Saturday, October 17, 2009

A Sunflower Blooms On The Tandy Prairie Under A Blue Texas Sky

When I was over at Miss Puerto Rico's this afternoon, to check on the cat, I intended to take my daily picture of the view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony. But I forgot. I have been being forgetful lately. Suffice to say the view was about the same as yesterday, except there were a lot of cotton ball like clouds dotting the bright blue sky.

I somehow have hurt my right thumb area. This may be a re-aggravation of a slight sprain caused by a fall weeks ago at the Tandy Hills. Or maybe I have had another sleep walking incident. All I know for sure is it hurts bad. Ibuprofen seems to have made it a bit better.

Speaking of the Tandy Hills Natural Area. I had not been there in what seems like weeks, til today around noon. I figured it'd been long enough since our last rain for it to be dried out. I was wrong. It was still hikeable, but muddy in places.

It is only 72 and windy, so I did not enjoy the elevated view from Miss Puerto Rico's balcony for long before I got chilly. Even though we've got that chilly thing going on, I swam for quite a long time this morning. This is a very healthy activity.

I saw a Wonder of Mother Nature at the Tandy Hills today. At the spot where fireworks caused a bit of a wildfire, sometime around the 4th of July, a sunflower has sprung up and is blooming yellow color above the burned ground.

I miss my mom and dad. Lately I've come to appreciate that I still have my mom and dad. Re-connecting with a lot of my old high school classmates, via Facebook, I've had more than one comment how lucky I am regarding parental units.

Tomorrow is the last day of the State Fair of Texas. I intended to go this year. But as so often happens, that didn't happen.

6 comments:

Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths said...

The kids and I hiked at Tandy Hills on Saturday. We were there for a total of three hours and absolutely loved it! We made it past the green chair and tarp, on down to the little creek. Annie picked a handful of flowers (hope that's allowed) found an empty plastic bottle in the stream to use as a vase and left the arrangement at the hobo's habitat.

Durango said...

What time were you there? Sounds like you made it down to Tandy Falls. The hobo's tent disappeared a couple weeks ago. Did you make it past the falls? My favorite part of TH is the first right turn when you are walking down that entry trail. I did not discover the trails that lay beyond there til a month or so after I first found Tandy's trails.

Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths said...

We were there between 11:30 & 2:30, we didn't go past the falls, because we weren't sure exactly how far and where we'd end up. The next time we'll plan for a bit more time. We originally took a trail, a bit narrower that branched off to the right, I suppose sorta at the beginning, but it was a bit muddy, so we backtracked and continued on the higher, rockier one. That's when we passed the chair and green tarp on the left. After seeing the falls, Annie definitely is planning on a water feature now for her prairie. Oh, by the way, just after a bit of interest...that tacky ol' sign humbly displaying Orbison's old homestead has been replaced with a brand new beautiful historic marker. Quite amazing what a bit of interest awakens in others.

Durango said...

I was at Tandy from about noon til 1. You were nowhere to be seen. There was only a van parked on View Street. It did not look like a rental vehicle. You obviously were there, though, due to your totally accurate description of that muddy trail to the right. Had you continued on past Tandy Falls you eventually would have made a circle back to that muddy trail, with a lot of side trail options to get lost on. I found the trails confusing, at first. It's funner when they are confusing. I like feeling LOST. The trails are a lot funner when they are dry.

Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths said...

I'm not sure what street we parked on, but there was a teeny tiny playground area, and what looked like white apartments hugging the park. I took all navigational advice from the GPS...turn here, turn there...arrived at destination, other than that...no clue :)

Durango said...

You were on View Street. The white apartments are some sort of assisted living place. I wondered how you found Tandy. Using a GPS did not cross my mind.