As another month comes to an end, the unpredictable weather was predictable—great, then windy and rain! Kay got in a few pickleball games on Monday at Diamanté, A snake, a few butterflies, and dragonflies and damselflies provided subjects for a few photographs in our back “yard”.

I participated in a golf scramble with the guys at church on Tuesday. The golf game was pretty bad, though there were occasional good shots that keep one coming back. My excuse is that back issues and a strained right knee ACL alter my swing just enough such that there isn’t any consistency.

We traveled to Memphis on Wednesday to visit with Jenny, Harper, Lina, and Sutton. We had not seen them since mid-December; they have grown a bunch. And their communication skills are greatly increasing. Jenny is a supermom, and is to be admired for raising an 11, 4 and 3-year old as a single mom! Jenny was trying to work at home, and the kids were excited and rambunctious—not a good combination!

After the visit, we attended Harper’s Spring Dance Recital. She performed in the Jazz, Ballet, and Gymnastics categories, and I must say that she was the best of her group, executing all routines to near perfection. And, she’s such a sweet young lady. Regretfully, I didn’t shoot any still photographs, but did make a couple of videos which I will post to YouTube.

The drive home on Thursday was near effortless as we let the car do most of the driving, with frequent warnings to put hands on the steering wheel. Actually, the car drove itself only occasionally! After arriving home, a few bugs awaited photographing in the back, plus our friend “Slim”, including a beautiful Calico Pennant dragonfly. It’s the first time one has been observed in our yard. 

Friend Sue arrived for a visit in the afternoon, and she, Kay, and Pam went out for dinner at Diamanté in the evening while I remained home to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Friday was pretty quiet for me as Kay had an appointment in the morning, and she and Sue had a fun and productive night at Oaklawn Casino. I did go to Middle Fork Barrens Natural Area about midday and shot quite a few photographs as there were several species of butterflies flitting about. Here are a few of the small butterflies photographed.

And, here is a Pipeline Swallowtail.

And, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

And, a Great Spangled Fritillary.

And, Arkansas’ state butterfly, the rare female Diana Fritillary.

And, Arkansas’ state butterfly, the also rare male Diana Fritillary.

Not to be outdone, a couple of dragonflies cooperated.

And this most rare wildflower, Pelton’s Rose Gentian, found in only two places in the world, both in Saline County, Arkansas..

And finally, a few other beautiful wildflowers.

For each of the last several summers, a new project has been created to challenge knowledge and memory—not a difficult task these days! One such project was to learn to identify all of the skipper butterflies observed; this project carried over into two summers. After that, a new project was created to identify local dragonflies and damselflies for which a photo had been made. Let’s just say it remains a work in progress, and seemingly, every step forward is followed by two steps back. With the creation of the new butterfly garden and planting additional attractor flowers in other beds, this year’s project involves inventorying all the butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies observed and photographed on our property, mainly the back yard and lake shoreline.

A semiannual appointment with the cardiologist occurred on Monday, and he said I had the heart of a 19 year old. He must be a great BSer. A butterfly and a dragonfly were photographed Tuesday morning. The dragonfly was a “lifer”, a Prince Baskettail.

A knee injury and persistent back issues generally prevented my serious participation in any physical outdoor activity during the week, although I did play golf on Tuesday; it was not pretty. Kay played golf with the Lady Duffers Wednesday morning, and shot a decent game.

The weekend was all about basketball as we drove to Cabot both Saturday and Sunday to watch grandson Ridge play. The handily won the three games on Saturday and the first on Sunday, but didn’t fair well in the second game; Ridge takes losses so seriously and he gives everything during the game.

Prior to the games on Sunday, a few photos were made of butterflies and damselflies. Even a bird made it into the album.

This first several days of May focused on continuing garden work: planting flowers, dressing existing beds, and creating a pollinator garden. The latter involved moving washed gravel (our “grass”) from the garden area, and replacing it with topsoil. Sounds easy. The gravel was moved shovelful by shovelful as neither of us were physically able to carry much more than that. We did move the topsoil from an existing bed on the north side of the house by loading it into a plastic box and “dragging” it to the new bed—a slow and arduous process resulting in our doing only about a third of the new garden. Back soreness from last week’s yard work limited both our ability and amount of work we were able to do. A shopping trip to the local nursery yielded purchase of several hanging baskets, potted plants, and dozens of pollinator flowers. In the new garden, I dug the holes and Kay planted the flowers. The flowers will be awesome when filled out. It should be noted that all of this occurred among almost daily rain showers.

