Happy Halloween!

Batman and black cats.  For the past several years, this Batman guy has shown up at our house looking for candy.  I wonder if it will be Batman again this year, of if his mom has talked him into a little variety. 

As for black cats, that's Zig, our empty nest child.  Only allowed to watch the proceedings from inside the house on Halloween.

Addendum:  This year Batman was replaced by a Ninja warrior!

Autumn in Texas

My thoughts always turn to travel in the fall.  I guess because I am coming out of heat induced hibernation and ready to GO!  I'm ready to go see some autumn leaves, can you tell?

Texas doesn't generally have the bright fall colors of states further to the north, but there are exceptions.  On "good" years, the east Texas piney woods, the central Texas hill country, and the Guadalupe mountains in west Texas can offer some nice fall colors.  Even the Houston area has its moments, although usually later in November as seen in the top photo, taken at Armand Bayou Nature Center south of Houston.    The second photo above was taken in late October at Garner State Park on the Frio River (about 90 miles west of San Antonio).  

Office View

Although our part of Texas may not have the dramatic beauty that our part of Colorado has, it does have its scenic aspects.  Take the view from my office window.  From 70 feet in the air, it overlooks the open space and ponds referred to as "the mall" at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC). 

There are ducks, turtles, koi, squirrels, egrets, and herons in or around the ponds.  Flying over the ponds (often just outside my window) are hawks, osprey, and vultures (or buzzards as we call them here).  In the spring there is a pair of great horned owls that returns each year to nest in a tree by the ponds--usually producing two offspring. 

JSC also has a large Texas whitetail deer population.  This year one doe had twin fawns, and possibly due to the drought and lack of vegetation, she elected to raise them among the office buildings.  Usually, the deer  will remain at the back of the Center where there are fields and forests.   Often when walking to or from the parking lots, I will see her and the twins eating grass in front of the building. 

I will miss the people I work with when I retire in a couple of months, and maybe I will miss the work at times.  But I know I will certainly miss the wildlife viewing.

Winter has Arrived

Winter has arrived in Estes Park.  The town awoke to a very snowy day--12 to 14 inches on the ground and still coming down.  One of my friends, a would-be native, called it "a little snow". 

A high temperature for the day of 29 degrees and then expected to go down to 14 degrees tonight.   That would definitely be called Winter by Texas standards.

What Does Your Grocery Store Parking Lot Look Like?

I am always just fascinated when I leave Safeway in Estes Park to walk to my car in the parking lot.  All grocery store parking lots should be so scenic.  And my car is never hot inside--not Houston hot anyway.  When it's 85 degrees in Estes Park, people say "it's hot."   Pulleeeez!

Grand Entrance

Every highway that enters Estes Park, Colorado has it's own scenic drama.  Highway 34 from Loveland makes its grand entrance through the canyon of the Big Thompson River.  The highway passes through "the narrows" soon after entering the canyon on the Loveland end--there is barely enough room for the highway and the river.  Sheer walls shoot straight up.  In other areas of the canyon, the walls slop a bit more and a wider canyon bottom allows room for cabins, campgrounds, and stores.  The river winds and crosses back and forth under the road offering river views to both drivers and passengers.  The big horn sheep are not intimidated by the sheer rock walls.   Small herds are often seen beside the road snacking on vegetation that grows wherever it can find a patch of soil to take root.  The photo above is a female bighorn who is picking out a pathway up the canyon wall.

Plein Air Today

The Bay Area Plein Air Painters met today at a local nursery to create some masterpieces.  I decided to capture some photos of the subject matter we had to choose from.  The weather was warm and the misquitoes were plentiful.  I don't know how the early settlers did it without Deet.

Rockets, Cows, and Balloons

The annual Balunar Liftoff hot air balloon festival began today.  The festival is held at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in conjunction with a NASA open house that features public tours of many facilities at NASA that are not normally open to the public.  It's great weather for the balloons to fly--sunny and not too windy.  This morning I took these photos as the balloons were drifting over and coming in for a landing in the longhorn's pasture.  The longhorns are closely monitoring this activity.

The Progression of Fall

Fall is progressing in Estes Park--even waning at higher altitudes. Once again, the mountain tops have snow.  In the August to September timeframe, they have very little snow remaining and seem to fade into the background.  But the new blanket of white just makes them POP forward and look taller and closer.  The leaves of the aspens, narrowleaf cottonwood, and willows have been showing beautiful fall colors.  Soon it will start to look more like winter than fall--although the temperatures are still in the 30s to 60s--certainly not the temps of winter.

Its Random Thought Day

First cold front in Houston today, beautiful sunshine, but very windy and we may see the upper 40s tonight.  Rest of the week expected to be 70s and 50s.  What a nice change from the upper 80s and 90s.

Going through some old photos, I found these photos I took at a grocery store near Denali National Park, Alaska.  The prices for the oranges and plums are for one piece of fruit--not by the pound. 

Surely much of the cost is associated with transportation of these fruits to a location so far from where they were grown.  But there are opportunities to obtain locally grown food in Alaska.  In the Matanuska River Valley a short distance north of Anchorage, veggies thrive--and they certainly aren't puny ones!  Take a look:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgtIus1eURQ

Wings Over Houston

This weekend the Wings Over Houston Airshow took place at Ellington Airport. There were a wide range of vintage and current aircraft performing demonstrations.   A few of those that I captured photos of included the privately owned Heavy Metal Jet Team, featuring four L-39’s and one MiG-17 all in a striking Arctic camouflage paint scheme.  Vintage aircraft performed a World War II air power demo complete with fire and sounds of exploding bombs.  The show was wrapped up both days by the Canadian Military's Snowbirds performing in their nine CT-114 Tutor jets.  The weather was great and offered fantastic, but challenging, photo ops.   Those planes move really fast when you are trying to point a camera at them!

