Waiting for Rosabella

Hi Rosabella!

These young ladies are waiting for you to be mailed to us! We want to play!

Magnetic Personalities

So let's see a show of hands for everyone who has seen the steel balls in a Magnetix kit? Stephen and I were playing with Stephen's Magnetix kit and watching Discovery Channel and eating popcorn. Stephen got confused and ate one of the steel balls instead of popcorn. It took 5 days before it passed all the way through his system.

This, of course, gave Stephen's dad an idea. You see, Stephen is very serious about himself and never laughs at the silly things he sometimes does. So for Christmas Stephen is working on 5 pieces of art, each one named Day 1, Day 2, etc. representing the Steel Ball's journey through Stephen's belly. Here, you guys get the first peek at Day 1, the first in Stephen's series on the matter.

Okay, so while we're previewing art by a 10-year-old, here is Stephen's work for his Spring exhibition, 'Screw', never before published : )

Here is a photo of me, Rosabella with Paul's new Mustang GT, just because, well, Paul can't stay away from his new car.

Midnight on the Oasis

Mike and Paul and Stephen had a lot of friends come stay with them during Hurricane Ike. I took a ride on a Mule ( its like a golf cart, only diesel and 4x4). They use the mule on the ranch to feed cattle and work the land. Mike took us for a midnight ride on the ranch.

Here you see Ethan, me, Stephen, Johnny, and Mike. Angie and Jacob are with us but you can't see them on the mule.

Mustang Rosa... Ride Rosa Ride

This was such an awesome day. Stephen's Dad Paul (on the right) has

too many cars - like seven cars, almost more than even I can count after 5 years in third grade. Mike and Paul took me to Boerne to pick up Paul's new Mustang GT last week. Our salesman, Big Roy, was a great guy and offered to hold me for our first photo with Lucille, the Mustang. Stephen is a bit embarrassed by all of those cars; he never knows what his dad is going to show up in when he picks him up from school.

Note to readers - if you want a sports car - buy it - we are having a great time in our new Mustang!

Lorraine Benini Shares Turkey Salad

While it appears Lorraine is holding me close for a photo, really she was just pulling me from the table because the turkey salad was soooooo delicious! I had a rumbling in my tumbling for more turkey salad.

Here I'm sitting in the belly of a Long Horn. This sculpture was created by Bettye Hamblin Turner, a Texas sculptor who is very comfortable welding and grinding and cutting metal, bending it to her will. Mike and Paul and Stephen have one of her sculptures, a philly horse named Bailey.



















Here I'm posing of a photo with Stephen in front of Bettye's longhorn.



















What do you think? Too much purple? This paining is one of Benini's geometric works form the 1990's. He paints on canvas, the cuts the painting out and mounts it over aluminum so that it stands away from the wall. His work is very complicated, he uses acrylic paints which dry very quickly, so it takes many layers of paint to achieve the shading he accomplishes on the paintings which look like they have been airbrushed.


























As you can see, the Beninis are very kid-friendly - be sure to stop by when you visit Texas.

Rosa Visits Her Hill Country Italian Neighbors

OMG - So we're bouncing down Flat Creek Rd here in Johnson City just about to pull into Walnut Springs when it dawns on Paul and Stephen, Rosabella, HELLO, she must be Italian!

We keep on rolling to the next road and surprise me with a visit to http://www.benini.com/ - which is the Benini Foundation and Sculpture Ranch here in Johnson City. They have around 150 acres of beautiful Tuscan-like hills, with contemporary sculture nestled among the fossils, scrubb oaks, escarpment hills and dusty lakes. I was absolutely at home with these folks. Benini was busy in his studio this morning, so we shared a spicy turkey salad with his wife and curator Lorraine.

Benini is an Italian-born artist. He left home when he was teenager, hopping a merchant marine ship to the Bahamas where he lived through the 1960's. He's lived in Forida and Arkansas before settling under the Texas stars. His sculpture ranch used to be owned by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. His home was the LBJ hunting cabin and his gallery was the presidential press-corps building during President Johnson's term in office.

We're having trouble uploading a second photo here, so we'll try the others with a new post.

Hill Country Plum

Hi Bloggers! Sorry I've been so long in the Hill Country, but some of my fellow Ike evacuees are just leaving Walnut Springs today, and I've been really having a great time here.



I'm staying with Paul and Mike and Stephen. Stephen is Ten, and is an artist. You can check out his website at http://www.sumrallorsak.com/. Yesterday I spent time in Stephen's studio working on a new piece of work which will be displayed in http://www.kirchmangallery.com/ during the Christmas Holidays.



Not all of my adventures have photo proof. Something about deleting files from a Compact Flash Card instead of moving them. What does that mean?



I did attend a CPR class with the staff at http://www.thepreserveatwalnutsprings.com/ and then rode Toby, Stephen's quarter horse, along the trails at the ranch.



