PADRE ISLAND NATIONAL SEASHORE

The ocean beckons me so we head to Padre Island National Seashore and stay 3 days by the Beach.



































We can drive the Tracker on the Beach











The currents bring in trash from all over. I did my best to pick up the trash I came across in my walks but sometimes they just didn't fit in the bag!

Playing Catch-Up

It was a wet, drizzly and muddy day today - what better way to celebrate the muck than to invite a new pal into the arena: 7 month old MacKenzie, a red/yellow lab who Avalon adored!
And here's a movie
of my sis and I playin' with the new girl-pal!
Next up... I actually got to visit my totally pawesome brother, Jamie a couple of weeks ago. I absolutely adored playing with him and will always look up to him... well - he's waaaaaay bigger than moi!
And a week before that, you would not have believe how cold it got. Well... unless Momma took a pitchur of the hail that came down among all the pretty cherry tree blossoms!
And this might help explain why we've been so MIA. Avalon and me has been working ever so hard on our obedience routines, practicing three times a week and visiting our teach, Barbara and oh... gots a headache thinking about it all!!! But about a month ago, I did manage to earn my second leg of Open A (whoopee!). Next week, I'll be trying for my final leg - imagine... a CDX! Woo hoo... let's hope I can remember all the things I supposed to be doing! Will keep in touch!

Happy Easter

Taking a break from our regular programming — BRRP postings — for an important message.

For those who celebrate, Happy Easter! 
For the rest of you, enjoy the chocolate Easter eggs.

We met our bunny friend in Tierra del Fuego — Ushuaia, Argentina.

Postings of Saturday and Sunday and Monday will resume soon …

Rope!

During Thursday's FSRT, Alec waits to catch a throw line and be towed into shore.





On Thursday, we assisted as Scott Fairty of Geneva Kayak taught Foundation Safety and Rescue Training, a prerequisite course for the BCU coaching track.

This is a fabulous course for anyone who intends to paddle a kayak or canoe on anything other than small, flat bodies of water. It covers all manner of rescues for all kinds of people and crafts as well as towing techniques. But beyond the mechanics of getting people back into dry boats, it covers incident prevention and management. If a license were required for paddling, this could be one of the key required courses to prepare you to earn one.

Evolution of a Veranda

The word veranda didn’t come to mind when we first saw our house in ... We were focused on interior dimensions, gardening space, and price. The long front porch with two center steps and a ramp at one end was just another part of the house. Once the house was ours, however, I began to ponder the word, savoring the possibilities.
Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines a veranda as a large open porch, usually roofed and partly enclosed, as by a railing, often extending across the front and sides of a house. Did our space pass this test? The porch extends thirty-seven feet across most of the front of the house, with open sides, wooden columns and black metal railings on the front edge. The whole thing has an overhanging roof, shading the house from the Western sun. I began calling our porch The Veranda.

It sure didn’t feel like a veranda at first. The pierced metal ramp was handy when the movers rolled the piano to the door, but rain or water transformed shoes into skates. Visitors slipped and our family grew wary. After I flew off the slick surface twice, landing hard on the drive, Philo sawed off the ramp & then contemplated angles, as he designed and constructed new steps.

We added a wooden bench, a plant stand and two metal chairs from the deck of the previous house. Furniture and doodads made the porch feel more like a room, but greenery was essential to my idea of a veranda.

Philo attached metal hooks for hanging baskets; they’re stuffed with pansies in winter and they produce a veil of ornamental potato vines in summer. A parlor palm and houseplants spend most of the year out on the porch while the center steps are flanked by two large hypertufa pots filled with purple oxalis.
On many gardening sites, new owners describe how they transformed their older houses, removing old hedges to 'open up the view' to the porch. Abundant flowers replace the hedges, Smith & Hawken add pizzazz to the scene, and the happy owner stands on his new stage, while neighbors marvel at the improvement.

I like to read these stories, and am glad their homes have become the right setting for their lives.

But as someone who has spent years envisioning a Southern garden, I could not chop down my mature boxwoods . I rather enjoy hedges, shade, mystery, privacy and a feeling of enclosure. Rather than banishing our shrubs, we encouraged the boxwood hedge to grow slightly taller, clipping it level with the railing.

Now, after working in the yard I can lounge on the bench, waving hello and conversing with my neighbors, but my muddy knees & battered shoes aren’t on display. Instead of taking center stage, we prefer the Box Seats.
Life can be a little more civilized when you have a Veranda - a place to sit and sip, to read or talk, a place that’s not exactly inside, yet not quite outside.

Arrived Deerwood, MN

Uneventful drive from home to Deerwood, MN. Weather was "changeable". Cloudy, sunny, sprinkling, humid, pleasant. Arrived at my hotel a little before 3pm. Took some time to unloaded the car.

