Saturday morning, June 12, 2010
We had heard that a Lavendar Festival was to be held in Blanco, Texas. That is only an hour's drive from our home and we have always enjoyed festivals so we got up early and headed out. It was an easy drive on route 281 all the way from San Antonio.
Tents were set up all around the courthouse square in Blanco, and of course everything had a lavendar color scheme. There were many, many things featuring lavendar: cakes of homemade soap, lavendar plants, cookbooks featuring recipes using lavendar, jelly with lavendar in it. If you have ever been to a strawberry festival, sauerkraut festival, etc., you will get the idea.
We brought home three cakes of the homemade soaps and they really perfumed the car. We also bought a jar of lavendar jelly and one of peach-lavendar jam. I can hardly wait to taste them.
We could have gotten a map there and toured a nearby lavendar farm, but the day was getting very hot and we decided to go again next year and do that. It is an annual event held on the second weekend in June.
As with all festivals, there were many booths set up that sold things that weren't lavendar-related. One had wooden bowls made from tree roots. They were beautiful and no two were alike. A little pricy, but very interesting to see and I'm sure a lot of work went into making them.
We had lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant before heading back to San Antonio. It was a small diner-type restaurant and quite busy. The food was delicious and we enjoyed homemade lemonade with our meal.
This southwest Texas heat was getting to us, so we were glad to get home to our air conditioning, but we definitely plan to go again next year. Below is some advertising that was put out about the festival.
The 6th Annual
Blanco Lavender Festival
June 11th — 13th, 2010
Free Tours of Local Lavender Farms
Visit beautiful Blanco in the heart of the Texas Hill Country for the sixth annual Blanco Lavender Festival. A Lavender Market will be held on the grounds of the Old Blanco County Courthouse featuring arts and crafts and local lavender products. Tour many of the local lavender farms where you will experience the beauty of lavender in the fields and the unique vision of each farmer.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Monday, June 1 and 3, 2010
June 3, 2010
We had quite a storm overnight. There was thunder, lightning and rain for hours. On the news this morning it said at one point 120,000 people were without power and 68,000 still are. Trees are down across the road in a couple of places.
I turned off the computer and unplugged the modem until this morning. I didn't sleep very well. Calvin must have been very shook up by the storm. He was tearing through the house having a cat fit. Precious was pretty upset too.
Now that it is getting daylight I went out and checked the back yard. We have a pretty good-sized branch broken off and on the ground at the back of the yard by the barbecue grill, and a couple of our tomato plants that should have been staked by now are lying on the ground but not broken. I guess that's mild compared to what a lot of people around the city went through.
June 1, 2010
It isn’t quite daylight yet, but I can hear many different kinds of birds chirping and twittering in the trees outside. It is a pleasant sound early in the morning.
I expect today to be very busy at church. In addition to the usual Monday morning routine work, a trustees meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. There will be a memorial service in the sanctuary at 1 p.m. for the man who died Sunday afternoon. I think there will be a lot of people attending that. He was pretty well known and very active in the community until his health failed. After the service, there will be a reception in the church parlor with punch, coffee, and cake.
Today will probably be as hot as yesterday - in the mid 90's. I was sure glad to stay inside in the air conditioning most of the day yesterday.
By the time I get home this afternoon I may be ready to hit the recliner for sure.
We had quite a storm overnight. There was thunder, lightning and rain for hours. On the news this morning it said at one point 120,000 people were without power and 68,000 still are. Trees are down across the road in a couple of places.
I turned off the computer and unplugged the modem until this morning. I didn't sleep very well. Calvin must have been very shook up by the storm. He was tearing through the house having a cat fit. Precious was pretty upset too.
Now that it is getting daylight I went out and checked the back yard. We have a pretty good-sized branch broken off and on the ground at the back of the yard by the barbecue grill, and a couple of our tomato plants that should have been staked by now are lying on the ground but not broken. I guess that's mild compared to what a lot of people around the city went through.
June 1, 2010
It isn’t quite daylight yet, but I can hear many different kinds of birds chirping and twittering in the trees outside. It is a pleasant sound early in the morning.
