crevices where they sleep during the day, and they kept pouring and pouring and pouring.
I have to say that this sight ranks way up there on my list of coolest things I ever saw in my life. I will never forget it, and if you come visit me I may insist on taking you down to Austin to see it. It's that cool.
The bats always emerge in the evening, sometime before dusk, to spend the night feeding on skeeters. Experts estimate that there are about one and a half million bats living under the Congress Avenue bridge (one of the city's bridges over the Colorado River). When they built the Congress Avenue bridge back in 1980, there were these approximately one-inch-wide crevices on the underside of the bridge. This happened to be just the kind of place that Mexican Free-Tailed Bats need, so they began moving in.
The headquarters of the newspaper (the Austin American-Statesman) actually owns the property from which the best views of the bats can be had. Being a good liberal rag, they set up a nice little viewing area for folks to congregate in each evening, so we doused ourselves with skeeter-spray and parked ourselves on the grassy knoll to await the bats.
And here they come!
They just poured out, appearing almost magically from the invisible crevices where they sleep during the day, and they kept pouring and pouring and pouring.
I have to say that this sight ranks way up there on my list of coolest things I ever saw in my life. I will never forget it, and if you come visit me I may insist on taking you down to Austin to see it. It's that cool.
Friday, July 17, 2009
I need your help
UPDATE BELOW. I know, I'm sorry -- it's a lot of inside-baseball stuff. If you're just not that into plant identification, just ignore this post.
Being an amateur naturalist-type person, I like to know the names of the plants and animals that I encounter. I've been able to identify just about all the pretty tropical flowers I saw in the Hill Country... except this one:
If anyone dropping by here knows even just a common name for this lovely (and fairly common) flower, please let me know in the comments section of this post. Or just e-mail me.
UPDATE: I am thinking that it might be a Royal Poinciana, or a Delonix regia. Or the "gulmohar." Usually the flame-tree grows much larger, but I maybe this is what they look like when they're small? Maybe. I dunno. Anyhoo, I saw lots of the big version of these when I was in Haiti, but these are so much smaller that I didn't recognize it. I can't say that for sure, because a lot of the photos of Delonix regia that I'm finding on the internet don't really look just like this.
Again, if anyone can confirm, please do. The Royal Poinciana flowers seem much larger than these photos, and I can't find pictures of anything else in the Delonix genus.
SECOND UPDATE: Maggiekatzen's dad has come through for me. This critter is a Caesalpinia pulcherrima, or a Dwarf Poinciana. Yay!! I like knowing what a thing is.
Being an amateur naturalist-type person, I like to know the names of the plants and animals that I encounter. I've been able to identify just about all the pretty tropical flowers I saw in the Hill Country... except this one:
If anyone dropping by here knows even just a common name for this lovely (and fairly common) flower, please let me know in the comments section of this post. Or just e-mail me.
UPDATE: I am thinking that it might be a Royal Poinciana, or a Delonix regia. Or the "gulmohar." Usually the flame-tree grows much larger, but I maybe this is what they look like when they're small? Maybe. I dunno. Anyhoo, I saw lots of the big version of these when I was in Haiti, but these are so much smaller that I didn't recognize it. I can't say that for sure, because a lot of the photos of Delonix regia that I'm finding on the internet don't really look just like this.
Again, if anyone can confirm, please do. The Royal Poinciana flowers seem much larger than these photos, and I can't find pictures of anything else in the Delonix genus.
SECOND UPDATE: Maggiekatzen's dad has come through for me. This critter is a Caesalpinia pulcherrima, or a Dwarf Poinciana. Yay!! I like knowing what a thing is.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Just one more thing...
Any trip down through the Hill Country would be sadly incomplete without a visit to the lovely city of Marble Falls, Texas... and specifically, a meal at the Blue Bonnet Cafe:
One of their signature dishes is their spinach salad with bacon dressing, which I partook of:
I *might* have licked my plate clean.
Okay, I didn't, because I didn't want to embarrass my mother and my children. But I thought long and hard about it. That bacon dressing should be illegal.
But no meal at the Blue Bonnet Cafe is complete without their REAL signature dish:
NO, not the babe. That's Kathryn, our waitress. I'm talking about the stuff she's holding.
That would be PIE.
Can you really go wrong with pie?
I had pecan pie, because as my mother so aptly put it many years ago, you just can't possibly eat enough pecan pie in your lifetime.
Isaac had the peanut butter pie, which he declared to be AWESOME. I think he really DID lick that clean when we weren't looking.
Mom and Alice had the chocolate meringue pie. It was so good, she said, it reminded her of something her sister (my AuntyOH) once said -- it was so good you just wanted to roll in it.
