While in San Antonio for my mom's funeral, I did take some time to do some 'tourist' activities after the funeral and reception were over.

On Friday evening, my older sister, BIL and I went down to the Riverwalk.  We had a nice boat ride followed by dinner.

On Saturday afternoon, my younger sister and I went to the Witte Museum (pronounce witt-ee).  They had several interesting exhibits.  They had a VERY informative exhibit on Darwin.  Among other things, I didn't realize that he didn't start publishing his findings until 20 years after his voyage on the Beagle. 

We also saw a fun exhibit.  Every year (I think) San Antonio puts on a Fiesta with a Royal Court.  The members of the court have very elaborate costumes.  Here are some examples:

The museum was also doing some outdoor activities to celebrate the opening of the new wing dedicated to Texas Heritage.  One of the performers was Kevin Kirkpatrick who is a trick roper.  Here are some photos of him in action.  They look kinda tame, but he did some fairly complicated tricks that I was not able to capture on my camera.

It was a nice ending to a sad weekend.

Papillon

My Mom's Funeral

We buried my mom this past Friday.  It was a sad event, but we had lovely weather in San Antonio.  Hot but with a nice breeze. 

Here's a photo of the flowers and her urn and a flag in honor of her military service (WAC's in WWII).








We were originally told that she didn't qualify for a rifle salute.  So we were surprised when a van pulled up and some men with rifles got out.  It turns out they're volunteers and were happy to give my mom a 21-gun salute.  We thank them.

The minister gave a very nice service.  We thank him as well.

Papillon

Administrative Assistants' Day

Last week was Administrative Assistants Day.  Or perhaps Administrative Professionals' Day.  In any case, I got a lovely arrangement of lilies from my boss.  (Sorry, boss, I didn't get a photo of it!)

I also got a very cute potted plant called a Godetia from other coworkers.  I had never heard of it before, but it's currently sitting on my front porch and is blooming like crazy.  I do have a photo of that.









Papillon

Easter Week Ups & Downs

Earlier this week, we had snow.  SNOW! 

A front went through on Monday.  It brought in clouds and the possibility of rain.  Hooray!  We're still in a drought and any moisture is welcome. 

Tuesday morning I got up and looked out the window.  It was snowing.  Say what?  I'd say I got about 1/2 to 1 inch at my house.  Heavy, wet snow.  I was hoping that work would allow us to come in on a delayed basis.  No such luck.

Fortunately the snow ended around mid-morning.  By afternoon, the temperature had warmed up enough that most of the snow had melted by the time I got home.

On Wednesday the temperature warmed up a bit more and the rest of the snow melted.  Things have continued to warm up since then and it's been rather lovely.  Not too hot, not too cold.

This morning (Good Friday) I saw my own Easter bunny (sort of - a Good Friday bunny?).  No eggs.  No candy.  But the cutest little bunny hopped into my yard.  He (she?) didn't look full-grown.  More of a teenage bunny.  (Unfortunately, my camera was in the car and there was no way that rabbit was going to let me get my camera and take his/her photo.)  It did allow me to watch while it gave its face a morning wash.  Cute as can be.  After a while, it hopped off to who knows where.  A fun way to start the morning.

Papillon

Disparate Weather

Yesterday it was lovely.  Warm with a light breeze.  Partly sunny. 

As we all know, yesterday was St. Patrick's Day.  For as long as I've lived in the Albuquerque metro area, some unknown person(s) have painted a large shamrock in the middle of the intersection of Southern & Sara in Rio Rancho.  Here's a not-so-good photo showing it.

Today is not nearly as pleasant.  For starters the wind has been blowing like nobody's business.  Because of the wind there's a ton of dust in the air.

Those aren't just possible rain clouds off to the west, that's a whole lot of dust in them thar clouds. 

Around mid-afternoon the sun came out and the winds have died down slightly, but not a lot.

Glad I went to the Botanic Garden yesterday and had planned to stay at home for this afternoon.

Papillon

A Sunny Day

I hadn't realized it has been a month since my last entry!

After a series of days that have been cold/chilly or windy or both chilly and windy, today was lovely.  It was cool but sunny with very little wind.  I had seen a notice in the paper that the Botanic Garden at the Albuquerque BioPark was going to have an exhibit of blooming bulbs.  I thought, how fun and decided to go.  When I got to the Botanic Garden, they had notices up that the Blooming Bulb display has been postponed.  Since I was already there, I decided to go on in anyway. 

I got some nice photos and had fun doing so.  When you first walk into the Garden area, there's a large structure that's covered in vines.  During the spring and summer months, it's a lovely green spot.  Even now, at the end of winter, it's still fun to look at - to see the bare bones of the vines and the supporting structure.

They still had some leftover flowers from a flower display shown in January and February.  Here are some of those.

The above are both cyclamens.

I have NO idea what this next flower is but it sure looks nifty.



Next up is a male wood duck chasing away another duck who was wanting in on some bread dispensed by some other attendees at the park.

Here's another duck going bottoms up to feed.



And here are a couple of ducks doing a nice circular pas de deux (web de deux?).

I hope you've had a nice day where you are.

Papillon

Halfway through Winter

According to whom you read, either Thursday, February 2nd or Friday, February 3rd was the halfway point through winter.  Of course, knowing that, I shouldn't have been surprised.

When I checked the forecast midday on Thursday, it said that we should expect a 20% chance of showers during the day and a 10% chance of showers overnight.  I didn't think much about it.

I got up Friday morning and looked out the kitchen window.  At first, it looked normal.  For no particular reason, a few minutes later, I looked out the window again.  Flipped the curtain back into place.  Then stopped and looked again.  I thought, the bushes don't look normal, so I took a closer look and discovered they didn't look normal because they were covered in snow.

I looked out the front door and sure enough, we'd gotten about half an inch of snow overnight.

Fortunately, although it wasn't a light, dry snow, it wasn't wet and heavy either.  Fairly easy to clear off my sidewalk, car and driveway.  The roads out of the subdivision were slushy but not icy.  Hooray!

It was actually rather picturesque.  I do like picturesque, especially when it doesn't interfere with my getting to work in a timely fashion.

It was warm enough that the snow was 99.9% melted when I got home.  So, other than the brief cleanup in the morning, I didn't have to do any really hard work to get rid of it.  I love when a plan comes together.

Papillon