§ A Walk in the Park and Beignets...

The morning of Halloween, I opted to walk and check for birds in a downtown park. When I arrived at the destination, I was astounded by the number of vehicles parked in the two courthouse auxilary parking lots! I had to choose an area near the city library and walk from there to the park. I did find out the reason for all the "people" tho...The 2nd person to be running for Governor of Texas was campaigning near the courthouse. He trails Gov. Abbott by double digits, but I'm not so sure [by the number of cars] that is true. You really can't trust polls since you don't know where or how many are polled.

Okay, so at the park. It was very quiet. I mentioned on my bird photo blog that the mirgratory patterns for this year has been unique. Hardly any action for weeks. I did see a mockingbird, and heard other birdsong, but nothing really earth shattering! This park has several butterfly bushes around, and there was more activity at these spots than the tree canopies. I stopped and spent a great deal of time photographing the "pretties"....

I then hopped back in the car and drove a short distance to the largest cemetery for some birding. That too was quite busy with people...preparing for celebrating Día de los Muertos on November 1st. So, my walking was short lived. I did however see two red winged hawks and chased them around through the large oak trees just to get a few good photographs. Look closely!!! See him? I did get some better images that will go up this weekend on my bird photography blog.

I soon left and then thought our "treat for Halloween" this year will be the delicious sweet French/famous New Orleans dessert-pastries! And I knew right where to find 'em. The french bakery is in OLD Town Corpus Christi, and really kinda a dive establishment. Let me say, I wouldn't have a 'sit down' meal there, but I will order to go!! Expensive, but worth every dime. Powdered sugar Beignets!!! Cream filled of course. This time, I decided I'd choose the baked beignets instead of the deep fried ones. Deeeelicious.

from wikipedia:
Beignet is a type of fritter, or deep-fried pastry, usually made from yeast dough in France, ... Potato beignets from Haute-Savoie. Type, Pastry. Place of origin, Ancient Rome.

To round off my morning, I had to stop at the grocery store for milk and butter. When I went INTO the store it was mild and partly cloudy. The weather forecast the previous evening said that there was a cold front moving into our coastal area, bringing lots of chilly temps and much needed rain. Well, when I walked OUT of the grocery store, the front was making its way into the gulf coast...the bank of clouds reached as far as the eye could see from horizon to horizon. And, yes, we are getting the rain today!! [Tuesday]

§ Blogger Interface is a Challenge These Days...

I started out the morning after breakfast, working online in Blogger. The "newer" interface is not the friendliest. I feel I'm pretty proficient with coding. Yet, I can get tangled up in HTML for hours. I really shoulda just forgot the whole thing and gone birding. But no! Stupid me. I worked for hours and took a lunch break. Yes, hours. Then, I ended up getting the finishing touches on both of my blog templates for March after lunch. The most frustrating features [or I should say LACK of features], are the customized backgrounds...they don't work as they should [covering only the top few inches without being a complete filled in page! And secondly, the header! Each time, even after resizing it to fill the width, it comes out aligned to the far left! Not centered. I worked and worked. Finally, got it figured out, and made notes for next month's updated design. At least I hope.

As I said, I shoulda gone birding!

§ A Philosophical Question....

From Nicholas, that turned into a hurricane and made landfall near Freeport, Texas just south of Houston, here in Corpus we only got wet. "He" stayed clear of our home. No flooding in our neck of the woods. I'm not sure about other parts of the city, or what happened on the islands with the extreme low-lying areas and the water/storm surge. I understand, by the local news coverage, power outages were minimal; we weren't affected. The winds were gusty at times. In fact, by mid afternoon, we actually saw patches of blue sky...but it soon disappeared and the clouds built up heavily again, but non-threatening. We fared pretty well, thank you.  My biggest concern is our son in Houston.  Am waiting to hear from him.  Now, since we freeze water in bottles for our coolers [ice is very hard to find in stores during the days BEFORE a storm...so we improvise and make our own.  In fact the larger iced bottles of water stay frozen much longer than bagged ice cubes!!] to keep food stuffs cold during loss of power, and Bud kept busy reassembling our BBQ'r to heat drinking water for his French coffee press and my daily oatmeal breakfast.  Today, once I know Erik is okay, we will be taking things out of the freezer [water bottles] and Bud will pack away the small cooker for next time so it isn't cumbersome and in the way in our garage.  The ice goes out on plants in the yard, and we will begin saving more of the bottles for the use in the future if need be.  In case you're concerned with heating water as we do, we use our covered front porch because so many lives have been lost with using such devices indoors and dying because of carbon monoxide poisoning.  Just common sense.  Now, maybe it's too early, but perhaps later...are you ready for a smoothie?----

