Lovely home in King William District in San Antonio, TX      Photo/enhancement by Chris Duffy

Boy, did I ever feel stupid this morning!  Remember I said I turned all the clocks in the house back one hour yesterday evening?   This morning I awoke a little after 5:00 am and immediately laid my head back down so I could sleep a couple more hours.  At 5:45 I decided it was rediculous to keep trying to sleep, when I obviously didn't need it.  About then my husband came in to help me make the bed because he heard me get up.(Remember, this is the guy who gets up any where from 3:00 to 5:00 AM almost every morning because HE can't sleep).   At any rate, I made some comment about how silly it was to get up at 5:45 on a Sunday morning when I could have slept for over another hour.  That's when we noticed that MY clock said 5:45 while HIS clock said 6:45.  I asked him if he had set my clock back one hour and he said "No".  Well, that was a puzzle.  Surely I haven't gotten so forgetful that I set my clock back TWICE . . . and then it hit me.  One of the nifty features on my alarm clock is that you don't have to remember to set it forward in the spring and back again in the fall  . . . it's already programed to do that.  So somewhere around 2 AM this morning it set itself back to 1AM.  Silly me.

Twin Falls at Perdenales Falls State Park       
Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Well, I got a lot of my "to do's" done today.  Of course not all of them, but enough that I'm happy with the day.  I FINALLY got the asters planted that I bought on Alice and my "sister trip" to the Texas hill country.  I watered them generously after getting them planted and then God watered them again this evening. Ever notice how much better plants respond to rain as apposed to water from a hose? 

We've gone through the entire house and changed every clock to the new time.  Oops. I just now realized that I haven't changed my WATCH yet.  OK, now I can honestly say that every clock in the house has been changed. . . I think.

Along Highway 39 in Texas hill country                    Photo by Chris Duffy

Sometimes the best pictures are the ones you don't expect. Like this one. Alice and I were driving along Highway 39 in the Texas hill country, returning to our B&B after visiting Lost Maples State Natural Area, when we came around a corner and . . . WOW, what a view!  We got out of our car to take some pictures and as we neared the water we noticed that nearly every other tree had "Private Property - No Trespassing" plastered on it. We stayed just long enough to get about a half dozen shots each before we made ourselves scarce.  I couldn't help thinking how stingy is was to want to keep a beautiful view like that for yourself. 

Water is the driver of Nature   -   Leonardo da Vinci

Moon Over Texas

Moon at 8:15 PM 10-27-04                                                       Photo by Chris Duffy

Moon at 9:35 PM 10-27-04                                                       Photo by Chris Duffy

Well, I have to say I was a little dissappointed last night.  I had been waiting for more than two weeks to get pictures of the lunar eclipse, the so called "Blood Moon".  It was a total eclipse and for some reason, due to the atmosphere, it appears orangish and thus the name. But, alas we had cloud cover.  I spent last night going outside every 10 minutes to see if the clouds were still obscuring my view.  I did manage to get 10 pictures of the moon, and these are the two best ones.  One was just as the eclipse was beginning . . . as well as the cloud cover moving in . . . . and the other was more than an hour later when I caught the moon peeping through a hole in the cloud cover.  This was taken with my camera on the next to the best setting for pictures (there was not room on my memory card to take one at the very best setting)   and with it zoomed all the way.  What amazes me is that the moon didn't look this orangish, at least not to the naked eye.  But all of the later pictures I took came out this pretty orangish color.

Soon as the evening shades prevail,
The moon takes up the wondrous tale,
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth.
Joseph Addison Ode

Fence in the King William District in San Antonio, TX      Photo & enhancement by C Duffy

You know me and fences . . . can't pass by a fence without taking a picture of it . . . especially wrought iron ones.  This one we found in the King William District in San Antonio when Alice and I were there on our most recent "sister trip". 

