Lake Bistineau - Nov 28, 2014

I finally got around to downloading my pictures from my cell.  Trouble was when I did it my computer/cellphone acted up and downloaded everything 5 times.  I had over 10,000 picture downloaded.  It was too much work to pick them out and so I deleted everything that I would normally use in this blog since it ate up all my computer space.  I've finally got that problem fixed and was able to download them again.

These were taken last fall of Lake Bistineau when there was a draw down and then a drought on top of it.  I had never seen the lake so low.  We've had the camp since 1994 and so had 20 years of observations of it.

Here's some of the images I wanted to share.
This one just simply because I thought they were so pretty yet I wasn't sure what they were.

 Here you can see how the roots grow for the cypress trees.

 This cypress tree since it was so magnificent looking.  This is looking south/ southeast.

 Here's a similar image of the same tree taken on 3-28-2015. And this was normal water levels.

**Added 6-14-2015 The lake is flooding. This was the closest I could get of the southern neighbors boathouse.

And another one, the duckwed is really bad.  It floats on top of the water and in these pictures looks like grass.

 I've never been able to walk under our boat dock.  I just thought this would make an interesting picture.

 I liked this image because it showed so well where the water level is normally - the greenish ban on the cypress trees and how low the lake now was.

Cypress trees showing where the normal water level is and how dry the conditions were.

 The boat house is totally dry in this one. 

 And here's actually being under the boat dock.

 We went back in and here's what it normally looks like.

Again here''s how the lake normally looks around the boat dock.

This inlet is normally full of water but today it was bone dry.

 Here's how the inlet normally looks.

I just thought this was such a pretty picture it needed to be included too.

Lake Bistineau during drought time  Nov 28 2014

I do have some pictures of when the camp was flooded and will add them one of these days.
  I will also add that with all the rain we've been getting lately my husband and I were worrying about the camp flooding but was relieved when the other day my husband was able to check it out and see that it hadn't hit flood stage yet.  I think it just goes to show how severe some of these droughts can be.

6-14-2015 NB:  I didn't  have to go looking for flood pictures.  Lake Bistineau is full again and the lake is flooding, ie it is higher than the dam at the south end of the lake and the waters have no were to go but up.
Here's a couple of images of it. Thats the dock to the boathouse and you can't even get near it.

2015 Was not a good year for the Tulip Tree in my yard

Every year I like taking pictures of my Tulip tree when it is in bloom because it can be so spectacular.  Unfortunately this was not a good year for the tulip tree.
   On February the 18th I notice there were some blooms in the tree.  My heart sank, because I knew freezing cold weather was being predicted.  I wanted to tell that tree - don't bloom now its too early.  Here are the images from that day.

 In this one you could actually see the pink blossoms.

 It was so pretty against the blue sky. 

 Well on Feb 25, the snow did come as predicted and here it is falling onto the tree. Since it didn't stick I was hopping it wouldn't do too much damage. 

After that snow nothing much happened with the tree.  It went dormant.  On March 17th I was noticing it had finally gone ahead and bloomed.
Here are the pictures from that day.
It did not get near as spectacular as it had in the past. 

 Spots were still pretty but the petals were not as wide as they normally were, and there was a brownish tinge to them.

Notice the brown spots on this one. 

 I almost didn't take the above pictures but was glad I had because 2 days later on the 19th this is what my yard looked like.

 And here's how the tree looked like. 

Here's the link for a post done in 2012.
http://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-tulip-magnolia-is-in-bloom.html
Here's a picture from that year taken on 2-21 2012. 

It was interesting to note the date this picture was taken.  So the tree starting to bloom when it did was on schedule.  We normally don't have a deep freeze like that during this time of year. 
Now I just have to wait for another year.

2015- Peach tree blooming on Feb 18

Every year I like to get a picture or two of a neighbors peach tree as it blooms.  I like keeping track of when I see the first blooms.  This year I noticed the blooms on February 18, 2015.

peach tree blooming on 2-18-2015

Unfortunately we got snow on Feb 25 and I don't know how the tree will do this year. Here's a picture of my back yard with it snowing.

Here's some links to a previous year.  http://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2014/07/2014-peaches.html
And another one http://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2014/03/first-peach-blosoms.html

The one thing I did notice was the other set was taken on Feb 21, 2014.  This is just 3 days earlier this year. Yet it is still earlier.

