Galveston

I guess I never realized how much fun Galveston could be.

The grandkids were here for a week - with their parents, of course, which makes it even more fun - but we saw this ad for Moody Gardens, which has recently reopened after getting drowned by Hurricane Ike.

I mostly wanted to go because of the dinosaur-related stuff. See, they have these pyramids - three of them - and one is an aquarium complex, where you can go down several floors and see replicas of several coral reefs in the world. They've figured out how to reproduce the corals so we can visit living specimens in their natural environment. Well, sort of natural. It's a fake natural, but it's real coral.

Another is kind of a general scientific interest pyramid, which has what I came to see, the dinosaur stuff. They have an Imax movie I've been wanting to see for years: Dinosaurs Alive, in 3D. You better believe I enjoyed that, even if the narrator did say stupid things like "Less than 2% of dinosaur species have been discovered," which is mathematical nonsense, since we're expressing a percentage of an unknown quantity by definition. I don't care - I just love seeing realistic 3D dinosaurs trying to bite me right in front of my face.



My favorite was the third pyramid (in no particular order), the rain forest. Here, you can follow a comfortable path and see specimens of plants from rain forests of the world, including coffee trees, cocoa bean trees, and vanilla orchids. Did you know that vanilla comes from orchids? I sure didn't.


Weird flowers in the rain forest pyramid. Photo by wm

There were colorful birds, turtles and fishies in the pools of the pyramid, and I want to go again so I can wander more slowly.


Birds in Moody Gardens rain-forest pyramid. Photo by wm

After spending the day at Moody Gardens, GA thought it would be a great idea to take the Bolivar ferry off the island. It was a good idea, since the grandkids had never been on one, and as far as I know had never been on the ocean except for the beach. So we went across to Bolivar, then turned right back around and came back to Galveston. It happened to be sunset as we made the crossing, which was perfect timing.


Sunset on the Bolivar ferry. Photo by wm

Yelllow roses and gardens

You may remember the two rose bushes from my hurricane video.


Photo by wm. Hurricane by Ma Nature.

Yesterday, both bushes had grown new leaves and were producing some roses. The yellow roses, however, were numerous and beautiful. GA decided that there were enough that we could take a couple indoors for the kitchen table:


photo by wm, roses by God

I think these are virtually perfect. And what better symbol of Texas than the yellow rose?

We had a tiny yellow rose bush back in Midland, which the new owners have probably killed by now, converting everything to the popular"plain yard" motif. But it was tiny by comparison, and I suppose may have been a miniature variety. I don't know about such things. All I know about roses I learned from Aunt Wynona, namely to cut the roses at a point just above a junction with five leaves. For whatever reason, that practice will result in more blooms. See, she's a flower gardener, while I specialize in veggies.

Monday, I'm going to put in a new garden. I bought some new border bricks at Home Depot, because when I do a garden, it has to double as landscaping, and looks have to take precedence over the practical. Still, I will not have a rectangular plotted, straight rowed conventional garden. It has to be a work of... art.

The current garden still has tomatoes, garlic, cilantro and black eyed peas, all crowded together like a bunch of New Yorkers. The cilantro is just about ready to pick and toss into a salad.