I'm baaack!!
I got sidetracked on the 22nd and never did find the time to write about what was happening. One of my students came over for a lesson on Thursday Morning. She just needed a little assistance with understanding one of the applications. We spent 2 hours going over different ways to do things on the computer. then we progressed on to filters. We tried different filters on some of her photos. Some turned out well and others did not. Not all things are the same for all photos. You just have to play and see what happens. Anyway, I ended up showing her how to do an Orb. She picked out one of her flowers images and we began to apply the steps to turn it into an Orb. It was beautiful and she was amazed. I know she tried the same applications to some of her other flower images because she posted some to Facebook and sent some to me. She really has an eye for something like this.
I think I eneded up taking a nap that afternoon and then went to the grocery story and finished reading a book in the evening. I've been reading a lot of David Baldacci books. He writes good mystery suspence. I may have mentioned that before.
Friday morning I awoke early (for me), got dressed and drove downtown for the parade. I arrived at my parking spot at 8:30 a.m. and the streets were already filling up with people waiting to watch the parade. The parade was to start at 10:30 a.m. I had not been to one since I moved to New Braunfels. BTW, I told a fib. I remember saying that our parades were not terribly long and not terribly overcrowded. Well, I learned differently. The parade lasted over 3 hours and based on the people I saw, I think everyone in NB turned out to watch along with people from other nearby bedroom cities. The streets were really crowded. When I arrived downtown, I parked and went to a bakery named Naegelin's. I had to stand in line for 30 minutes before I could order what I wanted. It is the oldest bakery in Texas. I went there a couple of times when I first moved to NB. Everything was so good I gained 5 pounds so I quit going in there. this particular morning I had 2 bratwurst Kolaches and some apple strudel. OMG, I thought I died and went to heaven. Nothing had tasted that good in years!
The pet parade led things off. There were all kinds of pets including goats. In the photo above, the little girl in the wagon is holding a teacup chihuahua. There was a whole series of tractors and I wondered if there is a tractor club. The one in the picture was the smallest I saw. Good lookin' guy sitting there holding his son!!
There were horses, of course, and street image cars and lots of bands.. I saw one band that reminded me of "The Music Man". They had black dress uniforms with white gloves. their hats were bright blue with white plumes. I wanted to jump right in and march with them! There were also some pretty floats. I thought the prettiest was the NB County Fair float. It was red, white and blue. The queen and duchesses were dressed in red, white and blue. Come to think of it, that might have been the theme for this year. There was a lot of red, white and blue.
I went home about 1:00 p.m., ate lunch and then worked a little on a photo project. I think I took another nap - I had to prepare myself for Saturday.
Saturday morning I awoke at 6:45 a.m. this was the photography club field trip day. Marilyn was supposed to drive to my place and then we were to go to Purgatory Road to meet with Darryl firth and his wife Terri. Marilyn was late and we didn't get there until 9:15 a.m. We piled into Darryl's truck and headed for Dripping Springs for the Dr. Pounds Fall Fest. Dr. Pounds was one of the early inhabitants of Dripping springs. The land has been in the Pounds family for over 100 years. The original house still stands and has been faithfully restored. I met Marjorie (Pounds), daughter of Dr. Pounds. She is 90 years old and quite beautiful for her age. She has some wrinkles but not too many because she has some weight on her bones!! I also met her daughter. I walked around and looked at all the exhibits. There were 3 re-enactors showing off civil war things and showing people how to load blackpowder into a gun. There was a lady making grape and peach jam - might tasty! I bought some. there was a man weaving scrap cloth rugs. I bought a blue jean purse made out of blue jean scraps. there was a man giving covered wagon rides. There was a man who had some corn shucking machines. Another man made corn cakes and served them with black strap molasses. They had two blacksmith's showing how to form red hot metal. They had singers and guitarists playing and singing. There were about 6 tables showing kids how to make all kinds of things with heavy paper, i.e. wall paper. It was a fun time. We had our club picture taken. there was a board set up with face holes. Reading L - R is me (Liz) then Steve Touchstone, then Marilyn, and Darryl.
We left about 1:30 to head back home. We stopped for a short while in Dripping Springs because Terri wanted to see a quilt place. It was a beautiful store - very colorful. I was almost tempted to buy something and try my hand at quilting - but I slapped my hand and said "no"!!
When we returned home, Marilyn said good by and took off for Corpus Christi to go visit a friend. I did a quick refresh and changed lenses and took off for a Charreada. It was scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. Since I didn't know how long it would take me to find the ranch I arrived early, at 4:15 p.m. I'm glad I did as I discoved that the good place to sit was at the top of the bleaches. These were about 6 high, and there were no steps to get up to the top. Well, I had to struggle to get to the top and once there I was not about to move for the duration. The Charreada was very interesting. Gerado "Jerry" Diaz was the (el hefe) of the evening. He is a 4th generation Charro and head of the Diaz ranch in New Braunfels. You can google him and get a lot of information. His wife Staci Anderson is a stunt rider and performed on the back, standing up, of a 4 horse team. She even jumped the 4 horse team. It was quite exciting. There was a lot a pageantry associated with this event. All the participants were dressed like they were going to Sunday Church. I took my long lens (100-400) and really got some good photos, but handholding that heavy lens was a bugger for 3 hours. Their young son (age 7) also performed. There was a girl sidesaddle precision team. The thing that amazed me was how close they all performed together. They were really good riders. The men entered in a steer throwing contest. They grab the tail of the steer, from horse back, wrap their leg around it and urge their mount into a gallop to give them leverage to throw the steer. It was awsome. There was never a dull moment. When nothing seemed to be happening, there were several cowpokes doing rope tricks. I ws lucky enough to capture a 3 photo set showing the cowboy jumping the rope while standing on his horse's back.!! I saw some magnificent horse flesh. It was a great evening and very entertaining. I can hardly wait for the next Charreada.
Today was a quiet day. I slept in late. Started moving all the photos I took into folders and onto disks to save them until I had ideas on how to use them. Now, it is time to retire again and tomorrow starts another busy week. I'm going out to lumch tomorrow, Tuesday I have a new student, and Thursday I play Dominoes and etc., etc.
See you later alligator!!
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