Catching Up at the End of 2018

Well here we are almost to the end of the year and I realized I have not updated this blog in quite a while.  Actually quite a long while.

We did make a trip to Galveston this past Summer.  As always we rode the Galveston/Port Bolivar ferry which is always a relaxing and enjoyable ride over and back.

In the evening we went on a sunset cruise and watched this awesome sunset.

Tom grew a wonderful garden this year and we enjoyed eating fresh vegetables all Summer, we filled our freezer for the Winter months, shared our excess veggies with family and friends, and Tom even grew some beautiful flowers at the end of some of the rows in the garden.

 It allowed us to have fresh cut flowers in our house for weeks!

                                                  Lovely!

Tom is going to experiment with raised bed gardening, probably starting out with some herbs?

We made our third trip this year to Oklahoma the first week of November to maintain our adopted section of the Ouachita Trail.  It was a glorious sunshine-filled day and the Fall colors were just gorgeous. 

We hardly ever see anyone on the trail but on this day we met these three hikers who had started their hike at the Ark./Okla. state line and were hiking west to Talimena State Park where the Ouachita Trail begins.

 

It was such a nice day to be out in the woods not to mention the views!

I love showing off this Christmas Cactus plant when it blooms.

 We have had this Christmas Cactus for several years and we put it outside in the Spring once the fear of frost is gone and we leave it outdoors all Summer, bringing it inside before the first frost in the Fall.  Then in December it just really shows off!

I walked outside early the other morning and was stunned by this incredible sunrise over the hay meadow behind our house.

               We are so fortunate to live in the quiet countryside.

Sadly, three more of the large cedars on the south side of our house were dying and rather than risk them falling onto our house we contracted to have them taken down.

We will be receiving much more morning sunlight on that side of our house now.  We sure will miss all the shade we had for so many years from all those big cedar trees.

In Memory of my Mom

Sadly we lost my Mom on May 30, just shy of her 92nd birthday.  Needless to say Mom being gone has left a huge hole in my family's lives.  I am so grateful for the upbringing that my Mom and Dad provided for me and my siblings.  What a blessing it was to have had Mom live her life fully right to the end.

               In Loving Memory of my Mom

 

March 2018

MARCH 2018

What did we do in March?????

 One thing we did was to go to Oklahoma to maintain our adopted section on the Ouachita Trail.  We pitched our tent at the Winding Stair Campground which wasn't really open yet....maybe they open in April?  Anyway needless to say we were the only ones there.  But what a great night to campout!

The next morning we headed up the trail with our loppers to check out our adopted 2.3 mile section.

 Early Spring flowers were poking up out of the leaf covered forest floor.

The first mile of our adopted section mostly follows an old Forest Service fire road.

Then we reach the Winding Stair Shelter.  There we took a break, read some hikers' entries in the Shelter Register, then we spent a lot of time trying to whack back these encroaching thorny vines on the west side of the Shelter.

It is too early for the Spring surge of green growth along the Trail so after the shelter there wasn't much clearing to be done.  We will have to come back a little later this year to do more pruning along the path.

On our way back, I did decide to place a stone on the massive rock cairn that sits near where the old fire tower used to stand on top of Winding Stair Mountain.

We saw more early Spring flowers on our way back to the car.

February 2018 (cont.)

February 2018 (continued)

We wanted to cruise with all five of us sisters and our one brother and his wife, however only three of us sisters were able to get away on this February Cruise. 

Norma, Erma, Sharon.  We are the three oldest sisters in our family.

 On our drive to the Galveston Cruise Terminal, we stopped in to see our brother Don and his wife Beth.  Sure wish they were going with us but they had just been on a cruise celebrating Don's 70th birthday so decided not to join us on this cruise.

Sharon has never been on a cruise and Norma has only been on one cruise I think, to Alaska several years ago.  Anyway we were excited to be able to do this five day cruise together.

                   We are sailing out of the Port of Galveston.

We had assigned evening dining room seating at a large round table made for ten guests.  Most nights there were only 5 or 6 of us at our table until the final night of the cruise when all ten women that had been assigned to our table all showed up.  We had a great time visiting with all the other women and definitely enjoyed the awesome food and fun entertainment provided by our waiters each evening.

We were not the only sisters cruising together.  Seated at a table near us were a group of nine sisters who were on this cruise together!  Each evening they dressed up in a different theme.  I took this photo of some of them the evening they dressed as 1920 Flappers/Show girls!  They were all having such a great time together!  I remember seeing one of them on the first day when we boarded the ship........met her in a hallway......wearing a lime green tutu over her tee-shirt/shorts.  Too funny!

 

Thank you Lord for this awesome sunrise over our first port of call, Cozumel.

 Sharon is enjoying the scenery as we sail into port and watching the dock workers below as they secure our ship to the dock.

 

 Our Excursion on the island of Cozumel included a visit to a ruins park.

                                   We saw a lot of these huge lizards!

 It is obvious how much effort is being made in researching and preserving their history and culture.

 

Next we headed to the "wild" and pretty much uninhabited east side of the island of Cozumel for our lunch break and photo ops.

 The east side of the island is constantly hammered with rough waves and currents of the open Caribbean Sea.

 Norma really wanted to put her feet into the water however the Caribbean Sea's waves were crashing into shore and carrying with it piles of seaweed so deep she was unable to reach the water.

I climbed out onto this jagged rocky promontory before our Tour Guide came over and said to come down because it was dangerous.  He did snap this photo of me though!

Following a wonderful dinner with our table-mates we went to an upper deck to enjoy a spectacular sunset.

 

Our next port of call was Progresso which sits on the northern edge of the Yucatan Peninsula.  Large ships are required to dock at the end of a two mile long pier that juts out from the mainland.

 

On our Excursion we first visited the Uxmal Ruins.

                           Uxmal is very well preserved.

 The very large structures are scattered over a very large area of land.  We did a lot of walking up and down and climbing very narrow steps. 

                        The weather was awesome for a day outdoors.

Next we traveled to a old hemp plantation where sisal rope was once produced.

                            The grounds were beautifully landscaped!

          
             We saw a native woman weaving the old fashioned way.

 

Bye-Bye Progresso!  See you next time!

As always, BooBoo went cruising and as always she had FUN!

 

 

I am so thankful for this opportunity to go on a cruise with two of my sisters.  Thank you Norma and Sharon!