Working outside provided extensive opportunities to observe butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies flitting hither and yon in the back “yard”. On Wednesday, May 1, I ventured out to Middle Fork Barrens Natural Area for the first time in almost a year. It was a bit too early for many butterflies and dragonflies, though a few were captured by the camera. Of significance, at least to me, were photos of an Indigo Bunting and a Bell’s Roadside Skippers, the former being the first photo of the bunting, and the latter being a “life” butterfly.

On Monday, May 6, “our” Green Heron visited at a convenient time when the camera and big lens were ready. We’ve had a pair of Green Herons regularly visit the shoreline at the house since we moved in in 2015! 

Kay was busy Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with social functions and a golf game sandwiched among them. Of course, the biggie among the social activities was the monthly meeting of The Book Club. 

I managed to snap a few photos in the back yard on Tuesday of a bird, a couple of dragonflies, and a snake.

And the back yard produced again on Thursday with a bird, a butterfly, and a dragonfly.

Another butterfly (perhaps the same as yesterday) and a bird posed for photographs on Friday morning.

During the course of the week, back problems persisted, limiting our participation in both golf and pickleball, though opportunities to play were limited anyway because of rain or wet conditions. We did get out to play the front nine at Cortez on Friday afternoon.

The remainder of gravel was finally moved and and on Saturday, May 11, grandson Ridge hauled and placed top soil in the butterfly garden, and hauled and placed mulch in one of the front beds. To be only 12+ years old, he has a great work ethic, and it was such a pleasure to spend time with him, though he didn’t talk much!

I snuck in a couple of photos while he was working.

Kay’s kids treated us to dinner Saturday evening to celebrate Mother’s Day. I’m sure they know it, but she is a super mom, and we’re fortunate that our daughters and daughter-in-law are super moms as well.

Mothers Day on Sunday was without fanfare, and we hung around the house relaxing.

Making entries into this journal is typically done each day, or at least notations are made daily to help refresh my memory. However, almost two weeks have gone by since last writing. To say that I’m easily distracted would be an understatement!

Kay and I continue to play catchup after being gone for three months this winter. And, the yard work is overwhelming, particularly since a new “butterfly/hummingbird” garden is being built in one of the few places at the back of the property receiving sun most of the day. This work in progress involved relocating about a half yard of washed gravel (one shovel at a time), cutting plastic ground cloth, adding a half yard of top soil, and planting flowers.

During the course of creating the new bed, a few photos were made on Tuesday, April 22. The dragon fly is a Common Green Darter.

The butterflies are a Red Admiral and Gray Hairstreak, respectively.

More yard work was done on Wednesday and a couple of butterflies, damselflies, and dragonflies posed for photographs.

On Thursday, a new dishwasher was delivered (as mentioned before, this is the third Frigidaire appliance to be replaced since moving in 9 years ago). Also, a couple more photos were made.

Neither of our backs held up to the yard work, especially when combined with sports. We were sore for days, and spent a good portion of time inside recovering.

Kay began feeling ill on Friday, and over the course of the next day and a half came down with a full-fledged head cold. It is so rare for her to be sick!

On Saturday, we picked up a new 2024 Hyundai Palisade to replace the 2018 Honda Pilot. The Pilot was perhaps the “best” car I’ve ever owned, but lacked a couple of options I wanted/needed. It will take days, if not weeks, to learn how to “program” all the bells and whistles. Grandson Ridge played basketball Saturday evening in Little Rock and while he played well, the team won one and lost one. In the loss, the other team was more disciplined and deliberate, and had a couple of big “men” that took almost all the rebounds.

Basketball was the main attraction on Sunday, but was short lived as the team was overwhelmed by a slightly better group of players. Ridge played really well again, but his contributions were not enough to make the difference. Both Kay and I attended, and enjoyed a quiet Sunday late afternoon and evening.

Wet conditions prevented my sports participation on Monday, while Kay had a few minor appointments. I played golf with the church scramble on Tuesday, and Kay stayed home for installation of the new dishwasher. The first people who were to install the dishwasher priced installation at $600+. After making a few calls to Metro Appliances in Maumelle (from whom we bought the dishwasher and who recommended the expensive installation), a more reasonable installer was identified and did a good job. We see more and more “contractors” taking advantage of the elderly here in Hot Springs Village; shame on them!

