Texas Field Trip

Another Seaweed Collection Trip to Texas. Yes, I got soaked on more than one occasion, but the water was not really cold

I love live oaks. I wish we had them around here.

Debbie standing in front of a 44' tall, 1,000 year old live oak measuring 35' in circumference with a crown spread of 89'. Simple called "The Tree" located on Goose Island just outside of Corpus Christi. Naturally, I had to pick up a few acorns from this tree that fallen to the ground.

I got lots of pics of this Inca Dove among the blue bonnets which were in full bloom all over Texas.

While hunting for my seaweed look what I nearly stepped on. . . a Portuguese man of war (YIKES!). Beautiful, but painful.

Blue Bonnets

Garvin Woodland Gardens

Marvin Woodland Garden

The reports were true, the daffodils had come and gone two weeks earlier than usual along with the hyacinths. Many tulips were in the process of dropping their petals as well. The weather in Arkansas is always the wildcard. Fortunately, we did find a few vantage points from which to take some pics, but Brayden was not very cooperative. Nevertheless, with all odds against us we did get off a few good shots and these were a few.

Nature Calls

Potty training Arkansas style.

A Boy and his Coy

As much as Brayden likes feeding my fish each morning in the aquarium, you can just imagine how much he went nuts for this pond of coy at Garvin Woodland Garden. We almost could not get him to leave.

Feeding the Fish

Things Little Boys Do

Bug touching and Rock hopping. What else would you expect from a boy?

Occasion Trees

Sean and Tabitha's Tulip Tree (in honor of their wedding that took place under a much larger Tulip tree in Hot Springs)
Crabapple tree planted in honor of Brody's birth

Brayden's Redbud tree

Every momentous occasion in our family, I plant a tree or bush to mark the occasion. So far all of the trees are doing well and looking very good. I still have to pick out a tree to plant in honor of Alex and Kayla's wedding.

Birds Moving In

Brayden and I were delighted to learn that the bird boxes we put up this winter already have residence. I know the box with the pine needles are bluebirds, but the box with the moss I am not sure just who is building that nest. We will have to keep our eyes open. The two boxes on my storage building have no nests in them yet.

Brayden's Bird Boxes

Brayden enjoyed checking-in on the bluebird box so much last summer (3 clutches raised in it) that he insisted we build more bird boxes for this summer. So we worked one day over my winter break building these boxes. We built one more bluebird box and put it on this fence post in the backyard because bluebirds like open spaces. We also built two bird boxes and attached them to different sides of my storage building. These should attract some wrens or sparrows, I would think. The wood came from a student of mine who brought me a truckload of various lengths of rough-sawn lumber. It had boards of cedar, cypress, hickory, and pine. We also have one bird box made from an apple-shaped gourd, but we will wait to put it out until later.

Strange Moon

Brayden turns 2

Brayden turned 2 on January 30th, we really do love this little guy. The time has passed so quickly. He spent the Sunday before his birthday at our house and we decided to give him his birthday present. We got him a bull to ride on. It took him a little while to warm up to it. He is still a little small for it, but that will change all too soon.

Saturday was his birthday party at Party Central in Benton. There were several people who came to celebrate with us. We got a chance to visit with Frankie and her daughter Reese.

Brayden seem to really enjoy himself. He played in all of the blow-up toys. Sean and Brayden played basketball.

Sean's dad and mom along with his sister and her husband came down from Rhode Island to join the fun. Heather and John went down the slide together.

There were plenty of large blow-up toys to play in. I think this is a train station. It has a small obstacle course in it. Brayden didn't stay in any one place for too long. He was very excited.

The theme of the party was Yo Gabba Gabba. Brayden really likes this show. Tabitha made a cake and some decorations for the party room.

We sang happy birthday and Brayden actually blew out his own candle!

Everyone enjoyed cake and ice cream. Yum!

Now for the presents ....

Happy birthday little man, we love you lots!