I have to agree. It was pretty darn good. Too good to miss, that's what.
One of their signature dishes is their spinach salad with bacon dressing, which I partook of:
I *might* have licked my plate clean.
Okay, I didn't, because I didn't want to embarrass my mother and my children. But I thought long and hard about it. That bacon dressing should be illegal.
But no meal at the Blue Bonnet Cafe is complete without their REAL signature dish:
NO, not the babe. That's Kathryn, our waitress. I'm talking about the stuff she's holding.
That would be PIE.
Can you really go wrong with pie?
I had pecan pie, because as my mother so aptly put it many years ago, you just can't possibly eat enough pecan pie in your lifetime.
Isaac had the peanut butter pie, which he declared to be AWESOME. I think he really DID lick that clean when we weren't looking.
Mom and Alice had the chocolate meringue pie. It was so good, she said, it reminded her of something her sister (my AuntyOH) once said -- it was so good you just wanted to roll in it.
I have to agree. It was pretty darn good. Too good to miss, that's what.
Road trip (last post, I promise)
After we went through the Alamo, we walked a few blocks over and descended the steps into another world: the Riverwalk.
It really is like a cool(er) oasis down there... great shops and restaurants, a fun boat ride, beautiful flora and even a few fauna.
Poison Bulb (Crinum asiaticum)
Some kind of Poinciana, perhaps? I still haven't positively identified this lovely flower, but I *think* it might be a "flamboyant", also known as a Flame-Tree or a Royal Poinciana.
A tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica)! There are gazillions of them there. I love tamarind-flavored stuff.
WTF? It's a funky heron that migrates in and out of the Riverwalk. It's called a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, I believe.
The river is full of mallard ducks as well... and while we were noshing on some ice cream after our riverboat tour, we were even treated to some duck porn. No, I did NOT photograph THAT.
On Wednesday morning we got out on the road and took Highway 16 to Kerrville. It was marked on the map as a Scenic Route, and they weren't kidding.
This flower is called Skeleton Weed (Lygodesmia taxana). No clue why, but it was pretty, and the honeybees were after it pretty thickly.
This little critter is an epiphytic plant called a Ball Moss (Tillandsia recurvata). It isn't really a moss at all, but is a bromeliad. A lot of people think it's killing all the trees, but everything I have been reading about it says it really doesn't kill the trees at all, it just piggybacks on the parts of trees that are already dead anyway. It sure does LOOK like it's killing trees, though:
Actually, it resembles nothing so much as Tribbles.
My mom, coaxing a doodlebug (Glenurus gratus) out of its lair.
Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas... Willie and Waylon and the boys... (everybody sing along, now)
It was a very pleasant trip. I don't mind heat; I'd rather be hot than cold any day. And I got to see stuff I've never seen before. I can now cross a few more items off my "Bucket List" like seeing the bats, touring the Hill Country, and watching duck porn on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Life's good, ain't it?
It really is like a cool(er) oasis down there... great shops and restaurants, a fun boat ride, beautiful flora and even a few fauna.
Poison Bulb (Crinum asiaticum)
Some kind of Poinciana, perhaps? I still haven't positively identified this lovely flower, but I *think* it might be a "flamboyant", also known as a Flame-Tree or a Royal Poinciana.
A tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica)! There are gazillions of them there. I love tamarind-flavored stuff.
WTF? It's a funky heron that migrates in and out of the Riverwalk. It's called a Yellow-Crowned Night Heron, I believe.
The river is full of mallard ducks as well... and while we were noshing on some ice cream after our riverboat tour, we were even treated to some duck porn. No, I did NOT photograph THAT.
On Wednesday morning we got out on the road and took Highway 16 to Kerrville. It was marked on the map as a Scenic Route, and they weren't kidding.
This flower is called Skeleton Weed (Lygodesmia taxana). No clue why, but it was pretty, and the honeybees were after it pretty thickly.
This little critter is an epiphytic plant called a Ball Moss (Tillandsia recurvata). It isn't really a moss at all, but is a bromeliad. A lot of people think it's killing all the trees, but everything I have been reading about it says it really doesn't kill the trees at all, it just piggybacks on the parts of trees that are already dead anyway. It sure does LOOK like it's killing trees, though:
Actually, it resembles nothing so much as Tribbles.
My mom, coaxing a doodlebug (Glenurus gratus) out of its lair.
Let's go to Luckenbach, Texas... Willie and Waylon and the boys... (everybody sing along, now)
It was a very pleasant trip. I don't mind heat; I'd rather be hot than cold any day. And I got to see stuff I've never seen before. I can now cross a few more items off my "Bucket List" like seeing the bats, touring the Hill Country, and watching duck porn on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Life's good, ain't it?
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