Yippee! Spring is Coming!

Well, it has been awhile since I have posted anything here.  We have been staying busy with work, friends, family, and our daily routines.  However, Spring is coming, and I do love Springtime in Texas! 

                                               Our forsythia bush in bloom!

                                                 Our flowering quince bush!

When these two bushes begin blooming, I know Spring can't be too far behind!

Tom has been going to the gym and woking out on a regular basis, and he is also getting an upper body workout in our backyard, while splitting some big logs from a dead tree on their place, that our friends Jim and Patsy gave to us.

"Greenstone" and "Thimbleberry" are coming!!
G. & T. are my hiker friends from the upper peninsula of Michigan. that I met on the Appalachian Trail.  They are a part of what I call my "Hiker Family", which also includes "Pigeon", and "Skid".  The five of us hiked together (off and on) for the first seven or eight hundred miles of the A.T.

Anyway, G. & T. will here tomorrow!  I am so excited to see them again!  They are travelling from Arizona to Alabama, with a stop here with us for a few days in the middle.  They are involved with the NOMADS, a volunteer group affiliated with the Methodist Church, who travel across the U.S. and do three-week projects at churches who need their help with all sorts of remodel/construction projects.

They came by for a short visit last March also, on their way to Louisiana.  The last time we saw them was in April 2012, when we were vacationing in Virginia, and met up with them at a road crossing on the Blue Ridge Parkway, as they were hiking another section of their Appalachian Trail Section Hike.

                                               Greenstone, Thimbleberry, and me last April.

The last hiker who came thru here for a visit was "Smiley", from Hattiesburg, Miss.  That was back in the Fall, and the morning he was getting ready to leave, as we walked out the door, here comes a bunch of wagons down our road!  Of course, "Smiley" assumed this was an everyday occurrence, after all this is Texas! 

As you can see my horse "Tex" came running up to the fence to see all the action.  This was a group of "mule/wagon" owners who travel along the old Historic Dallas/Shreveport Road a couple of times a year, and we happen to live on that Historic Road.

My Mom has just about recuperated from her bout with double pnuemonia, and her eight day hospital stay.  However, she thinks she has been weakened overall by her illness.  She doesn't have much energy, she says.  Well, Mom, you are doing pretty well for a gal that will soon be 87 years old, I would say!  Mom and my sister, Norma, meet monthly with an R.V. group for food, fun, and fellowship.  I met them the other day at their monthly campout, and enjoyed the games and food with them.

 That's my Mom in the middle, looking at an album of pictures from previous campouts that their friend there keeps updated.  That's my sister, Norma (in the red top) looking on.

Norma and I enjoyed our 10 day tour of Ireland so much last September, we are currently "saving our pennies", hoping to go on a 20-day tour of Australia and New Zealand in October 2014.  Anyone interested in going with us??????