This would have been a great selfie if I had polished the mirror properly… 😁 A brown study describes my mood and outfit. I have been on a health kick since the New Year and have lost enough weight to wear my favorite brown winter outfit. The Moto jacket and dress are about 7 years old? The jacket is by INC and dress by Max Studio via Nordstrom’s Rak. Unusually, I paid full price for the jacket (just loved it) and eventually the Pleather started to wear on the collar. I was so reluctant to give it away that I ordered an inexpensive fur wrap from Amazon and got my dressmaker to attach it to the original collar. When I wore it this week, I got a few compliments so remember to recycle your wardrobe.
The dress is a knitted mystery fabric – it has washed well for 7 years. It is a little figure hugging and shows some cleavage but I think I can still rock it! Jamie Lee Curtis inspires me by continuing to look after her figure at our age. Age is just a number and I am trying to forget that I will be 59 in a few months – eek!
Oh oh! Look at all that silver in my new pixie cut! I think I will embrace it for now but expect another blog with some wacky hair color as I get bored… This blog should probably come under the heading ‘another quirky Kerry rambling’.
When I was photographing the pelicans at the containment pond, I discovered a huge fur ball (or possibly scat).
Was it a bobcat, a coyote or the Great Horned owl? I would really like to have poked around in it for clues but that sort of weird behavior upsets Teddy… I am not ready to be put in a home, please wait until I have to wear diapers. It won’t be long.
Speaking of weird behavior, I was driving Teddy to brunch as I do every Saturday, when I noticed a brand new sports car alongside me with an offensive sticker. Let’s just say that he probably doesn’t like folks south of the border. They have the same problem in Scotland…😁 As we stopped at traffic lights, I edged closer so that I could peer at the driver. I did it twice to get a good look and he was a Caucasian with a Hezbollah beard. Once he realized I was staring, he started to get nervous. At the next lights I decided to have fun and rolled down my windows. By chance, I had been playing some Spanish hip-hop in the car and turned it up as loud as it could go (pretty loud in my coupe). When the lights went red, he raced off like a bat out of hell with my cackling in his ears. Teddy just shook his head.
A few days later, I was waiting in a line at the lights when I noticed a lady screech to a halt beside me. Her side panel was already beaten in. She emerged from the car like a Latino mountain woman, wearing a large red plaid sheet shirt and black furry slippers. Then she ran up to the perp’s car in front (who presumably had cut her up) and shook her fist, yelling something. She stomped back to her car, or as much as you can stomp in furry slippers, and reached into the car. Uh oh! Was she reaching for an AK-47? It was just her pink shimmery phone to take photos of the perp’s licence plate. Inside I was saying, “You go girl!” because I am sick to death of impatient, disrespectful drivers. This is Texas – drive friendly folks (or at least funny). 🤠
Every year our street waits with eager anticipation for our visit from the white pelicans. We live in the middle of a forest so pelicans aren’t a regular sight. There is a well stocked containment pond at the end of our street which provides the pod of pelicans with some R&R on their long journey from The Gulf of Mexico to as far as Canada. They are American white Pelicans but as you can see from the image, they have dark feathers underneath.
This is the best shot I could get up close and you can see their lovely yellow beaks. They are astonishingly white and look like fluffy cotton balls on the lake. A regular white egret was keeping it’s distance from the much larger birds. They fill up their beaks with water and fish and then filter out the water. The pod gather closely to herd the little fishies.
I have a problem with punctuality. Honestly, I think it is a symptom of my OCD and I am always on time or early. It drives Teddy crazy and his slowness makes me consider spousicide or whatever the word is. Before I left the Grayliner Bus at the entrance to the Grand Canyon, the driver went to great lengths to emphasize that Arizona was one hour behind Vegas. He urged us to check and double-check that we would be back in 4 hours precisely no matter what time it said on our watches. Our fellow passengers would have plans for Vegas later, perhaps a show, and we had to be considerate of each other. I was listening…
Proof that I am not a vampire. Spoiled a great shot of the brown Colorado river way down
After chatting to the Tribal member who looked like my Dad when he was young, I went straight back to base. There was a little tourist shop, restrooms and a view of the airfield. The canyon was in the distance and I was so happy to sit in solitude with my ice-cream gazing at the view. It was fascinating to watch the small planes and helicopters take off. On a couple of occasions, staff came up to me to ask if I was waiting for someone or generally okay. I don’t think I look particularly suspicious but the airfield was a secure area, as they all are. Eventually it was time to head to the bus. Other passengers were there before me including my foul-mouthed friends. Some people were a few minutes late but one couple was about 35 minutes past time. Even worse, they sauntered to the bus oblivious to the silent hissing and dark stares. Their attitudes changed as soon as they stepped on the bus with boos and cat-calling. They look mortified, as they should…
Can you see the couple on the ledge?
