A Special Trip

I went to Austin for a fun time over the weekend. My youngest daughter invited several members of the family to attend a fundraiser hosted by an organization she belongs to.

The festivities were all outside despite that it was a wee bit cooler than forecast.

Although, the kids didn't seem to mind, especially when they saw that there was a petting zoo with a very fluffy rabbit,

a turtle who was, despite his reputation, pretty fast on his feet

and even fuzzy ducklings to hold.

I was surprised by the nice selection of animals, even a kangaroo.

This colorful gentleman would make a balloon animal for you

or you could try your hand at an interesting game of croquette.

If, by chance, you were still hungry after the scrumptious brunch, you could visit the cotton candy booth

or have your face painted. Hannah and her cousin Olivia ended up with matching rabbit faces.

....and finally the much anticipated egg hunt. As you can see it wasn't much of a "hunt" They did thankfully have different areas for the age groups, so that the little ones at least had a chance.

My niece Sara was shocked at how many eggs her boys collected.

A special thanks to my daughter Katy and her Hannah for inviting us and hosting us in their lovely home. It was so much fun seeing so many people in the pretty Easter clothes.

So to all of you I wish a Happy Easter, Happy Passover or Happy Spring from TEXAS where cowboy boots go with everything!

It's Here!

Today is the first day of Spring. So Tom and I decided to go to lunch (again) at our town's Botanic Gardens. They have a very nice restaurant in the center of the park with healthy,delicious, reasonably priced meals.

After lunch we couldn't resist walking through the gardens...since the weather was perfect.

We were there only last week, but this time walked in a different part of the park.

There are so many pretty sections

to investigate.

Wednesday's are pretty quiet around here...although on the weekend there can be crowds.

I got a little carried away snapping pictures

especially of the trees. This is a Redbud

A Dogwood

Texas Mountain Laurel

and a Chinese Snowball

On the way home, we stopped at Dairy Queen where in honor of the first day of Spring they were giving away a free ice cream cone.

I hope that you to enjoyed the first day of Spring.

BOOM!

Boom!...and it was gone

Early on Sunday morning a huge old building just south of downtown Ft. Worth was imploded.

This is what is looked like before it came down.

Built sixty seven years ago to be an apartment building it had been vacant for some time. It was sitting on prime property just south of downtown and bordering our medical center. Most recently it was a low income assisted living home. I feel sure developers have big plans. I will be interested to see what goes up here. Normally our town is very good about refurbishing properties especially ones of historic significance .

Hodgepodge

Hodgepodge...isn't that what they call a grouping of unrelated items? I just had to get that depressing murder story off of my screen (previous post)...so here goes.

First of all, we have had a lot of guests this week. One couple took us out to eat at the wonderful French restaurant called Rise. I guess they named it that because most of the menu items are souffles..get it rise? There were five of us and we all had one this large and then shared a chocolate one and a strawberry...

Spring has finally sprung around here and my espalier (trained vine) is doing great on the wall.

The neighbors tree has beautiful buds

and my kitchen has a bit of an Easter theme to it.

Bradford Pear Trees are blooming all over town..Oh, by the way, there are nurseries that refuse to sell these trees here. They have a short lifespan, a shallow root system causing them to fall over easily and they stink...some say they smell like tuna fish. That being said...they are pretty.

The valentine wreath on my front door and been replaced with (fake) Spring flowers....which will remain all summer

and last, but not least, they finished paving the street!

Have a wonderful weekend and don't drink too much green beer!

Janey

Sex Crime and Chicken Fried Steak

It has been well over forty years, but there is still a fascination with a certain murder case that Fort Worth is not so happy to claim. It will remind you of another sensational case...involving OJ and I am not talking about Orange Juice.

Let's back up. Part of the senior program that Tom and I are enrolled in at the university

includes a lecture luncheon series. A fellow classmate happens to have been  the State's Prosecuting attorney in that very case....(he lost).

The case involved the richest man in US History tried for murder. Said gentleman married a flashy, blond, flamboyant lady (his second wife)...and it wasn't long before fireworks started to fly.

They built a 12,000 square foot mansion reportedly costing around six million dollars on a large 10 acre piece of land, that was at one time owned by his wealthy oil man Dad.. whose nickname was "Stinky".

Needless to say all of the seats at the luncheon were quickly spoken for.

 I won't go into all of the gory details. You can read about them HERE. It is amazing to many how the defendant was not found guilty....unless you realize that his famous attorney had no trouble digging up a lot of dirt on his little wife...In reality she seemed to be being tried....for her slightly tainted reputation.In all, four people were shot by an intruder dressed in black with a black wig on...although a couple of them lived to talk about it, including his estranged wife.

 We drove by the house today. It is no longer on such a large piece of land, but snuggled peacefully into a neighborhood.

It has been many things over the years. I can remember it being a restaurant and can you believe it... even a church! Today it serves as an event center where many folks have their wedding receptions....Can you image dancing the night away in a place where such horrific events occurred?
Not me...

Everything's Bigger

Well, they always say "Everything is bigger in Texas"

and that is exactly what we thought arriving at a wedding this weekend.

Don't get me wrong. That is not a criticism. The wedding we attended was very elegant,and tastefully done.

Everything was, well...just bigger

Congratulations to Ellie and Matt!

Pretty Day

We have a whole string of beautiful weather in this week's forecast.

So we headed to the nearby Botanic Gardens, where there are 109 acres to roam freely, 90% of it free of charge. This part of the park is called the Rose Garden. Tragically most of the rose bushes were wiped out by a disease a couple of years ago, but are being replanted.

There weren't very many flowers blooming this early, but it is a wonderful place to walk.

I take that back, there were some early birds,

and some pretty fish, who seemed to think we were going to feed them.

and turtles enjoying the sun too.

We were not alone. Meet Jenna and Phil  longtime friends from Houston. They have also moved to North Texas, although still almost an hours drive away, so we have been meeting once a month for lunch and a nice visit. I hope too that Spring and blue skies are arriving in your area.