Texas

We made it to Texas with no problems, and have been enjoying the kids and grands immensely.

Since we've been here, we've enjoyed the birthday (Sunil) night in a hotel, dinner and breakfast and lunch out, swimming in the hotel pool, and going to a baseball game. A grand time was had by all.

I did take photos, and will share them when I get online again next time.

We're almost finished with our project here, which is painting Sheela's room -- a lovely, deep blue; almost turquoise. She's pleased, and so are we!

After I worked hard all day on the prepping and painting (her room has high ceilings, so some ladder work was involved) my reward was a marvelous meal! Sid and Karin fixed a shrimp/cheese/bacon wrap, seasoned with spices and grilled -- yummy - and in-season fresh corn on the cob and grilled pineapple slices. Also yummy. And, yes, the white wine was perfect, too.

Birdwatching with Aunt Sandy

OK, so I should've put the pix in reverse order. Anyway, Sandy and I went with her bird group on a watching walk last week. We saw a bald eagle with a young one in the nest, lots and lots of great blue herons and their nests on the power towers below the dam, an osprey on her nest, and more kinds warblers than I would've ever believed were in the trees in the park across the river.

It was a lovely day to be tromping around outside, and our leader was excellent. He spotted the birds for us and then told us all about them. Great day.

Birdbath in the rain

This is our nifty new birdbath. It is attached to the railing with a hinge so I can tilt it over to empty and clean it. I took a million shots before catching the actual drops jumping. Nice way to spend a rainy afternoon, tho ... I was sitting the living room with the newspapers and sudokus and crosswords in between jumping up to shoot.

Sunil

He's awfully cute and hard to resist!

Antoher catch-up from Christmas time

John and I posed for this shot with Sheela in a huge lawn-type chair in the Indigo Hotel lobby in December. Sunil couldn't stand it ... he managed to get into the photo, too!

Sid with reindeer antlers

Another catch-up pic. Since I shared the shot of Karin with her antlers at the Christmas parade in Dallas, it seems only fair to included this one, too.

This is another one I had tried repeatedly (unsuccessfully) to upload from Florida.

Catch-up photo of Sid

Sid is ready to go outside in the cold to prepare our steaks on the barbecue. Obviously, this is several months old... we were visiting them in Texas in December. This is one of the photos I kept trying to upload when we were in Florida and the dial-up connection was tooooo slow.

By the way, the steaks (and our wine accompaniment) were delicious.

Mothers' Day

What a sweet start I had to this Mothers' Day. I came out of the shower to the wonderful aroma of cooking bacon ... I followed my nose into the kitchen as quickly as I could, and, sure enough, John was just serving a "sumptious repast" for me: scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, and hot coffee. Oh, and even a vitamin pill! Mmmmm. He cleaned up afterward, too. I loved every minute of it!

Raindrop

It was a beautiful day in Cades' Cove. The recent snows had melted, the mists were rising, and snow-melt drops were falling from the fence railings.

Pigeon Forge Pottery

Sandy and Alberta and I took a trip to the Smokies in March just for a fun day. We visited the pottery at Pigeon Forge where San purchased a couple of coffee mugs for Cathy for a birthday gift. We paused in our shopping to watch a potter at work.

San and I can remember when the pottery was really the only attraction in that tiny little burg. Now, of course, the town is a huge, sprawling, never ending stream of motels, discount malls, chain restaurants and tourist trap activities. We still love the pottery, though!

Springtime

We came home from Florida to find the bradford pears in their full glory. This is the view from our deck in March.

Now for the true test

Let's see if I can post a photo ...

Yay!

This is from our trip West almost a year ago. I am looking down into a "kiva" in an Indian cliff dwelling in Colorado.

Hello!

Well, I'm finally back on the blog at least.
Yes, John's knee surgery went splendidly, and he is really almost back to better-than-before. His golfing is continuing unabated, but I think he still "feels" his knee when he goes up or down steps. So, no hiking yet.

But, we are optimistic that the hiking will be back on track by the time Sheela gets here for her July visit.