Last week, for our wedding anniversary, hubs and I spent the day visiting our fave stores in the RGVin search of things both useful and whimsical as a part of our anniversary and Christmas gifts to each other.
For the next couple of weeks, as a departure from my usual Mon, Weds, and Fri posts, I’m going to just stop in randomly, and likely more often,to post things about our Christmas season here in South Texas.
This cup caught my eye at the World Market Store near here.
My Mexican Hot Chocolate actually tastes better from this fancy cup (the mind is a powerful thing).
That’s cinnamon you see floating on the top. I stirred it in after the photo and enjoyed every last sip from my new cup.
December 1st is traditionally when I start my Christmas cookie baking. It’s when my mom always started hers, so I guess the date is firmly ingrained in me from an early age.
I bake the cookies that both of my grandmas and my mom made over the years, plus I always add a few of hubs’ faves from his memories of his mom.
My feature photo is of sugar cookies– a must every Christmas.
Each year, we exchange gifts with friends here in our park, and my gifts always include a selection of my home made cookies.
It’s been some time since I’ve posted about the smart phone photography classes I’m continually taking.
In a most recent class about photo editing in Lightroom, information was given about how to isolate one colour in a photo and correct/enhance it without disturbing the other colours.
In my feature photo, the one on the left is the original, so I chose to work only on the blue water and sky, while leaving everything else as shot.
Once every year, King Ranch – the biggest working ranch in the USA, hosts a breakfast for the public. All monies collected are donated to local charities. This is the only day all year that private vehicles are allowed on the ranch proper.
Hubs and I have attended the breakfast twice since 2019, once by ourselves, and once a couple of seasons ago, with friends from home who were ranchers at one time. This year, along with these same friends, we skipped the breakfast, but did the bus tour of the ranch.
The bus tour is open year round and is a great way to spend 1.5 hours learning about this 825,000 acre (in South Texas) massive ranching operation.
On the same weekend as the ranch hand breakfast, the city of Kingsville hosts a festival, complete with vendors, food and art demonstrations, rides for kids, entertainment, and lots of opportunities to get to know the locals. We decided to do the bus tour on the morning of the festival, so we could spend some time checking out the happenings in town, and then head out for the tour after lunch.
Unfortunately, just as the bus tour was about to begin, the rain started. We went anyways and, with the exception of not many photo ops through the bus windows, we didn’t regret it.
At the train museum in Kingsville, we met some young dancers preparing for their performanceAll were very obliging to have their photos takenI’ve always wanted to try on a Sampan hat. Who knew I’d be able to do that in cowboy country?This was inside the King Ranch Saddle Shop in Kingsville. I think this guy liked CindyMe, doing my best Vanna White pose, showing this tree decorated with antlers!Cindy and our bus driver/tour guide. Cindy and I sat at the back of the busPhotos through a drizzly, wet window aren’t the best. The King Ranch brand is everywhere The King Ranch was instrumental in the development of the American quarter horse. The turkey vultures were numerous and huge!Originally named “The Santa Gertrudis Ranch” … The Santa Gertrudis name was given to the cattle that the ranch is famous for developing A small portion of the beautiful King Mansion – still in use by descendants of the namesake who built it
After my post Steamroller Blues?, I promised some of my followers that I would explain the festival in greater detail.
I’m out of sync with my regular post times this week.
This is a busy week, so today will be my only post.
On Saturday, we made the two hour drive to Kingsville, TX to take in the Ranch Hand Festival.
This was our third trip to the festival and our second trip there with good friends from home who winter in a park near here.
One of the demonstrations that was new to all of us was the one by TAMUK (Texas A & M University Kingsville) arts department Javelina Printing Club.
Their printing press was a steamroller! My feature photo is a screenshot from a movie I found about them on Facebook – not my own.
The process: Designs are carved into a block of wood, and then ink is rolled overthe whole slab.
This is a clip from a movie I shot
Once this step is complete, the slab is laid face up on the ground and a large sheet of paper placed over it, and then thick matting is layered on top of all.
The steamroller then drives over and backs up over the lot.
And voila!
This is my own photo of the finished print being lifted off the ground
It was fun and interesting to witness this unique process!
There were many prints done over the course of the day, and this was apparently their 12th year at the Ranch Hand festival.
Google Image
I don’t know how we missed it on previous visits, but am happy we found it this time!
This salad, by Marketside (a WalMart brand), and very likely sourced from Taylor Farms has a fresh, and only slightly sweet flavour, despite the sweetened ingredients.
This one has: Spring mix (leaf lettuce and arugula), feta cheese, herb seasoned flatbread strips, sweetened, dried cranberries, candied walnuts, and raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
Although arugula isn’t among my fave greens, the sweet bits in this salad nicely mask it.
Yesterday, I finally found enough time to get back into my macaron groove again.
I especially enjoy making them when we’re in Texas because there are so many special occasions we’re here for, so I can make a great variety. Our friends here also enjoy them, so there are several birthdays to make them for as gifts.
I wanted to make these for Halloween but we’ve been extremely busy since we arrived, so, because I brought the candy corn with me from Canada, I decided to make them anyways. Hopefully they’ll be acceptable as my dessert contribution for our table at the big Thanksgiving pot luck here in our park.
Radically Retired 