Congregatin' - Sunday, Sep. 8

When writing a blog, choosing a catchy title can be tricky. Then there are times when the whole blog comes to you as you're doing something else.

This Sunday morning, for example, so many sights and thoughts triggered thinking, "We are in nature's church this morning." As we did our Volksmarch, this thought was confirmed over and over again. Just look at what we saw...

Sunrise service:

  Bouquets and floral arrrangements:

Dried flower arrangement.

False purple thistle (Eryngium leavenworthii)

The Choir:

Choir Director

Northern mockingbird.

Texas spiny softshell turtle.

Northern cardinal.

Snowy egret

Texas spiny softshell turtle.

 The Preacher:

Preacher (great blue heron)

Deacon (little blue heron)

Congregation:

Mother Goose keeping an eye on the...

...goslings

Papa Goose trying to keep up.

A sleeping congregant (great egret)

Congregant flying in last minute (snowy egret)

 Buffet line:

Red-winged blackbirds eating sunflower seeds.

Ruby-throated hummingbird at juice bar.

That was our Sunday morning 10K Volksmarch which went from Mission San Jose to Mission Concepcion and back. Lovely walk from 7:00 to 9:15 a.m. Best of all, we can do this walk anytime from our RV park!

8:45 a.m., 88 degrees and humid.

This afternoon we finally got a dose of heavy rain pounding on the RV and ponding on the ground. It was short lived, but much needed.

Bob did two loads of laundry as he had quite a few work-out clothes that needed washing. [The RV park laundry room will be closed the next two days for annual maintenance.]

Later in the afternoon, we drove to Selma, TX to have dinner at Outback Steakhouse with our friends Vicky and Bob Heron who are currently staying in the Canyon Lake area. We met them when we were all gate guarding in south Texas in May-June 2012. The dinner was wonderful and we got to play "ketchup." They will soon be off traveling and we hope to catch up with them again later this year.

The hostess at Outback was kind enough to snap a photo of the four of us before we said our "See you laters."

Susan, Bob, Vicky, Bob.

Back at the ranch we had the War with the Squirrels. You see, they have discovered the bird feeder with sunflower seeds. When we see them out on the feeder, either Bob or I will explode out the door and chase them away. Bob actually doused one with water which is a feat because those little buggers are FAST when they want to be. I've never been able to hit one with the water. We need a Super Soaker water pistol!

Here's one of the pests scoping out the feeder from different angles.

Upside down (with sunflower seed in mouth)

Right-side up

So far the squirrels are winning the battle. And so it is.

Snelling just called. The insurance agency would like me to work again Monday and Tuesday this week. I have a medical test tomorrow morning, but told Snelling I could go there when my test was finished. They also requested me for the following Monday and Tuesday. It's nice to be wanted.

Travel Bug out.

Flood photo blog from Bob - Sat., May 25

When Bob returned from work (no problems getting home), he took my camera and recorded his impressions of the flood near the RV park. Keep in mind the water has receded 8" at our RV site since I took photos earlier in the day.

The park manager and maintenance man retrieved our yellow tire stoppers (chocks) and put our spare propane tank at the site next door. It had floated off.

Bob retrieved our spare propane tank from next door and our mat.

Bob's truck first on the left.

Looking across to the dry side of the RV park.

Here we are, water has receded 8" from earlier today.

Bob standing in water at bottom of our steps.

Bob also headed out on the Riverwalk extension at Roosevelt and found...

The river had receded from the arches.

In the following photo, the irrigation pipe seen to the right of the path is usually down the riverbank to irrigate the lower portion of the bank. It floated up to its current position.

Debris way up the riverbank.

In the photo above, you can see debris from the high water mark. At the left top, you can see the top of the arch on the bridge. That's how high the water rose.

Debris by the path.

Debris from the river hung up on a picnic table.

\

Riverwalk - Mission Reach

Turtle in path.

Bob says the turtle was sunning itself.

Debris on the path.

The river is very high, normal level is about one-fourth this.

Stranded fish.

Thank you, Bob, for wading in the flooded park to get photos of the Riverwalk - Mission Reach and more photos of the flooded section of the park.

Here are photos he took of the dry section of the park too. The whole park was not flooded.

Dry site with RV storage behind.

Pool and hot tub area.