Mar 25 - We Are Being Invaded

According to Hannah & Maggie - who reacted exactly like Ben & Bear did when they saw balloons in the sky.  With consternation, lots of barking and running back & forth.

Sunday we woke up to a hot air balloon outside our kitchen window.  At first we thought they might try to land in our pasture but I think they decided it would have been too tight.  I grabbed my camera and captured a few shots.  For those of you in Albuquerque - this is not an uncommon occurrence for you but for me, this is the first balloon we've seen since moving.  So its still exciting!!

Hot air balloon over our pasture

CRAP!  We are being invaded!!

If we race back and forth really quickly maybe it

will think there are more of us than two and 

it will just fly on by!!

We are about to get the interloper chased off - a few more trips,

a few more barks and that should do it!

Past the Pecan tree.

Whew, chasing balloons wears a girl out.

Hannah: "But one of us must stay ever vigilant, in case they 

try to sneak back over."

Azalea Festival - Tyler, Texas 2012

OK... I need to find a photography class.  Got a great new camera last summer - and if I leave it on P (for program) then its great.  Photos are wonderful... take it off of P and it's over.  Well...  not OVER but kinda blurry.  :-(  Very disappointing.  My 'close-ups' turn out OK but I think that's because it's programmable.  Phooey... had a fabulous day in Tyler, TX on Sunday but my photos leave a lot to be desired.  Still, I've posted them below for your viewing... uhm, pleasure?

If you love flowers and wonderful historic homes, take a trip to Tyler for the Azalea Festival.  Its beautiful!!  But don't go on a Sunday - all the 'quaint' restaurants are closed, all you'll get are chains.

I apologize now for the poor quality - maybe the small photos won't look so bad.  I'm bummed...  sigh.

Wisteria growing in trees

Broadway - Downtown Tyler

The Cold Within - Unknown Author

I was cleaning up our office today and ran across this - I've had it forever, used to be hanging in my cube at WaMu.  I can't remember where I got - I think Mom passed it along from somewhere.  Anyway, I really love it:

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In black and bitter cold;
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first woman held hers back
For on the faces around the fire
She noticed one was black.

The next man looking cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
And couldn't bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

And the last of this forlorn group
Did naught except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

The logs held tight in death's still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn't die from the cold without;
They died from the cold within.

~~ Unknown ~~