tomato and bloody mary graphic borrowed from Google Search

§ Nicholas

As I type this up on Monday morning, the rain is falling in bands now and then, the winds are picking up, the temps are between sauna and bath-house warm. The Tropical Storm, Nicholas, is on its way to Corpus Christi. It's predicted to hit our city around Tuesday morning, early. Like in dark-o-thirty early! Which means, I won't be sleeping tonight! LOL There is a slight possibility of it being a hurricane instead of a T S, but I think it's unlikely. If I'm wrong, that'll be the first time. [:::snort:::] In any case, no doubt, the power will be out for a while [I don't understand why a hurricane prone area such as the Gulf Coast does NOT bury power lines instead of the poles that are always toppling over.] No matter my opinion at the time tho. If I disappear it's because I am conserving the laptop and phone energy for emergencies.

§ Lensball Shots [And my LAST Troll Doll]...

After cleaning my lensball, I placed it back in my car for future use in photography. While walking a short distance to the observation deck at Hans Suter Wildlife Sanctuary [too hot to be there too long], I grabbed my lensball and stopped to take some photos thru the globe. The sky was very impressive...

The cattails along the boardwalk were nearly expired. Several were breaking open to disperse the seed. But, against the blue in the sky, they were worthy of a photo or two:

I liked how the boardwalk railing showed unusual perspective and the beautiful cloud formation was magical:

As the sun broke from the clouds, I noticed in my ball that there was a rainbow effect [not a real rainbow] from the crystal refractive prism and then, I stepped a few paces further and tried to capture a single sunflower in the distance:

Tho, the images and the lensball photography is pretty nifty in all aspects, I've come to realize that I prefer making use of it for sunrises on the beach mostly!!  Once I made it to the covered deck, I saw that the water level was low, and only a minimal amount of active bird life was evident along the perimeter...gulls and herons, a couple of egrets and one of each; willet and skimmer. I left soon afterwards as the temp was soaring to the triple digit heat index; to the dangerous heat exposure.  Back to the car with A/C and then home where the room temp is more suitable than outdoors to be sure.

...I have come to the end of my troll collection...

↓ My 30th Troll Share ↓

TROLL DOLL COLLECTION Holiday Themed LARGE hard sculpture Santa in PJs circa: 80s

§ 40 Days and 40 Nights...

We have a rain gauge in our back yard. It measures 6 inches of rain. Last week when the heavy rains poured from the sky, it was full within a couple hours. I went out in a break from the rain, and emptied it...yes, 6 inches full. By the time the rain bands ended Friday night, it was another 5 inches measured. That means in the week of July 7th during one day, we received eleven inches. No wonder it flooded. The worst part was the sewer system in and around the Coastal Bend; it wasn't working...it wasn't draining fast enough. We couldn't run water from the faucets or flush toilets. What a mess. The river and creeks were above flood stage, and the ground is still filled with puddles here and there. In the dark, I went out on the porch by the street light, and stood in about an inch or rain...the rain water was headed to the garage and the front stoop!!  And no, we don't live in a flood plain, but when we get inches of rain in 30 minutes' downpour, the drainage system bogs down and water floods the streets..then into the yard and if it continues, into the garage and through the doors to the house.  These photos are taken about an hour to two hours of heavy rain.  Before it finished that day, it was about 6 inches from our garage... 

1] just before sunrise, 2] looking from our front porch to street.  3] our sidewalk and submerged mail box, --there is a street below the water,  and 4] across the street, downed tree on corner.





In the meantime, I decided to do another sketch. Long ago, I spotted this online and when I see something that is of possible interest in drawing what I see, I saved it. This one was just irresistible. I had to try it. It made me smile. A smile much needed in these still trying times with economy, lack of government assistance and those scientific "break thrus" that really mean nothing, since one break thru changes over just a few days' time. And the news...oh the news, don't get me started. Okay...anyway: This time, it was total fun; eye lashes and all!! And, admittedly, the easiest and quickest drawing I've ever done. Just lines and round circles. Very little shading, and literally "quick on the draw"...

Ostrich

Named her - "Ostraleah" aka Ostralia


Ostrich Facts of Interest:
1] Ostriches have the largest eyes of all terrestrial animals. Their eyes are even bigger than their brains.
2] Ostriches have three stomachs. In addition to these stomachs, they also have an extremely long intestine, which takes 36 hours to digest food.
3] They have a long and sharp two-toed claw that is capable of killing a predator as dangerous and strong as a lion.
4] A newborn ostrich baby can be as big as a chicken.

source

Will continue with trolls next post.

§ Beginning of a Long Hot Summer...

