Today's Quiz

Alright. In all her glory. Here's a quiz for you.

My neighbour has a few fruit trees, most of which I can't see through the jungle around his house. I am told he has mostly apple and pear trees. This one particular small tree right at the road is dropping these "apples" right now. To me they are highly unusual and I would love to know what they are.

The gentleman is pretty much housebound and deaf and so my dilema. If you can help me out I'd love to hear from you and learn more.

Sorry for the out of focus closeup, but honestly I can't find my camera manual. Methinks I need another coffee to still my hand.

Floundering

Look at all the speckles! This is my first speckled trout or sea trout. I bet this is going to taste great. I just returned from a wonderful saltwater fishing trip at Port Mansfield. I wish I could've taken you all.

This is a general view of the rental appartments close by where we launched our boat. A sign indicated it was a no wake zone due to manatees. But we didn't see one.

These handsome dudes are the flounder. They start out life with eyes on opposite sides of the head but one eye gradually migrates to the other side. It does make for an interesting "Hallowe'en spooky" kind of fish. Flounder I have eaten plenty so I know how tasty it is. Spearing them as we waded in the dark was really fun. And yes, the sleep quotient suffered a bit.

Our bunch rented a large house right on the coast with our own private pier. A Blue Norther (nasty storm with 80 mile per hour winds) came through on the Monday, driving us back to the house. But honestly, it was time to eat and sleep after a god 24 hours of fishing.

What a blast it all was. All new to me and so interesting. The company was great and the adventure unending. Oh! While floundering we observed a Ridley turtle! Incredible.

the back forty

These two photos are of my "back forty" as I call it. And they were taken in early April when many things were still grey. Certainly today the image is very different. I have mowed half of the field now and just about died from the volume of sweat exiting my body. So now I'm waiting for a cooler day to complete the work. I use a push mower and the sunflowers are about 3-4 feet high so it's a duel to the death for sure. Round one goes to me!!

In the top photo the tree in the centre is a lovely pear tree that is now bearing ripe, delicious fruit. I am so lucky to have this tree. I love pears. I have dehydrated a bunch, all that I could reach from the ground, and soon will get in there with a ladder and grab some more.

If my skin goes green soon Folks, you'll know why.

The other trees are pecans and in these "before" photos look pretty scrawny. But just as all the other vegetation over the hot and then wet season, they have thrived and I'm told will produce well this year. I have nineteen pecan trees altogether I think. So there's another good reason to get the mowing done. When the pecans fall I will be able to pick them up with my Texas Pecan Picker-Upper. Stay tuned... more photos to come.

Now I just need a pretty volunteer to sit in a booth on the highway selling these gems for me!