Saturday 20 December 2008

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Gordon and I went out around noon to get our Christmas photos taken. We do this every year and post it on our blogs as our Christmas card. So, Merry Christmas everyone!

This morning was very humid. It was 84% humidity inside the RV. As the day progressed the wind picked up. We had sun and cloud off and on all day. I think our high today was about 71F (22C) but there's supposed to be a cold front coming in for the next couple of days. Anyway, we're enjoying the weather we've been having.



Here's a aerial photo that Gordon took of the campground a couple of weeks ago.

I put in a load of laundry this afternoon as well as some of our baseball caps. Two of them unfortunately bit the dust and now I need to replace my denim Florida hat that I bought our first year on the road for $4.95. Oh well, other hats and more places! When I was walking back from doing the laundry I met the lady that we sat with at the Thanksgiving potluck. Her husband is 90 years old and is blind and nearly deaf so she enjoys getting out and walking around and talking to people. She's a really cheerful sort and we talked for about 1/2 hour.

At 5:30 p.m. we went over the the rec hall for our shrimp dinner that the campground was putting on. It was soooo good. We had boiled fresh shrimp, pork roast, cabbage salad, corn on the cob and baked potatoes. I am absolutely stuffed! I've never been at a campground where they feed you so much and free!

The end of another beautiful day on the Texas Gulf Coast!

Friday 19 December 2008

Just Another Day!

Today was mostly cloudy and 71F (22C). With the weather that's happening up north, I can't complain about some cloud.

I did my usual walk and on my way I dropped my grapes off at the rec hall. Lots of people are dropping goodies off. After lunch I went back and had a banana nut bar. It was yummy!

This morning I sat outside and read and listened to the breeze blow through the palm trees. This afternoon we drove over along Matagorda Bay just for something to do.

Little blue heron

Fishermen on Matagorda Bay

Roseate spoonbills

In flight

Some sort of palm


When we came back we stopped at the rec hall and were invited to a shrimp dinner tomorrow night. We don't have to bring anything. You sure don't go hungry around here!

Thursday 18 December 2008

A Little Diversion From the Usual

I woke up to more fog but warmer temperatures. It was 60F (16C) at 8:15 a.m. Gordon said the fog was really thick when he went out for sunrise.

After my morning exercise and breakfast, I went out for a walk around the campground to take some photos and to see if the mail was in yet. The owner, Delmar, had asked me if Gordon wanted to go out in the boat this morning but he was taking a nap and by the time he got up the wind had picked up so it wasn't a good day.

This is where I do my morning stretches.

Our RV is the first one on the left

This egret was trying to keep out of the wind


They're building a new pier here at the campground

Picnic structures along Matagorda Bay. We took the scenic way into town.


Instead we traveled north of Port Lavaca to the Formosa-Tejano Wetlands. We saw a few geese but they took off and one heron but he was too far away. We see more birds in our little area than we saw there.

A sign at the wetlands - we didn't see any of either


Part of the wetlands

These cows were across the road from the wetlands and very curious about us

A pretty scene that we saw on the way home


On the way back, we stopped at HEB so I could pick up more nectarines. They had them yesterday and even though they were 3.99/lb I had to buy more.

I had some stale bread around so we stopped as well at the Little Chocolate Bayou park to feed the ducks and geese. They didn't seem terribly interested. I've never seen that before. They must be fed elsewhere and weren't terribly hungry.

Feeding the ducks and geese


Has anyone ever been in an RV park where the owner gave them a wrapped Christmas gift? We got one today from Delmar and Bobbie. We're keeping it to open at Christmas. That is so nice of them!

I've been having a lot of problems with my reflux disease for the past couple of weeks. I've been eating a lot of grapes and now I find out that grapes are probably not good if you have reflux. Now what do I do with all the grapes?

Although it was mostly cloudy with some sunny breaks and windy today we reached 80F (27C)!

Wednesday 17 December 2008

A Day in Port Lavaca

Today was warmer - 61F (16C) but cloudy and very foggy over the water as you will see from some photos I took today.

