Stroud's Pond

Every time we eat at one of our favorite places, Stroud's Oak Ridge Manor in Kansas City, we always stop to visit the swans that live there in the pond. 
The last time we were there we spotted this busy little mama across the pond.

She had one cute little cygnet already hatched and we could see at least 3 more eggs. 

 

Great are the works of the Lord;

    they are pondered by all who delight in them.

Psalm 111:2

The Rest of the Story

I've taken a long break from blogging because we've been doing some much needed home renovations.  For five long weeks that's just about all we've done - arrggh!  But it's almost completely done thank goodness and things are getting back to normal.  We now have new flooring, baseboards and fresh paint in most of the house.  It's been hard work but worth the effort now that it's done!

I never did get to post about the second part of our April trip, so here it is.  In Kansas City we had to have our barbque of course so we went to our favorite - Oklahoma Joe's.  It's a combination gas station/restaurant, although I've never seen anyone getting gas here.  You can count on having to stand in line because it's a very popular place.  Usually the line is out the door and down the side of the building.  I'd have to say it's worth the wait!  Not only is the barbque delicious, but the sides are awesome too, especially the seasoned fries!

We took a tour of a coffee company.  The Roasterie is a specialty coffee-roasting company that services espresso bars, coffeehouses, fine restaurants, high-end grocers, offices, retail accounts, and coffee lovers in Kansas City and around the world. We learned some interesting things about the coffee business.

For one thing, coffee is the second largest traded commodity surpassed only by oil, the world's largest traded commodity. I know I buy my share!! I love my coffee and the Roasterie coffee was excellent. I wish we had it here in Texas but it can be ordered on-line so I think I'll be doing that soon.

Something else we didn't know -  many people consider espresso as the strongest form of coffee. From a caffeine perspective, however, espresso actually has about 1/3 the caffeine content as regularly brewed coffee. 

 

This full-size DC-3 airplane sits on top of the Roasterie. The plane was built in 1943 and was part of the Berlin airlift.

 

 

Kansas City Zoo

 

 

My favorite part of the zoo was seeing the the lions. As we walked around we could hear a lion roaring and was hoping that he would be roaring when we got to see him. This is how he looked when we first saw him.

 

 

 

There was not a sound at all!  Just this funny face!


Then finally he did roar!   I wish I had it on video but seems I have lost that clip. : (  






Bat Earred Fox

Mona Monkey



Llama

Black Swan

Trumpeter Swan

François' langur



Orangutan


This was our walk with the animals!
Bye for now.  Hope to catch up on all your blogs soon!



 

Autumn in the Country

 A few weeks ago we made a trip up to Kansas City to see Jill and Jason and along the way we saw some beautiful fall landscapes.  In some parts of the country it was too early to see much color in the leaves but the farther north we drove the more color we saw.

 We drove to Louisburg, Kansas and went to the Lousiburg Cider Mill and listened to some good bluegrass music, drank apple cider, and went through a pumpkin patch and corn maze - not typically things we would find in our part of Texas for sure!  It was quite a treat for us.

Even the grass was pretty and colorful with different shades of gold, brown, and red spotted throughout the rolling hills.

Pumpkins in the cornfields
Gold among the brown
Leaves of rust and scarlet
Trembling slowly down
Birds that travel southward
Lovely time to play
Nothing is as pleasant
As an autumn day!

Giant Books!

  

Have you ever seen such a beautiful parking garage?  Most parking garages aren’t much to look at architecturally speaking but this Kansas City Library’s garage will certainly catch your attention as you drive past.  It has 22 giant book spines that create a “community bookshelf.”  The spines measure about 25 x 9 feet and the local residents got to help pick what books would be used. 

We took this picture on our trip back in March but we've never actually parked in the garage - maybe next time we might just have to visit the library so we can see inside the giant books.

I find television to be very educating.  Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book.  ~Groucho Marx

Our "White Christmas" in Kansas City

We had an early Christmas visit with Jason and Jill.  When we got there the temperature wasn't much different than back home but on Saturday the bottom fell out!  The wind started blowing and temperatures dropped into the teens and later in the afternoon it started snowing lightly.  It was the prettiest snow fall I've ever seen - just like glitter blowing through the sky.  We woke up on Sunday to about an inch of snow and I'm sure wind chills were below 0.  Not exactly what we're use to in Southeast Texas - but with our many layers of clothing we stayed quite warm and cozy.

Winter Wonderland

Our Christmas Eve

This is right after it stopped snowing - now just C O L D!!!

We should be building a snowman!

Maverick watching out the picture window.

Apple Picking Time - Alldredge Orchards, Platte City, MO

A sure sign of Fall!

Alldredge Orchards is a small family farm and orchard in the lovely foothills of the Missouri River just six miles south of Platte City, Missouri. They grow a small number of apple and peach trees. In the autumn they are open to visitors and offer u-pick apples, a rustic barn store, and a bakery. Chickens and ducks freely roam the farm too.


We filled our buckets and have been eating at least "an apple a day" ever since. I still haven't made a pie but just might have to do that this weekend.

Whirlwind of a Month

The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!

~Henry Ward Beecher

We've been easing ourselves into retirement and I think I'm going to like it! We're both still working some but less and less each month. This month we've been able to see all three children and have traveled from South Texas coast to Kansas City, MO.  And we're not finished with April yet. This week we're going to camp a few days up at Lake Sam Rayburn. Hopefully we will catch fish this time!

I'm so far behind in the blog world and have really missed keeping up with everyone but I hope to catch up soon.

Our trip to Kansas City was like seeing spring all over again. We had blooming dogwoods and redbuds a few weeks ago, but there spring was at peak so it was perfect timing. We went to a place called Powel Gardens that was beautiful!

We were so glad to be able celebrate Jill's birthday with her and Jason in K.C.  We had a very good meal here at Stix and then back to their house for some yummy strawberry cake.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We were able to spend our Thanksgiving in Kansas City with Jill and Jason. They did a great job of host and hostess and we had a delicious meal. Only problem was I came down with an upper respiratory infection on Thanksgiving evening and had to go to bed sick, but felt much better the next morning.

I took this picture in their front yard where most of the leaves have already fallen. I'm sure it was beautiful about a month ago.

We drove through Arkansas yesterday on our way home and there are still some beautiful fall leaves hanging in there. I wish we would have slowed down and taken lots of pictures, but since it is a 14 hour trip we just kept on driving. Next trip we will plan on staying all night somewhere in Arkansas so we can take time to enjoy the beautiful Ozarks.

God Bless Our Land

These are more pictures that we took at the apple orchard near Kansas City. We saw some beautiful farm country as we traveled through Missouri. I wish we could have stopped more often to take pictures - especially the big red barns.



This tractor looks like it has done its fair share of work on the farm and deserves a time of rest in the pasture under a shade tree.

Alldredge's Apple Orchard, Platte City, MO

On our trip to K.C. to see Jason and Jill we found this apple orchard outside of town and decided to go pick some apples. In Southeast Texas we don't usually see apple trees so this was a lot of fun for us. We came home and made a yummy pie and had pie and ice cream for our dessert.