Here is a photo of Stephen and I after the ride. We were standing in front of one of the steers at Walnut Springs. I have more photos to upload later today, but I have to run right now and take Stephen to school. Be back in an hour or so!

On my own in Johnson City

This is Stephen, and he is in fourth grade. I am going to spend a long weekend with him and his dad. His dad said I can come to CPR classes and then on the weekend, Stephen and I will be riding horses at the ranch.

He says I might even be lucky enough to clean the stables. I can hardly wait.

Maybe we will even go to see Lyndon B. Johnson's ranch before I have to leave.

When we are done, I am going on to Houston to join Miss Margaret and meet all her friends.

More Texas Parks

What a whirly world. My head is spinning. I woke up in Van Horn and ended up in Alpine, and I am not in Switzerland. I am in West Texas. There's mountains and lakes here. I am so surprised. We started the day by going to Balmorhea State Park. The attraction there is the San Solomon springs, which produce 1 million gallons of artesian water a day. Back in the Great Depression, before I was born, the CCC built a big pool here and some lodges. The pool still holds 4.5 million gallons of water and provides a constant 74 degree swimming hole in the heat of the summer or the cold of the winter. What a little piece of 1930's charm. Scuba divers practice in the pool, which is clear down to 25 feet. Today, a cold front came through, and the outdoor temperature was 60 degrees, so we did not swim. It would have been chilly for the non-bears of the family. .

I took my picture with Ranger Brenda. She was NICE

Then we went to the Davis Mountains State Park, where I met four lovely rangers named Jeanne, Maria (she's the boss), Sondra and Verna. They are all real friendly, especially Jeanne, and we took a group photo. The Davis Mountain State Park is also 1930's built. There's a big lodge in the park, Indian Lodge, that is a state park itself, a park within a park. Is that confusing? We drove the Skyline road, way up to the top of the ridge, where we could see for miles and miles. We could see Fort Davis, where the first black graduate of West Point served.

After Davis, we went to the McDonald Observatory, which is high high up on the mountains. Astronomers from the University of Texas and the whole world come here to study the stars and space. There is a great hands on display, and one of the telescopes is open for viewing. It has about 400 mirrors. Once a month the Observatory has star parties, where the public can spend the night looking at the stars. I would like to bring my whole third grade class here some day.

Then we went to Marfa, where people see lights that no one can explain. They really do see them. Nobody knows why. Mom and Dad wanted to go watch them, but everybody says that with the overcast sky, the odds are really low. Usually the odds are 50-50. Our waitress, who is about to graduate from Sul Ross State here in Alpine, says she sees them more than 50% of the time she goes there.

Daisy and Balto and I took naps today in between the excitement. I just can't get enough bear naps in with all this touring. See you later!

a national park in TEXAS

Today at 1:15 pm Mountain Time I set my paw down in TEXAS. It was overwhelmingly exciting. We took a family photo and everybody hugged.

Then we went to Guadelupe Mountains National Park, where El Capitan lives. It is the tallest mountain in Texas. Miss Margaret personally knows three people who have climbed it, and one of them is a Girl Scout named Rebecca.

The rangers there were Wally and Betsy. And you will never guess what. One of the other helper rangers gave me a Junior Ranger book to complete and earn a Junior Ranger Badge. Actually, she gave me the badge too, but on Scout's Honor, I am going to complete the book as soon as I get back to third grade. I think my classmates can help me.

After Guadelupe, we went south deeper into Texas, to Van Horn. There were mountains on both sides as we drove. I never knew the desert had mountains. It was really pretty.

The freakiest part were the really large black bugs who kept crawling across the road. Miss Margaret was sure they were tarantulas, but when she stopped to look, they were really large colorful locusts.

Tonight we are in Van Horn, where another storm rolled through. I never knew a desert could be so stormy. Tomorrow we are going swimming at Balmorrhea, and then to the MacDonald Observatory. I can hardly wait.

Spelunking

I met nice Rangers at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Rangers Jennifer and Jo Ann. My first adventure was the bat flight at 6:45 pm. It was quite a spectacle, bats pouring out of the natural opening of the big cave. Did you know it is the biggest cave in the whole world? Lightning and rain cut our bat watching short, but we sure saw plenty of them. They are Mexican bats, and they eat bugs all night long. They come back in the cave about 4:30 in the AM. We couldn't take close up pictures because the sound of electronics messes with the bat radar.

Then on the way down the mountain we saw a whole roost of buzzards circling a canyon. And THEN when we were on the highway, an owl flew in front of us. When we got to camp, there were rabbits everywhere driving Daisy wild. This morning I saw a roadrunner in camp. What a wildlife day.

We went back to the cave this morning to see underground....I guess you can understand why we couldn't be in there during bat flight. What a huge cave it is. The easy walk takes about an hour and 1/2. Then there are all sorts of other tours you can take deeper into the cave. I hope you look at some of the photos in the albums. The one I included above is called the Lion's Tail.

That's all about the cave. I will see you soon to talk about Texas and another National Park.

Bats flying out of Carlsbad Caverns