Instead of writing another blog post - and also since I'm doing so many on the flooding and am trying to keep them together, I've decide just to update this post.
Last week when it was raining and I was driving home I noticed that the peaches were falling into the street.  I didn't get a chance to get a picture of them until June 5 but I could have easily taken it on May 31.

The one thing I did notice about these peaches was they were a lot smaller than normal.  Also a lot of them seemed to have bruises on them.  It was not a healthy looking crop on this tree.  I knew it was from all the freezing weather we had had during the spring.  Now all the rain isn't helping much either.

Snow in NW Louisiana 2-25-2015

It's not often when we get snow but this year we did in NW Louisiana.   When it does happen you stop everything and just take the time to sit back and enjoy it.  We did get some snow on 2-25 and I just had to get some pictures and video's of it.

1st The pictures:  Looking out my front porch.

 I liked the way the snow was so big and fluffy looking.  You could actually see it coming down and it was a pretty wet snow.   I felt sad about my Japanese Magnolia tree because it was just starting to bloom and I knew the snow would ruin it for this year.  Usually it is so spectacular to see when its in full bloom.  But if it gets frozen instead of it turning white it all goes to a brown and is not that breathtaking to see. .

 Here's a shot of my back yard.

 And my neighbors tree that I could see over the fence.

Here's  my backyard.  My dog was not used to snow and didn't know what to do with it.  His brother just wanted to say inside where it was warm and dry.

Who knows when I'll be seeing snow again.  I have to bookmark this for the middle of the summer when we get 100 degree weather so I can recall how cold I was on this day.

My friends Fairy Garden

I have a friend that likes to make fairy gardens.  I told her last summer I had worked on some with my mom and what fun we had doing them.  She was pleased to have finally met a person who knew what she was talking about when she would tell them what her hobby was.
   She recently surprised me with a fairy garden of my own.

Wasn't that a thoughtful gift to get.
 Here's the link to the ones I made at my mom's.  http://rockhoundingaround.blogspot.com/2014/07/fairy-gardens.html    It kinda really got to me because she gave it to me out of the clear blue and it just so happened to be on my mom's birthday.

I must admit they are fun to do.

Dawg times- helping change the sheets

I know its been awhile since I've posted.  It amazes me how much there is to do and so little time to do all that I want to do.  Now that the Holidays are over and also Mardi Gras I'm hoping I  can get some done.
One of the ones I wanted to do was this one with the puppies only they are not puppies anymore.  They are a year old but to me they are still just as cute as when they were puppies.

Every Tuesday I try to do the laundry in my house.  Part of that is changing out the sheets on our beds.  The dogs love to come help me with this.  They think its great fun to help pull the covers off and to play underneath them.   On this day one of them didn't get underneath them he accidentally got into a pillow case. I ended up laughing my head off and couldn't believe I had my camera near by so I could get some pictures of it.

At first Patton was like is that you in their?

 Then Patton decided it would be fun to attack Ike since he was trapped like that.
I tried to get away and had a hard time moving around.

 Finally he just sat down and began to whimper for help.

My dog helping with the laundry

I sure do enjoy their help.

Dawg-times

The dawgs didn't know what to expect for New years and so they ended up staying close to me all day long.  We had a lot of firecrackers and such going off all day long in the neighborhood.   Needless to say they did not like it at all.
  This was taken a couple of days after Christmas.  I thought he looked so cute and had to get it.

 New Years day with the dawgs.

If you look closely to the dog with the black head on his left paw you will see a reddish mark.  He had a growth that ended up having to be removed.
So for a week he had to go around with the cone on his head so he wouldn't tear the stitches out.

His brother thought it was his duty to do it for him and it was hard keeping them separate because all they wanted to do was to be together.

While he was recovering from that we couldn't go walking.   You should have seen how happy they were when I finally was able to take them walking again in March.

There will be more pictures I'm sure.  I just have to catch them doing something worth getting a picture with the camera.  Usually by they time I get the camera or cell they've stopped doing what they were doing.

Update I just have this one picture taken on March 15, 2015 and I wanted to include it somewhere so I felt this was a good spot instead of creating a whole new post.
I thought it was so cute the way he was sleeping with his tongue just barely sticking out.

Like I said if I get cute ones I will add it to here.