Sundogs

How I managed to live (mumble, mumble) years being unaware of sundogs, I'm not sure.

It's been two years since I first saw one (and wrote about it), and I've seen dozens since.

But I still haven't managed to get a good photo of one.
I see them more often in winter, especially when driving south late in the afternoon. (AL-75S gives great sundog.)
No use trying to race them home, though. They're slithery, and don't hang around for portraits.
Here's a nice, simple page with a good sundog photo, as well as other atmospheric phenomena. Here is the definitive page on the science behind the "why" of all the optics.
-----
The latest I and the Bird is up over at The Birder's Report. Go see!

Goldfields in the Backcountry

Las Trampas Backcountry, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Deep in the wilderness of Las Trampas, wildflowers abound. These goldfields were abundant at an interesting rock outcropping. Spring is definitely arriving!

An Odd Combo...

A couple of days ago, there was a theft, but today, I've retrieved the merchandise, which would be my blog! A number of you asked for my Christmas doggie cookie recipe, so I'm going to slip it in between our makings of this recipe and a show-and-tell of my day at the Cow Palace fun match yesterday. An odd coupling indeed! The recipe is called "Peanut Butter Dog Bones." The ingredients call for:

2 cups whole wheat flour (but you can use 1 cup flour and 1 cup of whole oats)

1 T. baking powder

1 cup natural peanut butter (I used crunchy)

1 cup skim milk (but I used beef broth - or you can use chicken broth)

You can also add 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese to the recipe, which I did.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets (I used parchment paper); stir flour and baking powder together. In medium bowl, mix penut butter and skim milk (or...?); slowly add flour mixture. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth. If sticky, add flour until stiff enough to work with.

Roll out to 1/4 inch and cut into shapes. For smaller breeds, make into mini-peanut butter cookie shapes or little dog bones.
Meanwhile, I'm waiting, in between helping. We put the cookie cut-outs onto the parchment and then stuck them in the oven for 25-30 minutes until lightly browned.

Mmmmmmnnnn. We took them out and boy did they smell good! But we had more dough to roll and shapes to cut out!

More baking time... yawn...
Can I have one pleasepleaseplease??? Well, after they cooled, I got to test one and it was yumzers! I still had some decorating to do! For this, you can use yoghurt chips (around here, must get online), or what we used - white chocolate chips and also carob chips. We used pastry bags to pipe out decorations on the cookies. (We melted the carob chips in double boiler - don't overheat these seemingly delicate chips. We then added some veggie oil to thin - just a tiny bit at a time - test! We melted the white choc. chips in the microwave, but watched with an eagle eye. Then we added some veggie oil to these as well, stirring drop by drop. Enjoy!)
Voila! It was lots of fun to do, but I had the best fun of all testing them out heheh! (And I had a great time at the Fun Match!)
I hope you enjoy making and eating these doggie cookies as much as I did!

Rio Cibolo Ranch Walk

Whoa! Two hours for an 11K (6.8 mi.) walk! Must be the cool air and chilly breezes (and need of facilities) that made me walk so fast today. Temperature at the beginning of the walk was 57 degrees (minus some for wind chill). By the end of the walk it was 66 degrees and breezy. My sweater stayed on for the whole walk.

While I was walking, Bob went to the gym to play basketball with his buddies. He said his game was off, but at least he ran up and down the floor.

The Zuehl, Texas walk I participated in this morning was an event sponsored by the Randolph Roadrunners Volksmarch Club. That means club members staffed the start area, checkpoints and finish. Thank you to the many volunteers who made this beautiful autumn walk possible.

Where I'm headed to do the walk.

At the beginning of the walk we registered at Zuehl's Hall, a large building that can be rented for weddings, parties, family reunions, etc. From the Hall, we walked through part of the 130-acre longhorn cattle ranch. In addition to the Hall I saw the: Saloon, Frisbee golf course, hay ride wagons, canoeing area, 100-year-old pecan orchard, a place for barge rides, horseshoe pits, Kiddie Korral, softball field, and picnic areas. What a beautiful setting, made all the more lush because of the recent rains in south Texas. The plants, grass and trees are green again.

Main gate at Rio Cibolo Ranch

Zuehl's Hall for events.

"Come Walk with Us" banner.

Blacksmith shop.

Hay rides...but not today.

Llama and longhorns.

Burros.

Texas longhorns.

Longhorns and grackles.

100-year-old pecan orchard.

Cibolo Orchard sign

Barge not open today.

The barge rides weren't open today, but Volkssporting also includes boating sometimes. Today, there was an option to go kayaking. Kayaks, paddles and life vests were provided. If I didn't have an appointment to pick up my hearing aid at Costco at 2:00 p.m., I might have gone for a paddle.

Horseshoe pits.

Saloon.

Unique landscaping.

Took me a while to realize this is a BBQ'er.

Pretty flowers in bloom in October.

Our first checkpoint was at Zuehl Field, a WWII airfield. Locally it is known, tongue in cheek, as the Zuehl International Airport. It's claim to fame is that Robert Redford was here to film "The Great Waldo Pepper."

Sod airport runway.

The runway.

We walked along the left edge of the runway.

What's an airport without planes?

Don't know what happened to these!

There's quite a relic.

We walked along many country roads.

Family bar, The Double Ringer

Formerly Clemens School, 1891-1966 (now you can rent it for parties)

Fall berries.

The lane into Rio Cibolo Ranch.

Creative birdhouse.

River in Zuehl, Texas.

Lovely walk today and definitely not hot outside.

Just a note: I bought gas at Costco this week. It was $3.00 per gallon. You read that right: $3.00 per gallon. Wow!

Must get a move on to my appointment at Costco. Then Bob and I are going to see "Prisoners."

Travel Bug out.