A personality

If you quickly scroll through this post to view the photos, you may think it's about having some fun on a climbing wall...but it's not.

It's really about
a p e r s o n a l i t y

Here you see Mike a good way up the wall, a really tough wall that many experienced climbers give up on. Don't see much to hold on to, do you?

Well, Mike was in this position for about 15 minutes. Every new hold he tried just wouldn't get him any higher.

Sometimes he'd move down a bit to see if he could find alternative holds, then go back up again...only to be stymied--over and over.


If you really try to imagine just how long 15 minutes is while hanging from a couple of toes and fingertips, you can now realize that the idea of "fun" has now left the imagination.

It's now mind over matter...over physical discomfort, over mental strain...over the fact that our hour in the gym was WAY overdue!

I kept thinking he'd see the situation as futile and come back down and find a different wall to try.

Even his taller, lighter, flexible, determined twin sister had tried this wall and had to scrap the mission.

But no.
He's very persistent when he sets his mind to something.

Around the 20-25 minute mark, he finally made it to the top and rang the bell.

His sibs and a group of experienced climbers in the area heard the bell and came over to see him up there--one of the toughest walls.

The older experienced climbers (handicapped with added weight) showed their admiration by clapping.

Mikey grinned and came down.

A personality...

Satisfied.

Springtime happenings :: updated with nestlings!

It was a harsh winter in Texas with a several consecutive days and nights well below freezing. (For you northerns, that's the Texas definition of a brutal winter.) May sound wimpy, but this kind of weather is quite destructive of our southern plants and pipes!

We had to snip our Sago Palm down to a stub.

But new life emerged.

And grew quickly...and amazingly.

I love watching the new fronds uncurl!

Voilà!

A furry magnolia bud.

Poof--a bloom!


Natural house air freshener...jasmine.

Parfum de Open Window

a.k.a. Wall of Jasmine!

It's my Texas springtime favorite (since we don't have lilacs down here).

Our neighbor's heron.

Well, they didn't watch it hatch and raise it, but since they involuntarily feed it (via their fish/frog pond) they should probably be able to claim it if they want.

Looking in the pond for lunch.

We are hosting a family of sparrows in our front light fixture!

A bold pair of sparrows built their nest in it. We are pretty baffled about how they went about moving the heavy steel lid back to open it!

I didn't have the heart to ruin their little nest, so we haven't been using our front light for about a month now!

Look what I found between a couple of the light bulbs.

There are 4 little nestlings!

Speaking of birds, this is what it sounds like around here most of the time with our state mocking bird. I love it! I also love that birds stick around here and sing all year 'round.

Have you heard about the basil shortage?

Neither have I. There isn't one that I know of, but the girls sure planted it like there is! We have about 20 tomato plants they also decided to plant from seed.

Roasted tomato & basil pesto will now be a major food group around La Casa de Roche this summer.

A squirrel-planted native pecan tree in our back yard

Seems Nut Nut, the squirrel, has a green thumb and an eye for placement, so we left it.

I've always said that fall is my favorite season.

Late fall: birds in front yard pecan tree

Spring is a *very* close second!

Appreciating and enjoying fresh new life!

I want to go where they're going.

Not sure if the kids were simply enjoying their toys or if they were using them to tell me something during this 33rd of 36 weeks of school.

If they were sending some sort of spring fever message, I'd have to say I'm right with them.


The idea of this vacation-bound caravan is quite enticing.