We set off, got off the Tribal Lands, then the county roads to the main drag between Arizona and Nevada. The bus was going pretty fast and then it stopped. There was a major accident ahead and the double-lane road was closed. As the driver relayed this information to us, you could sense heads swiveling towards the unpunctual couple. There is really no more to the story – we came back to Vegas about 2 hours late. My fellow passengers in my row became ruder and more annoying. We stopped at the first hotel on the outskirts of Vegas and I bolted off the bus like Speedy Gonzalez. The driver confirmed that there would another staging fiasco so I went to the Uber lane.
My mood was foul but I was curiously surprised that my Uber driver was a middle-eastern lady. She was even more surprised when I greeted her in Arabic. We had a lovely time chatting about Iraq and Egypt. Her journey for Iraq was as traumatic as you can imagine and then she struggled to conceive. Her boss kindly paid for the IVF treatment and now she was a happy bunny with a baby in Nevada. Her story jerked me back into reality about what is really challenging in life. It’s not an overlong trip to the canyon.
Perhaps Vegas is a happy ever after story for some?
This is the Hoover Dam with Lake Mead behind it. If you look at the white band above the lake you can see how low the water level has dropped with years of drought. The original Boulder Dam was built in the 30s during the Depression. Thousands of workers flocked to the site for work. The Dam was renamed after President Hoover – it provides hydroelectricity and water.
This photograph shows the scale of construction with the original road. There is now a bypass which makes it safer for tourists to look at the dam. Although it is a miracle of modern engineering, there is always an ecological cost to pay when you divert a river (the Colorado River). We waste so much of our most precious resource on the planet – water.
When you visit or live in arid places you become very aware of how much we need water. I wish we could send a little of our excess water in Houston to our dry neighbors. After a 10 year drought we are now in the throes of a wet decade. There is moss in my garden!!! I left that behind in Scotland…
I am standing in Arizona looking at the impossibly blue sky of Nevada. None of my photographs have been altered. The light is fantastic.
This is my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon through the bus window. More on the trip from hell next time.
Duunnn dunnn… duuuunnnn duun… duuunnnnnnnn dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn…
These are a few of the residents at the shark aquarium at Mandalay Bay Hotel. I love sharks! Teddy ate local basking shark with Vietnamese sauce at our wedding lunch in Wales. Before I set off for the Grand Canyon, I had an afternoon to visit this aquarium. It was good, not the best I have been to, but gave some respite to the chaos of Vegas.
Lion Fish – Rawrrrr!
I had my new camera with me and I am so impatient that I didn’t read the instructions. It took me a while to figure out how to turn the flash off. Once I did, the photographs were great quality through glass. Wouldn’t this lioness’ costume inspire a lovely dress?
Fashionable rays
These rays had the most beautiful outfits on. The black one looked like velvet.
Handsome Whiskers
Catfish are my favorite type of fish, probably because of their whiskers. They taste quite nice too, especially blackened.
Starfish
Starfish just make me feel happy – they look like little hands waving at you. I loved the delicate brocade on her seams.
Rays in flight
Until this moment, I have never seen rays flapping their fins. So graceful and elegant.
Wings up!A perfect predator
The last photograph of jelly fish is my favorite – it looks like some alien world. Beautifully different and somehow alluring.
My long hot walk along the Strip to get to the Mandalay Bay Hotel was worth it just to see these wonderful creatures and I didn’t gamble a cent.
Silhouetted crow on the Western Rim of the Grand Canyon
…that grand. To be fair, the canyon was a really Grand natural spectacle, it was the arduous trip to get there that took the gleam off the visit. Air travel has never been more popular, especially to tourist destinations. The flight to Vegas was completely full and my heart sank as I walked towards my aisle seat. Two rather large people completely filled the THREE seats. They managed to squish up a bit and I had a little sliver of seat. My airline should have dealt with the situation but I didn’t complain knowing it was pointless.
Finally we arrived at Las Vegas and even the airport seemed a little shabbier than it did a decade ago, on my last visit. Still, I laughed at the slot machines right beside the gates. My ‘I work at an airport’ aura followed me west and I helped a party of French people communicate with their Serbian Uber driver. My Uber arrived and I drove off, shouting “Au revoir!” while thinking, ‘good luck finding someone else who speaks French…and enjoy our Freedom Fries!’
My hotel lived up to all its recommendations, just off the Strip but incredibly quiet. Each room was a little suite and I could have happily lived there. Perhaps some of the very elderly residents did? I felt like the young groovy chick that I am. After I unpacked, I went off to see the sights of Vegas before my long trip to the canyon the following day. Waiting at the crosswalk, I got talking to an older man (my age) who had his even older mother in a wheelchair. I wasn’t sure she was alive…mummified? Was his name Bates? I kept bumping into them at the Mall across the street and she didn’t seem to move. Welcome to Vegas!
