Squirrel Hunting

There is a squirrel that takes nothing but great pleasure in teasing Hannah & Maggie.  S/he bounds from tree to tree and then gets on the other side of fence, just out of reach and twitters and twitches. 

They will spend hours staring up into the trees watching for him.

My Quickie Patio

I wish I had taken before and after photos as there is such a difference between the before and the after...  but I didn't.  Our rental house has a weird little entry way for the front door. There's a bit of a covered walkway leading to the door, then about a 6" gap between that roofline and the other eave, making a U-shaped area.  Between the walkway and the outside kitchen wall was a 'flower-bed' that was all sand and due to the close proximity of the roof lines - not much sun (despite 2 skylights cut into the porch. 

Anywhooo, when it rained it turned into a muddy mess so I decided to make a patio.  I think it turned out OK for a quick, no frills patio. I just smoothed out the sand and laid down the pavers.  Not too bad and its holding up well. I also planted some giant elephant ears and caladiums (for color) to make it more inviting. 

The wind here blows so hard from the south and west that this is a great place to sit (or was during the late-winter, early spring) and drink a cup of coffee in the morning.  However, it can get stifling during the heat of the day since it is really protected from the wind.

 

Front door - Sign reads:

"Friends Welcome, Family By Appointment Only!"

Giant Elephant Ears

Caladiums, lilies (in pot) and not so giant elephant ears

 Before the caladiums grew

View to the patio from the living room window

Denton, Texas

I didn't realize that Denton had a real downtown.  It is very nice, great square, beautiful courthouse.  We visited there a few weeks ago and walked around. There is a terrific used bookstore on the corner in the old Opera House - great place to visit!

Here are a few photos from our visit.

Denton County Courthouse

Recycled Bookstore in old Opera House

Denton, TX 

Poison Ivy Sucks

OK, I have lived in Texas (this second time around) just about 4 months and have had poison ivy twice - first on my right forearm - I finally get it cleared up and now I have it on the right side of my abdomen.  REALLY??????

I lived 21 years (the first time around) in Texas - playing in the woods (that would be forest to you non-Texans) behind my house, camping, running through brush, etc and never-ever got it.  Between this, the storms and the humidity, Texas is not endearing itself to me.  I am beginning to think Texas is better as a state of mind (once a Texan always a Texan) than a place to live!!!  :-(

Watch out for this evil, evil plant.  

My parents swear by something called Poison Ivy Extract.  I guess Dad was pretty allergic to PI and if he even walked by it, he'd break out.  With this extract, he would take a drop in water on day one and build up to like 10 drops by day 10 or something like that and he's never had a case of it since.  Course this was many years ago and if it worked well, I'm sure its off the market now.  But I'll be looking for it!  If you've seen it somewhere - let me know!!

SIGH

On a positive note, the weather the past few days has been PERFECT!  If only it would stay this way through the summer.  But alas, I know it won't, in fact, we are supposed to have storms again at the end of the week... oh wait, positive...  I forgot.  We have gotten quite a bit of much needed rain.  And luckily the wicked storms have all gone around us - we've just gotten rain and wind.

Mine looks a bit worse than this but I'm 

not about to take a photo of my 

lily-white belly and put it on the internet!!!