Guadalupe

The Guadalupe River is well known for being THE place in Texas to float for miles inside inner tubes. Perhaps equally well known for the coolers of beer accompanying the inner tube occupants. It's just a short drive from Wimberley, and my new bride & I had a great time rafting down a decidedly uncrowded Guadalupe after the big rains chased away all of the inner-tubers.

I prefer to think of the Guadalupe as pictured here, after I photoshopped out all signs of human activity. Photoshop is so much fun I'd like to expand it's use to other issues. Getting a few too many wrinkles? Photoshop'm right out. Door dings in the car? No match for Photoshop. Global warming, suicude bombers in Iraq, mindless presidential debates? Yep, you know the answer...

Ernie's Bloom

My Dad-in-law Ernie knows more about butterflies and the plants they love than anyone I know of. He planted some Turk's Cap a few months ago at our Wimberley place, which once established will spread like weeds and attract great quantities of butterflies and hummingbirds. When I arrived last weekend I was surprised to see an actual bloom on the first plant, a sure sign that it likes it's new home. So, flying critters come on over, dinner is served!

Old Baldie

No, Old Baldie is not my kids' nickname for me... yet. It's a big hill (or small mountain) overlooking Wimberley, and it is mostly bald because it's mostly solid rock. Getting up to the top can't exactly be called a hike since it has concrete steps all the way up, but on a hot day it can definitely be called exercise. I'd vote for a little something at the top to enjoy (besides the view) . My ideas:
1- A covered meditation area
2- One of those "rent-a-telescopes for 25 cents" machines
3- A snow cone concession stand

100 Bottles of Beer

Remember that song we sang years ago at camp, counting down to "zero bottles of beer"? It always seemed to take FOREVER to me. That's what I felt like last weekend, installing tile after tile after tile in the shower. Only this time I had to start counting down from 1000 instead of 100. And I only counted down to about 800, meaning I've got a whole heap to go. This is a photo looking into the new tile through the shower door opening, but the rest of the walls you can't see are still untiled. So, next visit it's 799 bottles of beer on the wall...