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This November, in central Texas, we have had a large population of various butterflies.  But, the one butterfly that was most common was the Queen.  The hordes started first on the Mexican Honeysuckle, then as the flowers of that bush went into decline, then others moved to the Bottlebrush flowers. The Queen looks a lot like the Monarch, but is smaller than the Monarch. Also on these bushes were a few Sulphurs and some Gulf Fritillarys

Two special events hit the calendar on the same day.  A music festival on the grounds of the county courthouse in Blanco was the first stop.  The plan was to have various musicians perform from 11 am to 3pm while festival goers perused the artists' booths.  Of the musicians we chose to hear Blanco's own Larry Natwick, a jazz pianist and his sidekick base viol player.  One humorous bit was when we asked them if they did any of Brubecks stuff, they were hesitant but then announced they would play Take the A Train, and went on to say that the Canadians call it Take the Train, eh?. Well, here's a video clip: We asked if they had any CD's of their music, and he reached in his dufflebag and handed us one, and said you may have this one.  It was of an earlier time when the pianist was part of a quartet. We stayed about an hour as planned.  It was chilly and we were glad to get back in the car where it was warmer.  Then, it was a turkey (LO) sandwich for lunch, one t

Cats don't travel all that well, but this cat did pretty well, especially after we told her that it was either this three day trip to Alpine, Texas or to stay in the cat hotel for those three days. So, having made her choice, we departed with her in the cage---a screened enclosure about 3 feet cubed.  For the first 30 miles, a lot of complaining, but then all was quiet.  She had burrowed under the foam mat and was hiding from this reality of travel. In Del Rio, we opened the cage door and she then opted to settle into the foot well of the back seat area.  We often were concerned with her jumping out of the car when we stopped for gas and whatnot, but the opposite was true--it was hard to get her to leave the car. The first night in a motel (Quality Inn in Alpine ---good place and good for pets) was a hoot.  We carried the cage up to the room on the second floor and then opened it.  She cautiously stepped out and then spent the next hour investigating every nook and corner to mak