What no one looks at while at the beach.

The prevailing winds in the Gulf of Mexico are from East to West.
That explains why so many things end up on the beaches of North Padre Island.

Some are common, but present in different ways.

 Like a "furry" bottle.

But, an onion?

There is a recurring theme: shoes!

Yes, of all sizes!

 But, mainly sandals from local visitors who went into the waves with them on.

They're all covered with barnacles

and some with algae.

Perhaps this is the guy who has travelled the most.

It's a coconut. 
These do not grow in the relative "cold" Texas coast. 
Maybe it is form Florida, blown here by the wind. 
Or perhaps form the Yucatan or even Venezuela, carried here by the Gulf of Mexico currents.

But they have the same barnacles as our shoes.

And with spiny little legs protruding out every once in a while!

Hope you enjoyed a look at part of the beach most people ignore. 

Personally, I think there is beauty just about everywhere.
(Maybe it's form looking at B & W X-rays for way too many years)

Pretty Blue Things at the beach

Last month we went to Port Aransas' beach, outside of Corpus Christi. 
I just got through looking at the pics and was surprised at how many blue things attracted our attention.

Sure there were a few Portuguese Man of War.

But it was these guys that really got our attention.

There were a few clusters of them together, 
but mostly there was just one by itself, 
about every 30 to 50 feet or so.

Some had slightly longer tentacles than others...
but still less than one inch short.

As they get older or shrunk in the air, the bluish soft portion lose their roundness,
and this one is actually more like a septagon.

To me they they seem related to the Sand Dollar,

because when these are alive, the internet shows that they too have short but tan-colored fronds radiating form them.

As ours dry up, they lose their blue fronds and leave behind 
a much more intricate and brittle lace-like skeleton.

Their skeleton seems to vary slightly, specially at its center.


Pretty fragile they are, compared to the mineralized sand dollar.

Now you might think that they are innocuous 'cause they look so pretty.
And, yes the tentacles of the the Portuguese Man of War and other jellyfish just don't seem to sting much when they are dry and you step on them on the beach.

But, I must report that these do have some activity left in them...........at least if you eat them.

Yep, our trusted dog passed a hundred or so of them, smelled a few and then, all of a sudden, decides to grab one with his mouth and swallow it before we can get to him and take it out. 

A little concerned we headed back but he still looked healthy and energetic.

Less than 5 minutes after this pic, he was slowing down and eating grass.
By the time we got back to the van, he was breathing much faster than just from heat.
So we decided to head for our old Vet. in Corpus Christi.
And, unfortunately got caught in Friday afternoon's rush hour traffic.
As he laid on the van's floor (instead of looking out the window) his breathing and heart rate increased, and he started foaming at the mouth....and we fought the traffic.
So we stopped along the way and gave him 100 mg of Benadryl from a CVS pharmacy. 
And being a lab, just getting something in his mouth brought him back to complete normalcy.

Finally we approached the Vet's parking lot 1 1/2 hour after his sea-side "treat". 
By then his vital signs were all back to normal. 
And aside form the sleepiness of the Benadryl, he would have been ready to go back to the beach.

P.S. We returned to the beach the following week and there were no more blue things for him to eat.

South Texas Floods

This weekend we drove through Wimberley, along the Guadalupe River,
 and saw the devastation from the recent flooding. 

Had to stop short, because the road across the river had washed away. 

Lots of debris had washed up along the shore.

Do you see the missing doors and windows from all the houses?

The floods were strong enough to tear them out.
And now owners are in the process of gutting-out all the ruined stuff inside,

as well as taking away debris from the buildings that did not survive.

These are the trees that looked so beautiful along the river's bank.

But, if you look up into those trees...

you see things that should not be in there.
Yep, all around are extraneous things.

Some folks have placed some found items along a wall out to dry,

.
and perhaps to be reclaimed, instead of just throwing it all away.

Meanwhile these fellows have cut down this up-rooted tree,

and now they decide whether to chop it down a little more to move it away.

No, it's not just a dozen or so houses that have been affected.
It's everything for at least 100 feet back from the shore.

Let's hope nothing like this occurs again!

La Espada Mission, San Antonio

Here is where we were at on yesterday´s post.

I showed pics of the inside of the church because of bad weather.
But when I came out, things had changed and took some pics there.

Here is what it looked like in the early days.

They have the foundation of the original church building, 
but, here is the newer one (the one I photographed).

 It´s still pretty old.

 I like the watered effect those buildings.

Their doors and windows seem particularly attractive.

But, do you know which is my favorite pic of them all? 
It´s this one.

It´s the patio off the rectory or the priest´s office.
I can imagine that fellow coming out and sitting on that chair in the afternoon or early evening.

Don´t know if things would have looked so green then. 
But with the recent rains, it certainly was now.

There are 5 missions which are part of the National Park Service here in SA. 
You can walk or ride your bike from this one in the south all the way to the one at the Alamo.
They have nice cement sidewalks or pathways and it sure seems like a great way to spend a day.

Of course they have posters and rangers to explain life in the old days.
I hear each mission specializes on description of different aspects of life in that period.

On the way out, I thought I´d take this last shot.
I was pretending I was a Comanche indian, ready to kidnap a young woman for a wife,
or maybe  a child, to increase the numbers of the tribe.

The ranger told that was wrong. Indians never attacked the mission.
They did kidnap a few women and kids going to, or while working in the fields.
But, they never attacked or tried to forcefully enter the walls. 

Anyway.... if you find yourself in SA one day, 
with time off from your business meetings, 
or perhaps tired of all the activities at Fiesta Texas and Sea World, 
just take a stroll to see what life was like here, more than 2 centuries ago.

Going to the mission

A few weeks ago, when there was much in the news about rain & floods in South Texas, 
we were scheduled to visit the missions of San Antonio from the 1700's.

Fear of flooded or stranded cars led to canceling the trip by the photo club. 
But, not by me.

Unfortunately everything was covered by drizzle & fog.

Pretty crappy for photos, I must admit. 

Maybe, I thought, it´ll be a little better in B & W.

No, it did´t help 
So, I decided to go inside the church. 

The bad weather did bring me one great advantage: 
no one else was around.
So, I set up my tripod & snapped a few multi-exposures,
trying to capture the wide range of the golden hue there was inside.

Even if you are a-religious, I hope you still enjoy these shots. 

Some think so much iconry is a bad thing.

But I learned to appreciate it as art while living in AK

and visiting their numerous Russian Orthodox Churches, 

located so far away from just about everywhere.

(And, yes,  even the Mormon´s buildings in Salt Lake City are a lot of really huge painting.)

Here is something you expect to see in a Catholic church: candles to the intermediary you are asking to carry your prayers up above.

No matter what you personally believe, though, you have to agree.....
some folks do believe they serve a purpose......
and some folks did indeed spend a lot of time 
creating these works, way back in the olden days.

But, since we´ve all had about as much as we might like......

lets turn around, go outside.....and, (on another day), 
let´s see what else the grounds might have to show.