Travel

When the younger Willi were here last weekend, we were talking about travel and Greg asked me about the most impressive sites from my Europe travels back in the 80's. I mentioned Germany but nothing specific. I was extremely fortunate to have been able to travel to so much of Europe (and on someone else's dime) . Traveling on business opened a lot of doors and keeping to schedules also closed them. I've been to Paris five or six times, seen Notre Dame on most of those trips but have never been inside. I've traveled to England, Scotland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and on an earlier trip Austria and Hungary. Fortunate!

But the answer to Greg's question is Switzerland - and more specific, the Swiss Alps. I had to travel to Geneva and Zurich several times and each trip was a train ride through the alps. They were magnificent!! The picture isn't mine but the sight is very familiar. I was probably at this exact place several times and it's just a hint of the mountains up ahead.

We are hoping we'll be able to make another trip to Europe within the next couple years and Switzerland will definitely be on the itinerary.

Oleander (ˈō-lē-ˌan-dər)

Isn't that a great word! It's fun to say it and it just oozes with southern charm! You can almost see the oleander plant by the front porch. And, for those my age, the old Tompall Glaser song always comes to mind - "Oleander, wait a little longer. . ." and the words get mixed up in your mind with "It's an Old New Orleans Custom" because they fit together so well.

The picture is our oleander bush by the back deck. It's been there for years and this year, it decided to bloom for the first time. They come in different colors on the pink, red, purple side of the wheel but we were happy to see that ours is white. (Sometimes it seems that I can just flash my Master Gardener card and plants that haven't done well in the past just tremble with fear and then bloom.)

Some flowers from the garden

Pancho has pretty well cleaned off my desk

so he can have a more comfortable place to sleep!

Playing with some new software

(Same picture as the one in the previous post.)

Xander's First Birthday Party

Here's a Snapfish link to my photo's from Xander's first birthday party yesterday.

It's easier to cross the creek now - a lot easier!

On the east side of the Orange Trail, crossing the creek has been difficult. Sometimes we've had just a couple boards, sometime a few boards nailed together to make a bridge of sorts, and sometimes nothing. Heavy rains can and do wash these things away. No more! The picture is of Daniel and Alex after completion of the new bridge. It's about 25 ft. long and 6 ft. wide. Some of the dimensions were dictated by the need to drive the lawn tractor across it. We needed 5 ft. of clearance between the posts and the ramps had to be gradual enough to keep the mower from bottoming out. We also had to make it tall enough to allow the water to go under it and strong enough to span the 12 ft. with no center posts. We tried several ideas and this is the final. Also, it's made from reclaimed wood. Alex had to remove a deck at a recent job and the wood was good enough to make the bridge. (It's only got about $130 in new material.)














Of course now the west bridge is looking sorta second class.

Now - about this second picture -

Alex and Daniel found this guy when we were taking the tools away from the project after it was done. We don't know what kind it is but we do know he was almost six feet long! Not poisonous!

Wood County Master Gardeners Volunteer Work

I've put in about seventy hours so far in master gardener projects - mostly at the nature preserve in Mineola and the arboretum in Quitman. The last couple weeks I've been helping with the construction of a greenhouse at the special ed building at QISD. I'm learning a lot. That's me on the ladder back there (the photo is from the newsletter). The section where the hoops are up is 30 feet long and in front of that will be a larger section, the "classroom" part, and it will be 20 feet long. When we finish this one, there will be another 100 ft greenhouse to build. Is was donated to the Wood County Master Gardeners and will be built at the arboretum in Quitman (behind the city park on the south side of downtown).

More Treehouse!

We've rearranged furniture already and it was me that did it!! The cabinets are freebies from Texas Mill where Aaron works. They're modified a bit and there's still a little work to do on them. But it's a place to store some stuff that we need to have in there. I've got a picture (of dad) and a bottle of wine to put in the treehouse now. Jules - you can have wine there but it will have to be in styro cups.