I'll start with a shout out for Anna Tew, a budding young photographer based in Lubbock who very graciously took some photos of Mary while we visited the Apple Orchard. I think she did a great job, even though the lighting would have been better late in the day (she knew this, we didn't).
Disclaimer: Anna did not get a chance to edit any of these pics, they're just fresh off the memory stick; she takes amazing photos. I'll post her website as soon as I get it.
Andrew took a taildragger (plane with a tail wheel) course in Burnet, TX. I had never been to Burnet so we loaded up after work/school to join him for the weekend.
Andrew's training plane. Hopefully, he wasn't flying the plane when he took the first photo.
The independent instructor has a guest house for student use during the two day course, so this is where we stayed. The two friendly dogs were a little too friendly when we went outside to greet them so we "petted" them through the glass.
Burnet is a small, quiet town, northwest of Austin. We walked around town a little and then headed to Marble Falls to eat dinner with a friend. This friend, Josh, was Andrew's flight instructor and is now also employed privately as a pilot for one family. I have determined he has the coolest job ever and I need to get a pilot license so that I can be hired to fly someone places.
While Andrew finished up on his class, Mary and I headed to Inks Lake. The water was right for swimming, but we favored a hike around the rocks and back along a stream.
wrong camo
Mary came across this snake before it slithered into the rocks.
We headed to Longhorn Caverns to check out the cave and ate lunch on the way at the HV Store Cafe; an old, renovated gas station. If you're ever in this area, they have a really good chicken salad croissant.
Across the road, I noticed a winery. Mary kindly offered to wait in the car while I went in to taste some wine. I explained to her the purpose of Child Protective Services and she agreed we had better not do that.
Longhorn Caverns are river-formed caves, thousands of years old. We learned that over the years they have been inhabited by Comanche Indians and Texas outlaws and have been used to store gunpowder for the confederates. I don't have much in the way of photos, because cave pics never come out well.
Entrance to the cave
Our guide was an expert at spotting bats clinging to the ceiling of the cave. She also promised to name a bat after anyone who found one. This meant Mary spent the whole tour looking at the ceiling for a bat so that it could be officially named Mary.
The next day, Andrew was free, so we all headed to Pedernales Falls. This area of the Pedernales River becomes a dangerous torrent after rainfall further upstream. Otherwise, it's a fun place for kids to run around climbing rocks, looking for fish and splashing in pools.
The rule is you are not allowed to swim in this part of the river because it is too dangerous with underwater crevices carved out by raging waters. We found a few daredevils diving into open spaces and it looked tempting.
In other spring news (and other random photos)...
Mary and I went to see the Giselle ballet and thoroughly enjoyed the performance. I went to see Handel's Messiah and decided I would rather be a lead violinist than a private pilot.
Mary doing homework at the MC lecture series.
Laura Bush came to town to open our local library branch (finally!)
Incidentally, the Bush family lived in Midland (you can tour their modest home, which is now a museum). There were many secret service agents in the crowd, dressed in suits and wearing ear pieces, so that was exciting.
Mary had fun at Midland College Kids Day.
Mary helped with some yard work. Rather than spend five minutes spraying weedkiller, we like to pick them by hand and then wait a short 2 weeks for them to grow back so that we can spend hours picking them all out again. When we start to feel like idiots, we say things like "yeah, but it's really good exercise".
I taught Mary how to knit. My mum taught me many good housewifey skills I can make a bed like a nurse, knit a warm winter sweater, iron pretty much anything, hem a pair of trousers and revive a dwindling fire with one sheet of newspaper and a dustpan. I don't really use many of those skills, but it's pretty neat to know how to knit and sew. I suspect knitting is becoming an obsolete skill, so I'll pass it on to Mary as a sort of party trick. One she was going, she was knitting everywhere.
Mary played the xylophone in the school "Thank You" celebration; an event held to thank those people who generously donated so that the school could purchase new instruments for the music department.
About 10 minutes into the performance, I noticed my name was written on a big poster on the Thank You wall. "Deb Shaw" in big green letters on a pink poster:
I became paranoid. Is that me, or does someone else associated with this school share my name?? I tried to look up the Midland phone directory on my iPhone. Did I accidentally donate a large sum of money to the music program? Was it that time Andrew just wrote a $100 cheque so that we didn't have to mess around with pesky raffle tickets? Then, they read out the names and asked each person to stand and receive their applause. I scanned the audience to see if anyone standing looked like they might be a "Deb Shaw". There was a small blond lady, maybe that was her? What if it's not her and it's really me and I'm not standing, I look to be very rude. Who am I to think it might be me anyway? I decided to take my undeserved praise, for my unknown good deed, silently rather than look arrogant by verifying whether it was me on the poster. I still don't know who it was but if there's another Deb Shaw in Midland, I think we should be friends.
Mary getting her notes ready.
I did well for teacher appreciation week. I didn't even use Pinterest.
I did, however, get the wrong week so Mary's teachers were probably confused.
Mary performed well in the piano recital...
...and she got to perform at the Wagner Noel for her dance recital.
Mary is growing up.