This is a pelican on the rail in the water, note you can't see much behind the pelican due to the fog.


After my morning walk/run and breakfast, I piddled around, had a shower and got ready to go into Port Lavaca for groceries and water. I took my time getting that done and managed to spend about four hours in town. I picked up the fluorescent light bulbs we had ordered last week at Ace Hardware, looked around Family Dollar and Bealls but didn't buy anything. I got some groceries at HEB and find that a lot of their prices are better than Walmart. Then off to Walmart to get what I didn't at HEB including water. I like Culligan water so go to Walmart if possible for that.

On my way home, I stopped at the pier in Port Lavaca to take a photo to show how foggy it was over the water and also stopped along Matagorda Bay.

This cute little bird was scurrying along the pier in town

The pier with fog over the water

These terns have really pretty polka dot tails

A loon on Matagorda Bay

Now I can relax and enjoy the nice weather that's supposed to be here tomorrow.

Tuesday 16 December 2008

Brrrrrrr......

It was coooold today! This is the coldest day we've had since we arrived here. The highest temperature we saw today was 40F (5C). The warm up is supposed to start tomorrow and it looks to be fairly warm for the foreseeable future although these two cold days weren't in the forecast a few days ago so who knows! Certainly not the weathermen.

After layering up this morning and going out for my exercise, I spent all morning on the internet or playing Majongh, then moved to the couch this afternoon to read and be warm under my electric throw, had a nap and that took up the afternoon.

I put together a turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner.

Today's photo is yesterday morning's sunrise taken by Gordon.

Monday 15 December 2008

Back to Cold Weather!

We've slept with the windows in the bedroom open for the last two nights. Today that will come to an end. Our high today was 63F (17C) when I got up and around 9:30 a.m. the winds changed and started coming from the north again. It was cloudy and a bit foggy over the water as I went out for my exercise. Just as I was coming back three sandhill cranes flew over the campground. They are easy to identify because they're so large but also because of their distinctive trilling sound that they make. I haven't been carrying my camera on my morning walks and they were probably too high in the sky anyway but it sure was nice to see them. Every once in a while I see a couple of roseate spoonbills fly over as well. They are always herons, egrets and pelicans around.

Sandhill cranes



The temperature dropped 13 degrees in about 1/2 hour this morning so time to put away the short sleeves and get out the sweatshirts again!

Today is my sister's 65th birthday. They're in Las Vegas this week so I called her at her hotel to wish her a Happy Birthday! They're having a good time but they're forecasting snow there. Snow in Las Vegas? Anyway, Happy Birthday Betty! Photo taken this summer at the cottage.

This afternoon I spent laying on the couch, reading. I finished one book and started another one today. Around 4 p.m. Gordon and I went out for a little walk. The pole sitter (pelican) was sitting on his favourite pole in the bay, there was a little grebe swimming around and a snowy egret on one of the docks. While we were standig there, the sandhill cranes flew over again. The owner came out of the rec hall and said that they live a few doors up from us. Guess that's why they're around so often!

Pole sitter


Pole sitter about to take flight


Just to let you know, Jenny, we're blaming this latest cold snap on you since you said on Facebook you were sending your rotten weather south!

Sunday 14 December 2008

Another Day at Home

It was warmer today with a high of about 75F (24C). Other than that it was mostly cloudy. It was 66F (19C) when I got up around 8:15 a.m. but the wind has been relentless all day just calming down a bit around sunset.

I sat outside for a while this morning in the wind to let my hair dry before getting out the curling iron.

I accomplished a little more today than yesterday in that I got the laundry done. Because the laundry room only has two washers and two dryers it takes longer so I spent three hours there today. I like to have all my clothes clean at once so it took three loads. I should have stripped the bed to make it an even four loads but didn't have that much energy. There was also someone there when I arrived so had to wait for washers and dryers as well but not it's done for the next couple of weeks.

When I got back I was tired, so lay down in bed to read and had a nap.

I'm borrowing a photo from Gordon today as I didn't take any. This one is 'sunrise at Matagorda Bay' which is just a couple of miles from where we're camped.