Walking to the Store

There goes my husband, walking to the store in Raymond, Colorado.  That's about all there is to Raymond, just the store and some vacation cabins.  But it is a beautiful walk.  Just look at the size of that Ponderose Pine tree.  It's growing alongside the St. Vrain River, so I'm sure it's well rooted and well watered.  Hopefully it will escape the ravages of the pine bark beetles that are just decimating thousands of trees in Rocky Mountain National Park and surrounding areas.

Mr. Stanley's Hotel

The Stanley Hotel is a beautiful landmark in Estes Park, Colorado, sitting high on a hill overlooking town.  The hotel was built by F.O. Stanley, inventor of the Stanley Steamer Cars.  It first opened in 1909, and Mr. Stanley used his steam cars to bring tourists over the unpaved mountain roads to Estes Park.  In 1915, Rocky Mountain National Park was established and cemented the tourist industry for this area.  The hotel has long been rumored to be haunted.  The fictional Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's novel The Shining was based on the Stanley Hotel, and a 1997 television miniseries version of The Shining was filmed at the Stanley.   The vertical rock formations rising above the hotel in this photo are known as The Needles.

And Now for Texas Wildlife---The Eastern Brown Pelican



Once plentiful along the Texas Gulf Coast, Eastern Brown Pelicans had almost entirely disappeared from Texas by 1960.  Their exposure to increased levels of the insecticide DDT in the fish they ate resulted in an inability to metabolize calcium correctly, resulting in eggs with paper thin shells that could not support the growth of chicks inside.  After DDT was banned in 1973, their numbers slowly began to increase.

Now, they just seem to be everywhere, perching on docks, piers, and bouys; flying in formation through the skies; and diving for fish in Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.  Stores and art galleries are full of paintings, photographs, and sculpture depicting them.  One of the towns in this area has adopted them as a mascot and installed decorated sculptures of penguins along its streets that bring to mind the art cars and art cows of other Texas cities.

Elk Fest

Some of the most popular wildlife to view in Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park are the elk.  For most of the year, the females and their calves live in groups that travel together to grazing areas, which may even include the towns' neighborhoods as in the above photo.  The calves will remain with their mothers until they are about a year old.  The males will retreat to high altitudes and form bands of bachelors for much of the year.

But, beginning in September each year, the male elk can be seen cleaning the velvet from their antlers by thrashing through long grass or digging in the ground with them.  Soon afterward, the elk rut will begin and extend through October.  All those other guys they have been hanging out with now become the enemy. 


The males can be heard bugling, which is a call to the females to join their harem.  As seen in a previous post, they often congregate on the town's two golf courses.  But they are everywhere--crossing the roads, walking the sidewalks.  

Humans, their pets, even cars really need to keep their distance.  The males are irritable and agressive at this time, and they can weigh 800-1000 pounds and run 45 miles per hour.   They will attack anything, and those antlers can be lethal.  Every year, the wildlife people have to dart and then free male elk from swingset chains, christmas light strings, lawn chairs, you name it. 

Estes Park holds an Elk Fest in early October and the tourists show up to view the elk.  The people are, of course, interested in seeing the elk, but often fail to keep proper distance.  This results in some run-ins as seen in this video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=794wEIbHlDc

First Snow

While Texas gets some much needed rain, in Colorado the first snow is arriving.  Here's a photo of the wet snow falling on the fall trees in downtown Estes Park.  Cool! 

R-A-I-N!!

These days, when it rains in Texas, its a big deal.  You might see folks get really excited and rush outside just to watch it sprinkle.  Today, it rained for at least 5 minutes and our plumerias got real water on them!  Looks like there may be more chances for the next couple of days.  It's going to take 5 days of rain rather than 5 minutes to make a dent in this drought.

p.s. This time it didn't just sprinkle--it continued through the next day until we had over 4 inches of rain!!

Texas Longhorns

A part of me is always in Colorado, and a part of me is always in Texas--always torn between the two.  Today Texas wins.   I ask you, how many places can a person work that has resident longhorns--here's a photo of some of our NASA longhorns (actually, they belong to the local school system's FFA program which has an agreement with NASA for useage of its acreage.)  But, we claim them and love to see them out there as we commute to work.

By the way, don't miss this awesome video by the Texas state photographer Wyman Meinzer with music by another fellow Texan Doug Smith:  http://www.wymanmeinzer.com/west-texas-2/.

It's Fall

Really?  I hadn't noticed.  At least the temps are no longer over 100 degrees.  Now last October,  I would have agreed it was fall when I took this photo in Colorado--the trees are turning gold and the elk are covering the golf course.  But alas, not on the Gulf coast, maybe we'll see Fall in December.

A Blog Experiment

I have found that I really enjoy reading blogs, especially those about subjects or geographical areas in which I have a specific interest.  Then I discovered that Google offered this free blogging website and could not resist joining those whose blogs I have been following.  It is a new surprise everyday to look and see what they have written.  It is also a great place to post photos of interest to family and friends--and believe me, I do have LOTS of photos!

So, stay tuned for whatever wild random things enter my mind when I sit down to post an entry . . . .such as the photo for today:  Vultures sit at the edge of the roof on the 525 ft. tall Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center--then they just jump off, fall a short distance, spread their wings, and soar.  I did not care to try this activity, so stayed well away from "their" edge.