As I was trying, with thousands of other people, to negotiate the Strip’s overhead walkways, I noticed that there were many homeless people; some drunk and some mentally ill. One poor guy got in the large elevators with 15 or so other tourists. He was shouting at nothing, terrifying the other occupants. My ‘I worked in mental health’ aura was about to appear when the doors opened and he stumbled out. It is really hard to enjoy visiting a place when you can see the underside right in front of you.
What mortified me even more were the British tourists behaving crassly. I really tried to manage my Trans-Atlantic twang so I could travel incognito. There was a really loud English couple, from up north like Jon Stark, in Victoria’s Secret who were trying to find something classy for her mother (presumably my age or less). They eventually found a sexy little something in leopard silk polyester. I struggled to contain my mirth… Later I came across some Scots men in a hotel bar and every second word was a loud cuss word. Sigh.
I took some shots close to my hotel as night was falling. It was as though the night added some dark glamour to the previously tawdry street.
Do you see the truck at the bottom? Sin City Indeed.
…and that is one of the reasons for my absence from WordPress. How many times do our hearts break when we lose a beloved pet? We had been feeding Katniss for a few years and I think she was about 4 years old. This year we bought her a little house and she finally figured out that she could use it on inclement days. A few weeks ago she suddenly disappeared and I quickly realized she was dead. After a couple of days there was a smell of death on the air and all the other little critters disappeared from our garden.
She was hale and hearty before she disappeared so I suspect she was run over by a car or succumbed after an encounter with another animal. The armadillos have created a warren of burrows under our deck and into the reserve so I will never find her. Possums and raccoons have started to visit again. For weeks we looked out of the window to no avail, as did Toffee, our elderly inside cat. My grief is tarnished with relief. We have spent almost 40 years looking after difficult, feral cats and would like a break. I was so worried about Katniss’s future and potential illness but fate has taken care of that.
This is the last photograph of Katniss enjoying her little house. It now sits empty like the Taj Mahal.
Feral cats have a short lifespan compared to domesticated cats so she had a lovely few years being spoiled with ‘pasta and trout’, her very own house and loving servants. Her little house sits empty but I have seen squirrels hop in and out. The fat raccoon could only squeeze her head in… We will leave it out as our Taj Mahal to Katniss. Perhaps it will give one of our many critter visitors a warm shelter?
I am going to take a little break from blogging and following but thank you to all my visitors. I look forward to catching up with everyone in the New Year. May you enjoy a marvelous festive season. Merry Christmas!
Lord, make me an instrument
of Thy peace;
Where there is hatred,
let me sow charity;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light; and Where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Do you notice that lovely glow on my face? That is desperate sweating because it was still in the 90’s but I wanted to do another Fall Fashion post. It is about 9 am in the morning and you can see the humidity on the deck. Welcome to the swampy south!
Isn’t it great when you have friends who are the same size as you? The blouse above was a gift swap from a friend. The jeans were bought last year and, as always, I have to shop in the juniors section to get a good fit. The pink dangling earrings cost about $2 in Waco and I love them!
Very fine knitted navy sweater from Nordstrom’s Rack, Linen pants from some years ago, Iridescent Navy kitten heels from Steinmart
This time the freebie was from another friend whose mother passed. Like me, her mom loved clip on earrings so I inherited some. I love these ones with a ‘ruby’ center. Everyone keeps asking me why I don’t pierce my ears. My ears are perfect and my Nana told me only ladies of ill repute had pierced ears. Some things stick with you…😁 Despite that I am wearing a see-through sweater showing off my lovely 34 DDD bra (yes really). Thank you to whichever ancestor gifted me them.
Bell sleeved blouse from Loft, ancient boot cut jeans from Marks and Spencers, those favorite Green Boc sandals
This is another gift of a blouse from the first friend. It was a trip to the outlet mall that went wrong…to my benefit! The pretty green earrings were also from Waco. On a road trip I found this amazing place like a souk, and I have yet to find earrings that are as comfortable. I bought eight pairs…
One of the reasons for the skin glow is a recent facial. My skin had started to break out in acne cysts. Her conclusion was that I was just filthy. I don’t know how many times she applied a mask and took off layers of humidity and skin. My mother gifted me beautiful skin but I forget that I have to be a little more careful in the tropics to avoid breakouts.
Why don’t you try gifting or swapping clothes with friends who are a similar size? I had one tunic dress that I wore until I was fed up, gave it to a friend who wore it until she was fed up and now I have it back again.
Postcards from Kerry 