Pecan Street Festival

Skye requested a trip downtown for the Pecan Street Festival, so that was our destination for the day. Me? I don't really care much for outdoor money spending events disguised as festivals, and when I do I prefer to be one of the street bar patrons consuming a cold beverage while people watching. That said, I'm always up for a trip downtown no matter what form it takes.

As much as I love downtown, I absolutely abhor driving down there ESPECIALLY when there's an event. Luckily, Toby took the liberty to take some time off at the shop to join (and drive) us.

A little secret about me. I'm a total control freak where driving is concerned. If I'm not the driver of anything other than public transportation (which I'm a big fan of, I might add), I'm a basket case and total side seat driver. I'm one of those people who presses on invisible breaks and constantly points out potential careless drivers to watch out for.  I believe I inherited this attribute from my mother.

For whatever reason, I decided to let Skye sit in the front seat with Toby while I climbed in back and ate my granola bar breakfast. I believe a part of me thought sitting in the back would prevent me from getting over obsessed with being a side seat driver. Instead, the combination of wolfing down my granola bar, the stop and go effect of interstate traffic and my paranoia of being totally out of control in back seat got me feeling extremely nauseous. It got so bad at one point I was eyeballing my backseat grocery reusable bag stash....just in case.

I was relieved to be able to get out of the car and gather myself back into a mentally functioning human.

I didn't take many pictures. Taking pictures of vendors didn't really appeal to me, but I did get a few for memories sake....

Here Toby is giving some cash to a homeless guy. Living in a larger city we come in contact with many homeless people and panhandlers on a daily basis. The majority beg for a handout in a self-entitled manner. This old guy stood by us at the crossing with his grocery basket on a mission of collecting cans without ever asking for a dime from strangers around him. He was working for his money. No matter how insignificant his payout would be, he earned it. Toby knows what that's like. He respected. He gave.

My firefly....

When I got home I took some time to finish a baby blanket I'm making for some faithful customers who will be bringing a baby boy into the world soon....

Violet Crown Trail

Today Toby and I wanted to take advantage of the day with a hike.

We chose Violet Crown Trail. This trail is a new addition to a planned regional trail system. Once complete it will be a 30 mile trail passing through Barton Creek and eventually into Hays County.

Bravo to Austin for its desire and ability to incorporate nature into the urban areas and beyond.

The Violet Crown Trail gradually descended down crossing over Gaines Creek (bone dry) numerous times before teeing into Barton Creek (also very bone dry).

Millions of years ago Central Texas was covered by a shallow sea, so it's not uncommon to find fossils in the rocks. I have found many sea animal fossils but have yet to find a plant one....

A skittish lizard...

 We came upon this HUGE (cave?) opening....

The curiosity in me always wants to venture in and take a gander, but you never know what critter may call this home...

Barton Creek bone dry.....

Depending on how much rain we get, this spot is prime for rope swinging, swimming, and hanging out. It looks very lonely right now....

It was a hot day, but luckily the trail was canopied by trees giving us a nice shady walk.

Copperfield Nature Trail

This morning Toby and I changed up our routine and took our morning walk in  Copperfield Nature Trail. 

I'm glad we chose this trail. The trail is mostly human/dog traffic free, so we were able to unleash Bo and let him roam freely and as I say, "be a real dog".....

Bo cooling off in the pond....

We reached the portion of the trail I have never hiked. After seeing this sign, I couldn't get that song out of my head....

We walked through some brushy areas on this portion of the trail along the creek....

Bo stopping off to cool himself off again. He was one stinky, muddy dog...

Since we neglected to study the trail head map in the beginning, we didn't how much further we would go before the trail ended nor did we know exactly how many miles it was, so we played it safe and headed back. We hadn't any breakfast and our stomachs were beginning to rumble. We hiked about 3.5 miles......

Next time we will shoot for the whole trail.

Crocheting For Charity

Crocheting has been a part of my mental therapy the past couple of years, and in those years I have managed to accumulate quite a few projects.

I have given away a few things, but some items I have not found homes for. I still have a large basket full of miscellaneous crochet creations that sit staring at me taking up space.

I didn't want to add to my collection of useless crochet items any more so I quit crocheting for a few weeks.

I felt lost without being able to get lost in my needle so I decided to go in search of crochet charities that would be in need of my crocheted pieces. I had attempted this once before, and you would think this would be a fairly easy task, but I was having a hard time finding a local charity without too many restrictions and nit pick rules

Although not local, I finally came across a couple that will suffice.