I expect today to be very busy at church. In addition to the usual Monday morning routine work, a trustees meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. There will be a memorial service in the sanctuary at 1 p.m. for the man who died Sunday afternoon. I think there will be a lot of people attending that. He was pretty well known and very active in the community until his health failed. After the service, there will be a reception in the church parlor with punch, coffee, and cake.
Today will probably be as hot as yesterday - in the mid 90's. I was sure glad to stay inside in the air conditioning most of the day yesterday.
By the time I get home this afternoon I may be ready to hit the recliner for sure.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Memorial Day 2010
We had hamburgers, corn on the cob, potato salad, macaroni salad, and watermelon for dinner. It was too hot to cook out on the grill so we did our cooking in the house. The hamburgers were a microwavable kind from HEB and the salads came from the deli, so the only actual cooking was the corn and that didn't take long.
We were going to sit on the patio and eat, but hordes of flies thought they had been invited, so we brought everything back inside and ate in the dining room.
I didn't have to go in to work today, but tomorrow will be exceptionally busy.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Sunday night - May 30, 2010
Sis and I went to church early to finish setting up for the potluck after church. Some of the people who usually do this were out of town. Sis stayed and helped me instead of going to her own church today.
We had done a good bit of it yesterday. This morning we made sure the air conditioning was working, made the coffee and tea, received the potluck dishes as the members dropped them off on their way to the morning service, cut the desserts and arranged them on plates, etc. We didn't go upstairs to the service. I went up a couple of times to see how near finished the service was. Then we put all the hot things out on the table and uncovered them at the last minute.
There were quite a few more people there than usual, since it was the pastor's last Sunday with us. We ended up having to set up an extra table to seat everybody.
Afterward as we were clearing up and most of the people had already left, we got a phone call that one of our members who is in a nursing home had just died. The pastor immediately went to meet with the family. Later in the afternoon she called me and said there will be a memorial service at the church at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Of course the office is closed tomorrow for Memorial Day, so this leaves a lot to do fast.
I spent an hour or more on the telephone calling all the members to notify them of both the death and the arrangements and calling the custodian to tell him what was needed for the service.
The pastor will email me the information for the funeral bulletin, so I think I will end up doing that on my computer here at home. I don't think there will be time to wait and do it Tuesday morning as there are other meetings and things going on then.
So that's how my day has gone. I'm a little tired right now, but at least I don't have to get up and go in to work tomorrow morning...unless something unexpected happens before then. I sure hope it doesn't.
It was another hot day and as I talked to different ones on the phone, three of them were having trouble with their air conditioners. We had to have a part replaced on ours earlier this week. I guess this extremely hot weather is hard on them.
We had done a good bit of it yesterday. This morning we made sure the air conditioning was working, made the coffee and tea, received the potluck dishes as the members dropped them off on their way to the morning service, cut the desserts and arranged them on plates, etc. We didn't go upstairs to the service. I went up a couple of times to see how near finished the service was. Then we put all the hot things out on the table and uncovered them at the last minute.
There were quite a few more people there than usual, since it was the pastor's last Sunday with us. We ended up having to set up an extra table to seat everybody.
Afterward as we were clearing up and most of the people had already left, we got a phone call that one of our members who is in a nursing home had just died. The pastor immediately went to meet with the family. Later in the afternoon she called me and said there will be a memorial service at the church at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Of course the office is closed tomorrow for Memorial Day, so this leaves a lot to do fast.
I spent an hour or more on the telephone calling all the members to notify them of both the death and the arrangements and calling the custodian to tell him what was needed for the service.
The pastor will email me the information for the funeral bulletin, so I think I will end up doing that on my computer here at home. I don't think there will be time to wait and do it Tuesday morning as there are other meetings and things going on then.
So that's how my day has gone. I'm a little tired right now, but at least I don't have to get up and go in to work tomorrow morning...unless something unexpected happens before then. I sure hope it doesn't.
It was another hot day and as I talked to different ones on the phone, three of them were having trouble with their air conditioners. We had to have a part replaced on ours earlier this week. I guess this extremely hot weather is hard on them.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
It is finally cooling down in our house. After the a/c went out last night it got up to 90 degrees inside. This afternoon the repairman came out and it didn't take him long to discover the problem. A part had to be replaced on the outside part of the air conditioner. He said it would probably take about 4 hours to get the house cooled down to it's normal settings, but we can sure tell the difference already. Precious and Calvin seem much more comfortable too.