There is not much to say in this blog today...other than the heavy down pouring rains, flooding the city, county and even our yard, has finally stopped and moved out of our area! I'm grateful for that. Even tho, we were in a severe drought. Now that the rains have gone, we are now experiencing high humidity. And with no overcast sky -hot white, blistering sunlight-, the heat index has soared! I don't walk my usual 10K steps to be sure. As I type this up, our heat index is predicted 108-112° F! You just can't beat mother nature. On Saturday, leaving before sunrise to beat the heat, I only walked about half an hour before I had to turn around, retreat to the air conditioned car.  It's officially, by temps anyway, the beginning of a Texas Summer.  That's okay, I had a day's worth of laundry to do. I walked the boardwalk at Hans Suter Park...

Now, this is more directed toward my generation [you youngsters can skip this part if you choose]. My title today: The Long Hot Summer. Each year, I say it. And it reminds me of the dreadful...well, Do any of you remember the movie with Paul Newman and his soon to be 2nd wife, Joanne Woodward, and Orson Welles? OMG, how the critics ranted and raved about the movie! I watched it back in the early 60s, and several times over in later years [thinking it'd get better] and it is STILL one of the worst, driest, movies of all time -IMHO. But, that Paul Newman...sigh!!! I do have to admit the two Joanne and Paul definitely had some chemistry. Maybe the movie hit my sore spot because of the poor direction and writers? Ya, maybe.

I personally thought Mr. Newman was a B rated actor, except for two. The Color of Money [he won an Oscar for that portrayal], and my ALL TIME favorite movie of the Western genre, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid!!

Butch Cassidy: ... all they got in Mexico is sweat and there's too much of that here.
Sundance Kid: [chuckling] You just keep thinkin', Butch. That's what you're good at.
Butch Cassidy: Boy, I got vision, and the rest of the world wears bifocals.

We live just minutes away from Old Mexico...I don't go there...Texas, all they got is sweat. Don't need to travel any further.

...and to continue showcasing my Trolls...

↓ My 10th Troll Share ↓

TROLL DOLL COLLECTION LARGE Soft Sculpture Clown circa: late 70s

§ Fountain at Oso Bay Wetlands, Weather, & 3rd Troll...

We've been getting heavy downpours each morning around 2 a.m. for several days now; saturating the ground. Then...Wednesday ---9-11" of rain fell in a short period of time. Within an hour: flooding streets, closing highways and roadways...even the Naval AIR station shut down because of heavy flooding.  It's to last up until 1 pm Thursday.  Naturally I haven't gone birding in quite a while; sticking close to home and dubbing around the yard [before it got so wet and pools of water lying in the low spots kept me from that]. These photos are all taken from the interior looking out windows. The last droplet is hanging onto a hurricane shutter.

Fountain video has been removed

↓ My 3rd Troll Share ↓

TROLL DOLL COLLECTION Space Cadet c: early to late 60s

§ Palm Sunday Morning....

A few years back, I saw just ahead of me on a trail while out birding a 5 rattle rattlesnake. It crossed my path!  Needless to say, I was always more weary of returning there. But got over it! And then, a couple of times, in the tall grass [one in the pond] at another refuge, as I walked - water moccasins! ALL, thank goodness were several feet ahead of me. I did, however, stop "dead in my tracks" each time. Still, I eventually kept going forward and watched every move I made until I felt out of harm's way.  If they're venomous, I don't react with my camera...I remain aware of each and every movement.  Yet, I have taken photos of snakes that are NOT poisonous.  For instance a Diamondback WATERsnake...shown here. [supposedly the largest non-venomous snake in North America.]  It was huge, that, I'll give you.  And it was watching me.

Then, on the local news, a short two minute segment showed that at a popular local hangout, at the beach, a huge, 6 foot diamondback rattlesnake was seen a few days ago. Naturally, some fool someone recorded it on their cellphone. Watch their video here.  Watch its forked tongue.  :::chills:::
Above image is a screen shot from the news clip.

Friday and Saturday, Bud and I took the notion to do a thorough cleaning of the house. From ceiling to carpet. In every room! Lo and behold, on Sunday then, the day I figured I'd take a morning off and walk the snake infested beach!! [lol]. Guess what? I got as far as Packery Channel of North Padre Island, and it was threatening to turn into some nasty weather. Which reminds me of Creedence Clearwater's "Bad Moon Rising".

Looks like we're in for nasty weather
One eye is taken for an eye.

I think, by cleaning house from top to bottom, it brought on the change in temps and lack of a sunny day. It sure seemed that way, and I promised myself I would not clean house again so thoroughly. I left home about an hour after sunrise, tho the sky was a "pre-dawn" gray; overcast. I still got out and walked the short boardwalk, not expecting to see any thing or anyone else out in the early morning hour, on Palm Sunday. The winds picked up, the sky darkened and the pleasing 70° dropped all too quickly as I figured I'd better head back to the car before I got soaked....

Check out the blackened, threatening, sky:

I drove home; made a cheesecake.