Berry Pickin'

We went to gather blueberries from East Tx yesterday.

No,not here.

Here.

The blueberries came all the way from Blueberry Hill Farms in Edom, TX, but we only had to drive to Richardson. It was all a bit clandestine - people coming and going from a non-descript office building under the DART tracks to get their berry fix. Well worth it though, we got to savor the results of a trip to the berry farm with no bending and reaching in the hot sun, no extra miles on the car and no delivery charges. Only $20 for a huge gallon bag of hand picked the same day, fresh, organic, juicy, wonderful berries. They said they'll be back with more (let me know if you want some - I can hook you up).

Bluberries growing on the city sidewalk!

Picked fresh!

We have gone to pick our own blueberries for a few summers now, but it didn't look like we were going to make it this year. I was so excited when I received the email that the berries would be coming to us instead.  

Claire made us a pie for breakfast!

Pet Food Crisis

This morning we were out of dog food. And chicken food. And now cat food. The humans are in big trouble. A trip to the pet store and feed store is in our very near future, but in the meantime, I had to get creative with the snacks. The dogs had salad which was accepted eagerly, although some was put on the floor to be sorted through.

The chickens also had salad; they were very happy at this news. These used to be the ends of a watermelon. Chickens like watermelon.

The cats got lucky and polished off the last pouch of moist food in the cupboard (it was actually puppy food, but don't tell anyone).

I'd best be off to stock up before there's a mutiny at dinner time!

STORM

There's nothing like a hurricane to put some excitment into a trip to the beach. A week or so before we planned to head down to the South Texas coast to Rockport, a large mass of clouds appeared in the weather forecast. Pretty soon these clouds were named Alex. One of the storm tracking models put landfall right on top of us. We weren't going to let that discourage us so off we went. The first few days of vacation included plenty of time watching the Weather Channel. The day before the storm hit, things got wild.

This is the bay coming over the sea wall. Note the electrical transformer in the foreground. We'll discuss it later.

Being the adventurous types, we found it necessary to go out for a drive during all of this. When we came home, the garage door didn't open. (This was the first clue). Perhaps it was stuck. The quiet house, lacking the hum of the air conditioner and refrigerator confirmed the real story - the power was out. It was still light so we were not concerned, surely it will come back on soon. At dusk we decided to look for flashlights. No. Back to the HEB. After a lovely candlelight dinner off the grill (aha, not electric) we called it a night.

I opened one eye in the morning to search for small red lights on various plugged in things. No. House still quiet. Coffee maker requires electricity - not good. Maybe it will be back on when we return from the restaurant. No. Whoever decided that it was a good idea to install a transformer five feet from the bay was not planning ahead. This is a coastal town where there might be some expectation of high waves. The guys who were out all night working on it agreed that it was not such great planning. Thanks to their hard work, the power finally came on. 24 hours after going off.   

Alex ended up as a category 1 hurricane that hit about 250 miles south of us. The outer bands of the storm were quite large and covered a huge area. The high water and flooding was extensive.

These are fishing piers:

These folks didn't need a pier, they fished in the street:

The deck actually ends past the pilings:

Summer Solstice

SUMMER SOLSTICE

. . . the pool . . . the beach . . . backyard bbq . . . the smell of sunscreen . . . water . . . sand in your toes . . . sunshine . . . fireflies . . . green grass . . . sunflowers . . . ice cream . . . straw hats . . . lemonade . . . sprinklers . . . air conditioning . . . sandals . . . flags flying . . . watermelon . . . long days . . . childhood memories . . .

A happy first day of summer to everyone!

Furry Visitors

This morning I was in the kitchen preparing blue eggs for breakfast when I heard "Mommy, two big dogs just ran across the front yard; I'm going to go see them." Next thing I knew, we had Marley and Ruby in the backyard while calling the numbers on their tags. A man answered. "Oh. we're in Pittsburgh, " he said. Immediately, visions of two extra dogs for the next week ran through my mind. I thought quickly and asked if there was a sitter. Yes. He called home. Their daughter was just getting up and would come right over. Whew! Meanwhile, the girls had a great time playing with them. Our dogs (inside) were barking madly wanting to come outside and get in on the fun.

All ended well with a short walk down the block back home. The big lesson learned is that animals should always wear collars and tags with their names and cell phone numbers! Or in the case of our dogs, beaded necklaces with said information.

Flag Day

Today is Flag Day, commemorating the adoption of our flag in 1777. Yesterday we went to a Flag Retirement Ceremony at Flag Pole Hill put on by Old Worn Flag. Here's some news footage. It was fascinating to learn the customs and procedures for respectful destroying of flags that are no longer fit to fly. A grommet from each flag is cut off to keep, then the blue star field is cut away from the stripes, separating the Union from the Colonies. It is no longer considered a flag at this point and the pieces are separated and burned. Boy Scouts were there in force to honor 100 years of their organization. A traveling Liberty Bell made an appearance and we got to hear Annie Benjamin sing songs about our nation. There was even a bright orange Lamborghini. It was all very patriotic and a great way to kick off the summer season leading up to the Fourth!

Blue Egg

The beautiful blue prize we've been waiting for arrived today! Celine has given us a lovely bluish green egg. She looks proud, doesn't she? Based on her age, we thought there would be eggs last month so we've been watching every day. Now we have two laying hens so we can make a proper sized omelette! We have been gettting little brown eggs from Coco (they were supposed to be white). We also briefly had eggs from Sophie, but are sad to report that she passed on to Chicken Heaven just the other day. She had been acting slow and timid which seemed to be her personality, but all of a sudden one morning she took a turn for the worse and just drifted away. Be in peace, little Sophie.