Easter 2014

Easter Sunday was a warm, spectacularly beautiful day. Here are Mark, Kristi, Chip and Penelope, just after the service at Plymouth.

Happy to say that the ice is officially out of Lake Calhoun completely as of mid-day Easter Sunday!

More Wildflowers

As we were leaving Fredericksburg today, we stopped at Wildseed Farms. On previous days as we were driving by, we saw their huge fields of cultivated wildflowers - flowers in rows and the huge fields of flowers from scattered seed. Their Web site says: "The farm has more than 1,000 cultivated acres in Texas and over 200 acres of wildflower fields at its Hill Country headquarters outside of Fredericksburg."

It is just breathtakingly beautiful. We parked and walked through their shops, their garden plants for sale, and then you reach the fields. As you stroll by it looks like solid color with flowers so dense you can't see the earth. They let you walk in one section of the blue bonnets, stepping carefully between the rows. 

Here are a few photos I took, which really do not do this beautiful place justice. As we continued our drive today to Bryan/College Station, we saw even more roadsides lined with color - reds, blues, yellows, pinks, white. I read somewhere once that the Texas Highway Department is the largest landscape gardener in the world. They scatter tons of wildflower seeds along the roadsides of Texas every year. It is really remarkable. 

Texas Hill Country

We have been in Fredericksburg, TX, for the past several days. This is a charming town in the heart of The Texas Hill Country. Not far from here is the Lyndon B Johnson ranch on the banks of the Pederales River, a place he and Lady Bird dearly loved. 

When we were here before people could tour the ranch, but Lady Bird was still living in the house (she outlived him by over 30 years), so it was not open. After she passed away in 2007, the house passed to the public and to the National Park Service which was what LBJ and Lady Bird always wanted. 

No photography is allowed in the house, but is allowed outdoors. We can easily see why they loved it here so much - it is beautiful property. The house is virtually unchanged from the 60's so is frozen in time. 

I snapped some photos around the property, including the main house, the house where LBJ was born (also on the ranch property), the plane he flew in to get to the ranch which has a landing strip, the River, and the cemetery where they are both buried.

LBJ birthplace

Cemetery

Today we did a long drive in the area northeast of Fredericksburg. There are blue bonnets and other wildflowers all over the place, just beautiful!  In some places we could see solid fields of blue bonnets, this in spite of the fact that it is extremely dry here. Here is one roadside display. 

We also walked in the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. We were looking for a black capped vireo and a gold cheeked warbler. Naturally we didn't see either. I am sure our friend David could have seen them!

Last Spring Training Game

I tried to post this photo at the ballpark last week but there was too much traffic on the network. 

I took this photo last week of Gary at Cubs Park in front of their iconic sign that normally displays various information.