Sunday Driving

For a few months Skye and I have been doing what I call "Sunday Driving". About once a week or so, we will take off in the car and go exploring the old back country farm roads in our area.

Our last trip had plenty of picture worthy things to snap, but as the driver of the car it's not so easy for me to do. Skye snapchatted a few things though.

Today's trip didn't give us as many visuals, but there was one section of the road that was really desolate.

It allowed me to stop the car and take a picture of a family of cows at the edge of the fence. I couldn't help but roll the window down and moo at them....just like daddy used to do when we would pass by a pasture. Skye wasn't as impressed at my mooing as my brother and I used to be when daddy did it...

We were enjoying the drive and all was fine and dandy until we came upon a turtle trying to cross the road. Typically, I'm one of those people you see stopped off the side of the road to help it on across, but as we got closer we could tell he had already been hit and half his shell was missing. To make it worse he was stuck there with his legs moving trying to scoot on across.

It was heartbreaking as fuck to me and Skye both. We are both super sensitive when it comes to animals being hurt.

I contemplated stopping to at least help it on across to the side of the road to die peacefully, but I decided that if I stopped and saw the extent of his damage and pain I would fall apart emotionally in the middle of the road and get smacked myself.

I silently hoped that at least some back road speed demon would soon come along and put him out of his misery. I've thought about that god damn wounded turtle the whole afternoon. I wish I could un-see it.

I believe Skye felt the same way. Her unsaid words were, "We shall never speak of the turtle again."

On a different note, here are couple of my finished crochet projects.

This one I'm pretty proud of. I posted it on a Crochet FB page I'm a member of and it got 1.7K "likes" I boast this only because generally, I'm not very "popular" on my personal FB page....

I also made me some car cup holder coasters. I hate it when I have a drink in my holder and it's wet from the drink....

Here's a small stroller blanket I worked up.....

And some coasters.....

That's about it.

Nature Day

I decided that I would start over and start hiking some areas that have not been hiked in a long while.

Today Toby and I hiked Onion Creek Greenbelt. Toby has never been there, and I've only been there one time years ago when my friend Robin took me there.

It was a sunny trail, so most of my flower pictures don't look as brilliant as I would have liked them to look.

 

It was a pretty uneventful hike, unlike the one we had with Bo at the park this morning. Toby, Bo and I all three came inches from stepping on a snake. Matter of fact, I can almost say that Toby and Bo had to have stepped right over him.

I'm the one that spotted it and managed to swerve my foot over before I stepped directly on his head. I'm not sure what kind he was, but he was coming from the creek. I snapped a picture of him and let him go on about his merry way...

Later on this evening, me and Skye took a little walk in the greenbelt behind our house.

It was absolutely beautiful with large patches of bluebonnets everywhere. The greenbelt behind us has always been one of the perks I enjoy the most about our home.

There were so many, the fragrance wafted all around us. I was slightly paranoid walking through them because the snakes like them too, and I'm sure my snake encounter this morning had me on edge also...

Skye pointed out these light blue bluebonnets...

There was a patch of pretty, small yellow flowers too....

Skye also dug up me a fossil leftover from when our area was covered by a sea those many, many years ago..

It was a very enjoyable nature-y kind of day for us all.

A Weird Walk

After pouring over local Austin hikes for almost an hour this morning, I came to the realization that after 8 years we have finally exhausted every hike in the local Austin area.  Austin is chock full of hiking so that's miles of hiking we've done over the years!

Our only choice now is to expand out to areas outside of the Austin area. Some of them take a couple of hours to get to and the hikes themselves take a couple or more hours to hike. Even though we have been leaving Skye alone to fend for herself way before it was probably even legal to, I always knew we were close enough to home that we could get to her in a short amount of time if need be.

I'm not an overprotective parent in the least, but I would feel much more comfortable if she had a mode of transportation before I left her home from dawn to dusk while Toby and I were gallivanting around miles from home deep in some distant greenbelt.

So, after my sad realization of exhausted hiking, I searched up local parks so we could at least get in a small trek. I found Capital Memorial Park that was close to the area we needed to run errands.

Turns out Capital Memorial Park wasn't a park at all, but a cemetery.

I figured what the hell, some of my best childhood memories were spent in Pine Crest Cemetery.  Every so often, my mom would take me and my brother to feed the cemetery ducks and walk around while she put new flowers on my grandmother's grave. Well, it was fun up until that day the goose got hold of my brothers crotch and decided it was lunch. I'll forever have the mental visual of my brother running around with a goose locked onto his crotch while my mother chased him trying to free my brother from the goose and I chased my mother making sure I wouldn't get left behind.

We walked around looking at all the tombstones and the dates on them. There were several that had empty liquor and beer bottles left at them. I guess folks drowning in their sorrow and grief.

I'm not sure how interesting my blog will be in the coming months/year(s). We are very slowly moving into another chapter of our lives and quite honestly right now it's really just not all that interesting.

The tattoo shop, the teen, and the dog will keep us tied down, responsible and respectable for a few more years. Hopefully Toby and I will live through it to enjoy our next chapter together.

Hello....How Are You?

I lost count of how many times since my last post that I have started a post only to leave in unfinished or outright delete it.

The idea of posting something random in order to suffice my urge to express myself in writing outweighed my logic in doing so.

Alas, I now at least have some pictures to post.

I've kept myself busy in my spare time with my usual activity of crochet.

I love the looks of mixed media in textiles. Unfortunately, for me, sewing on my machine is not near as relaxing as the crochet aspect of a project...

I got in a bold color combo mood. This is a baby blanket. For who? I have no idea. Sometimes I just see something I want to crochet and it may eventually find a home...if not, it gets donated to someone who may need/want it....

Can you tell I was in a blanket making mode? Another colorful baby blanket....

Here again another homeless project. I had gotten a bag of yarn at a thrift store that included this camouflage yarn. I would have never bought it myself, but I thought it worked up well in this little set for the more outdoorsy type parents of little girls....

Easter bunnies. These would be great for Easter basket fillers. There again, no home for them, just things I got an inkling to make.....

Winter has been long gone here in Central Texas, and spring has been sprung....

Fresh cut greens from my winter garden....

Rainbow after the rain...

I don't know why, but I am IN LOVE with this picture of these Indian Paintbrushes. Possibly because I walked through snake-ridden tall weeds to capture them??...

That's all folks. Maybe I will have some more interesting things to post soon.