A good weekend

Saturday was mostly taken up with shopping.  Getting the week's groceries was fine, but trying to find something special for a birthday present was less easy and involved a lot of driving up and down and getting in and out of the car.  That's what happens when you don't know a place very well and are looking for something specific!

In the evening we went to a concert by the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra who played 'Nimrod' by Elgar, 'Crouching Tiger' by Tan Dun with a 17 year old cellist and some stirring drumming and Rimsky Korsakov's 'Scheherazade.  We also picked up the programme for next season and information about other musical groups.  Things to look forward to in the Autumn. 

Copperhead?

Today we've been on a 7 mile walk round Lake Somerville - well, not the whole way round, just  3.5 miles one way, picnic lunch and then 3.5 miles back.  Nice easy track near the lake side, although the lake is only visible on a couple of occasions.   Not many people to be seen; three cyclists and 5 other walkers in total, which compared to our last walk was positively crowded!   We had planned to go back to the Sam Houston Forest but the hiking trails were closed - worries about stressed trees falling down and managed 'burns' to clear dead wood and undergrowth.   It got quite hot at Lake Somerville and the humidity went up so when we arrived home we felt a bit blasted!   However, it was a good day.  Many wild flowers, a snake and leaf cutter ants at work.  The leaf cutter ants were particularly interesting as they were the speciality of our late friend Dave Stradling and we had heard a lot about them from him, but had never seen them.  

Pelicans

Pink evening primrose? 

Ant nest exit/entrance

Leaf-cutter ants