The Gift

Tom received a gift this week. A birthday present from his daughter in Atlanta. She had a friend, who is a graduate student at Georgia Tech, do a drawing of the little town in Colorado where we spend the summer. We were both very pleased with it and have already hung it on the wall.

The Great Train Wreck

 I will warn you now...this is rather long.....

In both the Spring and Fall, when we are in Texas, Tom and I are enrolled in non credit fun courses (three each) at the local university (TCU). This  program also allows us to attend six lectures, three of which are luncheon lectures. 

One of the lectures that I signed up for was The Great Train Wreck of 1918. It sounded rather intriguing since I am a bit of a history buff....and I must admit I do like old trains.

I was rather delighted when I walked in,and saw that the instructor was dressed as an old time train engineer! I say instructor because not all of the courses are taught by professors. If you have a passion or a great knowledge of most anything, you are welcome to give a lecture or even teach a 4 week class.

Mr. Clark didn't know anything about this subject himself until he was tracing his ancestors, and found himself in the state of Tennessee. He thrilled to find that the old log cabin of his GG-Grandfather was still standing and had been  restored. The new owner showed him around the property, which by chance had a small family cemetery on it. Mr. Clark was amazed to find that most all of the names matched up with the names on his newly completed family tree. He inquired about the numerous graves that had just blocks of  blank cement for headstones. He was told these were Negros that died in the Great Train Wreck of 1918 and had never been identified. His ancestor had allowed them to be buried on his property. Hence his research began.

I will not bore you with what all I learned about this wreck where over 100 people died, but if you would like to read Wikipedia's description yourself go HERE. I will tell you that the Mr. Clark in his research met up with the great grandson of one of the Engineer's on one of those ill fated trains and that gentleman attended his lecture here in Ft. Worth!

Obsolete

Okay, seems I do not have much to blog about at the moment....but here I am anyway!

This post is about a prized possession. Yep, I am talking about my travel alarm clock that must be at least twenty years old. Years ago when my youngest daughter was graduating from high school I was so tickled with myself that I had found the perfect party favor for her graduation party. I was going to gift each kid that was going out into the great wide world a travel alarm clock.That is until she told me that no one used these anymore ... instead they set their phones to wake them up.

I argued the cuteness of this little gadget and how folded up... it took up no room. Didn't work. I returned them for a refund

Well I still use mine, especially since when I leave my cell phone on the bedside table I seem to get some random text at 2am shaking me from a sound sleep. My little friend here just sits there quietly and can always be trusted to wake me up at the assigned time (provided the batteries are working),

and like a phone, you can hold down the gray bar on the top and it lights up and so you can see the time. I even use it as sort of flashlight light ...lighting the way to the bathroom. I also like that it doesn't stay lit (unless you are holding down the bar). The first thing I do in a hotel room is put a towel over the clock in the room. ...since I like to sleep in complete darkness. So there you have it, one of my prized possessions that I never leave home without.

Do you have something that always travels with you?

* oh...and I promise to get out there soon and take some blog pictures :)

 

A Dream Comes True

Fort Worth will unveil a new very special playground in a couple of weeks in Trinity Park.

It will be called Dream Park and with good reason. It has been the dream of three area women who have worked tirelessly and have raised approximately three million dollars to provide a playground for children of all abilities.

I went to the park to see how it was coming along. The area still had a fence around it and workmen scurrying about to finish it.

I am not sure how all of the equipment works, but I understand the swings will have a harness for children who need extra  upper body support,

and somewhere out there is a seesaw for children who are normally in a wheelchair.

I do know that the playground will be open to all children and will be free. Great job ladies and the City of Ft. Worth!

Miracles Do Happen

As some of you know, we live in the Colorado mountains in the summer, but rarely go there anymore in the winter. Last winter the little town nestled at nearly 9,000 feet in the San Juan Mountain range had only a few inches of snow. So this year it was a surprise when the snow kept coming, and coming and coming. Early on Sunday morning, a week ago a devastating avalanche happened.

 It was sometime before 7am that a mountain of snow swept down of this unsuspecting beautiful home and barn of our sheriff ...about twelve miles south of town. He and his teenage girls never knew what hit them.

 This photo is a picture of the remains of the house and barn. BUT miraculously all inside survived. The father was able to swim his way out of the snow and reach his truck containing his radio equipment and call for help. Hearing the screams of his older daughter, he somehow dug her out after 45 mins. Help arrived and the younger daughter was located a hour after the slide and miraculously was alive.

