More color

Last week I treated you to some gorgeous natural color in our yard and our neighborhood. But the brilliant fall we're having extends much further afield. The picture above was taken at a friend's cabin near Leakey, almost two hours west of San Antonio.

Yes, this is the same place we came to about 6 weeks ago for a fun paddle on the Frio River. This trip I didn't go on the river (the flow was even higher than before, and I had more excitement than I really like on that excursion) but enjoyed the scenery all the same.

The weather was so bright and beautiful that day that even the past-their-prime brown leaves of some oaks near the cabin were eye-catching...

blue sky and shapely branches

brown is beautiful in full sun

Of course, the fact that I didn't want to paddle did not deter Henry. Plus, my friend and I not paddling simplified his shuttle. I got some nice snaps of Frio cypresses in full fall glory while waiting, and their brown looks pretty good, too...

Closer to home, I promised glimpses of some more of our neighborhood's fine trees. So here they are:

this red oak might have been mis-pruned at some time in its past,
but its color is glorious

this beauty is both shapely and colorful;
one of my favorites all year round

not sure if this is more cedar elm beauty, or something else...

...but I'm pretty sure this is...

...and this probably is, too; doesn't it look great against the white facade?

a couple of youngsters strutting their stuff

And it's not just leaves that are colorful. Just take a look at these abundant fruits!

Wherever you are, I hope your fall is/has been colorful!

Wordless Wednesday: Not true! (in Texas, anyway)

Wordless Wednesday: neither snow nor rain...

Long time, no paddle

We have water! Actually, we have 'way too much water, but that's kind of the way it is around here: not really feast or famine, but rather absurdly forced feeding until you explode, or famine.

Last weekend we headed out to our friend's cabin near Leakey, in order to mount a paddle on the Frio River, which is usually not paddleable at all. But as you can see, above, our recent rains brought it up to the very nice level of 275 cfs.* 

Although this doesn't sound like much, the high flow did necessitate some adjustment of our plans for launching and shuttling, since most of us were reluctant to drive across Third Crossing, where we launched, like this truck did.

This lovely river, with its crystal clear water and banks graced with tons of stately cypress trees, gave us an exciting and enjoyable afternoon of boating fun.

view from our launch site, on the near side of the river

delicate cypress branches not quite turning yet
(we did see some getting reddish later on)

the view downriver

This pair of cypress are possibly the largest, and most gorgeous, I've ever seen; aren't they spectacular?!

As you can tell from these shots, the scenery around this part of the Frio is especially wonderful. From the trees I've been gushing about, to some particularly handsome—and rugged—cliffs...

this hardly looks like it's in Texas, does it?

view from our friend's cabin

Our lodging spot isn't on the Frio itself, but rather one of its forks...still quite scenic, and with more water than usual.

Here are the little rapids just down the hill...

...and the fork, with lovely fall blooms in the foreground...

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*As an example of the water feast-or-famine that I mentioned above, go back and look at the pictures I showed you of the Frio and imagine the water to be 10 feet higher; that's what it was like just two days after our paddle, and after a lot more rain (the rain that caused the tragic Llano flooding that's on view in the link near the top of this post). From 275 cfs on Saturday, it crested at 23,000 on Monday morning. Feast or famine, indeed.

Thankful for the Texas Hill Country!

We spent a misty-moisty, but very enjoyable and restful, Thanksgiving in the western Texas Hill Country near Leakey. What gorgeous countryside this is! Even without sunshine and blue skies. 

The stream that flows by our friend's place is a fork of the Frio River, which usually doesn't have enough water in it to paddle, unfortunately. (We have done it a few times, which you can see here.) But even so the fork is a lovely stream...

...and fun for man and beast. Here are some of our friends' dogs enjoying a brief dip (it was much warmer weather than it looks from these wintery photos!)...

In addition to rushing water, the site also features two more of my favorite natural wonders, trees and rocks. The trees are actually turning a little out here, so, again, even without the sun, there were some stunners, mostly the streamside cypresses...

And the rocks are everywhere: in gorgeous cliffs...

...and in more intimate (although not always particularly welcome) settings. Here's one that tumbled down the hillside behind our friend's cabin last summer and punched a hole in one of her walls. The not-so-happy landowner is the picture for scale:

Pretty scary, eh?! Fortunately the damage has been repaired and the offending piece of limestone is now just a conversation piece. And, I must admit, a pretty attractive one. Just look at this closeup of its amazing fossil-filled surface!

Of course, we wish it hadn't damaged our friend's place, but we're thankful no one was hurt (and only some replaceable beverages were irretrievably ruined). And what a story she is able to tell!

Easy artsy photos

Pretty nice abstract art, eh? Well, it took no more talent than an ability to sit in a river with a waterproof camera, aim it up, and snap.

I got so excited when I saw the neat photos I could take under the clear waters of the Frio and the Nueces over the 4th of July weekend, that I just couldn't stop. I won't show you all of them here, but just some of my favorites. (By the way, I was able to use a couple more on my last Wordless Wednesday posts.)

What a beautiful, usually unseen and un-noticed world they reveal!

sun-dappled rocks were a particular favorite

the Nueces at Chalk Bluff has lots of graceful fuzzy plants on its bed

the plants under the Frio near our take-out looked less aquatic

rocks and plants at our snack stop on the Frio

more lovely river rocks

another semi-abstract of the bluffs on the Nueces

a semi-self-portrait

Such fun! I can't wait to take my little camera snorkeling! I might not ever come up for air! We had such fun snorkeling off Key Largo, and, especially, in Hawaii. But there are no photographic records of these fabulous worlds. Ocean snorkeling again is definitely on my retirement travel list...but in the meantime the rivers will do just fine.

Rio claro

The waters in the Frio River are probably a little colder than some other streams, even on a warm July 4. But what's really neat about this usually-not-paddleable stream is how clear the water is.

On Independence Day, we met in Concan for lunch before taking off on our paddle. 

view from Neal's in Concan

You can't tell so much from this picture, but the river right in town was practically lousy with toobers. However, after our launch we blew past them pretty quickly and went on down the river.

Here's our Dear Leader (note patriotic emblem) as we floated past the gauge whose readings told us there was enough water...

...and Henry providing foreground scale for some of the lovely cypress trees and impressive rocks. (He also had some flags on his boat.)

Of course, enough water to paddle also means a fairly strong current. Which I discovered the hard way when I was a little careless launching after our snack break. It took a little while and some slightly scary floating to get back on my kayak.

At least there wasn't as much water as there obviously had been, and recently:

floated debris from the recent high water

yes, that's a CAR left upside-down on the bank from flood waters

But all in all it was a fun and refreshing paddle. Since it's a rather long drive out this way, we planned for two days of paddling. In between we had a cookout and slept at Joline's place near Leakey. Here's a view of a Frio fork from her balcony:

Next time I'll share some more of the underwater shots that I teased with in last Wordless Wednesday's post. The clear water simply made lots of underwater snapping irresistible!

Wordless Wednesday: a new world