Nov. 30, 2009

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've written in my blog. Sorry, guys! We haven't really had much news...just been working and doing our duties here at Seminole Canyon. We are due to leave tomorrow but the weather may interfere. Snow is predicted for Comstock, about 9 miles from here, on Tuesday night, but we should be in G-town by then.
I am sad to leave Seminole Canyon, but at the same time, I'm looking forward to seeing our collective children and their families, and our friends around Austin.
I have enjoyed every single day we've been here, and we feel that nothing's too good for our favorite park. The park staff are close friends, and we will miss them sorely.
I put in a few pictures that I took recently. I thought I'd show you some fall color...see, the northeast doesn't have anything on us. We have ONE tree with some color! It's an oak tree by the restroom. We saw the cactus along the road, and I believe it's a pincushion cactus. The bird is a golden fronted woodpecker. It was right outside our dining room window a few days ago.
We did see something interesting yesterday morning, but didn't have the camera. We saw a hog nosed skunk rummaging around some rocks. He looked like any other skunk, except he had a wide white stripe all the way down his back and fluffy tail. Never fails...when you see something good you never have a camera.
We are packing things up and almost ready to go. We should be pulling out tomorrow morning about 8:30 am, after saying goodbye to the staff here.
We'll keep you posted! Thanks for reading our blog.

Planets, Stars and Airs of Space

This picture is looking southwest, toward Mexico, from our motor home. Tonight was a perfect night for sitting outside beside a campfire. You can see the firepit, slightly to the left center of the picture. The wooden structure on the far left is a picnic shelter. The wind was very light, out of the southeast, and blew the smoke away from us. We sat around the fire and watched the western sky turn pink and orange, and as the darkness deepened, the stars began to show. In Seminole Canyon, there is little light pollution, and the Milky Way was visible from southwest to northeast. Also, this is one of the few places we've been where the Little Dipper is visible. As I watched the fire and listened to the crickets and tree frogs, I thought of the ancient peoples who lived in the canyons here and wondered if they, too, saw the beauty in their surroundings and appreciated the velvet black heavens with twinkling stars and planets. They were probably hungry and preoccupied with obtaining enough food and water to keep body and soul together, though.
The Taurid meteor shower is supposed to happen soon, and I did see one bright shooting star as we were sitting there. However, soon the eastern sky began to glow like it was on fire, and the slightly lopsided bright orange moon began to rise. Oh well, the fire was dying and we headed for the warmth of our home.
I was reminded of being in high school, singing a song by J. S. Bach, called "Planets, Stars, and Airs of Space". I think I can still remember all the words. Isn't it odd that we can remember songs we learned 50 years ago but can't remember the name of someone we met five minutes ago!
It's been a nice couple of days, as we were off duty and able to relax. Tomorrow, it's back to work!

November 1, 2009

Our friends Dave and Sally had to leave a day early and we have really been missing them. Here are a few more pictures taken when we were down in the canyon. The first two pictures are in the Fate Bell Shelter. You can see how large it is. Imagine living there! It's sheltered from the heat and the wind, but you'd be sharing your living quarters with every wild animal,serpent, and insect in this area. Scary! And no sleeping bags, either. There is evidence of human habitation for many years in this shelter. It is estimated that the paintings in the shelter are at least 4000 years old, I believe. The third picture is Sally and me beside one of the huge boulders in the canyon. On this rock, we found several fossils like the one in the picture.
The weather has been utterly beautiful. The humidity is low so the days warm up to mid 70's, and at night it gets down to the 40's. Very good sleeping weather. We had some 20-30 mph winds a few days ago, but the wind has died down a lot.
We continue to do our work here and enjoy it. It's hard to believe we've been here two whole months, and are starting on our last month here. I am, however, looking forward to seeing our children, grandchildren and friends around Austin come December 1!