Daniel makes this look easy!

I guess he had to lay the camera on its side??

By popular demand

These last two signatures are a similar hand - but the two individuals did sign them.

Well I don't know -

Usually when I start to post on the blog, the title comes pretty easy but today there are too many options, like:

"Where's Alex and Daniel when I need them"

"What was Glynda Thinking?"

"There's a new signature in the Treehouse guest book"

"Yea though I walk through the valley . . ."

Those would all work. Now this post will mean more to some than to most but it started this way. I was doing a little work on the computer when someone came to the door. I went down expecting maybe Alex but it was someone totally unexpected. He came in and we small talked a bit. We showed him around the house and he was impressed - not at all like he remembered it. We talked a bit about the guys that were here yesterday and just as he was leaving, Glynda told him about the Treehouse and asked if he'd like to see it. 'Sure' he said! About that time a neighbor came up that was looking for a lost horse. So all four of us made the walk down to the Treehouse going by the BOD on the way. Both guests were impressed with the Treehouse and the zip line. Both did sign the guest book. Glynda mentioned the firemen that were here yesterday and pointed out the "fireman's pole" that we still need to put up. Then we walked by the chapel and back to the house on the East Trail. The neighbor took off first and then our visitor.

If you go up to the Treehouse right now and read the last signature in the guest book - you'll see the name Oscar Leatherwood!

RFD Zips at Wildernest!

Justin and some of the RFD guys he works with were here today for some East Texas fun - including the zip line! (Remember you can double click each picture to see it full screen.)

It was a Happy Anniversary!

Thanks to everyone for the flowers and for the vacation contribution. Maybe someone in PA will have to find a place for us to sleep in a few months.

We went to Winnsboro last evening and ate at Cibo Vino. We both had their little filet and it was a great steak. Cibo Vino's is always good because the wine there is free. The we decided to go to Arts and Espresso for a latte. They're every bit as good as Starbucks - and last night we cashed in our punched card so one of the lattes was - "free". As we arrived at Cibo Vino's earlier, Stephen at Crossroads was standing in front of his place and we chatted with him on our way to eat - so when we left Arts & Espresso, we decided to go back around to see what was happening at Crossroads and talked to Stephen again. We decided to stay for the show and Stephen charged us general admission and told us to sit at one of the reserved tables so that was good too. It was a wonderful show - especially for us older types that like older music. The performer was Deb Porter who plays an assortment of stringed instruments including dulcimers and an autoharp. Hearne & Adler were there and joined her for a couple songs at the end of the set and that proved to include one of those special things that happen every now and then when performers get together that don't usually play together. The song was an old Steven Foster song, "Hard Times" which later became a Civil War favorite. Like Deb Porter said - "It's a prayer". It was a very moving performance with some soft harmony - sometimes just the two ladies and sometimes with the deep male voice joining in. Special!

At intermission I learned some good stuff about making videos from the guy that makes them at Crossroads and Glynda had a passionate conversation with a couple from Gilmer. I think they're going to come to dinner soon to teach Glynda about playing a fretted dulcimer.

By then - it was almost 10:00, so time to close up shop and go home.


Here's a link to the main Winnsboro page. There's a video here that Stephen shot and Adler & Hearne do the music - one of their own songs "My East Texas Piney Woods Home". It's reallly well done! You'll enjoy it.

The feather jar!

Shortly after completing the Treehouse I put a "feather jar" in it - a place for the little kids to, maybe, when they found a feather, pick it up and take it to the Treehouse and put it in the "feather jar".


I pretty well ignored it after that. But the other day we went into the Treehouse and it was on the floor (I suspect a rat) and feathers were all over the place. I don't know where they all came from - but someone else has remembered the feather jar - and it was either a very busy someone or several someones. Either way, I'm glad to have put it there!

Even bigger herd-a-birds

Today they filled up all of the space we can see from the deck - from the hammock all the way down to and including the meadow to the edge of the woods. Just the sound of them flying was loud enough to make you look for some other source - like an airplane maybe!