 I am happy to report that all three have been released from the hospital and are in the caring arms of our little town.

Photos and story credit: to local news reports

and E. Chlamers

Winter/Spring

Parts of our country are still experiencing winter, especially the little town we spend the summer in in Colorado. They have had several avalanches this week. The Sheriff's home was swept away by one at 6am on Sunday morning. He and his two teenage daughters were injured, one daughter had to be dug out by rescue teams. I am happy to report that all three were released from the hospital today.

This is the pedestrian bridge over the river, that goes over to our neighborhood.

Meanwhile, here is Texas, I am happy to report that Spring has arrived.

I hope that you too are experiencing beautiful weather.

photo credit snow pictures: C. Palmer

Oh No!

My husband has been so proud of our piracantha bushes that have been trained on brick walls by our front entrance,

 and also in our courtyard. The term to describe this is an espalier, which means to train a bush or vine on a wall.

. In the Spring the piracantha vines have fragrant white flowers for a couple of weeks....and in then Fall these beautiful red berries that last all winter.
 

  click on photo to enlarge

Well, this morning he was horrified to look out and see a flock of birds devouring his berries! He banged on the window, and even went out the door to yell at them.

which only caused the to seek shelter in a nearby large tree to await his absence...so they could return to their feast. I have tried to convince him that this is nature's way.To no avail.... Poor Tom.

Warmer

Yes, the cold spell here is over. That is what is nice about living in Texas. The cold weather doesn't last long.

 So, this is obviously not Texas. It a picture of an avalanche in Lake City Colorado, which is where our summer home is. Matter of fact, this slide which was a couple of days ago was a little too close to home. Our street is just below this. Colorado has had, and is still having record snowfalls with several avalanches reports and many road closures.

Fort Worth though is warm and beautiful. Tom's back is still ailing him, so instead of going for a walk, we went for a drive. We hadn't been on this nearby street and marveled at the huge Live Oak Trees.

Looks like the neighborhood is proud of them too since it left this one right in the middle of the street. I have seen this done before, but in a very small town. Can you imagine driving along here at night, or having to back out of one of those driveways?!! Just wondering, would this be allowed in your town?

Avalanche photo credit: Schyular Denham

Brrrr

Don't know about you, but I am ready for Spring weather.

This was our temperature this morning which is I think -6 in Celsius

I felt sorry for these pansies (which probably could have handled the cold) and brought them in last night. They belong in those black pots on the patio.

Has it started warming up where you are? My friend Donna who reads this and doesn't comment is still down in Anguilla...lucky duck!

At Last!

One shock that foreign visitors have when coming to the U.S. is our lack of (in some places) public transportation. Let's say you fly into the International Airport (DFW) serving both Dallas and Ft. Worth, which is approximately midway between the two cities., and you wanted to go to downtown Ft. Worth roughly twenty two miles away. The choices were few.

WELL that all changed January of this year

when the Texrail train made it maiden voyage from terminal B at the DFW airport to downtown Ft. Worth and points in between!.

Tom and I decided on Saturday that we would give it trial run. You can depart from several stations in Ft. Worth.

We caught the train at the TP staion at the bottom left of the chart,

 buying our ticket from this ticket machine. We are not use to ticket machines so it took us more time than most folks, but we finally figured it out. The trains depart the TP station hourly twenty five minutes after the hour.

Since the service is very new and also because it was Saturday...there were very few passengers on the pretty comfortable very clean  train cars. There were electrical outlets at each seat for charging your devices

and even a few seats with tables where you could work. On each train there is a car marked "quiet car" so if you are really trying to work (or sleep) that you will not be bothered by noisy passengers.
Gosh that landscape out the window looks a bit like we are on the moon!

There were several stops along the way. I didn't time them but none of them seemed more than about three mins.

and yes we felt safe.

The train ride is about twenty mins. longer than driving, but gosh it is 100% less stressful and we do plan to us it next time we catch a flight! Round trip cost  $5.00 pp

Birds

I so enjoy taking pictures of animals when I move to our mountain home in the summer. It isn't long after I arrive that the Steller's Jays arrive on the deck posts outside of my window....asking for food....and before the summer is over their whole families seem to arrive!

 This looks like the post on my deck but it isn't. This picture was taken this week....and surprisingly, these birds do not migrate, so they are looking for food all winter. I wish I had a pretty Aspen tree outside of my window.
To learn more about the Steller's Jays....go HERE

photo credit: Stephanie Robinson