THANKSGIVING DINNER IN TEXAS

This year is our first American Thanksgiving in Texas.  Of course, we have already had our Canadian Thanksgiving at home in Canada on October 14th.  It seems the celebrations are very similar with the exception of the travelling.  The American Thanksgiving is when everyone seems to travel all over the country, to be with family for this holiday.  A lot of people have left the park to be with family and will be back after this extra long weekend.  Whereas for us, it seems Christmas is more the time to travel to be with Family. 

 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner at the Park Rec Hall, where the Turkey, Stuffing and Gravy are supplied for the  price of your ticket, with the rest of the dinner and decorations planned and supplied by you and your table mates in a Pot Luck fashion. 

 

The event was well attended.  All the tables were beautifully  decorated.  And the food was delicious. 

 

 

 

 

All of the tables were so beautifully decorated I think we should have had a best decorated table prize.  It was all so  lovely. 

 

 

 The food was very traditional just like we would have had at home.  The only thing that seemed different for me is that Dinner was at 12:00 noon.   

We stuffed ourselves completely.  Then we went home for a couple of hours, then we all met back at the hall for

leftovers at 6:00 pm. 

 

I swore I couldn't eat another thing, but of course I did, cause what good is a turkey, without having a turkey sandwich.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOW I AM STUFFED, JUST LIKE A TURKEY

 

 

 

 

 

THE SUN IS FINALLY SHINNING

I was uncomfortably hot and wanted it to cool down, but like the saying goes.  "Be careful what you ask for, you just may get it."   Well, after days on end of cloud rain and cold weather, the sun finally came out this morning.  It's not exactly hot out yet, but we are slowly creeping up to the high 50s today.  We will be back to our normal 70s and 80s by the weekend. 

I will be able to get back to tending my plants, that got drowned over and over in the past week.  I had to keep going out and emptying the pots, which were overflowing with all this rain.  That's one of the problems with "Patio Gardening". 

I'm so anxious to dig out my cushions and set my patio up again and enjoy the outdoors.  I am just so glad to see the sun.  It's been so depressing, cooped up in the trailer as it rained and rained and rained.   We come down here in the winter, for the outdoor living not to stay indoors and watch TV.  I could do that at home in Manitoba. 

 

 

 

COME ON HOT WEATHER

 

 

 



BRRRRR IT'S COLD IN TEXAS

Yesterday morning we woke up to 75 degrees which soon climbed up to the mid 80s.  The humidity was very high and it was very uncomfortable. 
We managed to get our Grocery shopping done in the morning, which is a good thing, because the front that was expected to hit between 4 or 5 pm came through this area around 2:30.  It started with a big black cloud, looming in the west and moving in really fast.  The sky darkened and then the wind and rain came.  In the span of one hour the temperature dropped from 87 F to 46 F .  It was freaky. 

IT"S SUPPOSED TO WARM UP AGAIN BY TUESDAY

 

 

 

 

MY PATIO IS FULL OF PLANTS AND READY TO ENJOY

I have been busy purchasing and transplanting and tending to all the plants I have gotten for my patio. 

 

 

I love it when my patio is lush and full of plants.  I love all the greenery around and I also use it to screen certain things from my view.  I also love that they screen me from other people's view when I am sitting out. 

 

 

Now if the humidity would drop off, I would be able to sit out there and enjoy it instead of hold up here in the trailer and only going out early in the morning and then in the evening

 

Some cool weather in the 50s and 60s is heading here for the weekend. 

 

 

THAT WILL BE A RELEIF

 

 

 

 

IT'S NOT THE HEAT IT'S THE HUMIDITY

I finally had to give in to, closing up the trailer and putting the air conditioning on.   We come down here for the warmth, but these last couple of days have been unbearable.  You step outside and it hits you and you start to sweat, then your cloths start too cling to you and you sweat some more.  It's yucky. 

 

 

 

I hate to have to live shut in with the windows and door closed and the air conditioner on.  I might as well have stayed home closed in with the heat on.  I don't mind when it gets hot, as long as it doesn't get this humid.  Thank goodness we don't get too many of these humid systems in Texas.   

 

 

 

 

THIS TOO WILL PASS

 

 

 

ENJOYING THE POOL

We have a wonderful pool and hot tub here in our park. 
 

During the hot sunny days this is the place to be.  It is always a very busy place.  The 3 Ss - Swimming, Sunbathing and Socializing are the order of the day.  

 

 

I, on the other hand prefer to sit in the shade on my patio on those hot sunny days, but come evening, that's when I hit the pool and hot tub.  

It's very relaxing and refreshing to have a quick dip and a soak in the hot tub after a long hot day.  We usually have the whole place to ourselves.  Only a few share our passion for evening cool down swims after a long hot day. 



NOW THAT'S WHAT I LIKE ABOUT TEXAS





 

 

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I OFTEN WONDERED

Before coming to Texas, I often wondered why Grapefruits were called Grape fruit, as they certainly don't resemble grapes in any way. 

 

That is, until you see how they grow.  Once you own a Grapefruit tree and see how they grow hanging together in clusters, then you can understand why they would name them Grapefruits. 

 

Ours are ripening up nicely and will soon be ready to eat.  As in previous years they will be juicy, pink and very sweet. 

