Tuesday, March 15 2011 - Day 2 of Spring Break

Today we went down to the creek fishing with some good friends...and had a Blast!

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Shirley sitting with Gator.

Her grandson Kaden has gator for the week and has to report back to his class about gators adventures during spring break. Shirley loves to smile and didn't have a clue I was taking her photo, oops! I think she was ready for a nap, I know I was. Love you Shirley and so glad y'all came over today!

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Noah was a friend of Kadens and this was his first time fishing.

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Quinton
He doesn't like to fish but came along for the adventure. I introduced him to pond scum and he was just thrilled. Thanks Quinton for helping and for coming over, sorry about the pond scum I couldn't help myself.
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Yeah Noah, your first fish and a beauty!
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Michael being patient.

He didn't catch a fish but he did catch himself and a few trees to boot. I'm proud of him, he wasn't upset because he didn't catch a fish. He did tell me he had a blast today!
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We invaded the creek for the day!
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Nobody wanted the little Nemo fishing pole so I took it just to prove it's not the size of the pole. It doesn't matter what size the fishing pole is you can still catch fish if you know where they are :o) Na Na Na Alisa I out fished you and you had a bigger fishing pole!
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Noah was on a roll...Awesome fish!

He was just tickled, he caught the first fish and then he caught the biggest fish of the day! He was a wee bit upset with me when I wouldn't let him take them home. But I told him a photo will last a lot longer than the fish would have...I practice catch and release!
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Kaden with his fish...way to go Kaden!

I am so glad he caught a fish. I hate to see the kids come fishing and then not catch anything.

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And Ms. Alisa with her fish, Yeah!! She caught one, finally!!
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WooHoo it's a whopper!!

Oh Alisa you make me laugh, thanks!

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And here is Alisa's son Jordan with his catch!

Truly amazing when you catch a fish isn't it Jordan? and I love it when you make me laugh too!
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He's happy...

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In fact we all were happy and had a great day!

Monday, March 14 2011 - 1st day of Spring Break

Michael and I both slept in, cleaned house and then headed to the Texas Zoo in Victoria Texas.

Below are photos of our Zoo adventures...

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Playing on the Caboose
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Looking for bones
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Wisteria
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Sunday wildflowers at the Ranch...

At Mom and Dad's ranch Sunday I walked around by the house and took photos of the wildflowers I found...

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A member of the Aster family

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Yucca with Prickly Pear Cactus...The Yucca is a member of the Agave family.
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Yellow evening Primrose or so I thought. But my one book says the yellow evening primrose has a black center and stigma and this certainly does not...So upon further investigation this may be a cut-leaved evening primrose, it looks like it. Either way it is from the primrose family.
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I should have gotten a photo of the leaves on this one...I'm undecided. Possibly a type of clover or may be Scurvy pea or a type of milkvetch...I really need to see the leaves to be positive.
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Texas Vervain, attracts butterflies and bees.
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A member of the Aster family
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5 wildflower books and only one has a picture that resembles this flower but it's not a very clear photo, grrr. I'm getting frustrated with these books.
It looks like it and the description pretty much matches this flower...

Fiddle-leaf Tobacco (above and below photo) a member of the nightshade family. Also called Tobacco Cimarron. Dried it was smoked by some Native tribes during ceremonies.

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Fringed Puccoon

The roots were used by Native tribes as a red or purple dye.
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Indian Paintbrush in all it's glory, isn't it gorgeous?

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Macro shot...member of the Aster family. Do you see the spider?
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Michael checking out a long line of ants...
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A member of the Aster family and the same bloom as above just not as close. There are so many flowers in the Aster family it's ridiculous...Some I know at a glance others I would need to study further and I still might not be correct. So for the time being I am just going to say a member of the Aster family...as Fred would say "It's a pretty flower", lol.
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Closer view of the Fringed Paccoon, love their little frills.
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Country road near the San Antonio river bottom country...
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Spiderwort
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Notice this plant has blue flowers (spiderwort)

Same species (spiderwort) just purple blooms on this one. That's why sometimes it gets confusing to identify these flowers...their colors may vary.

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That is all the flower photos I have for you from the ranch...I didn't walk in the woods down by the river, so next time I may have some different ones for y'all.

Have a great week. It is Spring Break for Michael this week and we are staying busy.

Cat walk in the wildflowers...

I asked Michael if he wanted to go for a walk with me Sunday evening to look for shed antlers and he said no...So off I went. I soon lost interest in looking for shed antlers and started taking photos of wildflowers, lol. I'm very easily distracted on my nature walks.

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Plains or Prairie Fleabane

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Oh and of course Ms. Lydia is accompanying me...
I have never had a cat go with me on my walks, never...But Lydia does and seems to enjoy it. She can be very annoying though, especially when I am stooped over trying for a close up of a flower and the next thing I see is a cat tail in the view finder, grrr.
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Plains Wild Indigo...
and one of my newer books refers to it as Longbract Wild Indigo.
This is poisonous to livestock.
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Milkvetch, there are 30 different species in Texas.
And also toxic to livestock.
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She's watching out for snakes...I hope?
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A closer view of the Plains Wild Indigo bloom.
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Wine cup (from the Mallow family) and Milkvetch.
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Julie out in the pasture amongst the Oak Trees.
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There is a story here...Not sure if you can see that tree/stick poking out of the ground? The cows love to scratch their bellies on it. The ground around it is always tore up and there is cow hair stuck all over the stick. It seems to be the perfect height for a belly scratcher. I wasn't going to take a photo of it. Just because you can't really see it. But Lydia plopped down next to it and just stared at it...(strange cat?) (very strange cat?)...
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Uh oh she's on the prowl, not sure what she was stalking. You never can tell with Lydia.

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Posing for me...I'm still shocked Lydia is still following me. Silly cat.
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I found a BlueBonnet, WooHoo! I walked out into the cleared pasture and I could see the BlueBonnet plants but no blossoms...but finally I found a few little ones. Now as long as my landlord doesn't mow we should see some more bluebonnets in the next couple of weeks.
A friend has also told me she saw a lot in the ditches on highway 77A near Halletsville (sp.) and Yoakum too.

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I'm stumped on this one...I'm thinking it's a type of bladderpod or popweed. But the bloom is not open all the way and none of my books have a decent photo...so we'll save the identity on this one until later. I like them as they are rather close to the ground but such a bright color.
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Lydia just plopped down in the middle of the driveway and started panting on our way back to the house...guess my walk has done her in....
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Sorry Lydia I just spotted another wildflower...

Crows Poison and Roadside Blue-eyed grass. The Roadside Blue-eyed grass is actually a member of the iris family and not a grass.
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Homeward bound...
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Baby Blue eyes...

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Lydia and I had a nice walk...

I am hoping later in the week I can go further a field, without Lydia and her tail! We had a wee bit of rain today so hopefully the wildflowers will start blooming even more.
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