Wordless Wednesday: Frosty!

 

The pretty parts of our hellish week

Looking up our street Monday morning

Yes, we had a week like none ever in my lifetime here in [usually] balmy San Antonio. Today, however, it's 70 degrees out and all the snow and ice is gone. Wild, huh? 

We hear that almost everybody has their power back (now that they don't really need it to keep from freezing) as well as their water. So the whole nightmare is beginning to seem somewhat unreal; especially since we're among the lucky ones that have no busted pipes to inconvenience us.

It seems especially as I look out the window today and then at my computer screen where I've assembled some of the favorite pictures I took of the most unusual scenes. I'll go into more detail later, but for now, enjoy the beauty of things-usually-never-covered-in-snow-now-covered-in-it...

I love tree limbs with snow, they look even more beautiful than usual

thick white on our palmetto and hosta,
both of which came through the deep freeze just fine

grass peeping through on Tuesday, after a little melting

our nandina berries in their own little sacs:
re-frozen meltwater from the roof

Looking back

I know I haven't written a new blog in ages, but I do have something of a good excuse.

I've had the subject of today's post in mind since we took this short hike on Christmas day. But by putting it off during that next week, I unwittingly consigned it to an early February submission. Just a bit over a week after the hike, Henry and I both tested positive for covid. We were very, very fortunate (especially for old people) to have relatively mild cases. But the anxiety that the positive test kicks into high gear, coupled with a rather annoying persistence of fatigue, has made thinking about something as productive as blogging well nigh impossible for the past several weeks.

But although I'm not completely back to "normal" I do finally feel up to sharing our Christmas Mission Reach stroll with you.

We started off at Confluence Park, which has been completed since our last visit. (In fact, the long length of time since we'd seen this section of the river was our main impetus for heading there on this lovely Christmas afternoon: we knew the whole area would look much different than the last time we'd seen it.)

As you can see above, the park's pavilion is quite impressive, with broad steps leading down to the walk along the river. And our wonderful river is always worth re-visiting. Here's a panoramic view looking upstream...

Notice the watercraft chute that provides a fun and easy way to traverse that little rapid. When spring is a bit more advanced, we'll have to return to the Mission Reach with our boats! (See pix from a previous paddling outing here.)

There's always an abundance of waterfowl on display since the river has been de-channelized, and there are a couple of handsome fellows in this picture, but unfortunately my little camera doesn't have the kind of lens that would make them easily visible. I mainly took this shot because I was taken with the human-made geometric visual interest. The bridge that takes you over this drainage gives you quite a nice vantage point to admire these features. They're no doubt functional, but I rather just like the way they look...

And I always like the reflections of sun on water...and both were in abundance on this day:

I hope my energy will continue to return so that I can get out and about and find more sights to share with you as 2021 progresses.

Wordless Wednesday: our Dwarrowdelf

 

Wordless Wednesday: Reflections

 

Wild Things

notice the Lego-info

 In addition to scads of live-animal exhibits that are fascinating and so well set up, our zoo has some whimsical animal statuary throughout the grounds that is just as amazing.

Here are a few pieces for your enjoyment!

sorry this one is a little fuzzy

this is my favorite Lego

Even more eye-catching and wonderful than the Lego animals is this wonderful homage to the hippopotamus...

the birds aren't part of the sculpture...

...and I wonder if they're disappointed
in the lack of bugs on the hippo "skin"

Midas taking his time

We got to see much better color this year in mid-September than last. But, as you can see from the photo above, taken the day we left, things still had a way to go. (For how they looked a few weeks later, see the end of this post.)

But I thought that the progression from just turning to about midway there was interesting enough to share with you.

I got pretty excited on Sept. 17, when I saw the leaves starting to get yellow-y green...

On the 18th things were a little yellow-y-er...

On the 19th, it really started to pick up...

And even though we knew better times were to come, on the 20th things looked pretty good...

We really thought the surprise snowstorm (and accompanying low temperatures) would turbocharge the color change, but eventually we had to admit that Midas was determined to be slow. The color was pretty nice before we left, but we only learned how much further the old guy had to go when our nephew and his family dropped by on their way to Utah a few weeks later. Yikes! It really got gold!

out the windshield along Highway 50

our sweet niece, adorable great-niece, and friend on our deck