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On this page, I want to include pictures that I want to keep in this album but which don't correlate directly to some trip or event. The pictures will simply be in chronological order.
March 30: The Birds and the Berries
Today, I happened to notice some activity out on the patio, so I went to get my camera to record it.
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Mystery solved.
April 24: Roses in Bloom
A few years ago, Fred planted three rose bushes in the island behind the garage- where the large crepe myrtle tree has been since I moved here.
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The rose is a David Austin rose named "Molineux"- a peach and apricot color and a prodigious bloomer.
It seems as if they get more prolific year by year, but that's probably just my imagination.
May 1: Landscape Changes
My next-door neighbor Cynthia and I are working up a plan to redo the landscaping in front of our two townhomes. My Indian Hawthorne is just about dead, the two tall trees in front of my bay window have become permanently unruly, and we have something of a drainage problem. Of course, this being an Association, we can't get very far away from the plant palette that's used throughout the property, but we've gotten Board permission to put together a plan. The two pictures below were taken elsewhere on the property, and we are using them to pick new plants in the same families as the ones already in use here:
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We'll be using these plants (minus the roses) as a basis, but adding in groundcover, a large oak-leaf hydrangea, and some variegated lariope to border the walks. We are finalizing the plan, and anticipating approval and an eventual fall installation.
May 4: On the University Crossing Trail
You may have already read my mentions of the Katy Trail where Fred and I ride bikes occasionally; it begins on the west side of Central Expressway just south of Mockingbird and runs all the way south to downtown, coming to an end right by the American Airlines Center.
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Marked in yellow, on the other side of Central Expressway, is the University Crossing Trail, a paved walking/biking trail that begins at Glencoe Park, just opposite the top of the Katy Trail, and extends for a couple of miles northward- usually staying fairly close to the DART Light Rail track that extends north to Plano.
For years, there has been talk of actually connecting the Katy Trail to the White Rock Lake trail system, but this trail doesn't achieve that goal. If you want to get from the top of the Katy Trail to the south end of the University Crossing Trail, you have to actually get off a dedicated trail and onto city streets to cross over Central Expressway- thus exposing you to actual vehicular traffic.
Just north of the marked yellow University Crossing Trail shown on the aerial view at left, there is a branch of the trail that heads east towards White Rock Lake, but it doesn't go directly there, instead taking a circuitous route north and east to finally join the trail that heads north from White Rock Lake. It joins this trail at the intersection of Northwest Highway and Lawther Drive, and thus you can now go from the American Airlines Center all the way to Richardson with only two short forays out onto city streets.
Fred currently has his bike at his house, but when he brings it back down here, we will have to go and check out this route; previously, we had to carry our bikes over to White Rock Lake. Now, apparently, we can ride them there. Anyway, here are four pictures we took today on the short stretch of the University Crossing Trail as it goes over a "signature" bridge at Mockingbird lane:
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 Our Group on the Trail |
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May 9: Our Last Symphony of the Season
I don't take many pictures at the Symphony, mostly because all you can photograph is before or after. Tonight, we are going to a Thursday performance, even though our usual tickets are on Friday. When I switched tickets to bring Cynthia and Richard, they didn't have Friday, so Thursday it was. I have a short movie and two stills to include here.
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July 1: The San Antonio Crowd Joins Us at Denny and Larry's
Fred and I have been to see Larry and Denny in their new home in Leander a couple times now, and they have asked us to invite Ron, Prudence, Nancy, Karl, and Guy to come see the house and visit. Today, they have done so. We ourselves are on our way down to San Antonio, but will spend the night with Larry and Denny after the others return to San Antonio, joining them there tomorrow.
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The folks from San Antonio were suitably impressed, and during the afternoon Larry and Denny were wonderful hosts to all of us. We spent a great deal of time sitting out on their balcony overlooking the canyon behind their home before we all drove southeast to the east shore of Lake Travis to the Oasis Restaurant- an institution overlooking the lake.
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The restaurant was first built in 1982 by Houston entrepreneur Beau Theriot, who purchased a 500-acre ranch overlooking the lake and converted it into the current multi-use venue. When Grant and I moved to Dallas in 1985, we visited Lake Travis another of times, and I recalled eating a few times at the Oasis. But after my business interests in the area ended, it was not until today that we came back again.
On the morning of June 1, 2005, a lightning strike ignited a fire which consumed much of the property. Parts of the facility that were not damaged were reopened within weeks, and other parts were rebuilt. By 2008, an expanded Oasis was back in business.
When we arrived at the restaurant, we came in through the main entrance, found the hostess, and pretty quickly were seated at a table large enough for all of us.
