you can call me nature girl!

so now that summer is finally here, the husband has begun his weekend jaunts up into the mountains and he usually drags me with him. he has a penchant for gut wrenching goat trail roads where one slip of the wheel and we will be careening down the mountainside to certain death. i white knuckle it up most of the time and refuse to look. thankfully, yesterdays little adventure had quite civilized roads. we even got behind a water truck that was spraying the roads to keep the dust down. (does this make sense? most years we are on water restrictions and can't water our lawns very much but they can water a road?) i'm confused!

we went up to myra canyon provincial park to hike the trestles. okay, hike is the wrong verb (adjective?) we strolled to the trestles. i even had on semi appropriate shoes for once, but i forgot to bring water. we went to the first trestle which is about a kilometer away and i was done. that's my exercise for this week. there was a little kiosk explaining about what kind of wildlife we might observe. cougars, coyotes and of course the very dangerous gophers and marmots. we didn't see any of these exciting creatures.

                                                     crikey!!! we saw a cow!!!
the views were incredible and the devastation from the fires of "03" were still very evident. the burnt out trees looked like a ghost forest. eerily sad and beautiful at the same time.

                                   

                                  standing on the trestle we had the most amazing views

usually my nature girl tales are much more eventful. but summer has just begun. maybe next time we will see
something a little wilder than a cow! tho' i do have to admit that cows do freak me out. they just stand there and stare at you. very creepy. don't you think?

ramblings...

went to the ball game last night. not the major leagues just the hometown team of college boys. but..... here's the ringer. not one of them is from here. in fact, almost the entire lineup was made up of american boys. not that there is anything wrong with american boys, just thought it might be nice to have some local representation. wow! that almost sounded patriotic! must be getting soft in my old age.

of course when your at a ball game you MUST eat at least one hot dog. (lots of ketchup and onions please) the sign said they were ALL beef hot dogs. and we all know what that means. it may be all beef but it's certainly not the sirloin parts. we're talking cow bums and other assorted parts all mashed up into an intestinal casing and presented to you on a steamy white bread bun. just read that last sentence, if that doesn't turn you into a vegetarian then nothing will. but if you close your eyes and silence your good sense then they go down quite nicely. however, as i was eating it i knew there would be a price to pay later as i have a rather delicate digestive system. yep. was in pain all night. so now that i have broken my dietary restriction rules, i'm good for the summer on this one. it's kinda like not touching a burning coal, you know it's going to hurt, but....... you just have to touch it anyways.
my garden is on steroids! everything is of gigantic proportions this year. even the weeds are humongous! haven't had quite enough sun for the flowers to bloom just yet, but they are getting ready and if the pods are any indication, they are going to be larger than normal as well. when i sit down in my garden, i feel positively lilliputian. which is not easy to achieve as i am rather on the tall side myself. entirely a different perspective. imagine how alice felt?

oh yes! looking at this picture reminded me that i have this huge rose bush that i DID NOT plant!. it just appeared. the husband did not plant it and to my knowledge, rose bushes do not self seed. so i don't think some bird dropped it off. a mystery! hmmmmmmmmm. it is of the particularly thorny breed. it may have to go if it doesn't quit reaching out and stabbing me.
we have our first dragon boat festival of the season this weekend. this will be the daughters first in which she is actually participating instead if just cheering me on. should be lots of fun. and i like that we can share this activity together. bonding and all that stuff.
just finished re-watching the lord of the rings trilogy for the 900th time. amazing how it never gets old and each time i watch it i find something new. does that mean i have the retention span of a two year old or that the complexity of the movies demands that they be watched several times in order to be fully appreciated. i'm voting for the latter but suspect that the first may be a contributing factor as well. oh look! shiny things!!

you can take houston........

i love this chair! i covet this chair! if anyone should have this chair it should be me. however it was not for sale nor would it fit in my suitcase. sigh!

so we are back from texas. and yes, everything IS bigger in texas. especially the food portions. oh my god! if i lived there i would be the size of a house! i was not able to finish anything that i ordered. and everything is artery clogging, fried and battered. i was tempted to try the twinkies but common sense prevailed.
i wasn't overly impressed with the city of houston. i like cities but it just didn't have a city vibe to it. although the art gallery was impressive.
loved galvaston!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! would like to go back and spend more time there. the architecture was historic and beautiful. full of tacky tourist shops, restaurants and interesting boutiques.
we were walking along the shore and i noticed something odd on the pier. it looked to me to be an abandoned wheel chair. as we got closer i noticed that a man was lying beside it. i thought the worst and headed over. when we got there i realized that he was just drunk and sleeping it off. sad. got to wondering if he was a war vet. he looked to be of an age for the vietnam war.

                                                   how sad is this?

                                                  and how glorious is this!

yee hah!

heading to texas! asked the daughter what she wanted me to bring her back. she asked for a cowboy
with nice abs and arms. think this guy will do?
never been to texas except for a stopover in the dallas airport. i don't think that counts. i have high expectations.
so many stereotypes to be on the lookout for. women with bigger than life hair, cowboys of course, 10,000 oil wells and of course armadillos!

wouldn't you just love to cuddle up with one of these little guys? so cute! however! there was a news report
not long ago that said that scientists have found armadillos to be carrying a certain strain of LEPROSY!!!!!!!!
so......... i don't think there will be any cuddling going on.
i have been advised that at this time of year houston is rather on the hot and humid side.
googled the weather and sure enough i'm going to look like a texan in no time. with this kind of heat and humidity my hair will puff out to gigantic proportions!

gonna being wearing alot of hats and scarves!
see ya when i get back.