A Day in Fredericksburg Texas - Part 2 (Inside, where it was warm!)

Fredericksburg is only an hour or so away from Austin. 

Go by way of bus with a dozen other realtors and that hour passes fast... 

...especially if most of them are women! 

We slipped into this little restaurant on the main street for a coffee to-go. 

Ammunition against the freezing temperature and brisk wind outside.

All of the shops are inside historic buildings and show off the great architectural details. 

I should have bought this for my son and daughter-in-law.

I hope they're happy with just a photo of it.

Look who's keeping an eye on the store in Dogologie!

Stylishly bundled up against the cold.

Precious!

Embroidered boots! How do they do that?

If I hadn't just bought a pair of boots... 

(and if I had an extra few hundred bucks lying around...) 

Hmmmm....makes you think.

When in a German town, you have to drink a German beer...

My view as I ate my Reuben sandwich (and drank my German beer.)

More of our group wandered in later...

This unique stair railing graced the inside of one of the shops...

Such a cute idea!

On the way home, we stopped at Messina Hof winery for a tasting...

It was the perfect way to spend a winter day in Texas...

...although, honestly, Fredericksburg is great in any season!

Day 23: Today I'm grateful for...

Each day of November, I've been posting something I'm grateful for on Facebook. 

I've already said "my morning walks" so today I thought I'd elaborate.

Today I'm grateful for...

...rain and raindrops...

...morning walks with my puppies and clear pools in too-long-dry creek beds...

...autumn colors...

...and my home in the Hollow.

"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used one to say "thank you?" " 

~William A. Ward

Frisky!

Temperatures have dropped. 

The sky is clear...the the most perfect blue. 

All of the Hollow shimmers in golden sunlight. 

Autumn is here, along with the its energizing magic that turns old dogs back into puppies, despite their wobbly legs and achy hips.

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, 

but he will make a fool of himself too.  

~Samuel Butler, Notebooks, 1912

Belle, the Flying Puppy

"A dog is one of the remaining reasons why some people can be persuaded to go for a walk."

~O.A. Battista

At the end of our road is a patch of tall grass. 

I'm not sure what's living in it, but Belle is determined to catch one. 

I wrote about trying to catch her mid-jump on Long Hollow a few weeks ago and shared some of the efforts. 

But this week I finally caught her flying, with all four paws off the ground.

Now...how am I going to capture her from the front?

From Random Mornings in July

Because of work, real estate school, and our recent string of rainy days (hallelujah!), I haven't been taking as many photographs. 

But I do have a growing collection of random morning shots I've been wanting to share with you... 

This is a common sight on our walks.

Max is a water dog, but Belle loves dirt. Every soft patch of caliche we come to...which means every few feet... she plops down and wallows, dragging her nose through it, rolling on her back, pawing...with a look of pure joy on her face. 

Inevitably, a line from Monty Python's "Search for the Holy Grail" pops in my mind: "There's some lovely filth down here, Dennis!"

(If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click on the link and watch the video. I'll warn you, though...it's pure sillines!)

This is a section of our driveway, about an eighth of the total length.

See the rock piled on either side? 

Tom's been collecting them for ages now for his current project: paving the entire driveway. 

. 

A few morning pinks still dot the Hollow.

They're a great illustration for "Bloom where God plants you", aren't they?

Why are they so afraid of me?

Silly doves.

I cut my leg on a barbed wire fence when I was six. 

So it's kind of weird that I still love them, isn't it?

One morning the cardinals carried on a long conversation all around me. 

I could hear one near me and finally tracked him to the top of this tree, singing his heart out.   

I spotted this handsome frog down by our little pond. 

He's definitely not alone, though. Last night there was a wild frog ruckus going on down there, celebrating all the rain we've gotten lately. 

It's hard to believe such a tiny thing can be so loud!

Tom's mermaid, who lives in the little pond, catching some morning sun rays.

No, I'm not jealous.

Well, maybe just a little.

I hope you enjoyed the walk through my Hollow! 

I'm very grateful I have the chance almost every morning to enjoy the beauty around us.

In every walk with nature one receives fare more than he seeks. 

~John Muir

P.S. Please keep my parents in your thoughts and prayers. They're both in the hospital right now.

  Thank you!

Walking along a dirt road in April

Just about every morning, rain or shine, I take a walk down my dirt road with my puppies. 

Unless it's raining, I have my camera and my eyes are constantly searching for something to shoot...a new flower, an interesting weed, or merely the play of light on a leaf.

When I find it - whatever "it" is - Belle and Max wait patiently while I examine the something from every angle through my lens. 

They are so good.

You can imagine how many photos I have, then, if every morning I take between two and twenty. 

During busy times, I might not even glance twice at the photos, much less edit them or post them on my blog. 

There just aren't enough minutes in the day for that.

But there are (almost) always enough minutes to take a walk on a dirt road before the day gets swept away. 

(By the way, I apologize for being AWOL from your blogs. My son's wedding is fast approaching and I've been focusing on those last to-do's for it. Thanks for popping by to see me anyway - I miss you all!)

(One more thing...my photos are a mess. How do you organize yours?)

Linking (for the last time!) with
Lissa's Walk and Click