The New Year was ushered in the company of friends and fine food. The weather was good, it had been a mild winter. A chance spotting of a news item by my husband about a castle in rural Texas got him all excited. Turned out it wasn't very far from where we lived, an hours drive on a route we have been on often. Featured in USA Today, and the local news, we were excited about this find and set out with the help of Google maps.
In reality, it was a big dog! It was sitting at the entrance, and when it saw us, it stood up and started walking towards us. At first, I was apprehensive because there seemed to be no one around. It was such a friendly dog, it checked us out and went back to its position at the entrance.
My husband kept saying there was a nice bakery near the castle but we found nothing, and no one. That's when we realized that in all the excitement of having found such a lovely castle so close to where we lived, we hadn't read the entire article. The bakery was in Bellville, TX and to visit the castle, one needed to make an appointment. We decided to do that on another day.
Adjacent to the castle was this pond with lots of lily pads. It must be a gorgeous sight when the lilies are in bloom.
It was a beautiful day so we did not mind the drive. A Greater Roadrunner crossed the road and hurried on among the bushes. Not before it provided a photo op for me. My first decent picture of a Roadrunner!
The directions led us to a small country road and after a couple of miles, we had arrived! It was a very impressive looking structure! As we walked towards the castle, I thought I saw a statue of a lion at the entrance on the moat! Lion statues at the Massachusetts castle we visited in September were still fresh in my memory.
In reality, it was a big dog! It was sitting at the entrance, and when it saw us, it stood up and started walking towards us. At first, I was apprehensive because there seemed to be no one around. It was such a friendly dog, it checked us out and went back to its position at the entrance.
My husband kept saying there was a nice bakery near the castle but we found nothing, and no one. That's when we realized that in all the excitement of having found such a lovely castle so close to where we lived, we hadn't read the entire article. The bakery was in Bellville, TX and to visit the castle, one needed to make an appointment. We decided to do that on another day.
Adjacent to the castle was this pond with lots of lily pads. It must be a gorgeous sight when the lilies are in bloom.
It was a beautiful day so we did not mind the drive. A Greater Roadrunner crossed the road and hurried on among the bushes. Not before it provided a photo op for me. My first decent picture of a Roadrunner!
After that weekend, it was back to routine.
Then the weather guys got busy because a particularly cold mass of air was diving towards Texas from the arctic and freeze warnings were in forecast.
Nothing had prepared me for what actually came our way. There wasn't any snow, but it got really cold, and for three nights in a row, there was a hard freeze. I had covered a lot of my plants and even gotten some indoors. The temperature was down to 20 degrees F on two nights, and it was the first time I got to see a bird bath that looked like this-
It warmed up soon after that. Seasonal temperatures, though a tad on the warmer side, set in. The damage was done though. A lot of my plants died or at least appear to be dead. I'll know their fate only around March when everything seems to spring back to life.
The squirrels were in a amorous mood, and soon, we will probably see little ones jumping all over the yard.
Lovely pic of the castle veena
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