The Incredible Painted Church of Panna Maria

Panna Maria, which is Polish for "Virgin Mary," is a small town located about 60 miles southeast of San Antonio, Texas. It has the distinction of being the oldest permanent Polish settlement in the United States. It is worth taking a few minutes detour when travelling on Highway 123 to stop and visit the Catholic church located on the main street. 

The Immaculate Conception church was built in 1877. It's tower, shooting 100 feet into the air, is visible for miles. The main reason to stop and visit, though, is because the interior of the church has been lavishly decorated with beautiful stained glass, lovely statues, and incredible painted designs.

I hope you will enjoy looking at a few of the photos I took of this hidden jewel of a church.

A Sunrise Celebration

As the body of Jesus was lifted off the cross, Satan, leading the forces of evil, did a victory dance and had a party. He killed the only begotton Son of God. Jesus was dead!

You see, Satan is not all-powerful nor is he all-knowing. He has his limits. He did not know that Jesus willingly gave up his life. It was not taken from him.

So, when the sun came up on Sunday morning, Satan must have yelled in anger and anguish. Jesus was alive! Jesus had defeated death! Not only that, he had paid the price for every man, woman and child to ever live. When Jesus said, "It is finished," as he hung on the cross, he was speaking of more than the cruel punishment of a death on the cross.  Jesus spoke of the redemption of mankind from the wages of sin.

What a glorious, heavenly celebration on Sunday morning. He arose!
Hallelujah!

Fishing Is Still Fun Even When Nothing's Biting

April is a great time to visit the Texas Gulf Coast. It is not cold, but it is not too hot, either. Summer temperatures can get to over 100 degrees, and when you couple that with the high humidity, the heat can be miserable.

We arrived on Monday, and the wind was gusting to about 30 miles per hour. The sky was overcast, but it felt wonderful. Rich and I walked out on the pier, but we did not fish. Tuesday morning, I woke up early, hoping for a glorious colorful sunrise, but it was still grey and overcast. After seeing the sun peek through the clouds a couple of times, lighting a patch of the bay with it's blinding rays, I grabbed my camera and headed out to the dock. Soon the sun peeked through again, long enough for me to get a couple of nice shots.

The wind had stopped blowing, so Richard got out his cane pole and his rod and reel. He had purchased a few lures at Wal-Mart, and he brought some pieces of left-over sausage for bait. First, he tried fishing from the shore in the shallow water. He said it was only inches deep where he was fishing. He did not catch anything.

Then, he moved over to the dock and dropped a line into the water. It was deeper, though not by much. Still no nibbles.

He decided to put some sausage on his hook, and twice something nibbled all the sausage off the hook. However, the fish was too sneaky and sly. It got away without even a fight. 

After feeding the fish for most of the morning, Richard decided to call it quits. I asked him if he had a good time. 

This is the look he gave me.

I guess I do not understand the whole fishing experience. Richard said he had a good time even though he did not get a single pull on his line. He explained that some days are good fishing, and some are not, and in the end, it evens out. Part of the fun is wondering what kind of day it will be. 

Maybe next time, the fish will bite.

Looking at Fulton Harbor with Landlubber's Eyes

After spending a day at our cabin on the bay, I left Richard fishing off the dock and I drove into Rockport. I ended up at Fulton Harbor, so I parked my truck, grabbed my camera, and started walking next along the pier. I am almost totally ignorant of boats and fishing, but I love being around the fishing boats and the harbor. With that confession, I will just show you some of the photos I took, without much explanation.

A lot of the boats are shrimpers, which explains the name of this boat...Shrimp Cocktail.

However, I did not realize that until I asked this man if he was getting ready to go fishing. "Shrimping," was his one-word answer. Duh. Everyone knows that the Gulf coast is famous for it's shrimp industry.

This gentleman was out walking his dog, who had been cooped up on one of the boats during the night. I should have asked him which boat was his, but I missed my opportunity, and he walked on.

The HEB Lodge at Rockport Invaded by Wooly Worms

Richard works for a family owned grocery chain located in Texas called H.E.B., named after the founder, Herbert E. Butt. Founded in 1905 with a single one-room store run by Mrs. Butt, the company now has over 400 stores across Texas. 

