* I've been trying to post this blog for a week now but with so many people here there's just (almost) no Internet! Here I try again ....

Daylight savings time is here, it's spring break and the desert is budding and flowering! 
Our weather has been great for weeks but we're having a little bit of a cold spell at the moment (if you can call 61F (15C) a cold spell).

It's rather busy here since the kids are out of school and a lot of families headed for the desert to get out of the cold winter weather that's been pestering the rest of Texas.

Desert Ironwood?

The yucca's are starting to put up quite a show around here. A big difference with Alpine where we went grocery shopping last Saturday and where there wasn't anything to see yet!

   

 

The stalks of these flower heads will continue to grow up, away from the leaves, for about 4' over the summer.

The Cottonwood trees are releasing there fluffy seeds. When the wind picks up it sometimes looks like it's snowing!

And than there was this!


                            

An -I'm not kidding you- Chihuahua race in Terlingua's Ghost town!
It's an annual happening and draws the most interesting people from all around.

Besides the Chihuahuas there is also a Mutt category in which you can enter any other dog, as you can see.

Not all dogs find this event as hilarious as their owners and try to take off early ......

Busting through the screen ...

or quit halfway ..... 

But than there are those diehearts that'll run no matter what and against all odds .....

'Buckweed'

Really. Like my friend Irene mentioned on Facebook, "who comes up

with these things?"

 

I'm still happily 'shooting' birds. One of my morning walks brings me by the Resort's gardens and ponds where I found this Wren singing in the

marsh.

Guess what? It's a Marsh Wren. Who'd had thought? :-)

                                      

                                        

I also found this dapper Black Phoebe (in the middle) and a Black-throated Sparrow (top left). A pretty little Inca Dove (bottom left) and a Gold finch (top right).

This next one I heard already from far away :

Peekeboo!

My first Ladderbacked Woodpecker! Isn't it a beauty!

OK, enough of these birds, here's for some other entertainment. 

On the evening of Texas Independence Day (1st of March):

The weather had been gorgeous for days and the evenings were beautiful (no wind) and warm. Just perfect for an open air concert at the Resort's Amphitheater.

The band was Buster Jiggs (rock and roll, from San Antonio) and the warm-up band the Fabulous Vortexans (Terlingua blues band).

The blues band was OK but the main band was definitely not our kind of music, way too loud and nothing much of anything, but the Tacos were great and the beer cheap.

And the sunset .....?
 

 

Priceless!!!