The Best Laid Plans of Wife and Man...

Well, I took a week off last week from blogging in hopes of getting our yard [at least the back yard] under control and looking like someone actually lived here. The lawn....shhhhh...don't tell anyone, hadn't been mowed since July!! Seriously. It was just way too hot, day or night. And the warnings went from sun-up to sun-down. It's not the heat but more the heavy, thick, humidity down here that'll fry your brain. Well, the lawn finally got mowed. And the ever-growing [even in drought] pyracantha got trimmed down. Also, the out-of-control bird of paradise plant was all chopped down to nubbins. We still have to thin that one out to get rid of some of the tubers, otherwise, it will not bloom. And that is the whole purpose of working on that one. The week-long planned jobs of work didn't get accomplished before the heavy rains came. No complaints here! I welcomed the storms. A couple of days into the week, still rain around the area, we drove beyond Portland, Texas to a county road just past the exit to Aransas Pass [not to be confused with the island village of Port Aransas]. The Corpus Christi Audubon Society has a birding sanctuary near this area. It's described as quite a beautiful place. We've never been there. Now, I've had some experience with the CCAS [audubon society] around our town. Really nothing to write home about comparing it to other neighboring counties' societies. We've been to three other sanctuaries, and only one is just half way decent. Packery Channel on North Padre Island. Still, it isn't that well maintained. Sadly. Okay, so what to expect with this new one? I had high hopes.

Driving about 6-8 miles off highway #35 we arrived at the gate. It looked deserted and unkempt. Not surprising. Not at all. As we were making up our mind to even venture through the access gate, the mosquitoes nearly picked the car up and flew away with us still in it. They were swarming around the windows knocking heavily with their peckers for us to let them in to dine on our blood.

"I don't know about you, but if we go out in this, I'm getting the OFF in the trunk" I whispered to Bud so the skeeters couldn't hear me.

We got out, the distant thunder could be heard and as I was making my clothes glossy with OFF. Bud said as he was heading to the entrance: "We'd better just go a short way or we'll get soaked me thinks!" Let me just say it was quite a disappointment......again. Grass knee high on me...trails not marked [if we were on trails that is...couldn't tell]. The Observation decks described in their website was to be pristine and pretty. HA!! Remarkable we found it hidden by the extreme overgrowth! We left. Only seeing one cardinal, a few mockingbirds, and a couple of grackles. Oh ya, and when we got back to the car, one extremely hungry vulture on the power pole. I think it was hoping we'd be killed by the mosquitoes. As we were heading out of the country scene the rains came. Heavy and left us unable to see much out of the windshield on a one car lane. Luckily by the time we came back to the county road to head toward the highway to Portland and back home, the rains died down and a nice quiet ride through the farmlands. Stopping the car to get a photo of this old barn, I liked that it had glass in the upper window!!

...and just before entering the busy highway a field of Snowy Egrets and Common Egrets was seen...

Not all was a loss tho. Pretty egrets, good dose of much needed moisture falling...and a beautiful.......

Linking to: Rubbish Tuesday - Nature Notes - Our World Tuesday