An interesting Hill Country Rock

If you're always looking down when you're outside, it might not mean you're depressed; it could just mean that you are a rock hound like me. I runs in the family. In the ten years we've lived here our pile of interesting rocks, fossils, arrowheads and other finds has grown into an impressive cache of natural history. Now that we have the new hill in Kingsland to explore, I'm sure we'll be adding to it in future years.

The kids found this rock last weekend and they are sure it's a dinosaur egg (dino do?) fossil. The cracks are unusual. While it is a gray boring rock color, its cracks make it unlike any rock we've ever found around here..."Here" being the Hill Country of Texas.

I told them that I'd take them over to the Natural History Museum on the UT campus to have someone looks at it and tell us more. We've done that before with interesting stuff we've found outdoors and the woman we spoke to in the basement level was very agreeable to explaining what she thought our find was (and what it wasn't). Usually stuff turns out to be way more mundane than we imagined.

The color is wrong, by the way. I played with the picture in photoshop and illustrator before posting it here. If you have any ideas about this rock, I'd sure like to know what it is. I'll tell you when we know.

New Construction Inspires A New Wool House

We have a new neighbor building a house across the street from us. After one or two false starts over the years by previous owners of this challenging lot, Tom finally got it right. Our neighborhood has building guidelines which include a 100-ft easement from the street because our lots are large and everyone likes the country feel (even if we are 30 minutes from downtown). The lot across the street is tough; approximately level from the street to about 75 feet back, then a good drop-off. That's "hill country" for you. My hat is off to our good new neighbor Tom, who designed a lovely home happily nestled into the hillside, while amicably facing our direction. I'm delighted with the new addition to our little hood. It is even an improvement over the cedar-clogged view we used to have!

Maybe that's why I was inspired over Thanksgiving break to finish this little wool house that I've had constructed but unadorned in my sewing room for months. If I thought it were Tom's style I'd give it to him in a heartbeat. But clearly it's not! I think I'll put it over at Martha's League Studio Gallery and see if she can sell it at her open house this weekend.

Now we need to think about decking our own halls for Christmas!

Dolly's out there somewhere...

...pushing some awesome looking clouds into the Austin area. This has been the summer for breathtaking skies in the Hill Country. The last time I remember clouds like this was 7 years ago, the summer after Willie was born. It was hot of course and we had lots of visitors that summer in to see the new baby. My Aunt Sharon in particular (visiting from Nebraska) oohed and aahed over the Texas skies, and at the time I didn't think much of it, being only a couple of years new to the area and still in love with the newness of its beauty, the hills and flowers and creeks and lakes, not to mention my three babies who took much of my visual attention those years. But ever since, I keep my eyes on the skies to see if I can see what she saw on her visit.

This summer I see it. Not much rain here, but the most amazing unreal clouds passing through the sunshine. They don't even provide any shade as they pass by. The sun beats down through them. And they scoot and curl and move, too, offering a different view each time I peer out the back door. I have a file just for cloud photos now.

These are Hurricane Dolly clouds today. I hope we get some rain from the storm, since our little Bee Creek has been dry since spring and the lake is too low for much fun from the shore (fishing, swimming). But we can be thankful the damage at the coast is relatively minimal.