My hubby got home last night from his Nashville trip.  He was supposed to get in around 10PM, but caught an earlier flight and got home at 7PM.  It must have been an exhausting trip too, because he was still in the bed this morning at 6:30 when my alarm went off, which is almost unheard of in our household.  He's usually up around 4AM . . . not because he wants to be, but because he wakes up around then and can't go back to sleep.  Thank God I don't have THAT problem.  I can't function if I don't get my 8 hours of ZZZZZZZ's.

House in the King William District in San Antonio, TX      Photo & enhancement by C Duffy

Boy, I go from having a house full of people to no one.  Our company left this morning at 7:00 AM and my hubby left for a 2 day business trip at 5:30 this morning.  But I have plenty I need to accomplish tonight, so I'll have no excuses for not getting it done. 

By the way, I have my "laugh" tank filled up again.  We laughed ourselves silly . . . one time was in a restaurant when Mary said something funny and we couldn't stop laughing.  People at other tables were looking over our way and smiling politely while we struggled to stiffle our laughs. 

Lost Maples State Natural Area                                                          Photo by Chris Duffy

Lost Maples State Natural Area is a combination of steep, rugged limestone canyons, springs, plateau grasslands, wooded slopes and clear streams located about 70 miles northwest of San Antonio and 60 miles southwest of Fredericksburg, Texas. 

Lost Maples State Natural Area                                                          Photo by Chris Duffy

The clear waters of the Sabinal River flow past colorful canyon stands of bigtooth maples and canyon maples, which are an outstanding feature in Lost Maples State Natural Area.
Although Alice and I were there too early to see the fall colors, it was a ruggedly beautiful place, and I can only imagine how beautiful it must be a little later in the season . . . actually right about now. We'll have to go back some year after the colors have changed and I bet it'll seem like an entirely different place.

Busy Bee at Enchanted Rock in Texas Hill Country     Photo & enhancement by Chris Duffy

This picture was also taken at Enchanted Rock.  We didn't see nearly as many bees as we did butterfly, but I caught this busy little guy gathering his pollen quota. We saw plenty of ants too.  One rock we passed actually looked as though it was red . . . until you looked closer and saw that it was a gray rock covered with thousands of red ants.

Quote of the day: Bees work for man, and yet they never bruise their Master's flower, but leave it having done, as fair as ever and as fit to use; So both the flower doth stay and honey run.
Author: George Herbert

Monarch at Enchanted Rock                               Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Believe me, I didn't get this close to this monarch butterfly.  Thankfully, my camera has 4 megapixels, so if I take my pictures at a high enough resolution, then I can zoom in on a small part of the picture, crop the rest and still have a pretty decent photo.  This was taken at Enchanted Rock.  I don't usually take many flower pictures when we're hiking, but on this trip I made a concious effort to include some of the local flora, and I'm glad I did, because they are so colorful.

Quote of the Day: "Butterflies are self propelled flowers". 
                                          ~~ By R. H. Heinlein~~

Flowers at Lady Bird Johnson Gardens in Austin, TX                        Photo by Chris Duffy

     
Flowers at Lady Bird Johnson Gardens in Austin, TX                        Photos by Chris Duffy

Some of the flowers Alice and I saw at the Lady Bird Johnson Gardens in Austin, TX on our recent "sister trip" to the Texas Hill Country.  I ended up buying some of the purple Asters in the lower right picture for my own garden.  Can you guess what plant family the purple thistle like plants are related to?  Of all things, it's the carrot family . . . who would have guessed it?  But that's what our horticulturalist told us.

We have out of town company coming in tonight, all the way from Seattle, for a long week end so I probably won't get a chance to blog for a few days.  We usually stay up way too late when Barney and Mary are here and we laugh enough for a whole year.  They are a lot of fun and we're looking forward to the visit. 

Note: If you want a closer look at any of the pictures, just click on the picture and then on the F11 key.  

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.  ~Henry Beecher, Life Thoughts, 1858