Spring
Gradual warming that began earlier this week is forecast to continue through the weekend, and by early next week high temperatures should climb into the mid-70s as warm, wet air flows inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
No rain is forecast until late this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
Today, the high temperature will be in the mid-60s under mostly sunny skies. The overnight low will drop to about 45 degrees. East wind will be between 5 mph and 10 mph. ~ Finally: Above-normal temps forecast in Houston next week | Houston Chronicle.
Out walking with #2 Grandson before noon today the temperature had already passed the 63°. Yesterday I noticed from the sink window that one of my azaleas has at least one bloom already showing. Driving to the grocery I spotted a redbud tree all abloom. The oak trees that shade our house all summer have burst forth into leaf…I would almost say they are already the size of squirrels ears…Mmmm, doesn’t that mean something? Even one of the apple trees out back has gotten into the act and is starting to put on blooms.
So here we sit in the first week in March and the back door is open by noon each day. The grandson gets upset when he can’t get out to play each afternoon as he has already set a habit. The dogs sit at the backdoor waiting for us each day.
So all of my friends up on the Blue Ridge, hold on, spring is working its way toward you…It may take a while but it’s coming.
Mail Call
Today’s mail brought a stack of books I had ordered…
The first package I opened was Dave Bonta’s Odes To Tools. I had read Dave’s Odes online before, but when Beth Adams offered Pamela Johnson Parker’s A Walk Through The Memory Palace as an extra”, I had to buy both. I haven’t done more than glance through them at this point, but the quality of both chapbooks has impressed me…Check out the offerings at Phoenicia Publishing…Tell Beth I sent you…
Then it was three individual packages…Additions to my Appalachian Mountain Dreams reference library. Three new Longstreet Highroads Guides…Guide to the Georgia Mountains
…Guide to the Pennsylvania Mountains
…Guide to the New York Adirondacks. It’s funny how little this Texas flatlander knows about our eastern mountains…But I’m working on changing that deficit.
This afternoon I finally started working my way through my Google Reader subscriptions. The sequence of stories brought me up short and I tried to capture a screen shot. Evidently I had left the laptop running for a bit too long because when I opened Photoshop all I had was a black image when I pasted in the capture…When I closed everything and restarted…Well you know what happens…bye bye to the feeds I had already read.
Anyway, long story not so long, what I was looking at was a string of posts from Doug Thompson on the unexpected snowfall in Floyd County and a post from Fred First talking about being surprised by the same snow. Right in between was a feed from our local paper about the weather for the rest of the week here…Mild and mostly sunny. Now when I glanced up at the thermometer on the wall, it informed me that mild today was already pushing 67°.
At about that time, as the laptop was restarting, #2 Grandson woke up from his nap. After putting him in shorts, tee shirt, and sandals, he brought me my flip flops and out we went for our afternoon walk. Now I know a lot of folks from up north have forgotten just how warm the sun can be beating down on you when there is almost no breeze and the temperature is just shy of 70…Let me remind you…For some of you that’s summertime high.
Even #2 Grandson was feeling the heat by the time we made it back to the house. But not my wife…She just asked me to close the door because it’s cold out. Now, at this very moment the temperature has dropped to 64°…It’s really cold isn’t it.
Today, Texas celebrates 174 years of its Lone Star Identity.
This past year has given me a closer connection to this piece of Texas history. Research has now connected our family to Willis West.
Willis West arrived in Texas in March 1835 and is enumerated in his father’s household (Richard, a widow) as a single man, age 19 in the Bevil Colony Census of May 1, 1835. Four siblings are also enumerated: Milissa age 17, James 15, Alfred 13 & Mary Ann 8. Next door is his sister, Presilla West Dickerson 25 with her family & brother Jefferson 22 with his. Additional West family members are on the Bevil Census. After joining the “Jasper Volunteers” under the command of Captain James Chessire, Willis fought at the siege of Bexar Dec. 5-10, 1835. Luckily he had the good sense to take his discharge and go home to Jasper after Bexar. Had he stayed in the Army he probably would have perished with the others at the Alamo. ~ Prepared by Candice (Clark) Allmand.
This research has enabled my cousins to apply to the DRT, Daughters of the Republic of Texas.
DAUGHTERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas is the oldest patriotic women’s organization in Texas and one of the oldest in the nation. In 1891 Betty Ballinger and Hally Bryan (later Hally Bryan Perryqv) formulated plans for an association to be composed of women who were direct descendants of the men and women who established the Republic of Texas. They were encouraged in their efforts by Hally Bryan’s father, Guy M. Bryan, a member of the Texas Veterans Association. The organizational meeting was held on November 6, 1891, in the Houston home of Mary Jane Briscoeqv. Mary S. M. Jones, widow of the last president of the Republic of Texas, agreed to serve as president. The motto “Texas, One and Indivisible” was suggested by Colonel Bryan. The name first chosen for this group was Daughters of Female Descendants of the Heroes of ‘36; the association was renamed Daughters of the Lone Star Republic, then Daughters of the Republic of Texas at the first annual meeting in April 1892. The organization was planned as a companion to the Texas Veterans Association, and the two groups held joint meetings until the veterans disbanded in 1907. ~ via Handbook of Texas Online – DAUGHTERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS.
One of the ongoing projects of the DRT is the maintenance of the Alamo in San Antonio. They became the custodians of the site in 1905 and have restored and maintained ever since. Part of their agreement with the state is that admission must remain free…So, every time I am in San Antonio I go and visit the shrine of Texas Independence. Now it has a special meaning for me. Had my ancestor hung around, I would never have been…So goes history.
It is also the twenty-second birthday of my youngest son…Happy Birthday, Jerm…
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