I’m nearly to 86K, but spent 3 hours at the pool with my granddaughter. She is learning to swim under the water and so proud of herself. I’m proud of her. So I told her we could spent another hour, instead of our normal 2, there if she really wanted to swim. (Not play on the pool stairs.) I keep hoping the YMCA will open one of these days and we can go there in the winter. They were put off for 2 years I think it was because of Hurricane Harvey destroying 2 others. Then with Covid, they didn’t begin working on ours. They built the tennis courts because they’re out in the open. So I’m hoping they’ll have the Y open one of these years.
Okay, I’m off to walk before it gets too hot, work on the story and hopefully get somewhere with it today. I had a great idea for another scene and I have another idea I want to incorporate for conflict. So I’ll try to work on both of those today.
Sand Crab during the daySand Crab at nightCarolina Anole Dressed in White
And then there was the dangerous wildlife we had to avoid, blue and purple flags warning everyone, and red flags were flying for strong currents.
Portuguese Man-of-War
The girl under the umbrella next to us fished out 2 more while she’d been in the water. I picked one up when I was a young girl vacationing with my parents in Florida, thought it was a purple balloon, went into shock, hands swelled up 3 times their normal size, ran a fever and chills and of course, it hurt lots!
We had a blast at South Padre Island! It was cooler than home, which is getting to 106 heat index daily!
Off to work. I’ve been pulling out tomato plants that flower and never fruit. The other tomato plants next to them need the water.
It was so much fun seeing all the birds at the birding center, but some of them were actually sitting on the railings of the boardwalk making it the best for picture taking. Except for the busy backgrounds in a couple of them. So I added texture backgrounds. We were able to get really close to them before they moved too.
Well, I finished proofing Silence of the Wolf and SEAL to the Rescue, so will be turning them in momentarily. And now it’s time to write those Christmas stories!!!
*sigh*
I’ve started the novella 3 times. I’m going to pull out the different versions and then just run with one of them.
Hope you all have a fantastic day! I have to start feeling Christmas in July!
Man was I tired yesterday. You know how they say you need to have a day break from work after a trip to recuperate from the vacation, well, it’s true! Little one and I started on a rainbow sewing project. She has a cloud, two unicorns, and can’t remember what else to sew. I have to help with it, but she’s loving it. We still have to finish the rainbow too.
I managed only to take care of two things that had come up while I was gone. I need to work on proofing Silence of the Wolf, but with my granddaughter here until late, I just couldn’t manage. So after I get groceries tomorrow, I’ll have to get to work on it. I discovered, when I went to get her some milk, mine had gone bad!
I did work on some of the photos when I had time, so here is a Green Heron and its baby chick. This was at the Birding and Nature Center on South Padre Island. The heron was on the railing of the boardwalk and I had taken several pictures of him/her, momma or daddy, and then saw something small move on the reeds next to the water down below. I captured a couple of shots before the baby moved into the grasses and hid its face. So cute.
I didn’t manage to get to the 5 story tower there, but we walked all over the boardwalks for 2 hours after already having a long day of it at the beach. Just too much fun! And I was in hog heaven being able to take pictures of the birds and alligators, turtles, crabs, and a bunny rabbit. Oh, and barn owl and tortoises. It would have been even better if it had been overcast, but you have to do what you have to do.
Now I want to go to the birding boardwalk we’re supposed to have around here. I’ll have to check into it. But I’ll want to go when it’s not so beastly hot.
Have a beautiful day. I’ve got to get going on mine!
This was the first time my son-in-law had been. My granddaughter had never been to a beach before or seen the ocean. (Gulf of Mexico). It’s not a horribly long drive–about 7 hours, but we had to add to the time with gas stops, bathroom stops, baby feeding and diaper changing stops. We were only 2 cars away from a horrible 18-wheeler accident. I was sitting in the way back so didn’t see it. My son-in-law had to swerve to miss the guy slamming on his brakes in front of him, and then the 3 vehicles pulled over, but since none of us in our car had seen what had happened, and with a baby and 4 year old in the car, we waited while the men in the two trucks ahead of us got out and were pulling the driver out of the overturned cab. The traffic was going through still and the emergency vehicles were on their way and we continued on ours.
Just phone picture crossing bridge to South Padre Island
On the way down, we were delayed by an accident on the bridge to the island. Driving 9 miles took an hour. I can’t even imagine how they could have removed the wrecked cars on that high bridge.
This is the first vacation we’d had in 2 years because of COVID.
On the way home, we ran into torrential thunderstorms and I can never understand how some people won’t turn on their lights! Don’t they know that the visibility is so bad that other cars can’t see them? It’s not so much that they can see better on the road!
Anyway, we’re home and I have to take care of little one today instead of on Thursday. She had a little too much sun. She was absolutely fearless in the water when it can be so dangerous. Tidal pull was strong, but it was shallow a long ways out, so I pulled her on a boogie board through the water, held the board while she stood up on it, and then took her to the drop off where other kids were sitting in the shallows and she was doing that.
Then there was the shark trough. That’s what I think of it because of the Cape Canaveral Beach in Florida where they closed it to the military servicemen. They had so many shark attacks in that trough before the sandbar and this looked just like it.
We walked 2 miles to a Italian ice cream shop. I ended up carrying my granddaughter about 3/4 miles of the trip and daddy and mommy carried her the rest of the time. We needed her stroller. She had walked all over the boardwalks earlier that day at the Birding Center. And of course for hours at the beach. So she just couldn’t make it.
Thunderstorms we ran into on way home.
Okay, little one will be here momentarily. Trying to download my pictures since 4th of July. And I have a book to proof, Silence of the Wolf, and a red hat society bear to make. I need to pick up the dogs at 1. So another crazy day, though I was ready to just chill and wash and such!
