Wordless Wednesday: neither snow nor rain...

Wordless Wednesday: glorious fall!

Raintree country*

We have our wettest-in-history-September, I presume, to thank for the gorgeous blooms and bracts that have been showing up on raintrees around my neighborhood. I rather suspect that the last few summers, being as dry as they've been, have kept these showy beauties from reaching their full potential, since their lavish production this year has really caught my eye.

There seem to be a lot of these trees around, too, and, going by my experience of how easily they sprout volunteers, I can't help but wonder how many are scions of the one in our backyard...

the one on the other side of the fence is most certainly one of our "children"

...which was, in turn, volunteered from one in my Mom's backyard in Houston. I think that might be the parent tree next to my parent, very early in its life, the skinny sapling you can barely see at the left here:

Whether Mom is ultimately responsible for the profusion of raintrees around here or not, they surely were pretty a week or so ago.

And not just as trees, either, but also as their golden largess coated many surfaces, including the canoe that's regularly stored in our backyard:

Normally, "yellow snow" doesn't have a pleasant connotation, but when the "snow" is made up of these lovely blossoms...

...it makes for a very attractive decoration, whether in the street or on a canoe:

You have to look quick to get the best effect of the raintrees' blossoms, but their aesthetic contribution to the neighborhood scene doesn't stop there. For every blossom, there's a handsome russet bract soon after, and these stick around a little longer...

one of my biggest volunteers, showing off her bracts

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*I've always remembered raintrees because of what must have been a very striking movie ad I once saw for this flick (I was a big fan of the young Elizabeth Taylor in my youth); I never saw the movie, but thought a call-back to it made a nice post title .

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.

Scenic and exciting Portland

Isn't this a lovely view?! My last night in Portland, the kids treated me to a delightful pizza picnic on the Eastern Promenade (such a classy-sounding area!), specifically at Fort Allen Park. We were gifted with great, cool weather, and wonderful views of watercraft of all sizes and descriptions...

one of the city's ferries heading back into port

we got to watch this behemoth steam out into the Bay of Maine

another large vessel in the background, with probably not as luxurious accommodations

Here's a look at our delightful viewing/eating/playing spot:

Earlier in my visit, I was treated to some other nice views 'round about town. For instance, while accompanying the fam to the newest granddaugher's 1-month checkup, this nice vista of downtown was on offer...

...and I finally was able to snap a good picture of this iconic factory...it makes me hungry just looking at that logo!

Closer to home, there was quite a show on the kids' street. No, it wasn't the mucking out of the storm drains, like we got to witness a couple of summers ago. This time it was taking down a very large tree. I didn't get pictures of the first part of the lumber-jacking, but when they (or, rather, he—just one guy!) came to haul off the logs I couldn't resist trying to record this riveting drama.

several of Adorable Granddaugher's animals got to watch the show with us,
perched on the window sill; this is her alpaca

My son says Gramma seems to hit it pretty lucky, coming at just the right time for these unusual entertainments. As you can see, this was not an easy job: those logs were gigantic, both long and thick...

...and such cool machinery!

I wonder what astounding "dirty job" will be on offer during my next trip?!

Fun at the Fair

How much fun can an almost-four-year-old have at the Cumberland County Fair? 

Possibly not as much as her lucky Gramma, getting to enjoy it all with her!

There was certainly a lot to see and do, from the exciting...

...to the slightly weird...

...to the very sweet...

Adorable Granddaughter at edge of frame, patiently waiting for her treat

The last picture above shows a demonstration of something I'd never seen before, but is so quintessentially New England: they're making maple syrup candy. They just pour the syrup into the bed of ice, then swirl it onto a stick. Pretty yummy! If also sticky and a little drippy as it warms up. There was other good food on offer, too, specifically, Holy Donuts. Still warm!

Of course there were also rides, most of which our little fair-goer wasn't tall enough tfor. But they're fun to look at anyway. (We were there a little early and there wasn't much traffic on the midway.)

swings elaborately, and strangely, decorated with scenes of Venice

I remember the Tilt-a-Whirl from fairs of my childhood! A classic!

You can see a pictorial commentary on the Fried Dough booth in this Wordless Wednesday post. 

The carousel was not only operational but available for little ones, and she really enjoyed it!

Wordless Wednesday: perhaps, a connection?