Just when I thought I must have seen every type of palm tree known to man, what should appear, but a Ponytail Palm?
I decided to check with Professor Google, and apparently, there are over 2600 species of palm trees, so no, I’ve definitely not seen them all, nor will I live long enough to do so.
A couple of weeks ago, we drove past this once regal, but now old and dilapidated house in Edinburg, Texas.
When I took the photo into Google Lens … Ai assist (which is wrong over 50% of the time), identified it as “The Closner House”, built by John Closner, an early developer and political figure in the area.
The house is located on Closner Rd, which is likely where ai got things twisted.
I then Googled the Closner house and added -ai to my search (this brings up a few more reputable sources before the ai assist answers), and the image that came up looked like an entirely different house.
Further research took me to a Facebook page where people were asking about the house in my feature photo.
Some said it was the Stephens house while others corrected that to Stevens, but attributed different occupations to the different spellings of the surname. Some said it was the Closner house (likely after an ai-assisted Google search). This was corrected by others in the group who said that the Closner house built by John Closner was at a different location.
The jury is definitely out on this one, so I guess I’ll just leave it to imagination of what this house was like in its heyday.
This year, some of our adventures have included visting the downtown areas of cities and towns near to us.
Hidalgo is home to our county seat.
Welcome to downtown Hildago, Texas 🤠
While friends and family at home in southern Saskatchewan, Canada are battling strong winds, icy roads, and hazardous driving and outdoor walking conditions, I feel very blessed to be able to walk outside our front door door here in south Texas to practice my floral photography on our neighbour’s repeat blooming climbing rose.
Alongside a secondary highway, in San Juan, Texas, there’s a little park that we pass often.
There’s a mini Lady Liberty, so we’ve often wondered what the park was all about.
Last week, we finally stopped to check it out.
The park is a war memorial, dedicated to armed forces members from the area who died serving their country in various wars since WW2 . Its name is Liberty Park.
The subject of this post, and my feature photo is the juxtaposition of the words carved in the back of the bench and the abandoned items on the bench that hinted that maybe someone had spent the night there. What would be your guess about this scene?
The fireworks in our area of deep south Texas start on Christmas Eve and continue every night, with a few small bursts, until the grand finale on New Year’s Eve.
We can watch them from our back yard and if I take a walk around the yard, we’re surrounded by fireworks in all of the nearby neighbourhoods.
After the massive midnight display, the pops and big bangs continue until around 3 am and because our houses aren’t insulated and our roofs are mostly metal, sometimes a particularly loud pop nearby can sound like it’s directly over our roof or even in an adjacent room.
This was a completely foreign custom to us when we first started wintering here, but after six years, we’ve grown accustomed to it and actually look forward to it, even if it means a mostly sleepless night … thus, my late post today.
As is my custom, on New Year’s Day, I pop open a bottle of prosecco after lunch, and toast the new year with a mimosa.
Cheers to 2026, and with the new year, I look forward to positive changes in my life, and in the world at large.
I wish all of you health and happiness in the coming year!
Before we left Starbase, we noticed one Tesla truck that was bright orange.
It stood out from the pack of identical metal coloured ev’s like the proverbial sore thumb.
There was a fellow plugging it in to the charger and his wife/girlfriend was taking photos. There was another couple nearby who appeared to own one of the grey metallic clones.
Hubs thought that these people looked approachable, so he decided to stop and ask them some questions about the cyber trucks.
They were all extremely obliging, answered all of hubs’ questions, and even invited us to their Mars-themed beach party, which was to take place last Saturday evening.
We asked if they were Space X employees and they told us they were from Dallas and Missouri and were just major Tesla fans visiting the area over Christmas.
They told hubs that once you buy a Tesla cyber truck, you can customize it any way you wish to.
The young couple that owned the orange Tesla, had every electric kitchen appliance you could think of, plugged in to the box of the truck!
Once again, we learned that people are friendly and kind – all you have to do sometimes is ask a question.
P.S. Although we appreciated the invitation, we didn’t attend the Mars Beach Party. I would imagine that it was pretty “far out, man!”
Our Christmas Day here in SouthTexas involves an hour’s drive over to Starbase at Boca Chica Beach.
This past year, Elon Musk was able to rename Boca Chica Village and the surrounding area to Starbase.
Each year, the growth in the area is mind-boggling. Christmas day is a great day to visit because many of the employees have the day off, and there aren’t many tourists.
This year, in addition to the massive expansion happening at the rocket production facility, there was a new hotel in progress, and Tesla Trucks galore.
We met a safety technician who explained to us that when the sales of Tesla vehicles dove this past year, Mr. Musk brought all of these trucks (and more in other lots at Starbase) for his Space X employees to lease at very reasonable rates.
This was part one of our Christmas day drive.
Every year, before Christmas, we make the hour drive over to South Padre Island, TX to take in the new sand sculptures.
These amazing works of art are sculpted by sand artists from all over the world.
The only sculpture you’re allowed to touch is Santa’s chair, and I once again tried it out.
A few days ago, as a part of our usual pre-Christmas activities, hubs and I headed to South Padre Island.
One of our favourite activities while there, is to sit and watch the seagulls and pelicans as they scavenge and fish over the deep blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The seagulls were especially plentiful, the day was windy, and I was trying to catch a shot of even one gull soaring on the wind current above us.
I had no luck with my plan, but was completely shocked and amazed when we arrived home and I reviewed my photos to see this.
The direction of the wings is something I’d never seen before, so to say I’m well-pleased with this accidental shot is an understatement.
Radically Retired 