§ Revamped Park...

Not much happenin' around Hootin' Anni's this week. Bud and I have been doing a lot of yard work...trying to catch up on what we ignored during the 100 degree temps during the summer months. And believe me, it was a lot of work!! Days of work. Hot work!! [lol]
Sunday Morning, early, I took a short drive to Portland, Texas. Indian Point Park has been closed for several months, and on our local news, they aired an article on the fact it has been reopened! During Migration it's an excellent birding 'hot spot'. The town revamped the pier and did a lot of restyling of the area; including a new pavilion and resurfacing the fishing pier. I wasn't much impressed. The old area was more classical 'old school feeling'; wooden building, cement and wooden pier, etc. This new construction [the roofing] lights up at night, and the pier lights glow green for night fishing!] Now, not only did they tear out the observation deck for birding the bay, they kinda disappointed me some.  I'm hoping eventually a new deck will be built.  I guess that's progress! I figure this:  Ignore the bird watchers and consider the large sum of revenue coming in with fishermen. Here are some photos [a couple shows the city skyline across the bay and the new expansion bridge construction]...

§ Sunday Morning Walk....

It's been about 3 months or more going there to walk because of road closures, etc., Sunday morning I decided to try my luck at taking the route to Indian Point [in Corpus city limits] and Sunset Lakes [in Portland city limits] Trail System that connects the two cities by one trail. Well, I had in mind that the construction of the new bridge being an ongoing mess on the two freeways would be disastorous what with lane closures, barricades, rough surfaces, etc. I decided to take the downtown tour [a detour of sorts]. Being that it was early in the morining and Sunday, no heavy city traffic. I would probably be able to zip through the downtown area with very little effort and if lucky hit all the street lights green through town and take the exit ramp that will avoid 90% of the destruction construction mess. Taking Carancahua [pronounced Kuh rang KUH wah -native american] Street. At the lights I snapped a few photos since I was the only one on the street...

Once at the last intersection, choose between I-37 to San Antonio or TX hwy 181 to Portland, over Harbor Bridge. After crossing the port channel, only a short two or three city block length of road construction then...out of it all and on my way to cross the Nueces Bay causeway, heading toward the exit to Indian Point.

When I arrived, there was a lot of park street flooding...high tide!!  I finally parked and got out to walk, a very thin shroud of fog was present.  I walked but only along the shoreline since most everything was muddied or under water.   Birds I saw were oystercatchers, gulls, pintail ducks, sandpipers, willets, plovers, herons, and egrets...totaling around 4000-4500 steps before pivoting to return to the parking lot.

As I mentioned above, a thin layer of fog was present, I sighted in on an rare and unusual occurence...a fog bow [same as rainbow without sun reflecting]


Back in the car, I then drove [driving since most was flooded and walking was nixed] to the other side, entering Sunset Lakes.  I walked another 3500 steps before getting back into the car to head for the grocery store...

_ _ _

On my list of groceries, one item was essential...milk. Chocolate milk to be more specific. But this brings me to a question for you...would you spend $8.00 for a gallon of milk?!!  I do. Crazy, I know, but...For good reason. I also spend more for egg nog too during the season...Southern Comfort Egg Nog at $5.48 for a half gallon. [my math says that is nearly $11.00 a gallon] Other than Mootopia being lactose free [doubly pasteurized for longer shelf life], I get what I pay for with taste sensational!! This milk, store brand, is called Mootopia. And low in fat or fat free, it's like drinking a chocolate shake...less sugar, more protein, no or little fat depending on your fat content preference.  With vitamins and good healthy stuff added. Seriously, I could live off this stuff.  Here's the rundown:

Mootopia contains the same high‑quality milk protein found in traditional milk ‑ there's just more of it! We start with delicious milk and ultra‑filter it to concentrate the protein and calcium while removing unnecessary sugars and lactose. The result? Smooth and creamy goodness that provides you with 60% more protein, 50% less sugar and 50% more calcium than flavored milk.

ps...take note of my chartruse arrows in image above. The carton specifically states the package contains milk!! Y'think?

§ Weekend Morning Scenes...

Along the 3 mile trail at Indian Point Park, near the Corpus Christi's North Bay, I saw these scenic views Saturday morning. The trail, the observation decks, the  pier, the tidal pools, the Gulf, a grandfather and grandson fishing, a tanker, and the early morning light....

[note:  there is a ship on the water in the last photo in the above series  also...enlarge it, on the horizon just off center]

...by late afternoon, it was raining heavily. Again.

§ Dawn Breaks....

Two Years Ago today,

around 3 a.m. as a category 4---,
Hurricane Harvey made landfall,
taking our fencing by its powerful force
and displacing many in the town of Rockport Texas
about 30 miles from our home.
Many and much are still under recovery!!!

On Friday this week I left home about an hour before sunrise, heading to Indian Point Park with tidal pools and open bay waters which attracts those two legged walkers/joggers and a multitude of shore birds on North Beach. Here's what I saw after I began my walk. It was still dark, the view from the park's parking lot showed the city in a blanket of lights, the harbor bridge was still illuminated with animated colors. From the fishing pier, the lights glowed on the sea. But, on the Eastern horizon, the sky, no longer dark, was showing signs of the night vanishing.  There won't be much of a sunrise because of the cloud bank.  Still....

Dawn breaks on a new day....

§ Walk the Walk....

The last couple of days, the weathermen have been informing us that there was/is a tropical wave in the Gulf heading into the Texas coast. And, that there would be some rain coming in with it. So far this week only the Houston area has received anything significant. Sunday, when I was out walking there was a threat of rain with heavy, dark, clouds, but within an hour's time it was clearing out. Until today. We did get some rainfall, and the sky is still overcast. Maybe some more moisture [much needed] will fall tonight or into tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...even tho it'll be like a sauna outdoors, the ground is cracking...so, so dry.

Anyway, out walking Sunday morning. I carried my lensball with me since I had deep pockets in my Capri pants. And altho the water was high, there were a few wildflowers that turned out to be my subjects for the refractive photography. [Tuesday morning I took it with me on my walk along the shore, so more lensball photos to come]. After walking along the Indian Point and Sunset Lakes trail, driving home and over the harbor bridge, I pulled off the freeway to check out the rookery just under the causeway... and then took the detour road [I think I went the wrong way on a one way section...luckily, I got off before something drastic happened]....I checked out the progress of the billion dollar bridge being constructed. I will share those photos at a later date also. For Sunday, this is what I saw:

The "lakes".

The black mangrove is in bloom...this area is thick with mangrove. Also, the scent of the camphor [in bloom] was pretty strong.

Lensball Wildflowers

And Tuesday afternoon I took my latest sketch back out from my portfolio case and erased the little sail boat [from my previous post]. I didn't like it there in the picture. After erasing this boat, I then took out my #5 pencil and drew more cliffs on the horizon to cover up the faint outline left from the boat and added a lighthouse. I'm more satisfied with it now, and will put it back....

Before:





After: