Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Mineral Wells Part 2 - Like twin fawns...



On Sunday most of the other campers began clearing out. And the deer started coming closer. I got these shots with my cell phone on my way back from the camp restroom. After the first few crossed the road I thought I would be clever and take a video since I could see that more were coming. Later when i looked at the video I discovered that i must have pushed the buttons in the wrong order and ended up just getting a topsy turvy video of my shoes and the road! Meanwhile while i was trying to work the camera I missed seeing how many deer really did crossed the road in front of me!

Over the next couple of days we saw quite a few more. John got several good shots with his camera. (My camera didn't get much use this trip as it was so rainy I didn't want to take it out much.)

They even came to the sites across from us after those people left. The first time the deer came John went out with his camera. But they didn't like that and went away again. I told him not to take photos of the ones near us anymore because i wanted to be able to enjoy watching them from inside the motor home.

We even saw a set of twins. I thought we had a photo, but I guess that was after i decided i would just enjoy them and not take any more photos.

Seeing the twins reminded me of a verse from Song of Songs when the Bridegroom expresses his delight in his bride and compares her to "twin fawns of a gazelle*" I thought, my Heavenly Bridegroom takes delight in me, his bride, like I delight in seeing cute baby deer. It is hard to imagine that God thinks of me like that when he sees all my faults, but I'm part of his creation too just like the deer.

I wonder if she thought she was hiding behind the tree?

My favorite of John's deer pictures

I somehow went out for a hike without a hair band. But John came to my rescue with this luggage tag he had in his back pack. If you zoom in you can see it says, "Pack for adventure, take off with savings."

Most of the trails were closed due to heavy rains throughout the weekend. But there were a couple next to the lake that we enjoyed.

The lake wasn't harmed by all the rain! :-) We went canoeing three times.



There were a lot of snags to watch out for. The birds make good use of them.

This bird isn't walking on the water and it wasn't that shallow there so it is probably on one of the submerged snags. Our canoe did hit one once but we were going so slowly it didn't hurt it. It is an inflatable canoe so I was very watchful and a little worried but John assured me it was tough enough to handle a gentle bump as long as the object we hit wasn't too sharp.

There were other birds besides cranes! but they show up so well and hold so still that we took more photos of them.

Home sweet home away from home. One time when we were coming back to shore a couple of raccoons dashed across the opening in the reeds in front of us. As we pulled up closer to shore we saw another one about to come out so we waited and it finally got up the courage and also ran across to join its family. Then I noticed two more had crept up and were timidly peering out from the reeds. They didn't seem as brave, so we thought we would help and backed our canoe away to give them more room. But as soon as we started moving backwards they did too and dashed back the way they had come! Sigh. So much for helping! 
A few minutes after arriving back from our long canoe trip Monday morning it began to rain. It rained all afternoon. Our site being next to the lake tended to get a river running through it whenever there was a lot of rain. And there was a lot. It rained in Dallas too. Our rain gauge at home showed we got six inches.

A shot from under our awning of the rain coming down.



A good rainy day project! John finished this puzzle while I read to him from Dickens' "Pickwick Papers." 


* Song of Songs 7:3

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Mineral Wells trip part 1

I wrote this right after arriving at Mineral Wells State Park a couple of weeks ago. I thought it wasn't ready to publish but just now when I re-read it it seemed fine to me. There aren't any pictures with it. But I'll try to post those soon. Most of them are on my husband's camera which I think he has with him at work. If I post this it will be a reminder to him to give me the camera tomorrow so i can download them, hint hint :-).

8/10/18 3:38 p.m. – Mineral Wells State Park, Space 64

We arrived a couple of hours ago. It’s still cloudy. But you wouldn’t guess by looking that we went through torrential rain to get here. I even wondered for a while if we might need to stop somewhere along the way and wait for it to ease off. Or if we would just have to turn around and go home.

More rain is expected throughout the weekend. I didn’t know when I reserved our place for this weekend that it might be the wettest weekend of the summer! I know we have been praying for rain. But I wasn’t feeling particularly thankful for the answer to our prayers on the way here.

The skies don’t look like they’ll be clear for star gazing. But the best night for the Perseid meteors is supposed to be Sunday night according to the lady at the office here. So that is still a couple of days away.

This park may not be in the list of top 8 places in Texas, (or was it 10) for star gazing, but that hasn’t stopped them. They seem to really know their stars and planets and are doing their best to encourage it. There is even a star party scheduled tonight, complete with telescopes, in the rv camping area near ours (Post Oak? We’re in the Plateau loop). It starts at 9:30. I want to try and do that.

Our site has lake access but not much lake view. There are a lot of cat tails blocking the view. But someone cleared a narrow passage through them. Unfortunately it looks like who or whatever it was also killed and demolished a large section of them in the process. But the access is just right for launching our canoe so that will be nice.

We do have quite a lot of trees around us. Some branches overhanging our roof too. Hopefully the possums or whatever wildlife lives around here won’t wake us up like at Joe Pool lake in June. Of course, we will want to wake up to see the meteors one or two nights. So if we can get them to jump on the roof at the right time that might be helpful.

An unusually brave and curious cardinal came to greet me just after we arrived. I’ve never had one come that close. He seemed remarkably unafraid. I wished I had my camera handy. But that might have scared him away. Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy nature and not feel like I have to "capture" it.

I was reminded right after we arrived of another benefit of being here--an hour and a half away from home. I got a text from my neighbor E asking to borrow $20. She assured me she would pay me back when her dad is out of the hospital tomorrow. She has done that before, pay me back I mean. But I was thankful that I wasn’t there to have to wrestle with the decision of whether or not I should give it to her. It was nice to be able to say no and know that she could not argue or cajole.


Tuesday, August 21, 2018

The joy of empty space

Still trying to write every day for an hour. So many things I could write about. Not sure how to narrow it down. Feels like there is a log jam in my brain. Big stuff, little stuff, in between stuff…

What is writers’ block really? Maybe it is different for everyone. I have never had a blank mind. That’s what I thought writers' block was -- a mind that was completely free of things to write about. But for me right now it is a super-abundance of things. None really feels like what I want to tackle right now. Maybe I’m lazy but some of the things seem too difficult or controversial.

Or too trivial. Like what sort of window coverings to put on our new window and do they have to be the same as what is on the other window in that room? They are not near each other and the new one is much smaller than the old one. But I can see both when I enter the room.

I found an article on Houzz.com.  The consensus of the author and the commenters seems to be that as long as they are coordinated they don’t have to match. Yay. That’s what I was leaning toward but I wanted to see what “the experts” said.

Why do I do that? Maybe I need to learn to trust my own design instincts more. After all it’s not like it is a moral or ethical decision. If I want different window coverings on my new window then I don’t need to ask anyone else’s permission. None of those experts live here.

A couple of days ago as I gazed out of my kitchen window at the mostly dead potted plants on my patio I wondered why not just get rid of them? Pots and all. Just because we bought the pots once doesn’t mean we have to keep them forever! I used to like potted plants. But, now they just feel like too much trouble. They die quickly if I don’t water them a lot--everyday in this heat! The last plants we had in them were drought tolerant but even those couldn’t hack our extra dry winter this year. Or did they die the year before while we were in Australia? I don’t remember! That’s the other issue, when we are away our potted plants usually die. We’ve lost some really nice plants that way. So why not just get rid of them?

I could put fake plants in them (on the patio). I used to think it was tacky to have fake plants outside, but is it any tackier than keeping dried up weeds in them all the time? But the other reason I want to get rid of them is to de-clutter.

I have a growing desire for minimalism. Having more empty spaces to look at feels restful and refreshing. It brings a feeling of quietness and peace and spaciousness to my mind and spirit as well as my surroundings. I’m also thinking of paring down indoor stuff too. Ordinary life brings so much clutter as it is, why add to it with unneeded "décor."

Some of our things have sentimental value though. So, getting rid of them will be more difficult (and guilt inducing!) John suggested I put most of them away and rotate them. It sounds reasonable. I might do that. I don’t get bored easily, though. If I like how something looks I rarely ever change it. So, if I do put some things away I may never get them out again. (True confessions: even if I don’t like how something looks I rarely ever change it! But that is another issue.)

Since starting the above we did do some of those things I wrote about:
I put a garland of fake ivy across the top of the new window. It was an easy, and cheap, way to coordinate it with the other window.

We also rearranged the things on our patio and I gave away several pots. It is much tidier and easier to keep clean now without them. The pots were bad about trapping leaves and dirt around them. And I love looking out my kitchen window at the empty spot where the old pots were! I know, “each to his own”! I do still have one pot. That may go eventually. But being extra big it holds moisture better than the others. And it has plants in it that i still want. The pot was also a birthday present. So, I am reluctant to get rid of it. (there are a few pots that I haven’t found new homes for yet but they aren’t on the patio any more so they don’t count. :-)


John had the idea of putting the table and chairs closer to the house so they are in shade longer. I like to  sit out there with my journal and a cup of tea or coffee in the morning.  The white barrel is our "emergency" water supply. I still hope to do something different to the top to make it nicer to look at.

The beige storage chest in the middle back used to be under the kitchen window where the table and chairs are now. The place where it is now used to have a pile of old spare roof shingles and misc junk. So now the shingles are inside the shed and the junk is gone! So, thanks to John's brilliant idea we have more space and a better place to sit on the patio. The untidy black thing is our grill that needs a new cover. The empty front right corner used to have several pots and the table and chairs crowded together. I enjoy the empty space now!
We were half way through the job before i took any "before" pictures. So this is an in process picture. This shows where the chest used to be in the middle of the patio under the kitchen window. The flat rectangular things in the front right are  shingles that are now hidden away inside the chest.
John said that inside every little job is a big job waiting to get out! The place we wanted to put the chest had a lot of weeds and grass growing up through the bricks. Here he is digging up and relaying the bricks. Thank you John! It's beautiful!