Waiting for the Parade to Begin

Passing time while waiting 

for the parade to begin…..

Royal Relaxing

According practicing

Bubble blowing

Daddy glowing

Family chilling

Yep, everything is ready…

Let the parade BEGIN!

Seguin ARTFEST CelebrARTe 2015

The Seguin Commission on the Arts hosted its annual 

Artfest Celebration 

with fun and special events all day on Saturday, March 21st.

  The goal is to raise funds to promote art in our town. 

The final event, a gala at the beautiful and historic Texas Theater, 

featured art work donated by area artists

 to be auctioned off to help restore 

the Seguin Art Leauge's "new" old building 

located downtown, across from the county courthouse.

Here are some of the people who volunteered, 

some who attended, and some of the art.

Thanks to all the folks who made it a success.

By the way, if you look closely, 

you will find your humble servant and blogger 

taking a selfie in one of the vintage mirrors. 

Silly but that's me!

The Real Thing, Not a Saturday Night Cowboy

I love the real Texas look….there's a difference between a Texas cowboy who has no idea his "look" is iconic or desired. He wears his Stetson hat because that's just what he's always worn. There are crisp blue jeans and button up shirts, nothing fancy about that.

This gentleman cowboy was spending a little time outside on the sidewalk during the Artsfest CelebrARTe gala on Saturday night. I asked if I could take his photograph and he was visibly pleased but surprised. I explained that folks in other countries would love to see a real cowboy dressed up for the evening. He grinned and commented that he could hardly wait to tell his wife. Anyhow, here he is.
The real thing, not a Saturday night cowboy.

Texas Wildflowers in the Springtime FALSE GARLIC

False Garlic

Nothoscordum bivalve

Lily family

also called Crow Poison

These little beauties get overlooked when the fields are full of bluebonnets and Texas paintbrushes. False Garlic may stand anywhere from 6 to 21 inches tall, but the blooms are only about an inch across. 

Here is a bloom growing next to the star of the Texas wildflowers, the bluebonnet. You can see why it might be overlooked.

Spring Time Babies on the Way

House Sparrow

passer domesticus 

Well, you can see why this little beauty 

is called a "house" sparrow, can't you?

He and his wee wifey have  built a snug nest

 inside the hole in our eave.

Pieces of their building material 

keep falling onto our back steps.

Oh well, they won't be there long. 

I don't know if they have eggs in the nest yet. 

I suppose they do, but I haven't climbed 

up an extension ladder to check.

Once the babies leave the nest, 

the momma and daddy will go on their way,

 and I won't have to sweep up straw 

on my back steps until next spring.

Texas Wildflower Season Has Begun!

Texas Paintbrush

Castilleja indivisa

Texas boasts a glorious spring wildflower show 

when rainfall has been plentiful

during the preceeding months. 

This year, we have had an unusually

 wet winter, so the flowers should be both

 bountiful and colorful. 

This morning, even though the skies were grey

 and the lighting was miserable, 

I took my camera out to see what I could find. 

One of the flowers that is already

 covering some fields and roadways 

is the peachy, pinky, coral, salmon or red Texas paintbrush. 

Come back often in the next few weeks

 for more Texas wildflower photos. 

I look forward to lots and lots 

of trips around the Texas countryside 

in the days to come!

October is Pumpkin Month at First United Methodist Church

Texas celebrates the month of October with all the goodness of pumpkins. You can drive to Dairy Queen and get pumpkin blizzards, you can go to any coffee shop and get pumpkin spice lattes, and you will find pumpkins decorating porches and tabletops.

The best place to find pumpkins in Seguin is in the front yard of the First United Methodist Church.

  *     *  WELCOME TO THE PATCH  *   *  

There are mini- pumpkins and gargantuan pumpkins….

Lots of volunteers are on site from October 1st through October 31st to assist pumpkin shoppers and pumpkin lovers. The church sells pumpkins each year to help fund their outreach ministries. Some of the money helps their preschool programs, some goes to a local food ministry, some helps youth work and mission work, and all of it goes to worthy endeavors.

This year, there were several new treats to entertain the kiddos including a scavenger hunt and a coloring station.

*   *   *  ARE YOU A PUMPKIN?  *   *   *

Did you know that pumkins float? Mr. Helpful Volunteer showed me a pumpkin floating in water.

He took me to a pumpkin that had been cut open and held up the top so I could see the pumpkin flesh and seeds.

Then I looked inside the pumpkin and saw all the empty space in the middle. That is why they float! They are filled with air.

Along with a variety of pumpkins, there were also some colorful gourds for sale. These gourds look like ducks, don't they? I don't know their latin name, so I am calling them duckhead gourds. Go figure.

 I hope I get to return to the pumpkin patch on a day when children are visiting. I would love to watch them have fun as they listen to pumpkin tales, hunt for pumpkin scavenger tokens and as they pick out their very own bright orange pumpkin to take home.

2014 Guadalupe County Fair Parade Flags, Floats, Tractors, Clowns

2014 Guadalupe County Fair Parade Shows Off Local Youth

 Why are there so many spectators lining the streets to watch a local parade? Why, it's the kids, of course! Parents, family and friends stand proud and cheer as their young ones pass by. Whether they are marching in a band, showcasing a school play, cheering for their school teams or just riding a float, everyone loves to see the children and teen-agers.  So what do we have here?

Matador trumpets, a Seguin High School drama student dressed as a witch, Mighty Matador Cheerleaders, members of the Navarro Panther Band, and youngsters on a float. If you see someone you know, let them know you saw there picture on Wild About Texas's blog.

By the way, have you noticed the ads on the sidebar now? Click on them once in a while to help support your faithful blogger. Little pennies add up after a while, and my CEO says I ought to make a few coins once in a while, lol.

2014 Guadalupe County Fair Parade Begins

As 10:00 approaches, the folks lining the northern side of Austin Street, the side which gets the morning shade, patiently wait. The mid-term elections are a matter of weeks away, so Republicans were out canvassing for votes as they passed out hand held fans. This gent with his Buffalo Bill mustache wore an NRA shirt and sported a Greg Abbott campaign button. 

Since the whole purpose of the fair and the parade are to celebrate agriculture in Guadalupe County, it is fitting that young people from Guadalupe County 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America) lead off the parade.

Looking at the State Bank and Trust Clock, one of the icons of Seguin, it is easy to see that the parade is now a whole 15 minutes old. Hard to believe that there are only going to be another fifteen minutes before the entire parade has passed. That's not too bad, though for a farming county in rural Texas.

Parade Marshalls this year are past presidents of the Guadalupe County Agricultural Fair going back to the 1950's. Here are several of them riding in a place of honor.

Texas parades always have beautiful young women dressed in fancy western wear. Many Texas pageant queens don't wear a traditional tiara crown. Instead, thier tiara sits atop thier Stetson hat.

I wonder if there is a class on giving proper royal waves to the fair royalty? Princesses, Duchesses, Runner-Ups and Queens all same wave as they travel the parade route.