Feb 22 Misc shots from the last couple of days

Here are some misc shots from the 18th through day the 22nd of Feb. 

A new place called Cisco Jack's opened around the corner so we thought we would try it out.  The decor is very good, the service was good (but we did get there after the lunch hour), the food was above average but the overall costs were a tad high, but not too high.  Now the only thing that we cannot confirm, is Val got rather sick that night, so we do suspect her plate as being the possible cause but since it was 11+ hours after she we dinned there, it is hard to say for sure.  I felt fine but did not have the same dish as she.  We will try them again but she will not have the chicken salad.  She suspects if it was her dish it might have been that the greens were not well washed as the chicken was done and the temperature was proper.  

I took a walk in the woods behind the house on the 20th.  We had some very strong winds last night and I found all kinds of dead branches downed.  I am trying to figure out if I want to come back here with my chain saw and get some fire wood.  At any rate while walking I found this rather precarious limb just dangling over the path.  I left it this way for now, but I might go back and take it down so no one gets impaled by it if it were to come down.  My attempts without tools proved fruitless at this time.  

Just a couple of doves in the back yard.  

On Friday we went to the Lawn and Garden show in Fort Worth.  We were taking a walk about and found the JFK memorial. 

Some shots looking into down town.  

The Hinde Nature Center soon to open

The last couple of days the back yard has come alive.  I only captured a fraction of the critters. 

Feb 16th

I went and got some firewood yesterday so I decided to clean out the wood storage area behind our screw shed (it has all of the small nuts, bolts, nails, etc - hence its name). 

After blowing out the leaves I found a couple of lizards, which I assume were mom and dad due to their proximity to each other. 

If lizards are like birds, the male being the better looking of the two, than the first shot is of the female. 

The first shot I took with my Samsung Galaxy and second two with my Nikon D3100 with the 55-300 MM lens.

Now for the female all shot with my Samsung Galaxy. 

All remaining shots were with the Samsung Galaxy. 

The next two pictures are before and after wood.  Not so much for the viewing pleasure of the public but for me. 

I know folks were getting tired of my constant frozen pond shots so I did not take any during our last 3 day below freezing spell that made me think that the fish had for sure died.  I was pouring hot buckets of water into the pond for about a day and a half as it got that cold so I thought that alone would shock and kill the fish, but here they are all 6 of them. 

Feb 17th.  Wow did we have the birds and butterflies today.  I saw Cedar Waxwings, Mocking Birds, Cardinals, Slate Buntings, Mocking Birds, Yellow Rump Wablers, Titmouse, Carolina Chickadees, Robin's, and Blue Jays to name a few.

 

Feb 6th, Coldest Feb I can remember in TX.

After watching the news tonight about the weather up north, it is hard for me to complain about our weather but the reason I moved here was to get away from it.  So I will complain, I have two fountains totally shut down and frozen solid.  One above ground pond shut down and quite frozen.  My fish pond, I have not seen them in 3 days so I am not sure about their well being.  I have been poring hot water in the pond since I cannot feed it with fresh water using the hose as it is all frozen up.  Barely keeping things going and right now my neighbor has a broken pipe in the house as it burst from freezing in the wall between his garage and kitchen.  His garage door stopped functioning before this freeze and has been open all through the freeze.  So for us Texan's this sucks.  Now I truly do feel for my northern friends as their temps are life threatening so maybe some of them will move down here and get warmer.  LOL.....

Yesterday was just plain cold but this morning Feb 6th I wake up to this.  All shots on this posting are with my Samsung Galaxy WIFI camera. 

This is the above ground fountain that is now shut down.  When I took this shot it was still running.

The fish pond.  

Two shots of the rail yard.

A few hours later on Feb 6th more snow.  

So much for the little dusting that might happen.  

Of course inside the house we are all warm and fuzzy, but wait, what happened to my spot by the fire.  I think one of them felt guilty for a few seconds. 

Now on to today Feb 7th, ICE around waterfall very heavy.

These shots are upstream from the fish pond.  The water starts here and runs into the fish pond.