It is 91 outdoors right now.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
New Microwave
Thursday, May 20, 2010
There must be a lot of pollen in the air this morning. As soon as I opened the door to let Precious out, I started sneezing and my nose started getting stuffed up. It has been hot and muggy and is expected to be in the high 80's the rest of the week.
The mobile food pantry was in the church parking lot yesterday morning and it drew the biggest number so far. 142 families came to get food. We probably will go back to the regular indoor one until fall though, because the food bank insists that during the summer they will only provide food to families with children under 18. That's all well and good for those families, but it leaves out the elderly who are low income and count on that food to supplement their low income.
There was a story on the news last night. A city bus driver was driving his bus down the street after dark and saw something up ahead. He couldn't immediately see whether it was an animal or trash or what but luckily he slowed down. There was a 14-month-old baby sitting in the middle of the street. When he stopped and got out, the father heard the noise and ran out and grabbed the baby and ran back inside with never a thank you or any other comments. I think Child Protective Services is checking on the case as they have had calls there before and there seems to be a family drug and alcohol background too. It could have been a disastrous ending.
Sunday - New microwave
After church this morning we went to Bud Jones for lunch. I had a large chef salad. I brought part of it home and had it for supper tonight.
Then we went to an appliance store and bought a new 1200 watt microwave.
We went on to Wal-Mart. I didn't get anything there but Sis got some yarn and fabric.
There must be a lot of pollen in the air this morning. As soon as I opened the door to let Precious out, I started sneezing and my nose started getting stuffed up. It has been hot and muggy and is expected to be in the high 80's the rest of the week.
The mobile food pantry was in the church parking lot yesterday morning and it drew the biggest number so far. 142 families came to get food. We probably will go back to the regular indoor one until fall though, because the food bank insists that during the summer they will only provide food to families with children under 18. That's all well and good for those families, but it leaves out the elderly who are low income and count on that food to supplement their low income.
There was a story on the news last night. A city bus driver was driving his bus down the street after dark and saw something up ahead. He couldn't immediately see whether it was an animal or trash or what but luckily he slowed down. There was a 14-month-old baby sitting in the middle of the street. When he stopped and got out, the father heard the noise and ran out and grabbed the baby and ran back inside with never a thank you or any other comments. I think Child Protective Services is checking on the case as they have had calls there before and there seems to be a family drug and alcohol background too. It could have been a disastrous ending.
Sunday - New microwave
After church this morning we went to Bud Jones for lunch. I had a large chef salad. I brought part of it home and had it for supper tonight.
Then we went to an appliance store and bought a new 1200 watt microwave.
We went on to Wal-Mart. I didn't get anything there but Sis got some yarn and fabric.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
I slept later than usual this morning. It was nearly 6:30 when I woke up. Then I had to take my monthly dose of Boniva and wait an hour before eating breakfast.
About 7:30 I went to the grocery store and picked up pet food and supplies. Later, we went to the bank, then to the library for their book sale. I bought a church cookbook and one of the Frugal Gourmet cookbooks. I also bought a Beverly Lewis book, "The Englisher". After stopping at the beauty shop that sells some of Sis's craft items, we went to IHOP for brunch. I ordered the spinach-tomato omelet with a dish of fresh fruit and it was delicious. From there we went to the Polish-American Club where they were having a rummage sale. Sis bought a bsg of spools of thread for 50 cents. I didn't buy anything. We went on to the temp office so that she could turn in her time sheet for the week. There were a few more places we could have gone, but I was tired by then so we came back home.
About 7:30 I went to the grocery store and picked up pet food and supplies. Later, we went to the bank, then to the library for their book sale. I bought a church cookbook and one of the Frugal Gourmet cookbooks. I also bought a Beverly Lewis book, "The Englisher". After stopping at the beauty shop that sells some of Sis's craft items, we went to IHOP for brunch. I ordered the spinach-tomato omelet with a dish of fresh fruit and it was delicious. From there we went to the Polish-American Club where they were having a rummage sale. Sis bought a bsg of spools of thread for 50 cents. I didn't buy anything. We went on to the temp office so that she could turn in her time sheet for the week. There were a few more places we could have gone, but I was tired by then so we came back home.
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