Great Visit

This morning Ken and I took a quick bike ride before I left to go visit Loretta. She and John have moved to Austin. Well, actually they are still pretty much in the process of moving, with boxes of books especially waiting for shelving. Their home is in southwest Austin, out near Dripping Springs, in a newer master planned community. It's lovely, but Loretta points out that they seem to have less room than in their old home in Nacogdoches. When I arrived, Teresa was taking advantage of the quiet space of a back bedroom. Her three children, Joe, Isaac, and Helen, were at home with a babysitter. John was at home too and we greeted.

Loretta drove us to a convenient trailhead in the neighborhood. The developer has put in quite a few trails, but no maps are available, so Loretta is exploring. We walked about three miles, which gave us lots of time to talk. Afterward we went to the Nutty Brown Cafe for lunch and continued our conversation. Then we went back to the house and carried on conversing. Teresa had gone home, and John was out shopping, so the house was very quiet. It is situated on a hill, so the homes behind, on a lower level, are less visible, and some mature trees provide a green vista. The have a large fence back yard with two bird feeders and a bird bath. Loretta especially enjoys watching the variety of birds that visit.

After reluctantly saying goodbye to Loretta, I headed home, stopping on the way at the Westlake Central Market. As some of our friends have reported, it is huge, very much like an HEB on steroids! Everything is on a grand scale, starting with the produce department, which has a broad selection of organics. It's actually a bit overwhelming to a new shopper and rather expensive. Fortunately today I was handed a flyer with a coupon for $10 off a $50 purchase.

Back home, I realized that I had completely forgotten to take any photos today, so this blog entry will be just plain text, darn it! Next spring I will definitely plan to take my camera along.

On our walk tonight Ken's back was bothering him, so we didn't walk very fast. That probably helped us to spot some deer feeding along the roadside. They looked up in our direction but continued to feed for a while. We held quite still, realizing that deer don't see well, but are sensitive to noise and motion. We didn't have the camera along, but it was already too dark for photos anyhow: the dark colored deer didn't stand out against the dark foliage--at least until they turned tail and bounded off, showing off their white flags.