Winter again

Hard to believe it has been more than a year since the last post to this blog. It is winter again and the days are either cold & rainy or sunshiny & beautiful. We are grateful for every drop of rain!
The puppy of a couple of years ago is now a 70-pounder with an amazing bark and terrific hearing.
He still does his "coyote howl" when he gets lonesome. Or maybe it's the fire station siren, less than a mile away.

How nice that it is not 105 degrees any more! Fall came, and now winter. It will be interesting to see what the weather of the next 2 months is like.

Bluebonnet season!

The bluebonnets are blooming! Spring has come to Central Texas, and after the rains we've had, the bluebonnets are just gorgeous! Along with spring comes the annual chore of raking leaves. That's right, leaf raking in the spring. Because we have a variety of oak called "live oak," the leaves fall in the spring when the new ones push the old ones off the tree. Although I rake & bag these for gardening use, they're not that great as mulch because the leaves are very leathery. I do put some of them in the compost pile just for something different. Last night, I raked & bagged 6 bags of leaves.

Spring!

After last week's snow, it's hard to believe that spring seems to be on the way. Cold morning temps give way to lovely sunny afternoons. The scattered rain of yesterday was much needed. My dog had a good walk when I got home; we would have walked longer had the winds not been blowing us off course.

Winter weather

We are watching the weather closely this week. With trips planned to the north & west of here on Wednesday, I wish it were not threatening sleet.

Twelve puppies came into the world 2 weeks ago. They are beautiful and soft. A few are starting to open their eyes.

Puppies!

I think I'm feeling like a grandmother! My son called & said his Golden Retriever was giving birth today! Three puppies have been born so far. My Golden Retriever is the papa. If I can perform a miracle, puppy photos will appear on my blog soon.

New Year, fresh start

It has been a year since I started 23 Things for the first time. A lot has happened; reading over past blog posts made me realize that. The puppy has grown into a beautiful dog; my son's female dog is going to give birth soon to new puppies. We had a summer of drought, rain this fall, and some incredibly cold winter temperatures. This "January thaw" (as one of my professors used to call the warm temps that sometimes come this time of year) is enjoyable.

Winter storm on the way

It's interesting to see the passage of storms across Texas. Today the temperature is in the teens & single digits in the Panhandle, while in Austin, it's in the 60s. Over in Burnet, the temp is in the 40s.

Books are fun to read when it's too cold to do anything else. I particularly like this title: Why People Believe Weird Things. Why, indeed!