Good morning, my friends. We're hanging out here in Georgetown until after lunch. Our next stop in Whitney, Texas, is just about 120 miles down the road. Check-in there isn't until 3:00 p.m. We don't need to leave our spot in Georgetown until 2:00 p.m., and so it all works out. We can take our time this morning. We've had breakfast. I've played all my word games. Now I'm checking in with you guys, and then I can do some slow-stitching. It's going to be a low-key morning, despite being a driving day.
We went to the Inner Space Cavern yesterday. When we arrived, there was one large tour bus there along with two school buses and about a gazillion little kids. The line inside to purchase tickets was snaking about 30 deep. We went to the end of the line, and then I said, "Are you up for this line?" And Mike said, "Not really." So we left without seeing it. It had the aroma of a tourist trap. We already have tickets to see two caves down the road (Lost Canyon Cave and Nature Trail in Missouri, and Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky). Knowing that made it easy to forego this particular site.
Instead, we went in search of more wildflowers. I'd charged the battery for my DSLR and I had a macro lens attached. I wanted some close-ups of the wildflowers.
This first one is the Prairie Verbena. I took lots of pictures of that.
Here are the Bluebonnets.
And the Texas Paintbrush.
This is the milkweed in bloom.
This is how milkweed looks before it blooms
This is the cutleaf daisy.
This one is called Annual Pennyroyal.
The little red guys there (sorry about the blur) are called Scarlet Pimpernel. And here I thought that was just a book title.
This is the Golden Yarrow.
These are prickly pear thorns. Wicked, no?
And these are Texas Filaree.
Okay, so I think we can safely say we had plenty of opportunity to view Texas wildflowers. They were spectacular.
The only other thing I did yesterday was to finish stitching the second block for Grandpa's Bridges. We're not hooked up to sewer here, and so I can't run the washing machine. That will have to wait for our next stop. So this is what I have, but it still needs the Sticky Fabri-Solvy rinsed out of it, and then it needs a good pressing.
With that finished, I'm ready to start the ninth block for the Kittens quilt...this one:
These blocks were cut from a panel. You can see there is very little extra fabric around the outside of the design. It makes it hard to capture in my hoop. To give myself some breathing room, I stitched the butterfly first.
And now I can capture all the fabric edges in my hoop. I stitched a little more before quitting. When I have the bow on the kitten's head stitched, the rest will all be done in two shades of gray.
The kitties had a lazy day. Smitty got out for another walk, and then came in and put out the do not disturb sign while he napped on his window hammock.
Sadie snuggled up on one of the quilts.
So today we'll land where we've planned to see the eclipse. Hopefully we won't be disappointed by cloud cover. There's really no other place we can expect to drive to if our day turns cloudy. It's a case of paying your money and taking your chances when weather comes into the equation. It'll be what it'll be. If we can't see it with our eyes, we'll experience it with our other senses. My friend Judy will be meeting us later today, and I'm looking forward to seeing her. We're fulfilling our pact to see the 2024 eclipse together after we witnessed the 2017 eclipse in Oregon.
And if it doesn't work out, there's always August of 2044. Mike will be 92. Judy and I will be 90. No problem, right? It could happen.
Okay, so I have hours to kill, and that means I'll do some slow-stitching. We'll probably get out for one last walk around this nice park before we head out. We'll have two days in Whitney before moving on to Grapevine, Texas. I have some recommendations for some good Texas BBQ when we get there.
11 comments:
A cloudy day is no match for a sunny disposition. ~ William Arthur Ward
Great photos!! Does everyone choose a favorite? The milkweed duo had my vote(s) for sure, until I saw Indian Blanket. Thanks, as always, for bringing this beauty into my day.
Gorgeous flower photos! I'm so glad you got to see them, and then share with the rest of us. Mammoth Cave was amazing when we visited there several years ago. My fingers are crossed that you have clear skies tomorrow for the eclipse. We expect about 70% of the eclipse here, but will probably also have clouds.
I read yesterday that some scientist had redone the math and moved the path of totality. But I am really not sure if it was clickbait. I hope that your sky is clear so you can see it. My first total eclipse in Oregon was totally cloud covered of course. The one in 2017 was amazing.
I want to see lots of photos at Mammoth! I was supposed to go there 2 weeks ago but the trip got canceled.
Did you know that once a bee has visited a bluebonnet segment, that particular segment stamen turns red? Bees cannot see red, so somehow they no longer see that particular segment and it doesn't get visited over and over to no avail. I don't know how the flowers know to do that but it all works out. I'm not even sure how the scientists figure out that the bees don't see red, all that science is definitely above my pay grade. Hope your weather is clear for the big day, I think that is so cool that y'all are keeping up the tradition of meeting. We have friends like that that we meet out on the road, and every now and then we meet up together somewhere totally different. Fingers crossed for good totality for you. Your photos are spectacular. That purple verbena is one of our favorite plants, and we are fortunate that we can grow it here, big time. We even have prickly pear cactus here, our neighbor has some by his driveway across the street, he keeps it growing and marking his water connection. We have made it a point (no pun intended) to keep away from planting anything prickly in our yard. We both love the flowers and the colors of bougainvillea, but neither of us likes the thorns, so we don't plant it.
So many pretty flowers and great shots with your macro lens! I expect we won't see much of the eclipse here, so I'll be waiting to read about your experience.
Our weather people are saying there will be no clouds through the Mid-West for the next few days. Just an FYI. Have fun!
Shame about the cavern..... I'm with Mike, queues? Better things to do with my time. lol
We have cloud over here.... But no rain!!
Hope your skies are clear.....
Beautiful wildflower photos. Texas does have wonderful wildflower displays in the spring. Fingers crossed for the eclipse. Looking at the weather across the whole path of totality, looks like cloud cover is going to be an issue for most of the path in the US. Not much we can do. Fingers crossed the skies clear a bit before the forecast thunderstorms fire up.
The milkweed flower, prior to full bloom, looks like the flowers on my hoya plant. I don't think they're related, but I was interested to compare the two.
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