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While we were waiting for our dinner to arrive, I took my phone out onto one of the balconies and took a series of five pictures of the view of Lake Travis from the Oasis. Stitching them together, here is the result:
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You may wonder what that hand is sticking out from one of the terraces at the upper right; I did, too, and so walked to a different vantage point so I could see what is was. It's a woman taking a swan dive- presumably into the lake. That was just one piece of eclectic sculpture and decoration found throughout the Oasis- inside and outside. I took quite a few photos after dinner and before we left, and here are some of those pictures:
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We had a great dinner before Denny, Larry, Fred, and I returned to their house and the San Antonio crowd headed back down there. We thank Ron and Prudence for the dinner, and Larry and Denny for their hospitality.
August 4: Fred's Birthday
We used to do birthday parties fairly regularly, but these days we don't seem to. But this year, Fred turns 65, and I wanted to mark the occasion. I invited most of our friends to dinner at Celebration Restaurant, and then we adjourned back to our house for cake and cards.
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Returning to the house, Fred got the chance to open his cards and cut into his cake. I use cakes in this album to record people's ages, and these two pictures are another example:
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September 7: In San Antonio
We took a quick trip down to San Antonio in early September for a late celebration of Prudence's birthday and an early celebration of Nancy's. Other than spending two birthday dinner's out, and having a cake for Prudence and Nancy, we didn't do much but hang out at the gallery and go for walks with Guy.
September 30: New Landscaping at 7011 and 7015
It is finally time to get rid of the two unruly trees outside my bay window that I planted more than fifteen years ago, and take out the Indian Hawthorne that has begun to die off. I am doing this in conjunction with my neighbor, Cynthia, whose own front landscaping is really showing its age. We have gotten Board permission for the plants we want to put in, which will be much lower than what is there now. We are also putting in additional sprinklers to keep it watered. The trees are already gone, but today I took three pictures after the old bushes were removed, the area prepared, and some of the new plants put in:
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Next year, when things have begun to fill in, I will take some more pictures.
October 4: Fred's Mom Has a Fall
I may have mentioned before in this album that Fred's Mom was still living on her own in DeLeon, southwest of Fort Worth. Fred visits every two weeks or so to keep her fridge full and make sure she is OK. But yesterday, Fred got a call from his aunt that in response to now getting his mom on the phone for some time, they had driven out to her house to find that she had fallen and could not get up. At their age, they could not get her up either, and so they called 9-1-1 and she was taken to the local hospital.
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Fred happened to be at my house when his aunt called, and he departed immediately for DeLeon. I followed shortly thereafter, and we met at the hospital late in the evening. Fred's mom's fall was terribly serious, but she had fractured her hip, and so she was admitted to the hospital and was there for some days while she recovered from the operation to do the repair. We remained in DeLeon while Fred's Mom was in the hospital, and while she was there, I made the first two movies (and the above pictures are only the second and third) I've ever gotten of Fred's mom. They are not particularly interesting, and I include them here only because they are the only ones I have.
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While Fred's Mom was in the regional hospital, we did take the time to go back to her house and get some things she would need and also just check and make sure everything was OK. I have been inside the house only once, briefly, many years ago, so this was the first time I got to see most of the inside.
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The A-frame is located outside DeLeon, off a county road and right behind a pecan orchard. Situated on family owned land, the tract used to be eighteen hundred acres, but many years ago the government exercised its right of eminent domain to take about fourteen hundred of those acres to build a new reservoir lake- Lake Proctor. Fred's Mom now lives on thirty acres on the south side of the lake, and she and her sister lease the remaining acres on the north side of the lake for farming.
If you want to see the inside and outside of the house, feel free to look at the slideshow. Just click on the image at left and it will come up in a new window. You can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each slide to move from one picture to the next.
This incident was a watershed for Fred's Mom. It was now apparent that she could no longer live on her own, by herself for weeks at a time; another fall would be almost inevitable. So Fred and I went to Stephenville, the closest large town, as well as some other places near DeLeon, to find a retirement or nursing home that could take his mom. We finally found a very nice place in Stephenville, and at the end of Fred's Mom's hospital stay, the nursing home picked her up and she was esconced in her own room at the home. Fred was conflicted about all this, but having been through the same thing with my own Mom, I pointed out that this was the best- and safest- thing for her.
October 11: Fred's Mom In Her New Home
In conjunction with Tommye's fall, Fred and I have been back to DeLeon and Stephenville a few times, and today we are here at the nursing home where his Mom is now.
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At the moment, Tommye is basically more comfortable in bed, still healing from her surgery. But I can report that subsequently she has been able to get up and around (although being the loner she has always been doesn't necessarily mean that she is walking around talking with other residents and staff). All in all, and even though many people have negative impressions of nursing homes, this is a pretty nice one, and Mrs. Nabors is now in a safe place.
That concludes the miscellaneous pictures for 2019.
You can use the link below to return to the index for 2019.
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