Our yard and house have been ignored too long; a bad back followed by back surgery, and then a gimpy shoulder followed by shoulder and bicep surgery has taken its toll on our ability to take care of things around the house. We’ve tried hiring it done, but first of all, it’s hard to get anyone to rake leaves and put out mulch. Secondly, they charge an exorbitant amount for such work. And thirdly, none have been able to satisfy us in terms of quality and completeness. Thus, we’re the only ones to do the work if it is to get done.

On Monday, still recovering from all the yard work on Sunday, I rode over to watch the “Chicks” play pickleball at Diamante, but there were not enough to play, and of course I volunteered. Kay had medical appointments most of the afternoon. Late in the afternoon, I walked around the back yard looking for things to photograph and was surprised to see a Black and White Warbler. It was only the second one I have seen and the first was in Gilbert, Arizona.

There were also a few Yellow-rumped Warblers darting from limb to limb, and a Blue-winged Teal was swimming in the lake just off the dock. 

Even a dandelion posed for a photo.

Kay played pickleball on Tuesday, and we shared a quiet evening. Just looking around, the office is a disaster as photography and computer equipment are scattered all over the place.

Kay played her first golf with the Duffers on Wednesday and shot a pretty decent game, hitting her “Heaven” wood (Callaway 7 wood) and putting well. My semi-annual medical exam took place on Wednesday, and all is well, relatively speaking. I had lost 17 pounds since my last visit, and blood sugar levels had dropped in half—but they were still too high. He asked if I had fallen lately and I said yes, six times, playing pickleball. He said that didn’t count! Dinner was a petite chopped broccoli salad at Diamante for each of us, and it was really good.

Early Thursday morning, eleven lemony blueberry/cranberry muffins were made with sourdough discard, followed by preparing and smoking a rack of ribs on the Big Green Egg. I then repeated Monday morning’s pickleball activities, not intending to play but the “Chicks” were again short one player. The four of us had some great matches! Following pickleball, I tried to play 18 holes of golf, but my back hurt too much. Consequently, I played only 11 holes. Kay played duplicate bridge. And then, in the afternoon, we planted almost three dozen flowers, all intended to attract pollinators, especially butterflies and hummingbirds. Once again, we both were dirty, sore, and near “exhaustion”. It’s sometimes hard to remember that we’re in our mid-70s! I take that back. After pickleball, golf, and gardening, it’s pretty darn easy to remember—soreness in the knees and back, and leg cramps don’t let you forget!

Working in the yard has not been kind to my Lumbar Spinal Stenosis; my back is in constant pain! But, we keep on working to get things in shape for late spring and summer, and we only lack a few more days until completion. Consequently, we were back at it on Friday morning, continuing to prune the significantly overgrown Creeping Juniper. It has just about creeped over the entire front “yard”. After about three hours of hard work, the rock and gravel work in the yard can be seen once again, and accumulated leaves and pine straw can be collected. Shredding/chipping will be put off until a later date.

On Saturday, we traveled to Conway to watch grandson Ridge play AAU basketball. They won their first game with outstanding three-point shooting, but lost the second to a much taller and older team. In fact each of their players was as tall as I am—about 5’ 10”. Of course, Ridge was quite dejected, but he played well, rebounding, passing, and playing outstanding defense. It rained most of the day, keeping us inside.

Though Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest, more yard work called after church. It’s hard to tell if progress is being made since work efforts are so slow!

Now that the total solar eclipse is history, chores need to get done. And, there is such a long list: prune Forsythia, prune Crepe Myrtles, cut back Pompas Grass, severely prune Blue Creeping Juniper, chip/shred resulting yard waste, buy potted ferns and hanging plants, fill bird feeders (both hummingbird and seed feeders), remove leaves and weeds, organize garage, catchup on blog, attempt to repair appliances and smoke alarms, and clean up office! Consequently, no golf will be played this week, and pickleball only for the HSV Pickleball Club ladder.

Tuesday, Kay and I embarked upon trimming the Forsythia on the north side of the house. It is the only plant that survived in a bed created several years ago, and it has gotten a bit out of control. Next was pruning the Crepe Myrtles along the “ditch”, in front of the house, and around the patio in back. The waste vegetation from all this pruning was piled onto the lot next door for further processing.

On Wednesday, my back ached (lumbar spinal stenosis) from all the activity the day before. Nevertheless, Kay and I severely clipped the overgrown Pampas Grass in the back near the lake. That about did me in. It must have been the action of using the shears to clip of the dead leaves. The hot tub helped, but the aches and pains were severe enough to render me pretty helpless. Kay was scheduled to play golf, but it was canceled due to the threat of rain.