Debated for a while - Do I just have dinner? -or- Do I take a bicycle ride THEN dinner. Eventually, I decided I really wanted to get out and ride. Visited a little with the hotel owner as getting ready to leave. Headed out for a road ride to Crosby. Hwy 6 from Deerwood to Crosby has an awesome wide shoulder - even wider than a bicycle lane. (Need to take a photo of the hwy while here.)

When I got to Crosby, I rode on to the Cuyuna Lakes State Trail. (today's photo - the road bike on the trail) Rode the trail to Hwy 6 at the Croft Mine. Could have ridden a little further, but knew I had to ride along the highway on the way back and there was a rough hill as I enter Deerwood.

Felt energized when I got back to the hotel. Showered and walked over to Coach's for food. Special was a 1/4 lb burger. Pint of Fat Tire and a cheeseburger & chips cost me a whole $5.15!

Now that this blog post has been written - time for bed. Was a productive day - 500 miles in the car, 9 miles on the bicycle and $5.15 dinner.

Riding in the red dirt at Cuyuna Country Ride Center tomorrow.

The Velveteen Rabbit Vs. Cleopatra

This photo is of Salisbury Cathedral in England.
Darcie and I still aren't strong enough to go to church, so I turned on the TV to see if I could find some decent preaching.  What I found was several tele-evangelist types sitting in pseudo living rooms chatting cozily with their wives.  
I'm sure we all remember Tammy Faye Baker, bless her heart, as the poster girl of how not to wear your hair and makeup.  What is it with the wives of TV preachers?  The ones I saw today looked like they were going straight from their tv show to an audition for a Cleopatra movie!  I'm talking dyed jet black hair (one was a honey blonde), bright blue eyeshadow sweeping all the way from lid to brow, and black eyeliner drawn on so thickly that any Egyptian woman would have swooned in admiration.
Their husbands, in comparison, were graying and wrinkling naturally.  They looked their ages, which in my opinion, is a good thing.  The women did too, actually.  They just tried to hide theirs under loads of paint and powder.  
But it never works to their advantage.  Why don't they see that they just look ridiculous? I've seen older women with gray hair and sweet smiles and they're beautiful.  Their beauty comes from within and not from paint cans. 
I want to be the kind of older woman with such a sweet spirit that people are naturally drawn to me.  I want the love of Christ to shine forth from the essence of my being.  I want His beauty to make me beautiful.
My hair is turning gray and has been for about twenty years.  The ONLY time I've been tempted to color it  is when Darcie cried because she thought I was going to die soon since I was getting old and grayheaded.  It must be hard for her to have a Mom that's ten-twenty years older than her friends' Moms.  But I read the Scripture to her that says that a gray head is a crown of glory and left it at that.  I keep up with her just fine, so she's just going to have to be reconciled to it.  I just make sure that Laurel is groomed to take my place when I kick the bucket!
I want to be like the Velveteen Rabbit who didn't become real until it was shabby and well-loved.  I feel like I'm becoming more real the longer I live.  I'm not hiding behind things as much and am content to let people see the "real" me. 
I've just had an "ah ha" moment.  That's why I don't want the summer to end!   I became more real this summer on our first beach trip.  We went to Fripp Island with Laurel and her family and another family from church.  We had a WONDERFUL time together, I think because we didn't have any expectations and were very relaxed all week.  None of us women wore any makeup the whole week.  Believe me when I say this--I am fifty-two years old, and as long as I have been wearing makeup, I have never gone a day without it; not even in the hospital after childbirth. I have a story about that which includes Laurel, but I'll tell it later.  I'll have to get her permission first.  I even used to wear mascara to bed!  Needless to say, vanity has been an idol for me.  I'm only now realizing it though.
So for me to NOT wear makeup for a whole week was very liberating.  I felt like a different person in a great way.  I'm learning that who I am isn't what I wear or the cute little house I live in.  All these things will fall away someday and I'll be left with just ME.  I like the person God is making me into, and just maybe, in small, baby steps, I'm becoming that sweet little old lady I so want to be.  If I live as long as my ancestors, He's got about thirty or forty more years to work on me.  I'm sure it'll take every one of those days to accomplish it!   "For I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day....

Another Gilia Tricolor

A bird's eye flower that opened just after a rainstorm.

Better late than never

Santa brought 1/4 inch (.6 cm) on Christmas, but waited until yesterday to deliver the main gift: a whole inch (2.5 cm) of rain!
You know you're deep into drought when just an inch of rain makes you so happy. Of course, when you're this far gone, one inch doesn't help that much, but we'll take every little bit we can get.
We still need something like 12 - 15 inches (30 - 38 cm) 24 inches (76 cm) to catch up. I don't think it's going to happen. Weather experts are predicting more dry, dry, dry, at least through spring.
But I can't think about that now... it may rain again tomorrow.
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Updated:
I was wrong about the rain deficit -- it was worse than I'd thought.