Holiday eh?!

We are back from our holiday to Lake Louise/Banff and can not wait to go back! We had such a wonderful time. We had no idea how spectacular it would be!

Even though the temperature didn't manage to get above 33F/1C for our entire stay and the lakes were frozen, that didn't stop us from hiking!

I can't imagine how cold it must have been for waterfalls to freeze ...

This is a frozen Lake Louise with our Chateau in the back ground :)

And finally on our 3rd day we saw the infamous Elk! We were starting to think the Canadians had made them up as a tourist trap.

And if there is a hike that goes straight up a mountain then we will do it! This is the top of "Tunnel Mountain" in Banff - and yes we went as far up as we possibly could.

And it was worth it - the views were amazing. Everywhere we looked we were in awe.

Now we have to go back in summer so we can do all of the hikes and proper winter for my snow shoeing!

It's a squirrels life

The squirrels have found us and it didn't take them long to figure out the feeder! They have to climb down, sit on the little ledge and then open the top of the box to access the seeds.


This little grey one comes every morning around 7am for breakfast. He's quite shy and if we're in the back yard he'll wait for us to go inside and then sprints down the fence to the feeder. He's wary and eats his seeds while sitting on the fence so he can keep a look out. He's up and down to the feeder every 30seconds, but he seems to like being able to see everything.

This fella comes in the afternoons and stays for about an hour - soon he will break the little sitting ledge. He doesn't seem to care what else is going on, as long as he has some seeds he's happy! He takes no precautions like the smaller grey one, and just hangs out gorging! :)

Some afternoon excerise maybe? A few pull ups to keep in shape?

And a drink afterwards. The pool is salt water so he would have been even thirster after his couple of sips but he doesn't seem to care.

Barbies

Luckily for us, Texans LOVE bar-be-cue. In California, the season would begin usually Memorial Day weekend. Here, it has already begun! :) Over the weekend we went to our neighbours place for a barbie and it was just lovely. Hamburgers, hot dogs, beans, devilled eggs and iced tea. What more you can you want? (Well, beer or wine but that's another story).

In the spirit of the season, we have a new grill aptly named the "Big Green Egg". It's a grill and smoker all in one and we can even bake on it apparently! Our smoker didn't make the journey to Texas and as those lucky enough to have tasted them, MM does a mean rack of ribs on the smoker.

We will keep our Weber (in the background). It's a great barbie and we have the rotisserie attachment that comes in very handy.
And here is our first Big Green Egg meal -

Veal chops with asparagus, fingerling potatoes and a La Crema Chardonnay. mmmm - finger licking good!

Spring has sprung!

Thank you to Zoe who helped with the planting. Just waiting on the blue bonnets to show themselves!

From flat to FABULOUS!

You know you're in Texas when commercials for 'Bumpits' are on TV and it's not a joke.

https://www.bumpits.com/

Be very scared:



I so want full volumized hair! :)

The weather

Although the winter here was a lot colder than we were expecting and we've had more frosts compared with California, today it is a delightful 85F with only 48% humidity. That's not bad for the end of February. I am a happy camper!

Due to the weather, we also get 2 tomato growing seasons. I started of seedlings a few weeks ago but they have been less than successful. They put all their energy into growing tall and not a lot into their roots. I only have 8 survivors but they're looking strong. I also managed to get the grid that showed me which varitey is which wet, so I have no idea what kind of tomatoes I have left!

They could be either of the 2 types of hybrids, black russian, tigerella, cherry or brandywine. It's anyones guess at this stage!

As an experiment, I have these cages that hang from the back fence. The tomato grows from the bottom with the fruit hanging down. We hear Texas is pretty bad for bugs that like tomatoes so we thought we'd try this as one way to keep them bug free. The only problem so far is that the squirrels seem to think the bowl full of water in the top of the cage is their personal drinking fountain! :) We have to get some stronger brackets as these current ones bend under the weight of the squirrel and tomato.

We also have our veggie beds set up. They are down the side yard near the pool equipment. So far we have a couple of basil plants and an 'early girl' tomato planted.

I started some peppers from seed not long ago and they will go in these beds too. Of course, I no longer know which variety of pepper is which but I have started of Pablano, Thai Dragon and the infamous Tepin - or "Atomic" YAY!

We had these in California as well, but with the hotter climate here I am hoping for more heat from them.

We have also planted two dwarf citrus - a lemon (left) and lime (right). We figure with the amount of margarita's we drink, it's best to have our own limes. In time, they will also make a natural divider between the pool and the garden/equipment area.

A Wilderbeast?

We've had some rain in the week (sorry to the Aussies) and it's made the ground a little soft especially at the side of the house where the pool equipment went in and out. The grass hasn't had a chance to fill in the space yet so we have patches of sand (or mud as the case maybe).


Yesterday in the sand I found the tracks of what can only be described as a wilderbeast - or possibly a racoon :)


The back print is about 2.5 inches long, the front ones 1.5 inches


Whatever it is, it was making a run for our backyard! The tracks lead up to our gate and then get lost in the grass.



I wonder what Armadillo tracks look like ......