She had Book Club on Thursday, and the members always look forward to getting together. This was their first meeting this year (2024). Meanwhile, I took it easy, and worked on writing and publishing a couple of blog entries, still capturing our recent trip to Big Bend National Park. In the evening, I played pickleball in the HSV Pickleball Club ladder.

Car shopping was the order of the day on Friday. Neither of us need a new/different car, but I wanted one with AWD and a few more bells and whistles. It looks like I may be moving away from Honda despite having been a loyal Honda owner for the last 38 years. The local dealer just didn’t want to earn our business even though we’ve used them to maintain our Hondas (currently three) for the last nine years. After car shopping, we visited a local plant nursery where Kay bought a few hanging baskets to liven up the deck.

The aches and pains had subsided somewhat by Saturday, and I took advantage to rake leaves from the sides and back (actually a blower was used), and to change our ceiling can lights to LEDs. Kay played pickleball around midday, after which we drove to Little Rock to shop at Costco.

We took advantage of an empty schedule on Sunday (we played hooky from church) to work on the dishwasher and continue yard work. After taking the dishwasher somewhat apart, the water intake valve I ordered was the wrong one. The cost to repair is such that we’ll likely buy a new one. This will be the third appliance (all Frigidaire) to be replaced since building the house in 2015. The fireplace fan has also worn out, but replacing it can be put off until late fall. After the unsuccessful early morning, we shredded and chipped most of the yard waste from last week with the newly purchased electric shredder/chipper. It did a great job, and hopefully we’ll have mulch and/or compost as a result.

And lastly, time was made to take a few photos around the yard. It’s still too early for many dragonflies to be darting about, at least here, but this one posed long enough for a shot.

And there were several wildflowers in bloom (some call them weeds).

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse moved across North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada.

The solar eclipse, also known as the Great North American Eclipse, was a total solar eclipse visible across a band covering parts of North America, from Mexico to Canada and crossing the contiguous United States. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the Sun. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s apparent diameter is larger than the Sun’s, blocking all direct sunlight. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk. Totality occurs only in a limited path across Earth’s surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a larger surrounding region. During this eclipse, the Moon’s apparent diameter was 5.5 percent larger than average. In Hot Springs Village, the partial phase started at 1:32.20 PM. The duration of eclipse totality lasted 3 minutes and 59.1 seconds, starting at 1:59:40 PM, with mid-eclipse occurring at 1:51:36 PM. With a magnitude of 1.0566, the eclipse’s longest duration of totality was 4 minutes and 28.13 seconds just 4 miles north of the Mexican town of Nazas, Durango.

I photographed the eclipse with Dan and Mike at Dan’s house. Thank you, Dan, for helping with all the setup and settings. Though I shot a bunch of photos, here’s a composite of a few showing the progression of the eclipse.

A fitful night’s sleep was enjoyed in our “sticks and bricks” house, waking up Monday morning to fast internet and a lake view. A quick trip to the RV storage bay was made to collect as many items as I could carry, particularly golf clubs and accoutrements and photographic and computer gear. I played pickleball in the morning at Diamante and golf with my old group at Magellan. And, the golf score wasn’t too bad considering it’s been almost a year since I’ve played 18 holes on a “big” course. It’s so good to be home!

I played pickleball again on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, while Kay attended to her social clubs and functions and personal care appointments. We were honored to host Kay’s sister, Nan, and brother-in-law George briefly Thursday afternoon and evening. It’s always good to see them and recollect memories. They left early Friday morning, even before we awoke, driving to Cincinnati and then Virginia.

We continued to unpack, wash clothes, and organize things over the course of the weekend. Saturday, though, was for watching Ridge play basketball with his AAU team. He is a really good, actually great, basketball player. He played soccer in the morning followed by two basketball games in the afternoon. He was exhausted! After getting our grandkids fix with the younger central Arkansas grandkids, we enjoyed a quiet evening and Sunday.

Big Bend NP was in our rearview mirror shortly after 8 AM Saturday morning as we headed north then northeast towards home. We were a bit underwhelmed by this national park, partly because expectations had been so high and we had spent the last five winters in a high desert/sky islands environment in Arizona. 

