Here's looking at You...
Ever seen a Cow?
Ever looked into their big Brown eyes?
Ever wondered what they look like disected?

Well on visiting the Houston Health museum we saw a disection of a cows eye, apparently similar in make up to the human eye, except bigger.
A child asked why the cows eyes are bigger.



The reply .....because cows are bigger than most humans....

Looking around, the response was appropriate.



It was open house at the Houston Museum district last weekend. Free admission to all museums, so we headed down there to wander around the area.



The next Museum we visited was the Weather Museum followed by the Hollocaust Museum with it's stark and symbolic exterior.





There was many graphic displays and photos as well as a rail car used to transport Jews to the camps from all around Europe. Up to 200 Jews were crammed in on the long hot journeys, the windows sealed with bars to prevent escape. The film we saw at the end was testimonies from Jews living in the Houston area, who were in some of the camps as kids. It was truely gripping, horrifying and moving.

After an informative but not necessarily uplifting morning, we headed to eat and visit the Houston Museum or Art and a wander around Herman Park.

As for things at home, we now have 3 Gerbils. One female in a tank in the lounge downstairs (I took the fish and water out),and 2 males in a cage in Timothys room upstairs.
The female escaped the other day having wedged the wheel and then climbing up the outside of the wheel and through a gap in the lid.




Our house is still in dis-array following the flood weeks ago.
Over the coming week we may see a transformation beginning as the builders are due in to fix the place up.




We have our usual array of bugs and birds visiting us around the house.

Wasps nest.
The inhabitants no longer around following one stinging me on the hand a week or so ago.






Our resident Mocking Bird. It sits on the roof of the house singing in the middle of the night.

Migrants heading South for Winter hanging around to stock up on nectar for the ongoing journey.

Monarch Butterfly on its way to Mexico.

One of many Humming Birds that are currently frequenting the garden fighting for nector and flying at super fast speed around the garden.

Just 10 minutes hanging in the Garden Camera in hand.


I just took my camera outside into the back garden, whilst sitting back in a chair drinking a cup of tea and did a little bit of armchair camera work with my 300mm lense.

This Butterfly was caught within a second of it landing on the bush. Manually focussed was a close catch before it flew away never to be seen again.




Scuttling up the tree a small green lizard moves quickly to get to a place of safety, where it no doubt stopped and changed colour to blend in with the tree.










A very active small bird that sung like a Warbler was jumping around between the branches of the 'Live Oak' tree, searching for insects and singing away.









Because all my books are in storage due to the house flood I'm unable to successfully identify this bird.
Any ideas anyone?











There were several Humming birds flying around the garden, but they were so fast and hardly rested it was difficult to capture then in flight or feeding.







More Armchair photography this time from the plane coming back from Raleigh N.Carolina this week.





Very Murky out the window of the plane, in no lesser part because of numerous fires spread out across the fields below.
Not sure if part of deliberate field burning or just because over dry areas like is the case on the West.



Timothys Project:
To build a house for a school assignment.


He chose Cabin in Winter and I think this is an amazing structure totally constructed from lollipop sticks. I was not around but I have a feeling he did not eat all the lollipops needed, but purchased the sticks from 'Hobby Lobby'.











Does Size matter?


And a follow up on the week or so ago's humour....
Left is a new cone from Houston,Texas and
Right is Tahoe, California

...and apparently it seems everything is bigger in Texas....,even if the cone on the left was purchased from 'Hobby Lobby'

Timothys comment to me was that he thought that the shop got the pine cone from North California.

The Last few weeks:
Well A lot has been going on in the last few weeks.
Life is always busy it seems, yet some things seem to take forever. Hazel was on her Cruise College on the 'Mariner of the Seas'.
I was working a lot.
Nothing was been done to repair the house as we are still waiting for the insurance money, and man from the restoration company had to go onto jury service.

I took Jonathan and Timothy to the Forbidden City a few weeks ago.
Yes really.
Where? China?
No Houston.



