Afternoon at Sunny Beach

Who goes to the beach during the last week of November? Me and Jason! The water was extra choppy. The beach was all turned up and shredded up after Hurricane Ike. It was our first time back to "our beach".

After leaving the beach, we drove through the historic areas of Galveston proper. What we saw made us feel hopeful, but sad none the less. Much of the "life" on the island has been sucked out. Normalcy is slowly coming back--very slowly. The Strand, where we had shopped with my parents a few months ago... it was dead and only a few restaurants and bars had their OPEN lights glowing. No horse-drawn carriages trotted by, and no people wandered along the streets.

A typical Saturday night would find The Strand packed with shoppers, and people enjoying a night out on the town. Those days are in the future of Galveston...I can feel it...but who knows how far distant that bright future will be.

Houston Renaissance Festival

Jason suprised me by getting tickets for the Renaissance Festival a couple weekends ago! I suspected that was where we would be going, but I wasn't completely sure...since Houston has soooo much to offer when it comes to festivals, shows, concerts, and places to visit. The night before, I asked him if I could guess..."Does it start with an R...is it about an hour north of here?" He said yes...and I knew.

So we headed out on Sunday morning. It was a gorgeous day...not too hot...not too cold. We arrived about 11:00 after having a yummy breakfast at Sonic on the way up (ummmm...I love their strawberry fruit smoothie)! We parked in a field, and headed up to the entrance gate. I was impressed already, and we were not even past the ticket collectors.

As we arrived, the king had called his court to order, which included on-lookers and about 50-100 people dressed in costumes. Everywhere we walked, people were dressed in a wide variety of renaissance-style costumes. We saw knights in shining armor, corsetted maidens, queens, kings, Tartans, Scottish kilts, fairies, monks, and many other creatively costumed attendees. The grounds were festive! Stages were set up for renaissance era-themed drama, music, knights on horseback, and falconry programs. We had written down the times for several programs, and wandered around the various shops and exhibits in between shows.

We learned about the Gutenberg Press...and I got to serve as the print shop assistant. They even put a "costume" on me...the floppy hat and protective vest-thing. I got to keep the print I pressed, too! That was cool!

We rode on an Elephant, and got to touch his trunk, too!

We cheered for the knights in shining armour jousting on horseback!

We listened to bagpipers! That was AWESOME!!

We learned about birds from the Falconry show! That was such a fun day! I want to come back next year!

A Walk in the Park

We spent Sabbath afternoon walking at a new park! Jason spotted it when he was out doing Hurricane Ike relief in League City a couple of weeks ago.

We saw two deer in a field...they were eating something off the bushes in this clearing.

We have our favorite parks, where we regularly spend glorious afternoons strolling, bird watching, and counting all the various wildlife we see. We wanted to try something new, and this was the perfect day for it! The place was a little boring at first, but as we explored the various trails, we found beauty and serenity.

Fall colors are few and far between in Houston! Here is a sweet gum tree with some red and green colors that we spotted along the trail.

Our Fall Flowers

Planter filled with various flowers and vines, including hybiscus...in the front of our house.

Looking from our front door out into the the courtyard with vincas on the left, and geraniums at the gate, plus a cactus! There are also some lantana, rain lilies, succulents, aloe vera, and a couple other potted plants in the courtyard.

After having so much fun with our Summer garden and getting some great veggies from it, we decided to put some plants out for a Fall garden! When Mom and Dad were here for Labor Day weekend, they helped aerate and dig up the soil.

My strawberry plant had enjoyed sending running vines all over a corner of the garden, and even out into the yard. About a month ago, Jason and I dug up all the little strawberry plants that had taken root from the runners. We dug the entire garden plot up some more, too, because it had settled somewhat since Mom and Dad worked on it. We made rows and planted the strawberries in two of them.

Fresh Basil!

Our garden area, with new little plants and seeds in the ground.

Then went to Lowe's to get baby plants for the fall planting season! We chose cauliflower, tomatoes, collard greens, and brussel sprouts. We also got seeds for rutabega, and radishes. We also got a bunch of mums to brighten our flower bed and to plant in three barrel planters for our back patio. Our car was fully loaded with plants!!

Our first task was to plant the mums in the circular flowerbed in the front yard. The summer plants had died off, and only some red and green-leafed caladiums and sprouted iris bulbs remained. We took those out so that we could save their bulbs for next year. It was a struggle to work with that small plot of soil, because it was overrun with roots!!! We were not sure if it was the crepe myrtle roots coming up or the root systems of the irises. It was a mess!! We had to dig all those roots out...urrr Jason had to dig all those roots out. It was a BIG job!! We thought that planting the mums would be quick and easy, but it turned out to be an "all afternoon" job. We finally got most of the roots out, and filled in some garden soil. Then we planted our red, yellow, and orange mums! They are doing great and look gorgeous! Although it was almost dark by the time they were in the root-free ground.

So, the veggies had to wait to be planted. We took them to the backyard and watered them. A couple days later, Jason came home from work early and started planting the cauliflower, greens, and brussel sprouts. I helped plant the tomatoes when I got home. We have not put the seeds in the ground yet, but plan to do that this week. Everything else has already doubled in size!

Jason also suprised me by bringing home three barrel planters for the backyard, and so that night we planted the rest of the mums in the planters! They look great...now we need some patio furniture so we can enjoy this wonderful cooler weather, and the new flowers and plants in our backyard.

Clown flowers in the backyard garden...they came up on their own!

Our Kitty Cats

Our four little furry beasts are sooo cute! Here are our spoiled kitties --Romeo, Tommy, Fluffy, and Cali! Aren't they cute?! Romeo is such a pretty kitty!

Tommy and Fluffy like to take their afternoon nap in the same corner...

It's a sunny spot by the window on my desk area.
Callie thinks she is a piece of paper coming out of the printer.

Callie and Romeo like to sleep on my tote bag.

Seabrook After Ike

Seabrook is a beautiful coastal community about 20 minutes from our home. Jason and I like to spend afternoons taking a walk or birdwatching at a park in Seabrook.

We were so sad to see the terrible damage that was done to the houses in that neighborhood, and also to the fishing pier on the bay.