Commons Ford Ranch

I'm a big fan of hidden gems. Commons Ford Ranch is an old ranch turned into a Metropolitan park.

The hike was a peaceful one. The beginning of the trail led us through an open grassy area...

Then into a more dense, shady area....

We came upon Lake Austin...

Walked through some more shady areas...

...and ended up at the Lake picnic area....

We walked on past it along the trail. This old Pecan Tree took my breath away. It was absolutely beautiful.....

Beautiful home on the hill above the lake....

The trail opened up again and led us along the road.....

....until we reached a rockier trail.....

This trail led us to what was suppose to be a creek and a waterfall. I'm sure it's beautiful after the spring rains, but it was mostly dry.....

There were some pretty yellow flowers....

We headed back in the direction we came and took a fork in the path that led to rock ledge that overlooked the dry creek...

We also came upon this old concrete bridge. We saw a couple of deer frolicking around through the brush. We watched them a bit before we moved on...

We passed some trees which Toby referred to as "ghost trees". I thought it was a pretty good description of them....

There was another trail that led up to the top of the hill. Totally worth the hike....

The summit! We sat up here for awhile and enjoyed the breeze and the view. Such a peaceful, beautiful place...

My panoramic view...

I can't pinpoint why, but this hike gave me a very peaceful, easy feeling of gratitude and love for too many things to name.

In Pictures

Not much to report on last week. We did get together with friends we haven't seen in a couple of months so that was fun. No pics. I'm not "allowed" to take pictures anywhere in the vicinity of the ornery teen. God forbid she randomly get caught off guard or have to smile/pose. I'm hoping this too shall pass. It really didn't matter anyway, it allowed me to give my full attention to my pleasant company.

For the past couple of weeks,  I've been purging old photos in my free time. Not only do I have the millions of pictures I have taken over the years, I also inherited mom's big box of family photos when she died.

My goal is to purge the pics that aren't that great...people I have no idea who they are, blurry shots, duplicates...remember the days when they gave you double prints??? Ugghhh...double prints probably take up half my stash. And old Olan Mills types and school pics? Seems like I must have kept more prints than I gave away.

It's much harder than I thought it would be. Deciding which pictures go or stay is a hard task for a nostalgic person like myself.

I came across more than a couple that tugged at my heartstrings.

It's funny how you don't really "see" your mother until you haven't seen her in awhile. This was taken just a couple of years before her death. The older I get, the more I think about her...

Kids....fantasy gone bad. Just kidding....

I can't believe there was actually a time I complained about being too skinny. I'd love to have those bones back again. I'm pretty sure Toby and I were both high as kites in this picture...before we tied ourselves down with responsibilities...

Other random photos...

We were at a local BBQ place having lunch when this poor falcon (?) being chased by some Grackles slammed into the window in his effort to escape their wrath. He/she was stunned but seemed to recoup okay and eventually flew off....

My homemade skeleton wreath....

My Texas Longhorn beanie. It just needs a Longhorn applique now. So far, I'm having a hard time finding one...

That's all folks.

Miscellaneous and Manor Fest

First, the miscellaneous. I crocheted a little football beanie to go along with the monkey afghan I crocheted recently. The parents to be are sports fans so I figured this would be appropriate. I was pleased with the way it turned out...

A nice fiery, sunset....

This one is unique in the fact that it's not my usual sunset pic, but rather the full moon after the recent blood moon lunar eclipse. I captured it in the early morning hours the next morning.....

I captured this sunset off of Hwy 290 while I was at the shop one evening. I never can resist a beautiful sunset no matter where I am....

This is a little rock path the crosses a small stream at the park. Every time I walk across them I think how they remind me of a cobblestone road. I decided because I admire it each time I come across them, it was worth a picture...

Two Scissortails hanging out on the power lines......

My usual shots are sunsets, but this morning Toby and I were out for a very early morning walk and I caught a sunrise. I was glad to get the chance to capture it. I'm now motivated to capture more sunrises also. It's interesting to me, that visually you can't really tell the difference between a sunrise or a sunset. Both are equally beautiful....

Now for Manor Fest. This is the first year we participated in the festival as a vendor. It enabled us to advertise ourselves a little differently than we usually do. Being the more introverted type, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed interacting with strangers.

I believe we may have gained a customer or two by our experience....

Two youngsters taking advantage of our interactive painting board.

The weather was perfectly comfortable and we were lucky to have a shady spot for our tent set up.

Balcones Preserve

Today Toby and I hiked a trail I had spotted a few weeks ago when we were hiking along Bull Creek. 

I don't have a link for it because I can't seem to find a link to the particular trail we hiked. Balcones Canyonland Preserve appears to encompass a large area of Austin with a few different accesses.

Since it is a preserve there were plenty of signs along the way about not disturbing the endangered species - the Golden Cheeked Warbler being the one they were most concerned about - and staying on the trails. Also, dogs and bikes are a No No.

We started at the head of the trail and made our accent up and up and up. Whew, it was a workout. The trail is many miles long so we took the first loop which ended up being 5 miles by the time we were done.

Five miles is no big deal for us, but we hadn't brought our camel packs along thinking we wouldn't need it. The trail offered very little shade and it was 95 degrees. Climbing up the rocky terrain was strenuous resulting in our need of water that we had neglected to bring. Silently I was hoping we didn't get lost and die of heat exhaustion or thirst.

 As we ascended upward, there were some nice views making the trek worthwhile...

Upward we went....

At one point we passed by Austin's Water Supply. That big, inaccessible tank of water sure did make our mouth water. They could have at least had a complementary water fountain for passersby...

Once you passed the water supply, we took our decent back down. A much easier walk....

It was a longer hike than expected, but totally worth it.