 

 

And we will enjoy them each and every morning. 

 

 

 

"THAT'S WHAT I LIKE ABOUT TEXAS"

 

 

 

OUTDOOR LIVING IS ON HOLD

We are in a bit of a cold spell here in Texas.  The temperatures for the next few days will only be in the mid 50s F that is about 13C.  So we will not be enjoying our patio much.  That means it's woolly socks and watching TV kinda weather. 

 

Things are supposed to improve up into the 80s again on the weekend.  So, we will put our jackets on when we go for our walks and keep ourselves busy and wait for things to improve. 

 

 

 

 

IT STILL BEATS SNOW  !!

 

 

 

 

NOVEMBER 11th - IT'S NOT JUST A DAY OFF

HONOUR THIS DAY AND THOSE MEN

 

THE PATIO IS FILLING OUT

I've managed to pick up some more plants for my patio.  I love to have lots of plants around, so it's worth it for me to spend some time and money each time we arrive. 

 

 

 

This time I will get more benefit from them as we are here for 5 months rather than 3.  If I could find a few artificial ones that look real I would invest in them so I would have them from year to year, but they would have to be really nice ones. 

 

 

I am tempted to try to plant a couple of these when we leave to see how they would survive the summer. The trick would be Location, Location, Location, away from the wind and too much sun and yet out in the open enough to be watered in the rain. I don't know that I could find such a spot within our lot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I even manged to pick up a couple of Poinsettia's for $3.00 each.  I don't know whether I have the talent to keep them alive the whole time we're here, but it's worth a try, at that price. 

 

 

BEAUTIFYING OUR SURROUNDINGS  

 

 

 

 

THIS WEATHER IS MORE LIKE MARCH

It is so HOT here.  I know we came down here for the warm weather but I did not expect it to be this hot and humid.  November has turned out to be quite hot. 

Everyday since we arrived, it has been 87 and above and very humid.  When we wake in the morning it's quite comfortable and if you sit in the shade and don't do much, it's OK during the day.  But at night it has been very uncomfortable for sleeping.  

This is the kind of temperatures that we experience in late March that drive us back to the cool of Manitoba.  It rained last night so that is supposed to cool things down for a couple of days, but then it's going back up to the mid 80s, hopefully not so humid. 





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PLANTINGS

I got some basic Petunias for my planters today and got them planted.  It's a start.  

 

 

But now I'm on the hunt for some Palms like I had last year. 

 

 

 

One thing I was very pleased to see, is that one of the plants I dumped out at the edge of our driveway, survived just fine. 

 

 

 

I should be able to start a couple more plants from this one. 

 

 

I LOVE LIVE PLANTS AROUND MY PATIO

 

 

 

WE ARE GETTING SETTLED IN

The first few days in Texas are always busy, busy busy.  There is the Hook Ups.  Connect the Power, Water, and Sewer, then the phone and the TV.  Get that fridges and freezers going.  Unpack the truck, that's a 3 day job.  Then un-store all the stuff you stored before you left in the spring. 

 

 

 

Then there is the cleaning.  Just like the boat, everything in the trailer is dusty and dirty and needs a thorough cleaning.  

 

Then the lists have to be made for shopping.  Look through the cupboards and figure out what you need. Costco: Chicken, Beef and Pork.  HEB: Bread, milk, butter, eggs and all the fresh veggies etc.  Then Wally-mart for all the other stuff???   It really takes about a week to fully stock the trailer again. 

 

 

Then finally I start to hit the garden centres to get some plants for my planters.  My patio looks to much like a concrete jungle until I get my planters all filled with plants.  Coming early this year is going to be a problem, as even in Texas it's not exactly planting season, Spring doesn't start till late January.  Well, I'll see what I can find.  I may have to start some slips from some of the perenials around here. 

 

 

 

Our grapefruit trees have plenty of huge grapefruits on them.  They are still very green, so we will leave them on the trees and let them ripen for a while.  Our trees have great grapefruits.  They are not pretty on the outside, but are sweet, juicey and pink.  It's so nice to pick them fresh each morning I can hardly wait.  

 

 

 

SO, I THINK WE ARE STARTING TO FEEL AT HOME AGAIN

 

 

 

 

 

WE HAVE ARRIVED

We left Denton, at 6:30 in the morning.  It turned out to be a long and annoying day. 

 

 

The weather was great, the truck ran perfectly just the damn GPS sent us on a big waist of time.  "Gladys" (our name for her) had us all mapped out on the freeways straight through on our usual route, including a toll road, when we realized we were getting low on gas with no service stations ahead on this newly constructed toll road, we had to pull off to get fuel.  Well, that was the start of out problems.  

 

 

Once we finally located a service station (no easy task) and we fuelled up Gladys decided to route us across country on backroad - two lane highways instead of back to the freeway.  I finally had to get out the atlas and figured out that she was taking us on a bee line straight from where we were directly to McAllen, but refusing to re-direct us 20 miles west, to get us back onto the freeways that we were previously travelling on.  So we turned her off, navigated over to the freeway then turned her back on. 

 

 

But we made it safe and sound, with no problems, so I guess we shouldn't complain.

 

 

 

 

 

JUST GLAD TO POUR A DRINK AND ENJOY THE TEMPERATURES