These are my latest projects.

Cancer caps....

This an idea I came across just today. Prayer cloths. Although I'm not religious or prone to prayer --- I believe things work out the way they are meant to happen and no amount of begging or pleading to the invisible being in the sky can change the outcome. Those rare times I have ever felt the need to pray was more to summon up the strength within myself to handle the situation that was dealt to me. That said, I know that praying is an important part of healing and comfort for most humans, especially in difficult times....

With each stitch I made into these cloths, I put as much positive energy and love as I could. They are not to be made when I'm not feeling "good".

Since I just came upon these today, I have not found a charity home for them yet. I am hoping our local Dell Children's Hospital may appreciate them.

Johnson City

This week I decided we were all going off for family day. It's few and far between these days all three of us go off together.

I decided on the Hill Country Science Mill in Johnson City, Texas about an hour 1/2 drive. It's a fairly new science museum that I've had on my bucket list for awhile.

The drive into the Hill Country was beautiful and we all enjoyed the scenery along the way.

The museum was smaller than I expected based on the reviews and a lot of it was a bit too juvenile for Skye. Even so, there were a couple of things that we all enjoyed...

Skye's favorite thing was creating her museum avatar and scanning it before each exhibit...

We all enjoyed the brain wave exhibit. Ceasing our brain from thought and activity was very hard for me and Skye! Toby beat us hands down each time...

This Fractalarium gave a very cool light show...

Cell Phone Disco...

Skye enjoyed the Virtual Human Body too...

Other miscellaneous activities...

I had to beg for this solo photo of Skye. She did it only because she loves me and knows how important family memories are to me...

We walked around the little downtown a little bit but most everything was closed. That's small towns for ya, I guess....

On the way home we stopped for a DQ Blizzard. It was a pleasant day.

Bright Ideas and New Beginnings

I get a lot of bright ideas, but few come to fruition. I usually end up deciding it's not such a bright idea after all, or realize the idea is too far-fetched to be attainable.

Moving to Austin 8 years ago was one of my "bright ideas" that I managed to convince Toby jump on board with. For the most part it has worked out. And what I mean by for the most part is I didn't really obtain an Austin address as planned. I got stuck 3 miles outside the city limits of Austin in a podunk town that inhabits all the Austin wanna-be stragglers and old timers (those who can't afford the Austin address) and up until recently, courtesy of a 12 mile drive to the nearest major grocery store.

Don't get me wrong, I have grown to love certain aspects of small town living. Hearing the coyotes howl on a quite summer evening, cows mooing in the distance, skies so free from ambient light you can see the Milky Way, plenty of nature to walk around practically at my back door, and my personal favorite, the awesome sunsets.

I also had expectations of Skye being part of a  homeschool community with endless participation, activity and friendships with kids with the same educational backround. It never worked out that way. Austin is such a large city and the groups are so splintered we had a hard time finding our place. Regretfully, in all our effort we never did and most likely never will before she ventures off on her own. As it's said, I guess it wasn't meant to be.

The upside is we did make friends with many different people so we have not been totally devoid of activity and friendship. And we also are pretty good at utilizing all there is to do in Central Texas so bored has never been a word that fit into our vocabulary.

I guess my point is things really didn't totally work out they way I had envisioned them which leads me to my next big question:

What are Toby and I going to do with the rest of our days as Skye moves quickly into adulthood and begins her own life adventure?

In the recent months, things have started to feel like a burden to me...keeping up with the yard, that damn pool, home maintenance, cleaning and maintaining a whole house that we only dwell in a small portion of, outrageous utilities, the tattoo shop, etc.

I feel change.

I can feel myself shifting into a different mentality and preparing for the next stage in my life.

Well, this time my bright idea is Toby and I live out some time in a travel trailer. It will enable us to be more mobile and free to visit family, do a little traveling around and also pick and choose areas we would like to eventually plant ourselves.

"Stuff" is no problem for us. 99% of the stuff we have serves no useful purpose anyway. It's just stuff that fills up the rooms of the house. Neither one of us are materialistic types and could easily live a simplistic lifestyle with bare essentials.

I hope this time my bright idea is closer to the vision I have in my mind and we don't end up penniless and homeless.

I still have plenty of time to research and plan.  A woman has the prerogative to change her mind.