H.E.B. owns two vacation lodges for its partners (employees) to use. One is in the Texas hill country, called the Kerrville Lodge, and the other is in Rockport at the coast. Twice a year, employees are allowed to stay at the lodges without cost. We have never been to the Kerrville Lodge, but we have visited the Rockport Lodge several times. 

 This is the large cabana next to the beach which used to have several ping pong tables for the campers' use. Now, it is locked up. We can see it, and the bay from the porch of Cabin #1, the only cabin we have ever stayed in. We always ask for Cabin #1 because it is the closest to the water.

Here is our cabin. It sleeps six easily. We love the screened porch which covers the whole length of the cabin. That is where we spend almost all our time when we are indoors. Do you see the little tree next to the bush with the red flowers? We found a momma cardinal nesting there. I will post pictures another time of the nest and the four speckled cardinal eggs she was tending.

Sadly, the days were very hazy while we were in Rockport. There were no beautiful sunrises or sunsets like we had on our last trip. There were no fluffy white clouds or deep blue skies. Mostly, the sky and the water were just greyish...

That did not stop me from taking pictures, though. It just made me work a little harder to get some interesting or beautiful shots. 

The main problem we encountered was not a lack of sunlight. It was dealing with the infestation of wooly caterpillars. They were on all the screens of the cabin, on the floor of the porch, falling from the ceiling, and climbing on everything on the porch. They were mostly confined to the porch, so we did not have to deal with them in the bedroom or kitchen (except for one or two of them), so we did stay in the cabin, but after a couple of days, we had had enough, and we headed home early. Now we know that early April is not a good time to visit the H.E.B. Rockport Lodge.

 They look vicious, but they do not sting. They do squish, though, when you step on them.Here is a picture of three of them on the back of one of the chairs, so you can get some idea of the size of the worms.

Buying Some of the Best Produce Straight From the Rio Grand Valley

On Monday, Richard and I left Seguin and travelled about 150 miles south to visit Rockport, a small town on the Texas coast. When we were almost at our destination, we spied a roadside stand that had fruit and vegetables for sale, so we stopped to check out the produce. 

Everyone in Texas knows that the very best produce comes from the fertile Rio Grand Region,  which Texans just call "The Valley". So, I was not surprised when the lady selling the produce told me that the produce, all the tomatoes, oranges, lemons, pineapples, mangos, watermelons, sweet onions, peppers, sweet potatoes and little red potatoes came straight from the valley.

Don't they look wonderful?

I asked this smiling lady if she lived in the valley. She told me that she actually lives in Rockport. She drives down to McAllen and Alamo to pick up the produce and she brings it back to sell on the side of the road.

We picked out some onions, tomatoes and squash. Each tin bucket was filled with $3 worth of produce. So, we spent $9. Then, for dinner, I cooked the squash, sliced the tomato, and used the onion to make fried onions and potatoes. Everything was delicious.

On our way back to Seguin, today, we looked for the lady with her produce stand. Unfortunately, she was not there when we got to the same spot. If you get a chance to buy some fruit or veggies from the Texas Valley, do it!

The Dangerous Bastard Cabbage

For all my readers who live in the Seguin area, I have a question. Have you noticed how many fields and roadsides are absolutely covered with this billowy, tall, bushy yellow flower?

It is called the bastard cabbage (Rapistrum rugosum). I don't remember seeing such a profusion of this particular wildflower, but I have enjoyed taking pictures of it. I love the simplicity of the lemon yellow flowers with their spindly and nubby green stalks against the blue, blue sky. In order to get this type of shot, I literally have to lay on the ground on my belly and set the camera on the dirt and point it upwards just right. 

If I just kneel, as I did for the two next pictures, and if I get pretty close to the blooms, I can get them in sharp focus, and get a very blurred, Monet type of backdrop of bluebonnets or bluebonnets mixed with Indian paintbrushes.

What I did not realize, until I did a little research to identify the wildflower, is that it is so invasive a species that it is crowding out almost all other wildflowers. If it is not brought under some sort of control, it will crowd out all our precious bluebonnets in the near future. Evidence of it's success in overtaking its habitat is the numerous fields in the area that are blanketed in a thick cover of the plant.

It seems it's nickname of bastard cabbage is very appropriate.