[Nearly] Wordless Wednesday: Happiness is ...

... working a Christmas puzzle with your daughter

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

When we were in Colorado this summer, actually all together for a few days, we took advantage to take our Christmas card picture. The "album cover" approach was the kids' idea, and since they usually don't like posing for these pix, I thought it best to go along. Left to right, we are: globe-trotting writer/son, myself, cat parent/daughter, globe-trotting artist/daughter-in-law, and kayaking spouse.

The setting is Upper Water Dog Lake, arrived at after a fairly long and strenuous (for me, anyway) hike along the Continental Divide. It's some of the most beautiful, and some of my favorite, scenery in the world, though, so it's worth the shortness of breath and aching feet.

And, being a location with so many pleasant associations for us, it's a fitting place to say this from:

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year !!

To all my kind readers

Wordless Wednesday: Peace on Earth

More fall/winter color

We are being treated to much more vibrant tree color than usual as the year winds down. I'm crediting the early freeze we had a few weeks ago.

Some winters we don't get a hard freeze at all, but when we do, it's almost always in January or February, when the mostly brownish leaves have already been blown off all the trees.

This year's earlier-than-usual cold temperatures [I assume] gave us the wonderful colors you can see here. Remember my Wordless Wednesday post last week? There are even more of those lovely ornamental pear leaves in our driveway now, as you can see at the left. The red ones must be the weaker cousins; almost all that's left now on the branches are the bright yellow ones. Who wants to sweep the driveway when you have a red carpet and a golden roof?! [with dark green trim from our Texas mountain laurel]

Yes, I know we need to fix our downspout

Here's another view of this gorgeous tree, planted by a dear neighbor who died of ALS several years ago. I think of her whenever I gaze at the tree, and I know she'd be pleased that it brings us, and the family that now live in her house, so much pleasure.


Even more glorious are the views from inside our house. It's like having the best wallpaper in the world, without the hassle!

from our bedroom window

from our newly painted guest room window

Some other showy trees round about town:

this row of Chinese pistache dress up our HEB parking lot

cedar elms between the Library & the University Center on campus

another pistache (?) across the street from us

yet another especially vibrant pistache outside my office window

And, finally, a reminder that we aren't in New England, no matter how the other photos look. Here's a palm outside the Library framing the lovely red oak in the background:

Wordless Wednesday: Holiday cheer is where you find it

[not intended to be a Folger's ad—
don't want to jeopardize amateur status]

¡Sábado gigante!

Well, maybe not exactly the atmosphere of the noisy, rather racy, Univision variety show. But I did have a lot of fun today the San Antonio Museum of Art's Bazar Sábado, a folk art Christmas market/fundraiser loaded with wonderful stuff. Mostly from Latin America.

You can get a taste of what's on offer in the picture at the right, which I snapped before the large crowds of customers invaded the bazaar.

Some friends just happen to be in charge of the jewelry counter and needed volunteers.

So....they asked me to be surrounded by cool jewelry, get to see lots of happy Christmas shoppers buying stuff they're thrilled to find, and know I'm helping a good cause....twist my arm!

Even though I'd already almost finished my Christmas shopping I couldn't resist buying just a little more. Next year I may wait for this cool event to do my shopping.

Wordless Wednesday: results of a windy Wednesday