The only replica of the Forbidden City and Chinese Terracotta Army outside China, all only about 30 minutes away from where we live in Houston.
We were shown around by a guide and learnt many interesting facts.
The Emperor had over 3000 concubines and at the age of 24 they were deemed too old to be of interest of the Emperor so were put to work. Most committed suicide within 3-4 years after that.
The terracotta army replicas were impressive and the Model Village of The Forbidden City brought to life the size of the place and provided incredible insight to the traditions rules and lifestyle of that era.
It was a hot sunny day and a pleasant interlude to the weekend. It took us away from Houston and the mess in the house, to another culture, for a few hours, and was followed by a good Chinese meal in a local Houston restaurant.









Ohio
Following my week working at home, I travelled back to work Indiana and stayed over the weekend in Columbus, Ohio.

An interesting yet odd City in a way. Reminded me a litle of Tulsa in how quiet and almost dead it seemed. A little like Houston was before they moved all the sports arenas downtown and revived the heart of the City.

The capital building was relavtively small and 'domeless'.

The City is built on the banks of the River Scioto. The river itself meanders slowly past the City, had trouble working which way it was flowing and yet adds an interesting aspect to the City. It also joins up with the Olentangy river around Convergance Park.

They had demolished slums and a large prison on the banks of the river and opened up walkways.

There were informative signs along the walkway telling of the history of the area.

There was also a wild flower area, where birds were feeding on the seeds of the wild flowers. The majority of the birds were American Goldfinches. Bright yellow and despite differences in looks to the Goldfinches in the UK, they made the same sounds.

Along the wild flower sections the signs were somewhat different to the others along the river.

They warned of raw sewage outlets and told you to avoid touching the water to minimize the danger of disease and infection. It really put a damper on the whole place in my view.

Also as one walked along the street outside the Court house there was always a smell of raw sewage coming from the drains.

Co incidentially Columbus is host to the Headquarters of the insurance Company that yet has to provide us with a cheque for repairs to the house in Houston following the water damage.

However , they obviously did write a cheque to sponsor the sports stadium and restaurant area in an area that looks recently revived.

I walked past a bridge close to downtown, where a some people were watching a Falcon sitting close to them on the bridge.

It seemed very tame, yet would screech out occasioanlly as if calling for someone.

It was tagged but seemingly lost amid the buildings, but did not fly away despite the close interest it was attracting amongst passers by.

Ohio is known as the Birtplace of Flight, and not just of the feathered kind.

I managed to get some time to visit the US National Museum of the USAF, just outside Dayton, Ohio the birthplace of the Wright brothers and where they lived and worked on their first attempts at flight in 1903 before moving to Kitti Hawk in N.Carolina.

The Museum is supposed to be the biggest collection of Aircraft in the world. It was primarily based around the history of US flight but there were some UK Spitfires, Hurricanes, a Japanese Zero and a few German WWII planes also. It also holds the Presidential 'Airforce One' planes but, unfortunately I did not get there in time to book the tour to see them. Those tours get booked up quickly in the mornings.

There were lots of incredible flying machines, many I have seen flying at the airshows I have attended in Chicago, Houston and Airshows in the UK.

There was replicas of the Wrights original kittyhawk through to the Space Apollo capsules and a collection of deadly looking missiles.

The other plane that left a cold chilling impression was B29 Superfortress weighing over 60 tons.

There were 4000 of these built and two of them are probably hold the most memories fear in many.

'Bockscar' the bomber that dropped the Atom bomb on Nagasaki is in Ohio.

The 'Enola Gay' that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima is aparently is in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington.

One of the planes that has memories for me was the 'SR71 Blackbird' as I first saw this as it came into land at a US Airbase in Norfolk when I was a child. An amazing plane that could fly on th edge of space. The advancement of Satellites negated the need for the plane and it was retired in the late 1990's. A plane that when on the ground dripped oil from gaps in the panelling, yet once in the air, it heated up and sealed the gaps to produce the fastest and most technoligically advanced planes of its time.

I also saw one of its last flights out of the UK from an airshow in the south of England where it showed off its power as it took off with full after burners on, as the ground shook and you could feel the vibration pounding through your body.

The coming weeks? Back to Indiana. Hopefully also a week where we may receive a cheque from the insurance company and get some work done on repairing the house.

We are all tired of half our stuff in storage, walking around on concrete floors having dust on everything as well as feeling the heat coming in from outside through the walls where these is no inner dry wall in the downstairs rooms.