Lee and I went back down to the vortex between Yorktown and Nordheim, Texas to see his dad again over the weekend. It was a very lovely drive, as you'll see below. It rained a lot right after all the crops got planted, so everything was quite green. And the three black cows from last visit had turned into 6! The calves are very tame, and as a matter of fact, Lee's dad was napping with the cows when we came up. That's right, he was all curled up next to one of the Mama Cows, with a baby next to him. Yep, that's some tame cattle. One calf was born in January, one in February and one in March. Just one is a little boy.
Here Ernest is talking to one of the calves. They listen quite hard to him. We enjoyed visiting with them, and watching the Mama Cows licking each other's babies and nursing. They sure have enough nice green grass this year!
The corn is up and looks good. Here it is at a nice sunset angle. We were trying to get back to the farm in time to get a nice photo of the sunset, but those are fleeting, you know. Lee also tried to get some full moon photos, but had no luck wrestling with his still-new camera. We had left the farm after playing our choir service for Ernest. I think he liked it, though he isn't good with stuff about other people. That's fine, he has a nice tidy world and doesn't like to have it interrupted by outside things.Nonetheless, we took him to Victoria to buy him an 86th birthday dinner. He liked the peanuts at the restaurant better this year, and enjoyed some catfish. Lee and I had tasty little steaks and sweet potatoes drowning in marshmallows.
On our way out of the restaurant we were treated to this sight. This truck was covered in leafy oak decals. Wow, in the woods it would be INVISIBLE! You may be able to see the very interesting star things on the wheels. You can't miss the interesting tires. I am not sure what the truck was all tricked out for, but it sure looks different!After the restaurant, we went to see our friends Jim and Esther, who moved from Round Rock to Victoria to retire last year. We also got to see their daughter and SIL, and grandkids (who go to our church, so are not strangers). They have a lovely home in a nice neighborhood with lots of space--and parking for Jim's camper and boat! It was nice to see them, though I know it's hard on Ernest to be around new people who aren't farmers or anything! I figure eventually he could get them to talk about politics, and all would be well, though (thankfully, we are all on the same side there). His religion talks would have been harder--he still really doesn't know what Unitarian Universalism is, other than we sure don't study the Bible hard enough. Glad we avoided that topic.
So, we took him home and in the morning had do-nuts. We drove by where his brother, Carroll, lives (he turned 85 the day after Ernest turned 86--guess Oma was in a hurry to get child-bearing out of the way), and lo and behold, he was in the yard. So, they actually introduced me to him! I had wondered if that would ever happen. I guess they don't like Carroll's wife, 'cause she's a Catholic, or something. I thought she was quite nice, and enjoyed the hour we spent on their porch watching lovely birds and playing with the neighbor's quite charming dog, Mo. I liked him. He allowed himself to be "brushed" with a broom, which was pretty darned cute.
We took "the road less taken" on our way back and got to see some really nice scenery. We stopped by one field, near Route 85 and FM 1116 (um, that is near the former town of Pilgrim, near a cool salt flat). This field is all black-eyed susans. There are so many fields like this right now, some also with phlox of many colors. Some had white phlox that looked like snow.
Here's one more view. If you look at the large version, you can see how many different flowers are in there. We passed Cactus World, a huge ranch or two with exotic animals, and much more attractive areas than you see on 183. I have no idea where we were, but it was nice. I guess we were near Bastrop at one point, since there were some pine trees.
When I got home, it was Mother's Day, and that was quite the celebration. Lee got me a very funny card, and totally surprised me with what you see here. It is a huge photograph of the labyrinth where we got married, taken by John Phelps, who did a lot of our wedding photos. He does all sorts of stuff to the photos and they end up looking like paintings. This photo has been printed on canvas and is like 4 feet wide. Really nice (see more by clicking the links). I guess Lee bought it from seeing it hanging at church, and all the profits of the sale went there, so that is another good thing! I think this is just a wonderful memory of where we got married, and it looks great hanging in the gallery between our bedroom and media room. How thoughtful!But that's not all. Anyone climbing our stairs to see the picture would have the fine experience of using a stair rail that has all the dirt cleaned off it. I was rather appalled at how much "stuff" was on our railings, I guess from people's dirty hands through the years. Well, Tuba Boy and Beccano cleaned it all off as a Mother's Day gift. They even used their own money to buy sponges for the task. And each of them made me a card, in their inimitable ways -- in other words, rather hurriedly created, but very funny and sweet. I was really touched.
As a final treat, we all went to see the Star Trek movie last night. That was a great end to the weekend! I have loved Star Trek since I was in 5th or 6th grade, when my friend Patti from camp and I used to watch the original series every afternoon and then call each other and dissect the plot. I read all the James Blish adaptations of the episodes (and still have the very worn paperbacks to prove it) and Patti and I wore through two copies of our Star Trek book with all the details in it. I loved that book. I was prepared to be pretty peeved if this movie messed around with the Canon too much, but lo and behold, it used very Roddenberry-an plot twists and unbelievable coincidences involving things that go against all rules of physics to make everything JUST fine. It was a ton of fun!
I thought I'd share one last thing, these Mother's Day photos of the guys who made me a mother, in their natural habitat (i.e., surrounded by junk food). Here's Tuba Boy playing WoW on my old computer, with his Whataburger cup.
And here's Beccano in his Springsteen t-shirt, watching bad television surrounded by ice cream containers and um, stuff. He likes his stuff. They are good boys. I am glad to have them around!Well, if that isn't enough blogging, I just don't know what IS!!