One of the highlights (I forgot to mention in the previous blog) was pickleball in Terlingua. The drive into Terlingua took us by an active pickleball court. After a quick tour of the ghost town, and on the way to the historic cemetery, we again noted the pickleball court across from the cemetery, but with only three players. Not one to pass up a chance to play pickleball, we stopped and asked if they could use a fourth. Each of us borrowed a paddle and played with them for about an hour. It was loads of fun, and as Kay said, “…just proves there are no strangers on Pickleball courts”.  The other players were Jack from the Terlingua area and Kathleen and Kurt, full-time RVers  from Northern Virginia.

Back to Saturday. With a 500+ mile drive ahead of us, we hunkered down and patiently drove towards Midland. There, interstate construction and an overturned semi caused a delay and U-turn on a construction site! 

Here’s Kay’s take of events. “Stay away!  I 20 closed! We were in a motorhome on I 20 at Midland traveling east today. We had been at a full stop with inches movement forward for over 2 hours this day before Easter. This jam up began for us at Exit 132. We still can’t see the ‘problem’ but some semis are backing up on entrance ramps to drive on an access road. We noticed a citizen directing traffic at  a blocked off construction area that forced us to do a U-turn ( he said the interstate was closed) and get on the westbound 20 to then travel and exit, cross over the interstate and turn east on the access road. This backup could easily been avoided had traffic been diverted to begin with to the access road.  Unfortunately the access road is fully clogged with traffic. As we drove the access road east we passed at least 6 miles of stopped traffic. We finally saw why. A semi was pulling a tanker trailer apparently filled with sand that had overturned blocking the entire I 20 eastbound lane/s. What a waste of time and money lost during this traffic screwup. We saw no state employees helping. We saw two Midland police cars sitting on a couple of side roads. Lack of information and warning exacerbated the entire situation. Who is in charge and were my tax dollars used in this kerfluffle? Shame on Texas Highway Dept. planners, supervisors and the construction company.  What no disaster response team?”

After a two-hour plus delay, we were back on track, and arrived at our overnight stop at Coffee Creek RV Resort and Cabins, albeit a couple hours late.

Another long driving day on Easter Sunday got us to the RV storage site about 4 PM. We unloaded just the bare minimum of stuff and made it into our beautiful house about 5 PM. We were both so glad to be home.

Our intent on spending the last full day in the Big Bend NP area was to hike to the “Red Rocks” area  near Homer Wilson Ranch in an attempt to see the Lucifer Hummingbird. This is one of the better bird watching places in the foothills habitat. However given our lack of success thus far in seeing birds, we opted to cancel that portion of our plans. Another goal for the day was to visit Big Bend Ranch State Park. Big Bend Ranch State Park is a 311,000-acre state park located on the Rio Grande in Brewster and Presidio counties, Texas. However, further research indicated that road conditions in the interior of the park were very rough with frequent washouts and loose gravel. It was highly recommended that if one is traveling to the interior, at least a 2WD high clearance vehicle is needed and that vehicles with low clearance should not attempt to travel to the interior district. Well, the “old” Honda CRV did not meet the high clearance requirements, so we opted out of this endeavor for the day.

The last item on our “last day list” was a visit to Terlingua. Terlingua was a mining town around the turn of the century and was the site of the first famous championship chili cook off in 1967, that today draws over 10,000 “chili heads” from all over the world on the first Saturday every November.

More than a century ago, Terlingua’s growth was spurred by the discovery of quicksilver, which brought miners to the area and helped them thrive for decades. But the Great Depression hit Terlingua hard, and as the demand for quicksilver dried up, so did the town. During the 1940s, Terlingua’s inhabitants packed up and moved on, leaving behind the crumbles of an eerily quiet ghost town.

Terlingua is quite vibrant with restaurants, lodging, and art galleries. Today, the remains of the town—which include homes, antique cars, a church, and a cemetery—are part of what draws people to visit.

With graves dating back to 1903, the Terlingua Cemetery is one of the MOST photographed cemeteries in the US.

Many of the graves are covered with rocks giving the cemetery a creative landscape. There is no rhyme or reason or even a straight path along the plots.

Some of the graves in Terlingua Cemetery are barely marked with a simple cross, while others are elaborate and festive burial plots.

While there are about 400 graves in the Terlingua Cemetery, the majority date around 1918-19 when the town was hit by the deadly influenza outbreak. The Terlingua Cemetery is both quirky and fascinating.

The visit to Terlingua wrapped up our “life list” item of touring Big Bend National Park. On to the next adventure!