Category: Northshore of Lake Travis

  •   It is a glorious autumn day here in Long Hollow. The window behind my monitor is filled with cloudless blue sky and shimmering leaves of orange and gold. Tomorrow I will be focused on cooking and celebrating with a few of my kids, so today I'm indulging myself with reflection and the sharing of…

  •   Every morning Belle and I take a walk on our caliche road. We have a set path of about 1.5 miles. First we head in one direction where the road twists and turns and dips, then we backtrack past our house and up a short hill before turning around and returning home.  Belle sets…

  •     “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2).   A few months ago, in a process I can't really describe, Joy stepped up to be my word for 2019.  When pulling out my Christmas decorations, seeing it written on so many ornaments, I realized it had…

  •     The sky put on a grand finale sunset outside my window as I started reflecting on this past year.  However, it doesn't take a lot of reflection to know that 2018 will go down in history as one of my favorite years. It's the year I became a grandmother!    Watching Little C…

  •   … let's take a step back to October. I need to finish a post I started weeks ago, because October is one of my favorite months, for lots of reasons…  Although we met in September, it was in October that we knew we were in love.      Aren't we cute? Sigh. That's probably…

  • "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." ~Jack Layton     When I headed to Florida with Tom last weekend, weather forecasts indicated we could be meeting up with a mini-hurricane. Ever-hopeful,…

  •     Eight years ago, while we were mourning the loss of our sweet Charly, a litter of puppies was born in east Texas.  Whether the mom was a pure-bred who had a wild fling with a stray, or she was a mixed breed stray herself, we'll never know.  We do know that a few…

  •  Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonflyHangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky. ~Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Silent Noon   This morning as Belle and I finished our walk, a dragonfly buzzed close, circling and circling. It even hovered about a foot from me for a few seconds, providing me a good look at its…

  • Tom and I once spent a week in a downtown Austin high-rise which had fabulous views of the city. It was especially beautiful at night, with the Texas State Capitol and other downtown buildings all lit up. Unfortunately, that high-rise was Brackenridge Hospital, and Tom wasn't in any shape to appreciate those gorgeous views. He was recovering from…

  • About 50 years ago, this little cutie was collecting turtles near the Magothy River …pretty much having a Tom-Sawyer-like childhood in the Maryland woods where he grew up with his 8 brothers. He just turned 60, but still loves playing in the woods around our house, discovering and observing wildlife, and he still looks pretty dang cute…