The new cat at Wildernest

This is the cat that Bev enticed with food and then ran off to Pennsylvania leaving the poor cat to decide between us and Alex. You know how that would go! So after ignoring it until the really cold weather hit, we finally did feed the cat and now she's (gender??) here to stay. Her color makes her a likely candidate for a name like "Smoky" or "Shadow" - but the way she acts when we're outside makes her a definite shadow. If you lift your foot to take a step, chances are good that it will hit the cat before hitting the ground again. I haven't walked the trail without her since she became "domesticated". (She was obviously someone else's cat before.) And she doesn't just follow, she checks out the chapel and the treehouse - leading us up the steps to the treehouse. If you don't recognize where she is in the picture - it's halfway up to the crow's nest!

I don't guess you've ever heard of "Blue Suede" or "The Tokens"??

So it happened like this - scrolling through the channels on the TV last evening we came across one of those "Paid Programmings" for the Time-Life "Songs of the 60's" that gives you these these tantalizing 10 second snippets of the old songs we grew up with. From there we switched to the Serius channel of "Songs from the 60's" and then "Songs from the 50's" and from there to digging out some old CD's. One of them was "Songs from 1958" - the year I graduated from high school, got my first real job, got married, and had my first child - WOW!! Another was a CD titled "One Hit Wonders" and that was the way a lot of music was back then - a group came up with a great song, it became a hit, and you never hear from them again. It was also a time when songs had great lyrics - most of the time anyway. Here are a couple that put some new words in the language - at least while they were popular. (One of them came back later to star in a movie)

ouga chaka ouga (This one has a good "juke box" video with it - when plays were 3 for 25 cents.)

aweema weh

Yes - I think that's the problem!

Cabin fever is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person is isolated and/or shut in, in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period (as in a simple country vacation cottage during a long rain or snow). Symptoms include restlessness, irritability, forgetfulness, laughter, and excessive sleeping, and an urge to go outside even in the (less miserable) rain, snow or dark.

A LARGE herd-a-birds

These guys came flying in a bit ago and Glynda was seeing them out the front windows as I was seeing them out the back. A larger flock by far than anything I've seen here before! There were so many they made the ground (or the trees) look almost black. In the picture that has the three birds in it, each bird has an acorn in its' beak. (I lightened the pictures a bit to make the birds show up better.) Although they don't exactly match the pictures on the websites I checked I'm pretty sure they're Common Grackles.

Another "Favorite" picture

I just uploaded this picture that I took this morning. I thought it was special when I took it - and it is. It's got one of those things you can't plan for at all when you're shooting. The little bird landed on a tree right outside the window when I was taking some other shots. Look how the bird and the background are the same colors. And he's in a neat pose too. I like this one!

Just finished Ken Follet's "World Without End"

Like "Pillars of the Earth", another 1000 pages plus book and now it's done and I can't read it for the first time again. Also, with the reading of this one, that's now true of all twenty of his novels. I've read them all and now have to find another author to read. However, when I discovered Follett I'd just finished reading all of Greg Isles' works and was looking for someone to replace him. Maybe I'll be lucky again. Any suggestions?

I didn't even know that "World Without End" was out there until I found it digging through the shelf at the Mineola library. It's a sequel to "Pillars of the Earth", takes place in the same English town in the early fourteenth century, and the main characters of the book are descendants of the characters of "Pillars". In addition to a good story, the pages are full of English history - not so much specific events but rather the way people lived, what they ate, what their daily lives were like, and what the roles were of the ruling class and the church.

One of the things I like about Follett is that he's not a formula writer. You don't pick one of his novels up expecting Jack Ryan to be the hero or even to expect a mystery, or a particular time period, or anything at all related to the last one you read. His research is evident and makes for a more compelling story every time.

Just looked again at his website and there is one new novel "Fall of Giants", the first of a trilogy, and "Pillars of the Earth" is being made in a TV mini-series set to show in June so there's more Ken Follett to experience soon!

My first YouTube - More still photos

Still photo video

New Year's Eve Masquerade Dinner on the Texas State Railroad - Round trip Palestine to Rusk!

Our conductor - who looks exactly like a conductor should look!


This is David the caterer from "Traditions" in Tyler.


The conductor and the musicians posing for a picture with a dancing couple.


Out table-mates Dianne and Tom.


A picture of the dining car.



And of course this is us - without our masks. Mine was red and G's was gold and silver. It wasn't exactly what we were expecting but it was a fun evening! We met some nice folks (the couple at our table were from Lindale and were a great couple), ate some good food, good conversations with the conductor, the caterer, and the hostess.