Almost too much of a good thing

We were home from our brief Colorado ski trip before the "bomb cyclone" storm hit last week, but we still had to deal with a pretty heavy snowfall during our time in the mountains. 

Henry spent more time shoveling snow than skiing, as he lamentably points out to anyone who'll listen. Here he is atop a giant pile of snow that our great snow-plow guy couldn't quite get down the hill. He spent a whole day whittling the pile down...

...only to have another 8-10 inches dumped on it starting the next day. We have a table on our deck that makes for a good snow gauge...

...as does the lovely railing (that was re-imagined a year-and-a-half ago)...

A whimsical measure of the snowfall was perched on another deck table. We speculated as to what gave it the cute mushroom-shape, and couldn't really explain it. Unless it was snow blowing off the roof in just the right way...

But the best indicator that this is a very good (and very welcome) snow year was the top of our garage. Since it's on the north side of the building and doesn't get much sun on warm days, the stuff just piled up and up...

picture taken after a few hours hard labor

So why is all this stuff a "good" thing? Because, of course, it makes for really heavenly skiing! Next time I'll show you some more samples of the good scenery from the slopes...

Wordless Wednesday: Icemen

Wordless Wednesday: happy together

Ro-day-oh

It's hard to find a more typically Texan thing to do than to attend the rodeo. 

We were lucky to be able to attend it in style last week, courtesy of some of Henry's work connections. Great seats (as you can see above) as well as yummy gratis eats and drinks—can't beat it! Our view of the action was phenomenal, but hard to capture in photos; the "grand entry" was the only event I thought I could effectively snap.

But before we entered the arena we strolled around the carnival and stock show, and saw some interesting things I thought I'd share.

We didn't do much at the carnival other than look, so we can't corroborate the sign's claim. But it certainly looked festive and "great."

The "Texas Wildlife" exhibit hall was more to our liking. Although wildlife was in somewhat short supply, it did have some interesting displays, like this sand sculpture at the entrance:

Another sand masterpiece was located further in, featuring our own lovable state small mammal...

...not far from our real-life state large mammal (I honestly didn't know there were two state mammals until I saw the Wikipedia article linked above)...

Not that many people, I don't think, would call a longhorn wildlife, but, well, okay!

One of our favorite exhibits was this one, where the artist has made innumerable cute and quirky sculptures out of discarded everyday objects. Here are just a few:

propane canisters become whimsical pets

the little "radiohead" actually played music!
and I loved the combination-lock people...reminded me of high school lockers

Such fun! And our Texan-ness is suitably reinforced for another year or two.

Early treat

Since I entered retirement, I rarely wake up early. Even though I am so much more productive in the mornings than the afternoons that I should do so more often.

But a few days ago we had to take a car in to be worked on early, and what a gorgeous reward we had for our early rising! 

Not only this lovely full moon, but wisps of pinkish dawn clouds as well. I rushed back into the house to get my camera and was glad I didn't wait until returning from the errand, since some of those clouds started occluding the moon soon after. And, of course, the swiftly-brightening sky takes a lot of the luster off our larger-than-we-have-any-reason-to-expect satellite.

I wish I could tell you that this experience caused me to start setting my alarm again...but no.

Wordless Wednesday: a Pearl of great price

Odd, if not downright weird

Apologies for the lengthy blogging hiatus. I spent most of January entertaining—and being entertained by—my two lovely New England granddaughters, and just didn't have time for anything else.

One of the highlights of their stay was a week spent in Austin where they were able to play with their cousin. And while we were there we took lots of walks. Which, in Austin, always present lots of photo opps of interesting oddities, especially in a transitional neighborhood like the one where we stayed.

Many older houses in this area are being replaced by swanky (one assumes) and architecturally interesting duplexes like the one above.

But there is still plenty of old, quirky Austin around, too. Like houses with enormous rain barrels...

...guarded, it would seem, by watch-dinosaurs?

And since it wasn't long after Christmas when we visited, there were still some yard decorations up...

I so very much miss the Calvin and Hobbes comic when I see exhibits like this, don't you?

Of course, not every house is weird. Some are just cheerfully neat...

It hadn't been that long since my last stay in A-town, but our daughter's neighborhood is changing rapidly. Most of the changes are welcome, like all the eateries that are now within walking distance for them. 

Here's a sample of the fare at one of them, pretty much heaven on earth for a biscuit-lover such as myself...

Bird Bird Biscuit...an asset to any neighborhood

We spent some time downtown, too. I'm sure I've snapped this off-kilter skyscraper before, but thought I'd include a new view of it here. We call it the Jenga building...

...which I thought was an original moniker courtesy of our kids, until I read the link above. I also learned it's the tallest building in town.

One of the absolutely quirkiest things we saw, especially considering it was 75° when it was operational, was an ice skating rink on the roof of Whole Foods. Unfortunately I neglected to take a picture of it that day, but when we returned a couple of weeks later, I guess they'd given up on it...

My Maine visitors were pretty critical of the surface when people were skating on it, seeing as how there was essentially a puddle of water over the entire surface. I mean, they can skate on the pond near their house with much less fanfare and on better ice.

But wouldn't you know Austin had to try something this weird...